Veterinarian TikTokers Are Breaking the Mold this Year

What Is TikTok?

TikTok is a popular social media platform that is beginning to be utilized by veterinarians and vet practices across the United States. TikTok implements an algorithm that shows content on the viewer’s feed based on previous reels they liked. Veterinarians everywhere have taken advantage of this.

Sharing Is Caring

Veterinarian TikTokers are becoming very popular in the mainstream media because they are easily relating to their clientele and other professionals. By looking at other popular Veterinarian TikTokers, you will find that viewers see them as fun, adventurous, and knowledgeable.

The marketing here is brilliant. These veterinarians (or veterinary technicians) are creating content that is accurate, reliable, and safe for pet parents, while also using their platform to address industry issues with the public. Their platforms are encouraging the industry of veterinary medicine to open conversations with their clients about everything. This includes, but is certainly not limited to:

• General Health and Wellness Exams

• New Pet Ownership

• Vaccinations

• Common Diseases

• Allergies

• Nutrition

• Integrative Health

• Pet Insurance

• Animal Care Financing

• Not One More Vet (NOVM)

• An Explanation for Costs of Service

• Veterinary Appreciation Week(s)

The opportunities for this platform are truly endless, but the point is that these Veterinarian TikTokers are creating an open dialogue with their clients. The clients see the TikTok Veterinarians as caring individuals (which, of course, you are) and are now more receptive to their advice, are more willing to come back for annual visits, and are more likely to share their positive experiences with their friends. These Tik Tok Vets have really hacked the system.

Do You Have What It Takes?

Content creation for any social media platform is tedious. After a long day, it is the last thing anyone wants to do. However, here are 5 reasons why you should just do it.

1. You Can Provide Accurate Information

Accurate veterinary information for dogs, cats, livestock, exotics, wildlife, and basic animal care content is nearly impossible to come by on the internet. You can be part of the solution to help pet owners in need. Dog and cat owners often look to the internet or social media for questions about their pets. By answering these questions or concerns in a fun way, like a TikTok story, you can help objectively address whether or not the animal should be seen by a professional.

2. You Can Utilize a Positive Industry Platform

What is the point of using a platform if you cannot use it to help others? Using social media to address industry issues can be so helpful to offer clients insight into the profession, but also offer a helping hand to the professionals in veterinary medicine who may be struggling. We know that you care about the well-being of your staff just as much as your patients. The hope is that if the public is more aware of industry struggles, they will be kinder to staff and lessen any burden they may feel.

3. It Is a Great Resource for Current Clients

Addressing specific common dog or cat issues that are seen in practice provides a fabulous resource to forward your current clients to! Say you address environmental allergies in your latest TikTok meme or story. When Ms. Miller comes in with Molly complaining of excessive foot chewing, you can treat Molly as usual and forward Ms. Miller to your TikTok page to see information on how to potentially avoid environmental allergies and/or treat minor cases at home. Just be sure to notate that if symptoms continue or progress, viewers should contact their primary veterinarian immediately.

4. You Will Gain New Clients

The clarity and fun demeanor of your content, page, and practice will be sure to quickly reach new audiences, gain followers, and gain local(ish) clients. You may begin seeing people traveling from cities away just to be treated by “The Tik Tok Vet”. Fill up those schedules and, when you are fully booked, hire more vets! Clients may want to see you, but they will likely be just as happy seeing a vet within your practice.

5. Workplace Bonding

An overlooked bonus is that content creation and video making help foster a really fun working environment for you and your staff. You all will constantly think of fun new ways to make content for your viewers and it will quickly bring your staff together if you want them to participate. Additionally, if you have one, you should use the clinic dog or cat in your TikTok memes. Viewers love silly, yet informative, dog and cat videos.

Where to Start

We know you are sold and you want to get to work, but now you aren’t sure where to start. No worries! We have compiled a list of tips to get your TikTok account started.

1. Create Your Account

This step is easy. Simply go to TikTok - Make Your Day and create an account. It is recommended that you make an account using a work email. You will need to create a username, so you may consider using your name “Dr. Bob Smith” or your practice name “Imaginary Animal Hospital”. For reference, the most popular Veterinarian TikTokers often use their name to make things simple.

2. Research Popular TikTok Vets

There are many you can reference. However, a few of the most popular TikTok Veterinarians (or Veterinary Technicians) are:

• Dr. Hunter Finn: @dr.hunterfinn

• Cat the Vet: @cat_the_vet

• Dr. Tom: @drtom83

• Dr. Adam Christman: @dr.adamchristman52

• Walter Brown VTS: @skinnigolive

• Dr. Ross Henderson: @drrosshenderson

Review their pages and see what kind of popular videos they have. Knowledge is power and by looking at what is most popular for their pages, you can use it to your advantage when it is time to create your best content.

3. Outline Your Content

It is time to start making the world’s best content! Other than the ideas you have found on TikTok, you should begin to think about the most common issues your veterinary practice faces and how to address them. Make sure that all of the story content you are creating is original to you and your practice and that you are not mirroring the same scenarios or verbiage from another resource. If you need help thinking up content, speak with your employees and see if they have anything they felt should be addressed.

4. Start Slow

Gaining followers usually takes a lot of time and patience. Start with small, fun TikTok memes that introduce your staff and your clinic pet(s). These can and should be fun and bubbly to gain interest. After the introductions, you can start working on light or fun topics that draw people in. Try hard to make the content attention-grabbing to draw people to your page and get that follower notification.

5. Post!

All that is left to do is post! Aim for posting at least twice a week, if not more, and make sure that you use those hashtags. Hashtags are what the algorithm recognizes to put your popular videos on a viewer’s “for you page”. Examples could be:

• # dog

• # cat

• # pet

• # pethealth

• # veterinarian

• # vet

• # vetmed

• # veterinarytips

• # animalcare

• # surgery

Try to use tags that pertain directly to the video that you posted. That will help get the content you use to the right people.

Bonus!

You read the reasons why and the ‘how to’ tips. The future of marketing is social media, but maybe you’re still not sure. What if this marketing was free? Well, forget spending money on advertisements in newspapers, billboards, or telephone books. TikTok is free and if you (or one of your employees) are tech-savvy, you are set to start gaining clients as soon as you make that first post! What are you waiting for?

These 5 tips will bring you well on your way to reaching new audiences, gaining followers, promoting positive word of mouth, and gaining more clientele. Are you feeling overwhelmed, not sure where to begin, or have additional questions? DVMElite can help! Contact us now to speak with one of our veterinary practice coaches and we will have your TikTok up and running in no time.