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Social Media Tools and Tips

Social media can be a great marketing tool for your massage therapy business, as long as you have a strategy. Bad habits, poor planning and other mistakes can end up costing you time and money.

Why Is Social Media Important to Your Massage Practice?

Social media is a great way to stay connected with clients and your community, now more than ever. While your personal social media profiles keep you connected with friends and family, you can use social media as part of your business marketing to connect with current clients and reach new ones. You don't need to join every social media platform out there. Pick one or two that you are familiar with, or that you know your clients are using, and focus on them.

Keep followers up-to-date about hours, services, or changes in your schedule such as last-minute openings. You can also use social media to share your expertise and the health benefits of massage therapy.

Social media can help you:

Stay connected to current clients and reach out to prospective clients
Promote your massage therapy practice, events and specials
Keep your clients updated about openings in your schedule and emergency closings
Supplement and drive traffic to your website
Share information about self-care and the health benefits of massage therapy
Become visible within the massage therapy community. To start, follow AMTA on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Make Social Media Work for You

Facebook

A Facebook business page is the easiest place for people to learn about your business including how to contact you, book an appointment, and where you are located. Business pages also have an about page where you can share your training, education, services offered and pricing. Facebook also has reviews that new clients might be looking for.

Share some of AMTA's client-related content to educate your clients on the many health benefits of massage. Facebook lets you see how your content is performing so you can learn more about how your posts perform and how often you should post, but posting weekly will help keep followers engaged. Don’t forget to reply to clients' and potential clients' questions and comments – either on your posts or in messages. It is an important customer service point and can help to start your own online community!

Be sure to follow AMTA on Facebook to receive regular posts on massage therapy research that you can share with your followers.

Instagram

Instagram is visual-heavy, and often the first step for app users in connecting with a new business. Make sure to complete your profile with a bio about you and your business, contact information and anything else you think would be pertinent to include here.

Standard posts are a great place to share self-care tips, health benefits of massage or recent research, or news and updates about your business, including changes in appointment procedures or holiday hours.

Stories are only visible for 24 hours and will disappear after that time limit. This can be a good place to share time-sensitive information like last-minute openings or an emergency closing, time-limited special offers. This can also be a good way to speak directly with your audience if you are comfortable being on camera – you can share news about your business or offer self-care tips.

Like Facebook, Instagram will tell you how your posts are performing in Insights. Try to post content that works for your goals and the time you have available to start.

Follow AMTA on Instagram for the latest research, self-care tips, and more

Maintain a professional LinkedIn profile to connect with other massage therapists and health care professionals. Connecting with other professionals in your area especially can help you build a referral network. LinkedIn is a great tool to promote your specialties, accomplishments, professional experience and education.

LinkedIn helps you build and maintain a professional network, participate in relevant discussions, learn new ideas and connect with an online community of massage professionals. Posting and commenting with some regularity will help you build an engaging community, but this doesn’t need to be a daily or even weekly commitment.

Twitter

Find massage therapy news and share timely updates about your practice—in 280 characters or less— through your Twitter account. Twitter is another channel you can use to effectively share content and resources that support the benefits of massage therapy and your practice. Follow organizations and individuals that you trust to receive timely news and updates on any health and wellness topic.

Twitter is also about a back and forth and more frequent posting and commenting. It can be a larger time commitment than the other social media.

AMTA members have access to client resources and research

Top 5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

1. Not Having a Plan

It’s best to have a separate strategy for each platform, or people will tire of seeing the same message and lose interest. So before you dive into the different social media platforms, ask yourself what you hope to achieve and how you can use each platform to get there. Having a marketing plan will help you achieve the goals you set.

Follow AMTA on Facebook for posts you can share with massage clients

2. Doing Too Much, Too Soon

Don’t feel obligated to join every social media platform out there—there may be some that just don’t make sense for your business. Pick one or two that you are familiar with, or that you know your competitors and clients are using, and focus on them. Quality is more important than quantity, and spreading yourself too thin could end up causing all of your accounts to suffer.

3. Not Engaging with Your Audience

Respond to comments and questions you receive, and actively engage with people on relevant posts in your community. It is also important to address negative comments or criticism because doing so will show that you are authentic and transparent. People will appreciate your honesty, and distrust you and your brand if you delete or ignore a problem.

4. Not Budgeting Enough Time

Whether you’re planning, creating a post, or engaging with your audience, social media marketing takes time. You need to be able to interact and build up your online presence consistently, even if it’s just for 10 minutes a day. If you can’t find the time or aren’t willing to take the necessary time, it’s best not to start.

5. Failing to Measure Return on Investment

It won’t be worth your time and effort to have a social media campaign if you aren’t sure if it’s working. Many social media applications have analytics associated with their platforms, and outside apps and software can also provide you with information on how your accounts are doing.

You can also track the number of shares of your business’ content, brand mentions, returned traffic to your website, and the number of engaged community members by the number of likes, comments, and messages to see if your accounts are improving, stagnant, or worsening.