Social media can be a powerful tool for private practices. And it’s known to be one of the great ways to market your business online without ads. It helps to build a brand awareness for your business online. But, social media also has its downsides. In this blog post, we will discuss the pros and cons of social media for private practices.

Read on to help you decide if social media is right for your business!

Should you use social media for your practice?

Before we talk about the social media pros and cons for your practice. Let’s talk first some reasons for private practices to use social media.

1. Social media can help connect health professionals and allows them to connect with potential and current patients.

2. Social media can help professionals keep up with the latest popular medical research.

3. Social media can help professionals learn about new treatments and therapies that your potential clients talk about.

4. Social media can help professionals find new patients.

5. Social media can help professionals stay in touch with current patients.

Did you know that PubMed published a study that shows how social media use affects individuals in their choice of physicians, dentists, and hospitals?

The study revealed that “individuals participating in the study have stated that they have used social media in choosing a physician (41.9% of the participants), dentist (34.1% of the participants), and hospitals (41.7% of the participants). This PubMed publication has copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Social Media Sites

Based on Hootsuite’s Social Trends 2021 and 2022 Survey result, shows that businesses consider these five platforms to be the most effective for reaching their goals:

Facebook

• Facebook is the largest social media platform with over two billion monthly users. According to datareportal.com, Facebook had 2.94 billion users as of April of this year.
• This gives your business a large pool of potential patients to reach out to.
• Also, Facebook allows you to target specific demographics with your ads. For example, you can target people in an area with interests that align with your business.
• Additionally, Facebook’s “call to action” button can lead customers to a business’s online store. Customers can directly interact with a business through the business’ Facebook ad.
• One of the downsides of Facebook is that not everyone has social media, even more so on Facebook, so some people in a population would be left out on information from a business.

Instagram

• Instagram is a great social platform for promoting content and connecting with patients who love visually appealing photos and videos.
• It’s widely used by a majority of age groups, from teens to adults.
• This means that most trends, news, products, and services are shown on the feed.
• According to wordstream.com, 95 million posts are shared on Instagram per day.
• Additionally, as of 2021, there were over 200 million business profiles on Instagram.
• Businesses can easily reach out to brand ambassadors and influencers.
• Instagram’s DM feature allows businesses to send messages and interact with customers privately.
• Instagram reels give an advantage for businesses, that are not using TikTok, to use short-form videos.
• One of the downsides of Instagram is that most Instagram users are of the younger age group. According to statista.com, 31.7% of Instagram users are 25 to 34 years old (millennials) as of April of this year.

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is a great social media platform for connecting with job seekers, business executives, and owners.
• it allows you to share more professional content, emphasizing businesses’ services. For example, you can write blog posts or articles about your private practice on LinkedIn, which helps to distinguish you from other private practices and competitors.
• Moreover, LinkedIn can help to communicate with other small businesses.
• It can also help to find new employees for your business.
• One of the downsides of LinkedIn is that it can be challenging to stand out from other businesses.
• Also, LinkedIn is mostly for B2B, not B2C, so you may have a smaller pool of potential patients using LinkedIn.

Twitter

What is so great about Twitter?

• Twitter is a great social media platform for posting simple, short, and straightforward content.
• It’s a micro-blogging site that helps businesses to keep their customers updated with news, trends, and services.
• According to financesonline.com, Twitter has 330 million monthly active users and according Twitter, there are 2400 tweets per day.
• This means that businesses have a pool of tweets to see that can help them stay updated with the latest trends.
• Twitter can also help businesses gain a following and from that following, feedback for their business.
• One of the downsides of Twitter is that people can easily share a tweet and publicly complain about a small business. This can negatively reflect and impact that said business.
• Furthermore, according to phys.org, tweets with negative posts are noted to have “greater virality than those with positive tweets.”
• Additionally, according to Twitter, the word count for a tweet is 280 characters, affecting the brevity and efficiency of a business tweet.

YouTube

• YouTube is the second largest search engine, next to Google.
• YouTube has 2 billion active users every month and over 30 million daily users, based on the latest YouTube statistics published in the recent InVideo blog post.
• According to HubSpot, YouTube can help improve your SEO and overall brand presence. It combines SEO and video thus making it easier for customers to consume content.
• The downside of YouTube for business is the tedious work of editing which can be costly when hiring a video editor.
• YouTube can be competitive with tons of other videos and you’d require to have a good graphic designer to create an eye-catching and scroll-stopping video thumbnail.
• YouTube can also become annoying for potential patients to watch your video due to distractions with its advertisements inserted into the video.

 

 

Other Social Media Sites

Additionally, other social networking sites are Snapchat and TikTok.

Like the other three, these have their purposes and effectiveness for businesses. They also have their demographics. Though they are similar, each one is effective based on its purpose.

Businesses use Instagram to promote themselves. Snapchat is used by the younger demographic and is not ideal for companies. TikTok helps to post short videos that are creative and original. This brings a humorous appeal that helps promote small businesses.

Snapchat

• Snapchat also allows you to target specific demographics with your ads.
• For example, Snapchat’s Discover feature acts as a news feed. Users can subscribe to businesses and get notifications of a business’ new upload.
• One of the downsides of Snapchat is that its algorithm limits the reach of your snaps to younger age groups.
• According to datareportal.com, 226.1 million Snapchat users are between 18-24 years old.
• Also, Snapchat limits video snaps to 10 seconds, which means that audience engagement is short.
• Furthermore, like on Facebook and Instagram, snaps posted on stories are deleted after 24 hours and are not saved automatically. Users have to voluntarily save their snaps or their stories.

TikTok

• TikTok users can post their videos on other social media platforms.
• Videos made on TikTok can help small businesses appeal to their audience by adding humor to their short videos.
• According to statista.com, 25% of TikTok users are 10 to 19 years old, accounting for the largest age group to use TikTok.

Social Media Users

The use of social media sites has become popular over the past decade. According to pewresearch.org, as of February of 2021, 84% of adults aged 18-29 years old use social media. This trend will continue to grow in the coming years.

There are many reasons why people use social media. For example, social media can be used to meet new people, appeal to job seekers, or promote a business. Because of this, companies and private practices take advantage of social media sites.

Social Media Pros and Cons

What are the social media pros and cons specifically for your private practice? One of the pros of social media is that it can be an educational tool for patients. Private practices can easily share previously unavailable educational resources online via social media sites.

Another pro of social media is that it can help businesses keep an eye on their competition. Small businesses can learn strategies from prominent firms to support their own business.

Social media also help your business connect to job seekers to find employment. These job seekers can express their interest in the business that is advertising. Because of its nature, businesses find it helpful to advertise through social platforms and lower their hiring costs.

Yet, one of the cons of social media is that it can limit face-to-face interaction. This can lead to feelings of isolation, which private practices should avoid.

Social media algorithm often limits the reach of your posts. This means that even with a large following, only a small number of people will see your posts, and depends on what indicates the users’ interests, such as comments, likes, and shares.

In addition, businesses using social media are open to online attacks and bad reviews that can harm their brand reputation and stability.

Thus, social media has its pros and cons for private practices. It is crucial to weigh the pros and cons before deciding if social media is right for your business.

What are the pros of social media?

Meeting new people

Though it limits face-to-face interaction, it allows others to glimpse another’s life.

Appealing to future employees

Businesses can also use social networking sites to profile job seekers and employees. Doing so could help businesses avoid unintended consequences.

Small businesses can also use social media to reach out to potential employees. For example, companies can raise awareness of their presence on social media sites.

Similarly, businesses can appeal to prospective employees by advertising their hiring. Because many people use social media, these businesses can reach a wider audience.

Additionally, by looking at a person’s profile, you can get an idea of their interests. This can give you a sign of whether they would be a good fit for the business or not.

For example, suppose you are looking to hire a bookkeeper and encounter someone who posts about reading books and going to the library. In that case, they may be a good fit for that position.

But, employers can also use social media to screen out potential employees. For instance, suppose you are looking for a customer service representative and encounter someone who posts negative comments about other businesses. They may not be the best fit for that position.

Promoting

One of the common reasons that businesses use social media is to promote their business. According to statista.com, 92.1% of businesses use social media as of this year, which is a 5.9% increase from that of 2013.

As mentioned before, it is through social media that companies can reach a wider audience. This helps to emphasize their services and products and practice.

This is done in many ways. Through ads, business posts, hashtags, and checking into locations.

Social media can also help businesses track how their promoting strategies are working. For example, Facebook provides insights about ads and how many people they reach.

These analytics can help businesses see which strategies are working or need improving. It also gives an estimate of return on investment (ROI).

What are the cons of social media?

• Social media sites can be time-consuming.
• Social networking sites can be a distraction from work.
• Social media platforms can lead to comparisons with other professionals and patients.
• Social media can create unrealistic expectations for patients and professionals alike.
• Social media users, businesses, and private practices alike are prone to hackers and other dangers such as identity theft and online security attacks because of the public and viral nature of social media sites
• Social media can lead to feelings of envy or jealousy. People who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) compare their appearances. They compare themselves to the unrealistic impressions that they see on social media. People with eating disorders become triggered by seeing images of thin or fit people on social media. They will start feeling like they need to lose weight to look like those people.
• Social media sites are now proven to aggravate some personality and brain disorders, according to mcleanhospital.org. For example, social media triggers the fear of missing out (FOMO). This is a familiar feeling among social media users. This is also common among people with anxiety disorders.
• While there are many pros to using social media, there are also many cons that private practices should consider. They should weigh the pros and cons of social media before deciding to use it for their business.

What is Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)?

Definition: anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on social media.

A study by the University of Pennsylvania found that people who use Facebook for more than an hour a day were likelier to report feeling lonely.

So what does this all mean?

Simply put, too much time on social media sites can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. If you find that you are spending more time than you would like on social media, it may be time to take a break.

What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)?

Definition: a psychological disorder in which a person becomes obsessed with imaginary defects in their appearance.

A study by the University of Southern California found that social media users are more likely to develop BDD. Furthermore, the study found that people who spend more time on social media are more likely to develop symptoms. Also, a study done by the University of Pittsburgh found that people who spent time on social media found that people who spent more time on social media were “twice as likely to experience negative emotions…and body image.”

So what does this all mean?

In other words, too much time on social media can lead to the development of BDD. If you find that you are spending more time than you would like on social media, it may be time to take a break.

How businesses can use social media effectively:

Knowing the social media pros and cons for private practices, now it makes you wonder should you use social media for marketing?

Businesses should use social media to connect with patients and build a community. But, it is crucial to check how much time is spent on social media. Too much time can lead to adverse effects such as FOMO, BDD, and eating disorders.

As mentioned before, businesses can use social media for promotional reasons. For example, private practices can use social media to promote their business goals and purpose. Small companies can use social media to raise awareness of their presence. Thus, they have a chance to appeal to a broader audience.

Doing so raises awareness of what the business does and what they have to offer to the general public. Businesses can also use social media to show patients their environment and services.

Additionally, social media can help job seekers find work. Businesses can use social media to reach out to potential employees.

Furthermore, social media can help businesses track their competition. They can see what other companies in their area are doing and how they promote themselves.

They can also get an idea of these other businesses’ services or products. They can use that knowledge to promote themselves and appeal to the general public. By tracking competition, companies can stay updated.

Also, if a customer has a concern, they can contact the business and receive a prompt response. This way, companies can maintain a good relationship with their customers. It can also ensure that they are providing the best possible experience.

Lastly, social media can help businesses connect with their customers. Customers can use social media to post reviews. They can also give feedback about their experiences. Companies can use this feedback to improve their services and products.

Thus, social media has pros and is used by businesses, private practices, and employees. Yet, it is crucial to keep in mind the potential adverse effects of social media and to use it in moderation.

Overall, social media can be an excellent tool for businesses, private practices, and employees. But, it’s essential to keep the potential adverse effects of social media and use it in moderation.

Too much time spent on social media can lead to adverse effects and should be avoided. Awareness of the pros and cons can help businesses and employees avoid negative consequences.

Conclusion:

Indeed, there are social media pros and cons for private practices, businesses, and users. It is crucial to weigh the pros and cons before deciding whether to use social media for your business.

So what do you think: is social media a good or bad thing for small businesses and private practices?

Let us know in the comments below!