6 August 2026 · Marketing & Ads
Social media for clinics: what it does and how much time it deserves
Almost every clinic owner has been told they should be posting more. Very few have been told what posting is for, which is why so many accounts stop in week five and sit there looking abandoned.
The belief worth correcting first
The common assumption is that social media is a discovery channel: post consistently and new patients will find you. For a local clinic that is mostly backwards. People looking for a physiotherapist search for one. They do not scroll until a physiotherapist appears.
What social media does well is different and still valuable. It is where somebody checks you out after they have found you, where existing patients stay warm, and where a referral gets validated. Somebody recommended you at a running club; the next thing that happens is your Instagram gets opened. What they find there decides whether they book.
That reframing changes the workload dramatically. An account that exists to be checked needs to look current and human. It does not need to feed an algorithm daily.
What each platform is actually for
- Facebook: local community groups and an older demographic. The highest-value activity is usually being helpfully present in local groups rather than posting on your page. A page that exists, has correct details and shows recent activity does most of the work.
- Instagram: the visual credibility check. Exercise demonstrations, the clinic room, the team. Strong for sports-facing and rehabilitation-facing practices.
- TikTok and short video: real reach if you are willing to be on camera regularly. It brings a wide, non-local audience, which is worth understanding before you invest: a video reaching 40,000 people nationally may produce no bookings in your town.
- LinkedIn: worth it if you want referrals from GPs, other clinicians, occupational health or local employers. Not a patient channel.
- Google Business Profile posts: technically the most valuable posting you can do, because it sits inside the listing people see when they search. It is also the one clinics forget exists.
A time budget that survives a busy week
The failure pattern is always the same: an ambitious schedule, three good weeks, a busy fortnight, then an account whose last post is four months old, which looks worse than never having started. Build for the busy week instead.
- One hour a month, batched: four posts, photographed and written in one sitting, scheduled out.
- Ten minutes a week: reply to comments and messages. Unanswered messages are worse than no account.
- One monthly Google Business Profile post, which takes five minutes and sits where searchers actually are.
- Anything beyond that is a growth project, and should be treated as one with a goal attached rather than as general upkeep.
What to post when you have nothing to post
The blank-page problem is usually solved by writing down what you said out loud today.
- The question three patients asked this week, answered plainly.
- An exercise you prescribe constantly, demonstrated properly.
- What actually happens at a first appointment, so a nervous person knows.
- A myth you correct in the room weekly.
- Practical clinic news: new hours, holiday cover, parking changes, a new piece of equipment and what it is for.
- The people. A face attached to a name is what converts a recommendation.
Two rules. Never post anything identifying a patient without written consent, including a photo where they are recognisable and a story detailed enough to identify them. And keep clinical claims inside what you could substantiate, since a social post is a marketing communication like any other.
Paid social versus paid search
They do different jobs. Search ads reach people with the problem, now. Social ads reach people who are not looking, which needs more budget, more patience and a clearer offer. For most clinics, paid social makes sense for a specific launch, a class or a workshop with a date attached, and makes much less sense as a general "raise awareness" spend.
How this works at ClinicGrowth
Horsham is a good example of why the referral-validation framing matters more than reach. It is a town where a lot of clinic business moves through running clubs, gyms, netball and school sport, and where a recommendation at a Saturday morning session is worth more than any campaign. What the recommendation triggers is a check: the person looks you up that evening, finds your profile, your reviews and your Instagram, and decides.
At ClinicGrowth we see clinics lose those referrals at the last step surprisingly often. The account is fine and the website is the problem, or the account has not been touched since spring and reads as a closed business. The useful thing to understand is that social media rarely creates the demand and it very frequently confirms or kills it, which means the standard is currency and credibility rather than volume. Four decent posts a quarter and answered messages beats an abandoned account that once posted daily.
If the check ends at a website that undoes the recommendation, that is the piece worth fixing first.
Questions we get asked
How often should a clinic post?
Often enough to look current, which for most clinics is weekly to fortnightly. Consistency at a low rate beats intensity followed by silence.
Should I be on TikTok?
Only if you will genuinely be on camera regularly and you accept that the audience is national. It is a brand-building channel rather than a local booking channel.
Can I post patient success stories?
Only with explicit written consent, and even then be careful that the story is not being used as a claim of clinical efficacy, which the CAP Code does not permit.
Is it worth paying someone to run our accounts?
Rarely as a first spend. The money usually goes further on the website, the profile and the booking flow. Outsourcing social makes more sense once those are working and you have a reason to grow an audience.
Treat it as the place people check you, keep it current on an hour a month, and spend the time you save on the parts that produce the enquiry.
Find out what your clinic is missing
A free 20-minute review of your website, Google Business Profile, reviews and booking flow. You get a written summary of what to fix first, whether or not you work with us.