How I Grew My Social Media Channels to Get More Patients
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[00:00:00] I'm going to share with you how I'm growing my social media channels in order to bring business to my occupational therapy clinic. Um, my name is Wong. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist. And even though there's like a shit ton of noise, I don't know if you can hear that ridiculous construction.
Someone's coming back, rolling. It is never perfect, right? It is never perfect. I'm still going to do it anyway. So that's what I'm going to do. Today I'm going to share with you how I'm growing my social media channels. We just hit 10, 000 followers on Instagram. We have over 6, 000 subscribers on YouTube.
I've monetized that channel. I'm on TikTok and we're in a, I just started TikTok and we're already, we've been growing like substantially over there. So I think we're almost to 2, 000, but considering, like, I'm just starting that channel, it's growing quite rapidly. Um, I have, like, my slowest channel to [00:01:00] grow is, funny enough, Facebook.
But that's okay. I'm on Facebook, I'm on, uh, LinkedIn, and, um, I'm on Instagram. Instagram's my favorite, YouTube is my favorite. Actually, TikTok's becoming one of my favorite ones. And I don't do it without help. This is Amanda. She's my marketing assistant and she helps me with all my social media content.
Um, so I'm going to share with you how I got started. I got started with zero, zero followers. Um, back then was for my clinic. I started, uh, I started on Facebook and if you go far back, I don't encourage you to look that far back, but if you go far back, I know I used to do Facebook lives. And I was doing YouTube and Facebook.
Now, when it comes to growing a social media channel, you have to think about, like, what's your purpose? What are you trying to do with your social media channel? And my intention for my, for my social media following is really to promote my clinic. [00:02:00] Like, I want to promote what I'm doing as an occupational therapist, as a nurse.
Certified Hand Therapist and I'm using these free platforms essentially to share what I do here at the clinic. My clinic is called Hands On Therapy Services and if you want to, you can take a look at how that growth is. Now the reason why I want to share with you how I'm growing my social media channel is because you probably, if you're trying to look it up, you'll see like a bunch of people saying, Oh my God, I grew it in like two months to like however many.
In the therapy realm, we're a very small niche. Type of topic, right? I am not, there's like how many billions of people on this earth, right? And if you were creating something that is funny, something in this entertainment, something that's like just dancing or, you know, vlogging your life, you're trying to capture like a bunch of different people, like the, from those billions of people.
When I started my channel, I was very specific to growing, um, what I do for the Miami people. So my [00:03:00] clinics in Miami, Florida, and I wasn't necessarily trying to reach like every single person who have hand and arm pain, right? I was very specific to sharing what I know and, um, telling more people how they can find me if they're in Miami, Florida.
Fast forward to about five years ago, I started Hand Therapy Secrets and I, what I did was I took what I learned From doing stuff for my clinic to sharing it for Hand Therapy Secrets and growing my channel speaking very specifically to occupational therapists, speaking specific to a small number of physical therapists who are interested in the hand and upper extremity.
So this is how I'm growing it. I, um, I share my perspective. A lot of times I take a picture and I share my perspective of what I'm doing. I create a video and I share my perspective of what I'm doing. Literally, that's it. Is that all I'm doing, Amanda? What else, what else are we doing? I go in there and I edit all of [00:04:00] them.
There you go. And I schedule everything. She edits it, she schedules it out. And so And you also, I feel like one of the reasons why you've been able to grow so much is because very authentic. You're not trying to be somebody else and You're very honest, which I feel like is very refreshing in this day and age.
Some people like it, some people don't. What can I tell you? It's a give and take. Okay, so we hit up on two topics, right? Um, authenticity and, um, consistency. So one of the things that I was really able to nail down pretty rapidly was consistency. So I started with like posting three times a week and I would post like, Oh my God, I'm going to tell myself to post three times a week.
And, uh, I would do it every once in a while. Then I got much better at posting three times a week. And then I took it from three times a week to daily. So, um, Right. And then now I post like a lot more. Uh, and [00:05:00] then I post on, on both platforms. But, um, when I was doing it pretty much by myself, I would just tell myself, just stay consistent, just stay consistent.
One thing that I did not do was schedule myself out. And what I didn't do before was that. So, um, live and learn for me. So one of the best things I started doing was batching. So when I treat patients, I go and I take a bunch of pictures. I'll film myself. I'll have my staff film me. And then, so I batch out a bunch of content, even as I'm sitting here doing Videos and stuff like that.
I try to batch things out. So I think about now, but I also think about like what I'm looking for in the next few weeks and then I, I batch it out and then I schedule it out to post all of the platforms have some kind of native scheduling, um, extension where you can schedule it out. So like on Instagram and on Facebook, I just schedule it out on Meta business.
And so it's a way that I can just make sure that I'm staying really [00:06:00] consistent with putting content out every single day. So consistency was one of the first things that I did to make sure that I had a steady level of growth. It can be really slow at first because therapy is kind of like a niche type of topic and not everyone needs it.
It's therapy right at the moment that you're creating the therapy topics and videos. Remember that whatever you're creating, people can consume at a later time. Just because you create it today doesn't mean that they're going to see it tomorrow. So when I'm creating content, I'm creating things. From a marketing standpoint, I think about like, what can I do that can live on that can go from today, tomorrow, to the next day, to a month from now, to a year from now.
Like some of my most commented videos, actually one of my most hated videos, was created like almost 8 years ago and people are still making comments about it because they hate it so much. Um, [00:07:00] But the good comes with a bad. So I always say that it's my most hated comment. I mean, my, my most hated video, but actually it created a lot of value.
Unfortunately, those people didn't know how to give like constructive feedback to say, Hey, um, you know, I was hoping you would, you know, provide me with this information or leave me more. Some people left me more thoughtful questions. Other people were like, you, you suck. Like you wasted my time. I'm like, okay, well that, that neither helps me nor you.
Um, but what I got from it was some feedback to say, Hey, we need more valuable content. Also with a side note that things change. What worked eight years ago doesn't work today. So of course people are going to have shit to say. So you have to be like, you know what? Um, I, I don't know. I don't receive that like I like don't let it get sticky to your soul and have your feelings hurt, right?
So, um, so consistency was one of the first things I did, but second thing was the [00:08:00] authenticity, which was actually in a way a little bit hard because, um, I thought that you were supposed to show up a certain way. Like I've been to like so many different I've been to so many different classes. I've been to different conferences, you know, I kind of see like therapists or, you know, you see the people who teach at the university level and they're all like very prim and proper and kind of, I'm not prim and proper.
Like you've ever been to my class, I'm not prim and proper. If you ever watch my videos, I'm not prim and proper. And even my patients, like we have a really good time because I can be very, you know, I can, I can be funny, I'm very relaxed in my style, and I, I just like to have a good time. I don't want to be like, oh, well this is the way it's supposed to be, right?
It took me a little while to get that across. Because I thought by going on YouTube, by going and creating videos or pictures on Instagram, that [00:09:00] it was supposed to be a certain way because I had seen it within my own profession a certain way. So take this as a reference. permission if you need to just do and be who you are.
So I always tell people, listen, I curse a little bit and you know what? I actually, I curse a lot. I have a mouth like a sailor, an attitude like that's full of sass, right? And I'm honest to a fault, right? So if you're not into the candor, then I might not be the person for you. So it took me a little while, even though I might be like that in real life.
Um, and of course you have to know how to move and shift in context to your surrounding, right? So for example, if I'm working with someone who's real prim and proper, I'm not cursing, right? I'm not cursing because they, um, can't necessarily turn me off. They're coming in. I'm treating them. I'm not cursing.
[00:10:00] The minute they curse. You just gave me permission. What? You want to be relaxed? You want to be like laid back? You want to say whatever you want to say? Let's go. Right? Because that's how I am more. But, but, um, on a podcast, you can pick and choose whether you're Still listening or not. We're like 10 minutes in.
Thank you so much if you're still listening Um, but yeah, I had to learn how to show up as myself And share my perspective give my opinion on things, you know um Tell people what I do and essentially not hold back. All right, so to a certain extent People crave that more. We are in 2024. People crave that more now than let's say they did it 10 years ago, right?
Um, so you know, that's essentially how I grew, you know, my social media channels and that's how I grew. Um, [00:11:00] and, and the intention behind growing social media for me isn't to make money off of these platforms. Now, if you are a therapist, And you want to grow your channel on TikTok and make money off TikTok or do certain things on Facebook and Instagram.
I actually met a few people, uh, just randomly that made money off of the, like, just posting a lot and posting about their life and posting this and that. Um, you can make money off those platforms. That is not how I'm trying to make money. I am using my social media channels to reach more people and to invite them into my business.
Actually, just yesterday I evaluated somebody who, um, the daughter saw me on Instagram and sent me a message on Instagram saying, Hey, my mom's got this problem. Do you think you can help? And so I [00:12:00] had an opportunity to talk to her and say, Hey, um, you know, absolutely. You know, what's your best, you know, what's your best, um, uh, phone number that we can call you?
I have my staff. Give you a call and see what we can do to help your mom. So that started the conversation. My, my, um, my manager actually got on the phone with her and asked her a bunch of questions and make sure that, that we could help her and, and stuff like that. And then she came in for an evaluation.
She is now a patient of mine. And she's going to need at minimum, at minimum, okay, at minimum 12 visits. And so that's how I'm using my social media channel. I am going out there, I am sharing, um, what I do, but I'm not going out there and talking about like, Hey, I'm an occupational therapist, I'm a certified hand therapist.
I'm really not. On my clinic platforms, I am saying, Hey, If you have carpal tunnel, these are things that you might want to think about, you know, [00:13:00] um, considerations, right? These are some facts. These are some misconceptions. These are things that I hear that's wrong. This is what I do in my clinic. So on my YouTube channel for my clinic, I create, um, so many videos there that share what I do.
And then not only Do I, you know, can people find me and call me, but you know, they can share it with their friends and, and I essentially get to help more people beyond the borders of Miami. So even if they can't come to me, I have the ability to help them somehow. And those people will find an occupational therapist in their city and get some help.
So that's just like bonus help, you know? Um, but essentially I'm using Facebook, Instagram. As my two, I use LinkedIn in a certain way as well. So when it comes to using your social media channels, you want to learn how each of those channels [00:14:00] work. Because you want to post content, um, that pertains, that is most effective to those platforms.
Let me see if I'm making sense on that. So for example, TikTok is, is very, very casual as compared to like, I think Facebook, Facebook or LinkedIn. LinkedIn is very prim and proper, I think. So the things that go on on TikTok don't go on, um, on, on LinkedIn, right? So you have to just know your platforms, get to know your platforms well.
That way when you post our content, um, it can, um, you know, it could really resonate with the people you're trying to attract and bring to you. I actually had, um, so I shared a story of how my Instagram brought a patient in. My TikTok, okay, so my TikTok channel, I just started a few months ago. I don't know when you're going to watch this, But I just started a few months ago.
My [00:15:00] clinic TikTok only has like 80 something, 80 something followers, uh, hands on therapy services, right? Hands on therapy services only has like 80 something followers as we speak right now. Whereas Hand Therapy Secrets, uh, is at like over, like almost 2, 000, let's say almost 2, 000. And that channel is growing really rapidly.
If I look at my analytics, um, it's growing up very, three digits, percentages fast, right? Um, whereas my clinic isn't. Here's the thing, right? I post a lot more content on my Hand Therapy Secrets side. But guess what? People, everyday people are like, Oh my God, the thing that you're talking about Wong, I have, how can you help me?
I'm like, well, go to call my clinic. Right? So I actually got a patient that came in, young woman, and I'm super proud of this. So I'm sharing this. It's not [00:16:00] about the, you know, it's not about like how many visits someone comes into, even though I shared that with the last story. This young woman came in, she only needed like, I want to say two to three sessions at the most.
But here's what I'm proud of. I'm proud of the that she is in her 20s. It's late 20s, early 30s. And she has the belief that she doesn't have to live with that type of symptoms, that type of pain, that type of limitation for decades before getting help, right? She saw that video that I created and was like, Oh my God, I have something like that.
And can you help me? So I think she messaged us and then I did the same thing. I was like, Hey, you know, this is where my clinic's located. Um, you know, here, give us a call or we can call you. She called the clinic. We spoke to her and then we're like, yeah, based on what you're saying, we can help you. [00:17:00] Um, if someone came in and said whatever, and we're like, Oh no, based on what you're telling us, we can't help you.
We would say the same thing. Oh, you know, um, what area do you live in? What kind of, You know, we can refer you to, to a surgeon or a doctor, whatever, based on what we know from the story that you're telling us, um, and if we're not sure, we'll just invite them in as well. Um, you know, just to talk and, and, you know, get more clear, but, but I felt really proud of that because I was able to reach someone that I don't think most of us, reach because we're not sharing what we can do for them.
Um, so that's, that's why I grew my YouTube. That's why I grew my YouTube channel. That's why I grew all my social media platforms. Yes, it is to bring in a certain amount of business, uh, eyeballs to the business. Um, but you know, most importantly, it's helping somebody somewhere. And even if I can't help them here, [00:18:00] Miami, I can help them, uh, wherever they are.
for an occupational therapist to ask for a certified hand therapist, you know, or anything like that. And then of course, like if they're seeing me on hand therapy secrets and they're a therapist, you know, and they want to learn, they want to grow their skills. We have clinical skills and then we have business skills.
They're two separate sets of skills. But if you're looking to develop your skills like that, I have the ability to help so many people. Somebody, um, change their perspective. Somebody, um, bought my book. I'm actually in the process of revamping this, um, but someone like an occupational therapist bought my book.
It's called The Hands-on Approach. I actually wrote this for people with injuries 'cause I wanted to share my perspective and how they can avoid pills, injections, and surgeries, especially if you can catch things early. Um, being more proactive. But then there's a chapter here on like what to do [00:19:00] post surgically.
Um, so I'm actually in the process of revising my book and, um, she was like, Oh, and she has not bought anything from me except for my book. And I was like, Oh, I really appreciated how you wrote it. And, and it changed my perspective on how I approach patients. I mean, like, wow. I wish I was recording that when she told me because that was like I just want to keep remembering like that's What i'm doing what i'm doing Does it take a while to get there?
Absolutely. It takes a while But can you get there as an occupational therapist looking to grow your own business 100 percent you just have to get started Now if you're looking to get started or you're looking to grow and make a bigger impact, then I have a free business masterclass coming up September 21st.
And the links are all below. You can come on. It's an opportunity, small group opportunity to talk to me, to talk to me about business, to help. Like my whole point is to help you create a plan that's going to help you over the [00:20:00] next year. three to six months. Um, we're at the end of 2024 right now. What can you do to get the most out of 2024?
If you've already started your business and you are, you know, you've got a couple of clients already, you're like, I want to do more because this feels so good, but I need to develop these business skills. Come to the business masterclass. If you're looking to get started and you're looking to get started within an extra month, Three to six months.
This is your opportunity to come into this, um, masterclass and learn and get everything you need to get going right now. The whole point of creating a plan isn't to sit on it and to say, Oh, in two years, in three years, I'm going to do this because I'm going to tell you what in two to three years, you have forgotten about that plan.
You have done, you would have done nothing. But the whole point to come on to this masterclass is really to not only create that plan but create a plan that you can start to take action on because that's the only way to get started. So yeah, I'm telling you, did not wait for a perfect [00:21:00] timing for, you know, me to record this.
I've blocked a certain time to chunk this. out to make, um, hopefully what I think valuable content. You're the only one who could tell me if I did something valuable for you. Can you leave me a comment and say, this is good, this is bad. You know, this is what I'm looking for. You can tell me, but I didn't wait for conditions to be perfect.
Sometimes you're going to do shit. Even when conditions are not perfect. That's my point, right? You can grow your social media channel. Even when nothing is exactly perfect. You can start today. I started with zero followers. Zero followers, um, and I've grown to 10k and more across all platforms. Um, but what it's done for me is really it's helped me grow my business and to share my perspective with Everyone who's willing to listen and watch this almost 22 minute video All right, you want to know more all the links are below come to my free masterclass.
I'll see you there
