Which social media platform works best for psychologists and therapists?

0:20 Every psychologist or therapist that I work with in Psychology Business School, which is our programme for people starting out in private practice, asks me at some point which social media platform they should be on. We are all so time poor that no one wants to waste time on a platform that isn’t going to move them forwards. Plus many of us don’t use social media that much personally and feel like we don’t really understand what will “do well” on each of the platforms.

2:46 Today I am going to talk about the four main platforms that people tend to weigh up when they are choosing which social media platform to focus on. At the moment the big hitters are still Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Yes, there is potential on newer platforms like Clubhouse (the audio only chatroom app) and TikTok (short video clip sharing platform) but most people I have seen have success on those also have a strong presence on one of the core platforms so I’m not saying that they are not useful but at the moment, if you are strapped for time, I wouldn’t put all my energy into one of those just yet.

3:30 The strengths of each social media platform psychologists and therapists need to consider (3:30)

4:40 Facebook for psychologists and therapists

Facebook is so mainstream that these days it can look weird for your prospective clients if you aren’t on there. If you haven’t already then listen to the episode I recorded a few weeks ago about how to use Facebook because, even if it is not going to be a platform that you focus on, I would recommend at least having a “shop front” presence on Facebook and I talk you through how to create the right strategy for you in that episode. These days Facebook is all about community. Yes we still have and use our news feeds and Facebook has a stories tab where we can see short clips from our friends BUT Facebook really loves three things:

1. Bringing friends and family together 
2. Getting people with shared interests into groups together
3. Keeping people on the platform watching videos, especially FB lives

It is not interested in promoting a business page for free as it has such a strong revenue stream from paid advertising. So Facebook is still a very useful platform, especially for building community but may not be the best place for reaching new people if you don’t have a budget for ads. 

Example of a psychologist or therapist using Facebook brilliantly:

The Gentle parenting group (originally started by Sarah Ockwell Smith)

This works because the group brings people together who share a non-mainstream approach to parenting. It allows people to vent about their experiences of parenting in this way and to help each other with dilemmas. If Sarah wants to promote her books on there she can just comment on posts that have hundreds of comments and will most likely make sales as people are grateful for the space she has created.

The breastfeeding groups are another good example of this principle. Often they are run by groups that hold classes or support services and they are able to advertise to the people who use the group for support.

People tend to find these groups through search or promo on other platforms (LI, Instagram, podcasts etc). If you have a budget you can run ads to a freebie, get people’s email addresses and then encourage them to join the FB group. 

2 further podcasts covering other aspects of Facebook: 

3 ways to fill up your facebook group

How to run a thriving Facebook group with Sam Hill, Community Manager

9:45 Instagram for psychologists and therapists

Instagram has five platforms within it:

The grid - Square graphics/photos with captions. You give your post “hashtags” that mean people can search for content on particular subjects and find it easily so your content could be found by complete strangers who are interested in your subject. If people like your content they can choose to “follow you” and they will then see your posts on their personal “feed” which is displayed when they log in.

Stories: 15 second video clips or still vertical images that are displayed for 24 hours. These can be used for more informal content or talking to your existing “followers” as there are stickers and features such as polls you can use to get your audience talking to you.

Reels: Reels are short videos (15 - 30 secs) that are often carved up into bursts of a few seconds. They have quite a specific look and feel and can have captions, animations and other fun features to make short, snappy content stand out. Some accounts can put music behind their reels and others can’t but when you can it works really well. These are great for sharing short mental health tips and you can use hashtags so you can be found by strangers.

IGTV: This is instagram’s long form video content platform. You can share videos of up to 15 minutes here and you can use hashtags to get your videos found by strangers. 

Live: Instagram now supports live video which is similar to Facebook live. You can also use hashtags to help people find your live videos.

If you want to know how to boss instagram listen to the episode I recorded recently with Helen Perry, Instagram expert. 

Example of a psychologist/therapist doing well on Instagram:

Check out Dr Julie Smith. Her content, particularly her reels, show you what is possible on social media. I must stress that I’m pretty sure she has a lot of help to get her posts looking so polished but the concept of sharing short, digestible bits of psycho-education that solve immediate problems for people is just done really well.

15:13 LinkedIn for psychologists and therapists

LinkedIn was set up as a way for professionals to connect, build and network and develop their careers. And to be honest, it still is that, it is just also a fun and interesting place to be. LinkedIn is a great platform for connecting with professionals that are your ideal clients AND/OR building authority within your profession and just meeting interesting people who you might want to collaborate with. I really like LinkedIn!

On LI you have a profile where you can show off your credentials, you can write “posts” that appear on the news feed of your “connections.” These can be pictures, videos or written posts.

You can connect with other people by messaging them and build a network that only has people you are interested in talking to in it.

You can post longer articles and blogs and build authority that way.

There are loads of ways of using LI and I’m not an expert but even if you only use it for reaching out to the right people it can be really powerful. 

Example of a psychologist/therapist doing really well on LinkedIn:

Dr Alexandra Button, Clinical Psychologist and EMDR coach. Her profile is a great example of how you can use LI to build the professional side of your business when you are really clear with your messaging.

19:19 Twitter

Twitter is a fast paced conversation platform. Current affairs and topical debate tend to do well on here. Because it mainly favours short written content this is a platform that is mainly used by people with reasonably high levels of education. It works well if you are comfortable with a bit of controversy and are willing to post frequently as things do get lost in this fast paced world quite quickly. It is also the best place to connect with journalists (listen to my episode with James Waterhouse if you are interested in doing that)

Example of a psychologist/therapist doing well on Twitter:

Dr Jessica Taylor - feminist author psychologist and researcher specialising in sexual abuse and advocating for victims. 

24:24 So how do I decide which platform to be on?

1. Where do you feel comfortable?
2. Where do your ideal clients talk about your specialism? What is the emotional temperature of your subject? Try and find other people talking about your specialism (and getting a decent number of people interacting with them) on each platform. If you can’t find anyone there is a good chance it is because people don’t want to talk about that subject on that platform. Often we try and talk about quite deep subjects on social media and wonder why it doesn't do well. We need to remember that people often go on social when they are looking for an escape from reality and they don’t want the really deep stuff to just pop up in their feeds. Looking for other professionals with a similar specialism and finding out what is working for them is a great place to start. 
3. Do you enjoy creating graphics or taking photos? You don’t need to be an artist to do well on Instagram but if you HATE creating graphics and have no interest in photography then your Instagram grid is going to be a harder slog for you because even if you mainly use a video based strategy you will still need to create thumbnails. 
4. Do you need to schedule in advance or do you enjoy posting as you go? You can schedule posts on all the platforms using tools like Later or Agorapulse. But it is easier to do this for FB and LinkedIn than it is for Instagram. Instagram likes you to post and be there to interact with others when you post so if you know you won’t be able to do that it might be better to put your energy into a different platform. 
5. Do your ideal clients have a profession or industry that unites them? If so then consider LinkedIn as you can search for people using their job title and reach out to them directly. This works really well if you have something free you can give to them in exchange for an email address. 
6. Do any of the platforms give you a feeling of dread? Give yourself permission to avoid any platforms you really hate. If you hate it you won’t do it regularly enough to get any benefit. 
7. How comfortable are you with controversial conversations? If you enjoy them and are comfortable with being opinionated and your ideal clients are generally well educated people then twitter could be a good platform for you. Twitter is also a good platform if you are looking to build professional authority. I would argue that all content on all platforms should be a little controversial because if you try to be too “safe” with your posts you will not attract anyone’s interest. When we are marketing anything we need to accept that we will repel some people who are not a good fit for us and that is a good thing. If you think about it you are NOT the right therapist for everyone, even if you are world-beatingly awesome we all have different approaches, demeanors and characteristics that impact on how good a fit we are with different clients, allow those things to shine through in your content and you will attract the people who will get the most benefit from working with you, accessing your materials, reading your books, or whatever it is you are marketing for.
8. What is your primary aim with social media? (Press coverage (Twitter), Directly finding ideal clients (Instagram or LI depending on where they are hanging out), Building authority in a professional space (LI), Creating community (FB)
9. Do you have cornerstone content you are linking to on another website or are you planning to create long form (video) content within the social media platform itself? If creating video within the platform instagram is a good platform as you can re-purpose your video content into long form videos on IGTV and shorter clips for reels and stories, linking out to other websites is less easy when you start out on instagram (but can work with the right strategy). All the platforms support video and Facebook live continues to do well. You could consider using instagram to find people and Facebook to build a community if you are using a video based strategy. 

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