On average, social media users spend approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes every day on different social media platforms. And this time spent on social media presents a great opportunity for dietitians and nutritionists to build brand awareness, increase their online presence, develop relationships with clients and expand sales.
But, with so much nutritional-related information on these social media platforms, dietitians and nutritionists need to position themselves strategically and cut through the noise – to attract clients.
In this article, we share 9 powerful social media marketing tips for dietitians and nutritionists, which will help to increase brand awareness, boost brand engagement, generate new leads and grow their revenues.
1. Define Your Target Audience
With so much competition on social media, you will only manage to gain traction or maintain a strong presence on these platforms, if you know your audience. For instance, you can be offering nutritional advice to professional athletes, people who looking to lose weight, individuals looking to build muscle or people suffering from various nutritional-related problems.
Once you’ve defined your target audience, you should then niche down further, using parameters such as their age, location, the platforms they are using, gender, income, and interests. By defining and identifying your target market, you will be able to talk their talk, use their language and deliver relevant content.
Also, having a clear focus on whom you want to target will help you to establish yourself as the expert in that niche. For example, if your goal is to provide nutritional advice to mothers who have given birth and help them to shed excess weight, you will be known as the expert in that field.
2. Choose the Right Platform
Nutritionists and dietitians have plenty of options to choose from to market and promote their businesses on social media. Some of these platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tik Tok, just to name a few. Let’s take a closer look at some of these platforms.
2.1 Facebook
With close to 3 billion monthly users, Facebook is currently the largest social media platform in the world today. It’s also one of the most flexible. On Facebook, you can post and share almost any type of content, from videos to photos, articles to quotes.
2.2 Instagram
Instagram is more of a visual platform, which leans heavily towards videos and photos. Some nutrition Instagram post ideas to consider include meal preparation videos and healthy recipes. Also, Instagram has a thriving Instagram nutrition community of health, wellness and nutrition professionals. Therefore, it’s not only a great place to find clients but also to connect with other like-minded professionals.
2.3 Twitter
Twitter is an ideal place to stay in touch with trending topics, breaking news and announcements. However, it tends to require more commitment to gain traction, compared to most of the others.
2.4 Pinterest
Pinterest is another great social media platform for nutritionists and dieticians. It’s also a visual platform, just like Instagram. You can use this platform to share articles, recipes, motivational quotes, nutrition facts and meal plans.
So, which social media platforms should you choose to promote your business? Well, it will depend on your target audience. For instance, if you want to reach prospects between the ages of 18 and 35, then you should opt for Instagram. On the other hand, if your target audience is 35 and beyond, then you should focus on Facebook and LinkedIn.
It’s advisable to focus on a maximum of three platforms. Trying to establish a presence on more than three platforms can be overwhelming. Besides, you may end up compromising on content quality.
3. Post Frequently and Strategically
Content moves quite fast on social media platforms. So, once you’ve posted something on your wall, your followers may see it or not. Besides, some social media platforms use engagement metrics, to determine which content to feature in a user’s feed.
Hence, if you only post a single post occasionally, it will be extremely hard to establish any connection with your target audience. Therefore, it will be advisable to be posting at least three times a day, if possible. Posting frequently will ensure your content will remain high on the social media feeds of your followers, thus providing more opportunities for engagement.
Also, you should pay attention to the posting times. Regardless of how many times you are posting, if no one is seeing your content, then you will have wasted your time and effort.
To determine the best posting time, check when your target audience is highly active online. Also, your top-performing posts can help to give you an idea of the ideal time to post. You can also check your competitors, and analyze their approaches. Also, you can experiment with different posting times to determine the ideal time for your target audience.
4. Post High-quality Content
While posting frequently and strategically is vital, your content needs to be of high quality. If all you do is keep posting generic, low-quality content, no one will bother engaging with your posts. And as a result, it will be extremely hard to build a following, regardless of the social media platforms you choose.
Therefore, you’d rather post one informative, relevant and high-quality content piece on your social media channels, as opposed to four low-quality posts. Quality should always take priority over quantity.
Also, avoid being too salesy. While there’s nothing wrong with promoting your services to your followers occasionally, don’t do it every day. Instead, you should focus on providing value to your audience, through high-quality, valuable, informative and relevant content.
It will also be advisable to mix it up. Posting the same type of content day in day out will bore out your audience quite fast. And, some may even decide to unfollow you. So make sure you switch things up. Some of the different types of content that you can be posting on your social media platforms include:
- Interviews with wellness and nutritional experts
- Healthy recipes
- Motivational quotes
- Tips for healthy eating
- Meal planning and nutrition guides
- Products on offer
- FAQs from your followers
High-quality, valuable, relevant, and diverse content, will have a higher engagement, compared to generic, low-quality content. Besides, if your content is valuable, your audience will share it with their followers, thus helping to boost your reach.
5. Engage With Your Audience
While posting high-quality content consistently is vital, it’s not enough to help you establish a strong presence and following on social media. At the end of the day, socializing is the primary function of social media platforms. So, if you are not social, then no one will bother engaging with your content.
Therefore, after you’ve spent time and energy creating valuable content for your audience, you also need to spare some time every day to engage with your followers. Some of the ways you can engage with your audience include:
- Replying to comments
- Commenting on posts
- Sharing your followers’ posts
- Starting and participating in conversations
- Asking and answering questions
- Responding to criticisms and complaints
By actively engaging with your audience, you will create strong relationships with them and they will begin to trust you as well as what you are offering. And, there’s a high chance they will begin trying out your services.
6. Partner With Influencers
Another effective social media marketing tip for nutritionists and dieticians is to partner with influencers. Partnering with influencers in your niche can help to boost your visibility and reach new audiences beyond your following.
However, it’s worth mentioning that it will cost you some money to partner with influencers. The amount of money you will spend will depend on the size of the following the influencer has. But, the investment will be worth it, especially if you partner with the right influencer.
7. Maintain a Constant Branding
Whether you opt to use one or several social media platforms, every post that you put out should be consistent with your branding. Maintaining consistent branding will help to build credibility and trust with your audience, thus helping to separate you from everyone else.
So, whenever you are creating a post, ensure all the branding elements point back to you. To this end, you should use the same colors, layouts, fonts, style and other elements in all your posts. And, branded social media templates can help you to achieve consistent branding across all your social media channels.
You simply need to download them and customize them according to your brand elements. From there, you simply need to insert whatever type of content that you post, and your branding will always remain consistent.
8. Leverage Testimonials
By posting consistently and engaging your audience, you will soon grow an audience of loyal followers. And, most of your loyal followers will be more than willing to sign up for your services.
But, there may be a certain group in your audience, who may be willing to check out your services, but they may be hesitant. And this is where testimonials come in.
Sharing testimonials and success stories on your social media channels can help to add credibility and trust to your services. They will show potential clients that your services work. And, they will go a long way in convincing a hesitant potential client to sign up for your services.
9. Include a Call to Action
At the end of the day, the main goal of social media marketing for nutritionists and dietitians is to attract more clients. Therefore, make sure you incorporate a call to action in all your posts.
A call to action can be something like encouraging social media users to sign up for a trial session by sending you a message, calling your phone number or sending you an email. You can also request them to visit your website, to learn more about your services.
10. Wrapping It Up
Social media platforms can provide a great means of marketing yourself as a nutritionist or dietician. And while establishing a strong presence on social media can take time, it’s a reachable goal. Hopefully, the tips we’ve shared here will help you to establish a strong presence, dominate your niche and get some new clients.