VMP 248: 60 Million Views and Counting: The Secret to Arielle Putter's Viral Veterinary TikTok Marketing Strategy for Spot On Vet Revealed

Speaker 1 (00:00:03) - Welcome to the Veterinary Marketing Podcast. It's all about how to attract, engage, and retain clients to your veterinary hospital using digital marketing. My name is Brandon Breshears and in today's episode, episode 2 48, we have a, in the really special guest, we have aerial putter from Spot on Veterinary Hospital in Hotel. And this is a fantastic interview. I'm so excited about it. Selfishly, I had so many questions for it. Ariel has helped spot on get over 60 million views for her practices TikTok, over 10 million likes. It is wild. And one question that I see all the time is, should we be doing TikTok for a veterinary practice? Hopefully with this episode you're going to know without a doubt that you should try it. There's a bunch of things that I think are just really great insights that Ariel shares and so you're gonna wanna listen to this whole thing.

Speaker 1 (00:00:56) - Probably save it and refer back to it a few times Before we get into this interview. Just really quickly here, so this, this episode is being sponsored by two websites by Brad Haven. We have used vet equipment.com and new vet equipment.com. For over nine years now, used vet equipment.com has been helping vets buy and sell used vet equipment. You can save money when you buy used veterinary equipment. Everything from cages, kennels pumps, x-ray equipment, lasers, ultrasounds, dental equipment, surgical equipment, lab equipment from Abaxis, IDX and Heska tables, tubs and sink. Vet used trucks and used vet boxes. What do you have to sell@usedvetequipment.com? We bring the buyer and seller together. Also, if you are looking for new vet equipment with amazing warranties, check out new vet equipment.com where they show you the price upfront. You'll be able to see digital x-ray equipment, dental x-ray equipment, ultrasound equipment, l e d, surgery, lighting, surgery tables, autoclaves.

Speaker 1 (00:01:50) - When you go to new vet equipment.com, you'll clearly see the price on every item for sale and you'll be able to check out the warranty so that you can buy without regret@newvetequipment.com. We show you the price upfront and give you a great warranty. Alright, so let's jump into today's episode. We have Ariel putter from spot on, vet, hospital and hotel as I mentioned. And Ariel has done a really good job in just six months. She's gotten over 60 million views for her veterinary practices. TikTok, we talk about all things TikTok in this episode and I had just a bunch of questions because I think it's a fantastic platform. Ariel was kind enough to share all of this with us and so I think it's just a really, really valuable interview. Thank you so much Ariel, for your time and expertise on this. Be sure to listen all the way through. All right Ariel, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. I'm really excited for this interview. Um, cause it's, thank you for having me. I think it's one of the cooler things, um, to talk about right now. So can you just real quick give us a background of how you got into veterinary medicine and kind of your background in doing social and, and things like that?

Speaker 2 (00:03:01) - Yeah, uh, um, it seems like everyone in the marketing sphere of veterinary medicine started out, you know, as a tech or assistant and I have a little bit of a different background. My uncle and aunt, um, started spot on and my uncle is a vet. So when I graduated, um, from business school with a degree in marketing, um, I really wanted to come join the team cuz they were doing a lot of great things, a lot of fun things. Um, so yeah, I came here right after college so I'm learning about veterinary medicine as I go and I'm having the best time.

Speaker 1 (00:03:33) - That's really awesome. I think that's awesome too, uh, that Dr. Putter hired you cuz a lot of practices don't consider marketing honestly that important, which is crazy, but very,

Speaker 2 (00:03:42) - Which is crazy Dr. I get it though. It's so, um, focused on of course vet side and, and health and medicine that you don't think about the marketing aspect of it, but we can both tell you how important it is.

Speaker 1 (00:03:57) - Yes, absolutely. We're biased for sure. Yes. But , so we're talking about TikTok today and I think you're probably the most successful TikTok I've met. Um, like in general, I know that there's a Oh, thank you. There's a few other people that I know that are pretty, pretty big pages. Um, but I think your's, I checked that it had 10 million likes.

Speaker 2 (00:04:20) - Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:04:21) - Which is insane. That's just the number of likes. How many total views do you have on your TikTok?

Speaker 2 (00:04:26) - We have upwards of 60 million and I created this TikTok six months ago, so it's pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (00:04:33) - That is insane. So I didn't as that was one thing I was gonna ask is when did you start it and can you tell us about the like discussion and choosing to start it? Was it super intentional or why did you dive in there and maybe talk about the other things that you were thinking about testing and, and trying at the same time?

Speaker 2 (00:04:50) - Yeah, absolutely. Um, when I joined the team we already had a strong, um, Instagram and Facebook presence and it was working really well historically for the goal that they had, which was to connect to current clients, you know, make them feel special, showing their pets and then of course to market to the local area. Um, but I wanted more than that. I wanted someone from California to send one of our videos to their friend in Connecticut and be like, did you see this? You should go there. And, you know, that is what ended up happening. And I just, I think that this field has kind of an outdated sense of marketing and being a younger person who loves TikTok and enjoys the niche communities of it, I knew that there was a huge opportunity for us here. And who doesn't like animals? You know, at the end of the day, no matter how old you are, what generation you're in, what you know, social media you use, everybody loves animals. So honestly, I started not with any crazy goal in mind other than this is a beautiful facility, we do amazing things here. I I love social media, why wouldn't I, you know, create this account? And yeah, it's been amazing.

Speaker 1 (00:06:10) - That's, that's really awesome. So, um, and that's really interesting that you mentioned that too cuz I, since I work with vets all the time, right? I forget that most industries don't have like the pet aspect. I think most businesses would really want to be able to use animals as much as veterinarians can, but it's like seriously the best topic to talk about and almost nobody makes good content that's in, in the veterinary space. We, not almost nobody, but there's a lot of good stuff out there, I must say it's getting much better, but it's, it's really an amazing opportunity

Speaker 2 (00:06:44) - And you know, it's getting better because of TikTok. So it's kind of crazy to me to think that um, not everyone does this.

Speaker 1 (00:06:53) - Yeah, absolutely. And we were talking right before we started here, there was a poll in a, in a group and 90% it was it's VetMed social media stuff group and they asked you should we start a TikTok? And 90% of the people in the group said don't do it.

Speaker 2 (00:07:08) - And yeah, that is crazy.

Speaker 1 (00:07:10) - We couldn't believe it. I mean

Speaker 2 (00:07:12) - It's crazy to me because if you talk to any one in the field, everyone knows that one of the major pain points is owners are scared to leave their animals. Whether it's for a vet appointment or for lodging, for daycare, for grooming owners don't like leaving their babies and then walking out the door and TikTok and just short form video content like this in general offers a perfect opportunity to kind of show people what's going on behind the scenes and make them feel so comfortable. And even if it's not a video of their dog, they're seeing, if they're just seeing how, you know, our staff is interacting with other dogs or cats or rabbits or anything, they can feel a lot less nervous to leave their animals somewhere

Speaker 1 (00:08:04) - Ab Absolutely. I think too, for example, like with Spot On, it is a really beautiful facility.

Speaker 2 (00:08:10) - Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:08:11) - And most people don't ever show what it actually looks like. Like your rooms are so cool, they have, you know, the glass and the beds in each unit and it just looks really cool. And so yeah,

Speaker 2 (00:08:23) - I think I will say we definitely are unique in that sense of this facility is gorgeous, it is the four seasons for dogs. So I really wanted to show everybody what it looks like. I mean, these dogs have TV than chandeliers and everything about the facility is designed, you know, for, to make your pets as comfortable as possible. So I definitely had have some advantage of this facility being as gorgeous as it is. Um, but still in general, you know, you gotta show the behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 (00:08:56) - Absolutely. Even if you don't have a beautiful practice, there's always like interesting patients, right? Or, you know, cute puppies or there's just like a million amazing things to show. So, um,

Speaker 2 (00:09:06) - Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:09:07) - I guess one, one thing to start off, what services does Spot on offer so that you can kind of give people a context for what you offer and things and how that absolutely integrates?

Speaker 2 (00:09:19) - Well our motto is one spot for all of your pet's needs. So we are a full service veterinary hospital, so we do emergency urgent care as well as just general care. I mean, we have CT machines, ultrasounds, the whole, the whole nine yards. And then we're a, we're a hotel as well, we like to say lodging, not boarding, um, because it's, you know, it's not these cages, these kennels that you would think when you think boarding. And we are also a daycare as well as a grooming spa and training. So we do it all

Speaker 1 (00:09:55) - That. That's awesome. So, um, a few things before kind of we dive into others, like a bunch of questions that I have for you when it comes to TikTok as a platform and then also how that bleeds over into other platforms. Cause I think TikTok has just changed social completely.

Speaker 2 (00:10:11) - Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:10:13) - But when it comes to driving, I think one of the biggest questions people say is, well, it's not local and it's not regional. So even if I get lots of views, I'm not gonna get more business. What has the impact, um, TikTok, what has the impact of TikTok been on your business in in particular? Like have you seen more clients from it, for example?

Speaker 2 (00:10:34) - Yes, absolutely. I, I get what people say about that and cuz you can look in your insights and see where people are that they're seeing this. And of course it's not 100% in stand Connecticut or in New York where we are. Um, but yes, people have come to us that have written in, you know, we saw you from TikTok. So that impact is absolutely there and it's also just, you know, expanded the scope of our reach, which has gotten people that, you know, what I, what I said earlier is even if it's reaching people in other states, people have friends and family everywhere. We have had someone come in that said that they're friend in California, um, sent her over a video of what we were doing and was like, you gotta go to this place. And she was like, I'd never heard of it, but absolutely.

Speaker 2 (00:11:26) - And you know, now she's a client here. Um, and the thing also is that once you grab someone from TikTok or any social media, in my opinion, what I've noticed is they become much more dedicated clients mm-hmm.  because they are looking for their dogs or their cats, you know, on our social media presence. They're coming in and they're requesting it, they're responding to people's comments. Um, on TikTok being like, that's my dog. Like, I've had people create TikTok for their dog because they went viral on our account and they're just loving it. So it's a really long standing impact that it's been having

Speaker 1 (00:12:13) - That that makes total sense. And I would imagine with 60 million views that you would have  a pretty significant impact on just Yeah. Busyness like this Insane to think about. Oh yeah. I mean that's just, so that's like a, I don't know how many people see a Super Bowl commercial, but it's like multiple Super Bowl commercials. Yeah. If you imagine just what that would be worth, it's insane to think about. So mm-hmm. , I, I think TikTok is probably, um, my favorite platform in general for content. Um, and I think it's just really changed the way that people produce and also engage with content. What, in your opinion, is kind of the biggest difference between TikTok versus something else? Um, for like Instagram reel for example,

Speaker 2 (00:12:57) - Right. Um, I think TikTok right now is the only social media out there that is not curated, um, where people can have fun with it. And it's not, it's not a popularity contest of, oh, this person unfollowed me, or, oh, this person isn't fo you know, isn't following me. It's carved out this ability to have these niche communities. I mean, you go on TikTok as a consumer and immediately it's only videos you wanna see. So it is created this way for people of your similar interests of yours to all be, you know, in the same niche. And then also you're more likely to then be in other similar niches than these people. So the overlap of these trends we see happening where someone will comment, you know, something that's has to do with a completely other trend that has nothing to do with animals and like the dog community, but because all these people have these similar interests, they get it and it's fun and it's hilarious. And if there's ability as a creator too, to show so much more personality on TikTok than Instagram or Facebook, um, you know, I'm responding to these people as if they're my friends and you know, these comments get just as many likes as, you know, some of the videos. So yeah, overall it's the nicheness of it, you know, the algorithm's a crazy place. Yeah. Definitely. Can't say I totally understand it, but yeah. Personality, it's not curated. It's, it's fun.

Speaker 1 (00:14:32) - Definitely. Definitely makes sense. So when, when you started using it, um, did you have a kind of like framework in mind of how you wanted videos to be? Or did you start learning kind of what worked based on what would get more views or how did it come about? Like for example, when the first video, I think you have one video that has 17 million views on it, which is wild,

Speaker 2 (00:14:54) - Like 19 now.

Speaker 1 (00:14:56) - That's, so that's, that's crazy. Um, did you think to yourself like, number one, this is definitely gonna be a 20 million view video? Or were you just like, I'm gonna test this and see what happened.

Speaker 2 (00:15:11) - Right. Um, no, I think a lot of my success has come from the fact that I am not really thinking about it like that. You know, I, I went back before this interview just ch going back to see what I started out doing cuz I started out doing stuff at the end of November and the first couple videos were kind of just montages to music of just little clips of different scenes throughout the building. And honestly, looking back, they're not good. Like, they're not interesting. Um, and so what I started to do was every day, multiple times a day, I would just walk through the facility and just start recording. I would record dogs in their rooms, I would record them in daycare, I would record them, um, on the vet side in grooming. I would look at their note charts, I would look at the things people, their, their owners bring with them, um, all those kinds of things.

Speaker 2 (00:16:11) - And slowly I had so much content that I was able to group together. So I started the 19, for example, the 19 million view one is the different types of dogs at daycare mm-hmm. . And that's just, you know, an idea that came to me going through these videos and being like, oh, okay. I have a bunch of these dogs doing similar things in daycare, doing really funny things that could, that could be a series in its own. Or, I started noticing the really cool things, um, clients brought with their dogs when they were staying with us. So I did a series of, you know, my favorite items people bring. Um, so yeah, the success really came from just constantly recording and then in my mind grouping these things together and seeing how they all fit. And so the successes really come from videos with voice text. Mm-hmm.  with like funny voice text videos and um, and just, yeah. And just montages of these different animals.

Speaker 1 (00:17:11) - Definitely. So I noticed too that your Instagram has 80, I think 8,700 followers on it. Yeah. Do you, has a large portion of that come from TikTok like coming over? Or is that just also growing n natively on Instagram?

Speaker 2 (00:17:27) - So yes and no. Um, we pretty consistently, when I came in it was a pretty consistent, like, I think it was at like 6,000 around there and there wasn't, I wasn't really seeing much growth at all. Um, and then, so the last like two to 3000 has come directly from TikTok. I would immediately notice after a major viral video how many people we were then followers, we were then getting on Instagram. And because of that I've now started to focus a lot more on Instagram and I'm seeing a lot more growth. I've learned some things about the differences between the two platforms. I'll admit in the beginning I was so having so much fun with TikTok, that that was my main focus mm-hmm.  and as I've started to get used to it and it's, you know, as crazy as it is to say it's less of a novelty to get these millions of views as it was in the beginning, I've now started to focus on other platforms more and now we're seeing more of that growth.

Speaker 1 (00:18:25) - Definitely. I'm sure there's a lot of overlap between Oh yeah. Creation on those platforms though.

Speaker 2 (00:18:31) - Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:18:33) - So, um, I have some, some questions for you that are, I guess more technical mm-hmm. , when it comes to TikTok and trying to create growth, do you ever try to solicit like specific engagements? Is there things that make your TikTok videos do better? So for example, do you like to get more likes, more comments, more stitches? Or is it not really something that you think about?

Speaker 2 (00:18:57) - I do think about it cause I, so I calculate our, our engagement rate for each of the videos and it's, you know, views divided by likes, comments, and um, I think the shares, or I think about Sage two mm-hmm.  and the highest ones are when people are engaging with each other in the comments. Mm-hmm. . And that comes from, from, for example, reoccurring dogs. People love, like, I've kind of created these characters almost where there's a couple dogs that people love and are always commenting to see them. And so if I post a video about them, that's all people are talking about in the comments. Um, and so that's been a major thing that I've noticed that I kind of did in unintentionally and now I've, I start to do it more. Um, that along with the, the biggest thing I've noticed is we have short attention spans.

Speaker 2 (00:19:59) - I mean that's the reason why TikTok is as big as it is, is mm-hmm. , we lose attention quickly. So I try to keep videos as short as possible and when they're long it's because it's, you know, something like that in like reoccurring character that people wanna see that I know they're gonna watch that whole video mm-hmm. . But when it's a new type of series, I right off the bat want them to see one, two hilarious things that it's, I'm gonna keep them watching because I see, um, you know, views drop at around like 15 seconds dramatically. So that's been a huge technical thing that I've learned.

Speaker 1 (00:20:40) - That's, that's really interesting. Um, with that, is there any kind of like rule that you have for a hook or getting people engaged? Do you have to make it like the most engaging within the first like two seconds? Or what, what do you think about when you create the videos?

Speaker 2 (00:20:56) - What I think about is, so a lot of my videos are sort of these series that, for example, it'll be like my favorite items, the hotel, dogs and cats bring from home or the different types of dogs at daycare, stuff like that. And so I start these videos with that title and then we get into it. So I try to keep that title, you know, four seconds long and with that title when the guys the Voice is speaking, you know, the different types of dogs at daycare, I want that video that's in the background to be something funny and cute. Mm-hmm. . So people immediately know, okay, this is about animals, I'm about to see some animals and this is the title and then I'll get right into it from there. I don't necessarily put what I think is like the funniest one first to me. It's just once you're like locked in and you wanna see them, you're gonna watch it. So it's really those first four seconds. Cause as a consumer too, I catch myself on TikTok if within the first two seconds I'm not into it, I'm scrolling. Even though who knows, it could have been something I was into. Yeah. So yeah, it's really those first couple seconds

Speaker 1 (00:22:04) - Def definitely. Um, and what do you think about doing, um, I guess do you have analytics on how many people listen with, with sound or without, I don't know if that's an analytics point in TikTok. Is that

Speaker 2 (00:22:20) - Interesting? I don't know, but now I wanna know. But

Speaker 1 (00:22:23) - Because like I know if I'm like in bed or something and I don't wanna have the sound on, I'm just going through until I find videos that like have captions on them, basically ,

Speaker 2 (00:22:31) - It's like Right. So right to your point, I don't know if that's a, a thing that I could track. I would love to, but to your point, I do make it, um, just a rule to always have captions. Um, like if not anything else, you know, like I'll always have, if it's, if there's some sort of like explanation or speaking going on, I'll always have a caption to it because Yeah, you're right. People will be, or even if you're in a quiet space, you know, you don't, you forgot your headphones, whatever. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:23:03) - Exactly. Um, yeah, I know that Facebook gives us those, those details but like not that many people watch Facebook videos so. Correct. It was crazy though back when Facebook was like a major video platform. I'm sure it still is, but um, when it was like five years ago, six years ago, right. Um, it would be like 87% of people would watch videos without sound and that was like seven years ago. So, um, I'm sure it's just more, more so now. Um, but that's definitely, that's very interesting. Um, when it comes to um, and I guess what she said about comments and, and people, I think that's really, really interesting. I think building characters that people see and it builds familiarity with mm-hmm. , I think that's just genius. So that's an awesome, awesome point. I saw this video on TikTok, actually it was Gary Vaynerchuk's, um, social guy who, what he does to get videos going and get them started is he goes out and will actually create fake accounts and somebody'll say like, come in a picture of your dog. And some people come in a picture of the dog and then he'll go your dog's ugly  with the fake account  and start fights in the comments to get people. I love that engaging.

Speaker 2 (00:24:17) - Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:24:17) - But that was pretty wild. That's

Speaker 2 (00:24:20) - Hilarious.

Speaker 1 (00:24:21) - I'm not saying you should do that. I'm sure it would get especially, but it's the same. The characters who are loved, like people would start fighting over that, you

Speaker 2 (00:24:29) - Know, for sure. You know, that's an extreme, but it's the same overlying concept of people love to engage that way in comments.

Speaker 1 (00:24:37) - Absolutely. Absolutely. So, um, when it comes to the other kind of features within, within TikTok, like when it comes to like trends for example and types of videos, how important do you think those are in a content strategy for TikTok? And do you think people should consider using trends and you know,

Speaker 2 (00:24:58) - For

Speaker 1 (00:24:59) - Example the Stranger Things video that you had right, with that overlay? Yeah. As an example.

Speaker 2 (00:25:04) - Yes. Yes, exactly. I kind of categorize, um, you know, when I'm planning posts or, or just anything in that regard. I categorize it into two things in my head as one is trends that are things that I'm on my personal account at the end of the day. Mm-hmm.  just DMing to spot on, sorry, you may hear a in the past, um, that I'm just DMing, you know, to spot on and be like, oh let me do this. I categorize it as that and what's that's gonna appeal to Gen Z. And then I categorize the other videos of just, you know, general content that is gonna appeal to all generations. I think it's very important to do trends, but I don't think that it is something that you can just do 100% that I actually find that, um, my least engaged videos, or at least viewed videos, sorry, are trends mm-hmm. , um, but they're always the most commented on and the most shared. But these major viral videos I have our sort of these other things that I've come up with, you know, these different types of dogs that take care of that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. , but the trends are very important. Um, I just think that it really does alienate audiences, but then it also really gains traction from, you know, the 17 to 24 year old demographic. So it's a, you know, it's a toss up. That's why I just, I like to do both.

Speaker 1 (00:26:35) - There's old people trends too though, so just , you just don't ever get to see them cause you're not. Well

Speaker 2 (00:26:43) - Then there you go.

Speaker 1 (00:26:44) - TikTok. So I'll assure you that there are definitely old people doing tr trends. Um, , you just have to borrow somebody's TikTok.

Speaker 2 (00:26:53) - Yeah. I need to go on someone

Speaker 1 (00:26:54) - Else's For sure. Um, then when it comes to like using sounds and other things in, in your videos, what are the most important things that you think you should always be doing?

Speaker 2 (00:27:06) - Yes. Always use, um, a trending sound. Unless it is a very specific video where you need a really specific sound for it. There's no reason not to use trending songs. Not even just from a, um, you know, engagement perspective, but also from a perspective of people enjoy hearing these popular songs we're so used to them. Mm-hmm. , I mean, some of them can get overplayed, but I have fun making these videos when I'm listening to this fun music and, and in turn watching it. So definitely always use trending songs. Um, even if a, a little pro tip is, even if the video doesn't need sound, a song in um, the background, you can still add it and just put the volume on zero mm-hmm. . So it's still showing up, you know, as that sound. Yeah. But I found that trending like voices and effects are more effective than, or or the same level of effectiveness as um, major trending songs.

Speaker 1 (00:28:17) - That's, that's really interesting. I was gonna ask that. I wonder Yeah, if the voice to text this is like I, I know for example in in YouTube videos the, when you're uploading and processing it, it's doing transcriptions of the video. Yeah. And so then it's also categorizing that content and figuring out like using ai what the video is about based on what you said as well as what's in the video. So I was wondering, um, do you do text voice, the voiceover effects, uh, in most of your videos? Or what do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (00:28:47) - Yes, I do voice to text in, I would say 90% of my videos, unless it is a trend or a very specific video I'm showing, I am always using the voice to text and those always do the best. That's, and it's this, it's the specific voice I think it's called like trickster or something. Mm-hmm. , um, yeah, always. And I, I always notice that the more time I put into them and go through and make sure they're all voice to text are the ones that do the best.

Speaker 1 (00:29:16) - Very interesting. And I think too that is helpful for people that are self-conscious of creating content too, cuz it's not your voice on there and so it makes it even easier to make it cause you don't have to hear yourself talking and stuff. So.

Speaker 2 (00:29:27) - Exactly.

Speaker 1 (00:29:28) - That's, that's pretty cool. When it comes to frequency and how often you're posting, what is your kind of, uh, what have you seen and what do you think people should do?

Speaker 2 (00:29:38) - Yeah, I, I love it so much that I'm always making videos that I think I post. I would say three times a day. Maybe not on the weekends as often, but yeah, I post a lot because it's really fun and I have to imagine that that has contributed to the success. But what I, the biggest thing I think is important when it comes to um, frequency of posting is if you have a video do really well and it doesn't need to be in millions. Like if it's just starting to do well and you're seeing a lot of comment, engagement, start responding to comments with videos mm-hmm. . So I would say a lot of my daily posts too will be another post, another video I just add on to the comment cuz people will comment something and it'll gimme an idea and I'll be like, oh, I have a bunch of cool videos about that. Let me quickly make this and I'll respond to it. So frequency of posting doesn't necessarily have to be, you're just planning all these posts all the time. It, it can be these on the fly things that is what ends up getting you a lot of engagement.

Speaker 1 (00:30:53) - That that definitely makes sense. Um, and especially when it Yeah, totally makes sense. Especially with comments that are highly engaged. Yeah. It's obviously something that people wanna see or they think is funny or you know, whatever. So it's, it's a great way to get more engagement. Um,

Speaker 2 (00:31:09) - And those are, those are the co the opportunities I have to inform people more because a lot of the videos I create, you know, aren't the most educational things in the world because who wants to really see that constantly. And so a lot of times the comments will be a question of like, oh what do you do if, what do you do with the dogs that don't like other dogs? And that's a perfect opportunity then for me to make a video response being like, oh we offer individual play dates and show a bunch of videos of dogs one-on-one with people. You know? So it's a really big educational opportunity

Speaker 1 (00:31:44) - That's really smart. Um, yeah, I love that idea. When it comes to like doing a call to action or using TikTok to try to drive new clients and things like that, what do you think the best call to action for TikTok would you say it's going to the site or just trying to drive them to other social channels or what do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:32:06) - So normally I wanna say other social channels because you and I actually had a conversation about this in the past of, you know, people sometimes go to Instagram more than they go to websites these days to learn more. So definitely to other socials. But when it comes to specifically in like the veterinary medicine field, um, I like responding to comments where they're like, oh I, you know, I need this for my blogg, I'll respond like a call, text, email us every time pretty often. Mm-hmm . Um, so I think it really depends, nine times outta 10 I would say go to another social that like an Instagram or a Facebook where you have more information readily available cuz TikTok is sort of just those little bios. Um, so yeah, I would say that.

Speaker 1 (00:32:55) - Yeah, definitely. I thought that was super interesting. It kind of blew my mind. I heard somebody that was younger than me Right. Like talking about TikTok as kind of like a landing page and Instagram as the website because especially there's so many ways to book and things through webs, uh, Instagram. So like that definitely makes sense.

Speaker 2 (00:33:13) - My my thing too is when it comes to this field is no matter what you're gonna have to visit our website or call us or email us to book an appointment to learn more. You know, this is your animal's health and you're gonna have to call or or email or text or look us up. You know, that's has to happen. So it's just a matter of getting them interested enough to then do that and getting them interested enough to do that is on social media and then they're gonna go to our website and book an appointment, you know?

Speaker 1 (00:33:48) - Absolutely. I think that's a really good point that a lot of people need to hear. Cause most people make content that's just super boring in informational. No. And then they expect they're gonna convert from it and it's

Speaker 2 (00:33:57) - Like, no, it's the opposite. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:33:59) - Ab absolutely.

Speaker 2 (00:34:00) - Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:34:00) - And I think too, just because TikTok is so kind of like quick access, kind of like the junk food of, of the internet, right. Where it's like really easy just to binge it, it you have to capture attention otherwise you're just gonna get swiped and

Speaker 2 (00:34:14) - Use it. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:34:16) - So, um, uh, this has been really, really great so far as we kind of wrap up here, what are some of the best practices that you can think of that just generally have really helped you and kind of maybe a couple of pieces of advice for people who are thinking about it. I would highly urge you to start a TikTok, even if it's gonna get banned in like a little bit of time. I think it still makes sense, but what  what do you think, um, would be some good pieces of advice?

Speaker 2 (00:34:44) - Yeah, I would say show as much personality as possible. Um, right off the bat, you know, comment to these people like you are speaking to your friends, you know, make jokes in these videos. Get people engaged enough that they're gonna then go back to your page to, to watch more serious things. You know, get them, hook them in just with personality and, and as yourself and then they're gonna stay and stick around. And to your, to your point about, you know, even if it's gonna get banned and, and all that create a TikTok, this style of media is not going away. If TikTok gets banned something else just like it is gonna pop up. This is the new, you know, way of social media. It's these short form video content and these niche communities that you're, that people are able to join without even realizing they're, they're joining it because of just cause it's how technology works now. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's not going away so you might as well get in and start understanding now. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:35:53) - That's, that's really good advice. I, I think that's really good. Yeah, I heard there's a new platform called Clapper that like some people started using just cuz they're looking for an American alternative and I think you're absolutely right. Yeah. There's always gonna be some short form alternative that's just far more engaging and interesting.

Speaker 2 (00:36:09) - Exactly

Speaker 1 (00:36:10) - What people want. So some something will emerge and I'm sure you can use these skills for, you know, all the other socials too.

Speaker 2 (00:36:17) - Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:36:18) - So, um, if people wanna get hold of you just for, I don't know if you do consulting or maybe you'd be open to it or something, but um, if people wanna get hold of you, how can they reach out to you?

Speaker 2 (00:36:30) - Yeah, um, they can send me an email. Um, my email is a r i e l e june gmail.com or you could always DM one of the spot on accounts. I'm always, always on it. It's just all of our accounts are spot on vet. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:36:48) - I'll, I'll be sure to link all of that on the show notes. So where we listening to this, you can click it and send an email or check out their socials. Be sure to definitely follow cuz it is really good content and um, thank you. I really appreciate your time. Real last question before we finish. How many dms do you get per day in your social accounts?

Speaker 2 (00:37:08) - So I would say we don't do dms on TikTok actually. Okay. I don't get dms on TikTok. I get a lot of dms on Instagram. Um, I don't know about a per day but I would say throughout the week like I'm answering like a hundred plus and a lot of them are current clients. Mm-hmm  who are just loving, um, responding to either their dogs or other dogs they've seen or sorry pets in general. That's awesome. Um, and then a lot of them are other accounts asking to post videos. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:37:42) - Gotcha. Well very cool. Thank you so much Ariel. I really appreciate it and

Speaker 2 (00:37:46) - Uh, thank you so much. This was so fun.

Speaker 1 (00:38:11) - So I hope that you enjoyed that episode. I think it was just packed full of highly useful information. Again, if you have any questions, comments, you need help with anything, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you again so much, Ariel, for being on the podcast. Uh, definitely have had the coolest guests, which are my ad clients, so a hundred percent. Uh, the coolest people in veterinary medicine are my ad clients just sand. So if you would like to have help with your ads, be sure to reach out. You can visit veterinary marketing podcast.com and hit that chat box and say hello. If there's anything we can do, let us know, but we'll see you on the next episode. Have a great day everyone.

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