Facebook Pages for Therapists: How to Set Up a Practice Page
In a previous post I talked about why social media matters to therapists. The number of people using social media on a daily basis, and Facebook in particular, are astounding! Facebook is a great way to raise visibility for your therapy practice and keep your personal profile and clinic page separate. Before you set up your page it’s important to know the difference between a profile and a page.
Facebook Profile vs. Page
- You must have a personal profile to set up a professional page.
- Facebook profiles have friends (limit of 5000). Facebook pages have an unlimited amount of “likes”.
- Facebook pages are visible to everyone. Facebook profiles can be set so that only people that you accept as “friends” will have access to your personal information. Be sure to set the highest security levels on your profile.
- When you post on your therapy practice page wall it will post as your professional practice name or the name of your clinic, not your personal profile name. Visitors to your practice page will not be able to click through to your profile. Here’s a screen shot of my clinic Facebook page. When I post anything on the page wall it shows as “Wasatch Family Therapy” with our logo not as “Julie Hanks.”
How to Set up a Facebook Page for your Therapy Practice
Here’s a quick YouTube tutorial video I put together that walks you through the basics of setting up a Facebook Page.
In future posts I’ll dive into more details of how to customize your practice page, use the applications, tag, post video, connect with other referral sources, and more. Do you have concerns about setting up a Facebook page for your therapy practice? I’d love to discuss them so please feel free to post comments below.
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Dynamic self & relationship expert Dr. Julie de Azevedo Hanks, LCSW loves to make a difference for women. She owns Wasatch Family Therapy and regularly contributes to KSL TV's Studio 5, and her advice has been featured nationally including Wall Street Journal, Parenting, Fox News, and others. Connect on Facebook & Twitter. Her books The Burnout Cure and The Assertiveness Guide are now available. |
Comments
Hi Julie,I was glad to see this post.I have tried setting up a FB site for my business in the past. I was careful about making sure I was signed in under the correct profile when I added things to either my business page or personal site. However, I found often most of what I posted showed up on my personal site, and occasionally if someone who had liked my business page, I would see some of their personal comments on my business site. I thought perhaps it was because of the common email address. I even tried using a completely new pseudo email but that did not seem to work well either.Whenever I was looking at my business site from my computer it appeared as if many personal things were being shown. My son explained that it was only because I was the administrator signed in but others could not see what I was seeing. That made it even more confusing. That is why I tried a pseudo email so I could sign on and see what the public sees. Any suggestions or blogs you have already written on this would be helpful.Thanks KG
I would also be interested in Julie’s suggestions as to how to protect anonymity/confidentiality if a therapist has a “personal” FB page/profile, but wants to set one up purely for her business/practice; I have avoided doing so for the main reason that I would not want my clients/patients to access information from my personal FB page/profile. How does one ensure their business page can remain separate and protected from their personal page/profile?
Many thanks!
Hi Kim, If someone “likes” your professional page they can post comments on your wall and it will show up as commenting under their personal name. I’m wondering if you’re possibly confusing your”news feed” with your professional page wall. Your news feed will show all of the posts of your “friends” and all comments on your business page in one place but that doesn’t mean everyone else can see that information. You can also edit your practice page settings so that no one can comment or post on your wall, but then you lose a lot of interaction and discussion. If you’d like to email me through this contact page http://www.drjuliehanks.com/contact/ we can set up a time for a brief phone consultation and I can walk you through it. Facebook can be very confusing!
Hi Marla, when you set up a business “page” it is already separate from your personal profile. When you post on your business page it will show up as a post from the name of your therapy practice, not your personal profile. People who “like” your practice/business page aren’t granted access to your personal profile as long as you set your personal profile to the highest security setting. Be sure to set it so only “friends” can see your personal information. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Julie, thanks a million for responding. I am in the process of developing some ideas for my own therapy practice and may very well appreciate a phone consultation down the road with you; you seem very well versed in this area. Thanks again for your prompt response.
Hi, Julie. I have a question about my center’s facebook page, which I am the administrator of. Recently, one of our clients, who “liked” our page, posted a thank you to her counselor for all of the help that she gave her during a difficult time in her life. Does having that on the wall violate confidentiality, or is it okay because the client put it there?
April, great question! If a client voluntarily posts on your wall then you aren’t providing anyone with confidential information, the client is voluntarily giving information. It would make me nervous though, as a clinic director. If it were me, I’d probably have her therapist contact her to make sure that she is aware that your wall is public and that anyone can access that information. (Disclaimer: I don’t know what state you’re in, or in which discipline you’re licensed so I suggest that you contact your professional organization and state licensing board to see if there are social media policies that would help clarify the situation).
Julie,
Thanks for your comment. I believe you are correct about confusing news feed with what was written on my Business page. It made it difficult to keep track of and anxiety provoking hoping I wasn’t making a mistake and posting something to the wrong place.
I need to find the time to watch a couple other videos and articles I have seen posted. After doing so I may take you up on brief consultation if I don’t get a better handle on it.
Thanks
Kim Glasco
[…] way to build your practice through social media because of it’s high number of daily users. Here’s an article on how to set up a Facebook Page for your practice. If you want to know how to use Twitter, here are a few suggestions on how to effectively tweet to […]
Hi Julie,
Thanks for this! I have started a fb page for my private practice and would love to hear your advice on how to get people to the page. How can I increase the popularity of my facebook page?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Artistic-Therapy-London/144425372282229
Many thanks,
Anniek
is it possible to create a practice page, without having a personal page?
i am one of the few who is not on facebook,and since i’ve held out this long, i feel like i can do without
John, I believe so. Try it here http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
[…] How To Set Up A Facebook Page and Facebook Pages For Therapists: Some Risks And Benefits […]
Hi Julie,
I know engaging with others is a good idea to build followers or likers but when I comment on someone’s post/ page it shows my profile page image which I’ve tried to shut down by referring others to my professional page. How can I change that? Also when posting from twitter or Instagram it goes to my profile page also.
Is there a way to fix these issues?
Finally, it’s hard to draw a following as a therapist due to content. People are nervous to like certain posts. Any advice on posts therapists can make that are most desirable to the
Public forum?
Kindly,
Mcayla Sarno
Hi Julie,
I recently set up my facebook page for my practice but I am having some questions about what kind of posts I should share in order to grab more attention from the public. I know being visual is a must but I wouldn’t like to reduce it only to pics with nice quotes. Do you have any suggestions?
Cristina
Hi Julie,
Thanks for giving us this great information! Quick question. Now that I have a page for my private practice, is there a way I can target the audience to parents in Houston, Texas?