Have a question for Cheyanne? Email her at [email protected]. 

This amount of dedication needed to get your practice’s social media accounts up and running can be a lot for one person to manage, especially if you are the sole practitioner or practice manager.  

If you are looking to delegate this task to a team member, here are four things to look for in your ideal candidate:  

• An advocate and ambassador for your practice. In other words, choose someone who is on fire about what your practice is about, feels personally invested in the success of your practice, and wants to represent you in the best way. 
• Someone who is willing to learn and test new things. You don’t need someone who is an expert on social media to manage it for your practice, but someone who is willing to learn and test out new things with technology is a great fit.  
• A natural communicator (especially with clients). Someone who does a great job at speaking in terms pet owners can understand and relate to will connect well with them online also.  
• Someone who is interested in having dedicated creative time. Creating posts for social media does involve some creative energy, so it is essential to have someone in this role who loves to be imaginative and doesn’t see social media time as less important or interesting than time on the clinic floor.  

How to support your social media team lead 

To properly support the individual managing your social media, here are a few things I recommend you provide:  

• At least 5 hours a week off the floor to work on social media. The more time you give this person to create social media posts and connect with followers, the more positive ROI you will see as a result.  
• Allotted budget and time for marketing CE. With technology and marketing quickly changing, your social media manager will need to keep up with current events so they can adapt their strategy as needed. Make sure they know they’ll have your support in pursuing continuing education in this area from the start. 
• The tools, resources, and support to get their job done. This includes tools like access to a computer or mobile device, a design tool (like Canva), and a post scheduler.  
• A budget and team buy-in. They’ll need a marketing budget and support from the team in getting images, videos, and collaboration in creating content.  

 If you need more guidance on whom to delegate your social media marketing to, send me an email and I’d be happy to help. Do you have a question you want me to answer next in my advice column in the future? Email me at [email protected], and I'd be glad to help! 

Cheyanne Flerx is a former veterinary assistant turned veterinary social media marketing coach. She teaches veterinary professionals how to become confident social media marketing managers and how to use social media more effectively and efficiently for their hospitals. To learn more about her, more about social media, or social media management, visit her website at HeyCheyanne.com. 

 
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