The Ultimate Guide to Level Up Your Veterinary Social Media Calendar
While there are many ways to use social media, one of the most effective ways to do so is for veterinary practices to update their social media calendars.
Keeping your editorial calendar updated with marketable veterinary holidays and observances provides an opportunity for you to interact with your clients. Plus, it’s a great way to increase your engagement with your followers online.
You can use special holidays to create compelling social content such as images, infographics, blog posts, and other types of content. These relevant posts can help you cultivate relationships with pet owners and other veterinary professionals.
While you can come up with a weekly or monthly calendar, there are more fun ways to market your business by following holidays.
Improving Your Veterinary Social Media Calendar With Pet-Related Holidays
Being consistent and coming up with regular social media posts on popular platforms such Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter helps you boost your online presence. Here are some valuable tips for you to take advantage of important social media holidays:
Tip #1: Add Important Dates That You Want to Highlight to Your Calendar
You can decide whatever holidays are most relevant to your veterinary practice, such as National Puppy Day. From there, you can come up with ideas to stand out from your local competition and what they are posting online. You can bring out your fun side and create exciting posts you can use for your various social media pages.
Aside from providing relevant content to your veterinary social media calendar, you can even create special promos or events to observe these special events. For example, February is Pet Dental Health Month. It would be best to take advantage of this by running a special on teeth cleanings for pets for that month.
Not only is this important information for pet owners, but it’s also a great opportunity to create valuable educational content such as infographics, videos, before and after images, and so on. The more visual, the better!
Tip #2: Decide How Frequently Your Veterinary Practice Will Post
It’s essential to maintain consistency across your social media platforms. This helps maximize your visibility to potential and current clients. Yes, running veterinary hospitals is a ton of work, but you must stay on top of content distribution. This is so your veterinary practice is always on top of clients’ minds.
You don’t necessarily have to post every day of the week. You can post thrice or four times, so you don’t run out of posts to use. For example, once you post on Tuesday, you can skip Wednesday, then publish something on Thursday. Then, you can come up with fun weekend posts on Friday and Saturday.
You should note that just because a post is published doesn’t mean you should forget about it afterward. Your audience will post comments or send you messages about your post. Someone on your veterinary team can monitor them and continue the conversation. This helps to build a strong relationship with your online community.
Social media shouldn’t be a monologue. It’s a form of conversation with your audience. It’s important to make time to interact with your followers so they know that you acknowledge their likes, comments, and messages. This is also an excellent opportunity to raise interest in a particular service. You can do this on a per-week basis, so you don’t have to check your page every single day.
Tip #3: Schedule Your Social Media Post
Once you’ve created content for a certain holiday, you should schedule the dates. This is so you don’t miss possible opportunities to post and can stay ahead of the game.
On the flip side, Facebook allows businesses to schedule posts up to six months in advance. This means you can schedule accordingly for each of the pet or vet-related holidays and won’t have to figure out what to share on your page every week.
Taking advantage of scheduling tools will save your clinic a lot of time. This means you can focus more on your practice and other digital marketing efforts. However, you shouldn’t schedule posts too far in advance. This is so you have an opportunity to tweak your editorial calendar if need be.
We want you to succeed and create a solid online presence, so we’ve curated the top pet-related holidays just for you! In addition, there are specific dates targeted for dog owners and cat day ideas for feline lovers as well.
Important Holidays for Your Veterinary Social Media Calendar
January
Walk Your Pet Month
National Train Your Dog Month
National Dress Up Your Pet Day (January 14th)
Febuary
Pet Dental Health Month
Dog Training Education Month
National Cat Health Month
Responsible Pet Owners Month
Spay/Neuter Awareness Month
Love Your Pet Day (February 20th)
March
Poison Prevention Awareness Month
National Puppy Day ( March 23rd)
April
National Heartworm Awareness Month
National Pet First Aid Awareness Month
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month
World Stray Animals Day (April 4th)
National Hug Your Dog Day (April 10th)
National Pet Day (April 11th)
National Cat Lady Day (April 19th)
World Veterinary Day (last Saturday in April)
May
National Pet Month
Lyme Disease Prevention Month
Pet Cancer Awareness Month
National Pet Week (the first whole week of May)
Mother’s Day (second Sunday of May)
June
National Pet Preparedness Month
National Microchipping Month
Pet Appreciation Week (first week in June)
Veterinary Appreciation Day (June 18)
July
National Lost Pet Prevention Month
National Pet Fire Safety Day (July 15th)
August
National Immunization Awareness Month
International Cat Day (August 8th)
September
Happy Cat Month
National Service Dog Month
National Wildlife Day (September 4th)
National Pet Memorial Day (second Sunday in September)
October
Adopt-A-Dog Month
National Pet Wellness Month
National Animal Safety and Protection Month
World Animal Day (October 4th)
National Veterinary Technician Week (October 17–23)
November
Adopt a Senior Pet Month
Pet Cancer Awareness Month
Pet Diabetes Month
National Cook for Your Pets Day (November 1st)
December
National Cat Lovers’ Month
World Wildlife Conservation Day (December 4th)
VetMatrix Can Help You Get Social
While it’s essential to keep your calendar updated by the week with events and relevant animal health information, it’s equally necessary that you make sure your social media calendar blends well with your other digital marketing efforts.
If you already have social media accounts, great! We can help you to improve your social channels and optimize your calendar to the max. However, if you aren’t active on social media, we can help you get started now! Call 800.792.8384 or click here to get started.
