A few weeks back, we talked about how to write better posts on social media. Holding someone's attention long enough to get your message across is a critical skill to master.
But you need to grab their attention first, and most people miss that point entirely. It's easy to believe that because you put something out there in the world, people are going to read it.
The truth is, attention is incredibly scarce, and there are so many other people vying for your audience's attention that you need to stand out.
The way you do this on social media is through great images. Think of your scrolling behavior or watching someone else. It's always the picture that gets people to stop and read more.
One of the best ways to blend into the rest of the newsfeed and NEVER get noticed is using stock photos. Everyone can recognize a stock photo today and will almost certainly tune you out.
There are a rare few times that stock photos are fine, but as a general rule, do not use them. It's so easy to get your own photos today that there's no excuse not to do it.
If your clinic is established and you have the budget to hire a professional photographer, do that. They're still worth the money, even though smartphones can take just as good of pictures.
It's kind of like the guy down at GNC recommending supplements to people. It's better than nothing, but that doesn't replace an expert trained in IV Nutrition who knows what tests to do, what to look for, and what to recommend.
If hiring a professional is out of your budget right now, here are a few tips to help your pictures stand out.
Any cell phone made within the last few years has a good enough camera you can use that. The main thing people get wrong is lousy lighting. Use natural light as much as possible.
If you have to move an infusion station closer to a window, do it for the pictures. You can always move it back. No one will notice or care that it's not in the same position. Just make sure the light is in front of whatever you are taking a photo of and not behind it.
Phones today also make it easy to edit the brightness and exposure. If you have an iPhone, you can tap the magic wand, and it does everything for you. Google “how to brighten photos on your phone,” and you'll find a bunch of great tutorials. It's worth spending the extra 60 seconds doing it.
Don't take pictures of an empty clinic. If you're taking a picture of the waiting room, make sure someone is behind the desk with a warm and inviting smile. If you run an infusion clinic, put someone in the chair and make it look like they're getting an infusion.
Always make sure people are smiling and happy in your photos. Your photos should focus on showing the outcome of your treatments, not the before. No one will want to come to your clinic if everyone looks miserable in the photos.
Use friends, family, or employees for most of your photos instead of patients. I used my wife for many of our first clinic pictures, and it worked out great. It's much easier to ask your partner or a friend to pose in different ways than getting patients to do it.
Don't get too much into your picture. If there's too much going on in the picture, it'll confuse people, and they'll keep scrolling. Make sure the background isn't cluttered, there isn't a bunch of stuff on a bookshelf, etc.
It helps to think of what story you're trying to tell with that picture.
Are you showing off how painless infusions can be? Then make sure their smiling and the IV is clearly visible in their arm. Take the picture from the end of their hand looking up to their face, and keep it close, so you don't have a lot in the background.
Are you showing off how nice and inviting the waiting room is? Make sure there's someone behind the desk smiling. The light is bright and inviting. Take a shot from the front door showing the whole room, ensuring it's clean and organized.
Google can provide a lot of help here. Start doing some searches for photos of different clinics and scroll through all of the images. See what catches your eye, and then spend a few minutes thinking about why you like it. Then save that to your phone and try to recreate the picture with your clinic.
My final piece of advice, if you know you're a terrible photographer… Ask your kid or someone else's kid who's in their teens or early 20s if they'll take some pictures for you. Offering food or $20 can get you a lot of really great photos for social media. And who better to take them than someone who's grown up on social media?
The most important thing to remember, avoid stock photos. They're like salt best used sparingly and only after trying the food.
Have a great weekend,
Jason Duprat, MBA, MSA, CRNA
P.S. We just started doing some additional live trainings in the Ketamine Clinic Startup Group and plan to be doing more in the future. If you have suggestions for trainings you’d like to see us do then fill out this form and let us know.