Have you been looking for new ways to promote your services, expand your client list, and grow your referrals? With more than 1.4 billion monthly users across tens of millions of active groups, Facebook Groups has quickly become one of the most popular ways to connect with people of similar interests and might be the answer you have been searching for.
Joining existing Facebook Groups (or starting your own) can help you extend your reach to find new clients, establish yourself as an expert, network with other therapists, and provide helpful resources and answers to various mental health questions.
Chances are you are already using Facebook regularly, either professionally or personally, so you may already be familiar with Groups and the many benefits they can provide.
In this blog, we will cover how to use Facebook Groups to market your private practice and grow your client list.
How to Use Facebook Groups to Grow Your Practice
Facebook Groups bring together individuals from all over the world who share common interests. Joining a new Group filled with your ideal clients provides you with another opportunity to engage with their members and further promote your practice online.
Inside most Facebook Groups, people are asking a lot of questions - questions that you may very well be able to answer. This is an excellent chance for you to showcase your knowledge or specialized skill and demonstrate your expertise to potential new clients.
You can answer their questions outright or share helpful resources such as blog posts (others or your own) to back up your answers. The key to establishing a good reputation in the Groups is not to focus on promoting yourself but rather on using it as a platform to establish yourself as an expert in your field so that people learn to come to you for help.
You can also recycle the questions and comments you see within your Facebook Groups as inspiration to create new relevant content for future social media or blog posts. Providing fresh content directly related to what your ideal client is looking for online can help expand your following, direct new potential clients to your website, and entice them to contact you for an appointment.
Facebook Groups can be used to connect and network with other local therapists who share your area of expertise or with whom you can create a mutually beneficial relationship. Share ideas, ask questions, provide answers, empathize with one another about common struggles, and use it to build your local referral network.
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How to Find & Join a Facebook Group
Luckily joining most Facebook Groups is easy and usually pretty quick!
To join an existing Facebook Group:
1. From your News Feed, click 'Groups' in the menu running along the left-hand side of your screen:
2. Perform a search in the upper left corner using a Group’s name or specific keywords such as "Denver Addiction Professionals”:
3. Select the Facebook Group you’d like to join from the options shown on the right:
Note: Some Facebook Groups are Hidden Groups, which means they will not appear in your available search results. The only way to join one of these Groups is by having a current member invite you.
4. On the Group’s page, click the “Join Group” button shown below the main cover photo:
5. Select whether you'd like to join the Group as yourself (your personal profile) or as your Business Page and click “Join Group"
Note: If you choose to join a Group as a Page rather than a person, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Group admins hold the right to decide not to allow Pages to join their Groups
- Pages can only request to join Groups and can't be invited to join Groups
- If you’ve already joined a Group as a profile and want to join the Group as Page, you can change who you’re interacting as
- Only Page admins can request to join a Group
Some Groups may also require you to answer a few screening questions prior to approving your request to join:
How to Create Your Own Facebook Group
If you are struggling to find the perfect Facebook Group for you, why not create your own?
To create a new Facebook Group:
1. Click on the plus icon in the upper right menu of your Facebook News Feed and select ‘+ Create New Group’ from the list of options that appears:
2. Enter your Group’s name, choose a privacy option, invite people to join, then click the ‘Create’ button:
Once you’ve created your Group, you can personalize it by adding a description and uploading a cover photo. The recommended size for Facebook Group cover photos is 1640 pixels wide by 859 pixels tall (a 1.91:1 ratio).
Tip: You don't need to be a graphic design expert to create an amazing cover photo for your Facebook Group! Just use one of these free templates from Canva: https://www.canva.com/templates/search/facebook-covers/
Our Favorite Facebook Groups for Therapists
1. Become a More Effective Therapist
A community dedicated to bettering therapists through open discussions focused on learning short-term techniques to deliver quicker and better results.
Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Effectivetherapy
2. Private Practice Startup
This group is dedicated to inspiring you from startup to mastery! A Group committed to helping all therapists develop personally and professionally, to best serve their community. They focus on encouraging you to do your own self-growth and development work to address any biases you may have surrounding antiracism, gender, sexuality, and equality, etc.
Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theprivatepracticestartup/
3. Clinicians of Color
A Group designed to be a community for mental health professionals who are passionate about their work and ready to turn that passion into profit via Private Practice.
Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1265154753536986
4. My Private Practice Collective
This Group is for therapists interested in starting a private practice, getting their practice off the ground, or accelerating their progress.
Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/myprivatepracticetribe
5. Selling the Couch
A community of heart-centered, mission-driven aspiring and current mental health private practitioners who think differently about private practice, all working to create a business that fits our life while sharing our message and generating income in/beyond the therapy room.
Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1529269850672775/
6. Therapist Toolbox – Resources & Support for Therapists
A Group where you can get support from other therapists, learn about therapy techniques, and what situations to apply them in, troubleshoot unique challenges you're facing with patients and get ideas for overcoming treatment resistance. Discussions also include tips on how to increase your self-care and how to overcome burnout, tools to help you reduce time spent on admin work (documentation, billing/insurance, notes), and guidance on how to ethically promote yourself and reach new patients with marketing and media relations.
Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mftoolbox
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, your goal is to build a trustworthy reputation for yourself and your practice, and Facebook Groups are a great (and free!) tool to help you do just that.
Likely, your current and prospective clients are already searching the Internet to answer their questions. A survey by National Research Corp. found that 40% of people asked said they rely on social networking for health information, and nearly all of them (94%) turned specifically to Facebook.
So, why not reach them at the source? Facebook is the ultimate platform to gain more exposure and connect with new clients every day. Start leveraging Facebook Groups today to generate more leads for your practice.
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This content is provided by Brighter Vision, an affinity partner of AAMFT. This information is not necessarily the views of AAMFT and should not be interpreted as official policy.
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