Are you a dentist who wants to increase his customer base? If yes, then the digital world is the right place for you. In the digital world, social media is an effective tool to engage and attract customers in a cost-effective manner. Facebook and Twitter are commonly used social media platforms but in the recent times, Instagram has become a powerful tool to connect with customers. So if you are considering using Instagram to get more customers, then here’s your dentist guide to Instagram.
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Open a Business Account
The first step is to open your business account on Instagram. A business account gives you detailed analytical data and allows you to promote your posts on Instagram. Furthermore, you can link your Instagram account to your other social media business accounts. This way, you can have a same Instagram post on your other social media pages. This is very useful especially, if you are posting images as you can choose from the multiple filters that Instagram offers and enhance your images. So when you link your account to other social medias, the same high quality enhanced images will appear on your social media pages. High quality images are essential to catch the attention of your target audience. Follow these steps to link to your other social media accounts:
Click the settings button on your profile.
In the account section, click on switch to business profile. A business account should be a public account so you need to change it if you have kept it as a private account.
Select the social media page where you are the admin and click on ‘link your account’ to your required social media page.
On the ‘Setup Your Business Profile’ page, provide your business details and click on the ‘Done’ option. Your Instagram business account is ready for use.
Start Posting
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Start posting pictures that are relevant to your customer base. This may include pictures of your co-dentists, customers with smiling teeth, a dentist working on a customer, behind the scenes shots, before and after treatment pictures, products offered by you and others. When you post these pictures, tag your customers on your Instagram profile (with their permission) and make use of popularly used hashtags. By using hashtags, people are able to find you easily. You can be a part of some dental communities on Instagram and use their hashtag so that you are featured in their posts as well. Also, make sure you add the location from where you post your content. Adding your location is a great way to get engagement from the local community. Lastly, have a short description or a caption for your pictures so that customers know what your post is about.
Apart from posting pictures, you can upload short video clips as well. Pictures usually get more likes on Instagram but videos receive more comments. Videos are usually for less than half a minute and so most people view it. Therefore, you can use videos to be creative and get more people following you. For this purpose, you can take help of a designer to create short animated videos for you. The animated videos can show some dentistry procedures such as root canal procedure, setting of dental veneers and others. In this way, you not only educate your customers but also assure them that the dental treatment carried out by you is a high quality treatment and safe as well.
Sponsored Ads
You can even advertise on Instagram with the help of sponsored ads that are free. You can create ads on Instagram using ad creation, Power Editor or the ads API. For more information on advertising, you can go to advertising on Instagram. Instagram focuses on showing ads to those users who are relevant to you. For this purpose, they use information about what a user does on Instagram, the parenting company that is Facebook and other third party websites and apps that a user uses. Hence, if you want to get more customers, you can try using the sponsored ads feature for the same.
If you are using videos to advertise, they should not be more than 20-30 seconds as viewers may not be interested in long videos. Also, your ads should have a ‘call to action’ like asking the audience to ‘shop now’, ‘install now’ or if sufficient information cannot be provided then add a link that says ‘learn more’ which directs them to your dental website.
Some Do’s
Here are some of the things that you should do on Instagram:
Focus on creating a High Quality Content
This is the best way to get more people to follow you. Create on-brand content that people want to see in their Instagram feed. When you create strong content, it increases the likelihood of your account getting discovered by people who do not follow you. This can be either through Search and Explore or Activity, where users can view posts that their followers have liked. Make use of limited words in your ads and focus on the quality of image and video content. You can take help of a designer to help you develop some creative content on your video.
Post Regularly
Post regularly to engage with your audience. You can grow your audience by posting content at least once a day. Do not make the mistake of posting too much content for one day and then become inactive for next few days. It is important that you remain active on a daily basis.
Post Real Photos
Your customers would want to connect with you as a trusted friend. So make sure that you post real photos. Use filters for good quality pictures but do not overuse them.
Respond to Comments
When customers ask you any questions or comment on your post, take this opportunity to get in touch with them. Answer their questions openly where your other customers can see as well. Your customers are engaging with you, so make the most of this opportunity by responding back to them. This gives the impression that you care for your customers and thus, you can use this platform to build a relationship with your customers.
Respond to Tagged Photos
Sometimes your customers may use your Instagram username in their description. So if you get tagged, make sure you respond back.
Some Don’ts
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Here are some of the things that you should not do on Instagram:
Overpost
No one likes their newsfeed to be filled with posts from the same page. By overposting, you risk getting unfollowed. Therefore, keep a schedule as to how many posts you want per day. For dental services, one or two posts per day is a common trend.
Don’t Post Photos with Words
On Instagram, the general opinion is to post real photos. So do not make the mistake of posting photos with words. Instead, you can give brief information in your caption section.
Don’t Overuse Hashtags
Your audience would be irritated if you use excess hashtags on your post. Therefore, use few but relevant hashtags.
Set and Monitor Goals
To use Instagram successfully, you need to set specific, measurable, and realistic goals. This can be in the form of gaining 10 new followers every week, or an increase in number of comments and likes for your posts. You can also decide to host some contests with a call to action and generate responses from about 100 people. The contest can be for best photo or video sharing. This way you will figure out what is working for you and where you need to make changes in engaging with your audience. Moreover, since you will use a business account, Instagram will also provide you with analytical data. So you can monitor your performance and make any changes if needed.
Follow this dentist guide to Instagram to gain maximum from using this social media. Today, there are over 500 million active users on Instagram and so it provides dentist a great opportunity to reach out to a huge volume of the population. So make sure you do not delay, start making your brand’s presence felt on Instagram and build long-term relationship with customers. If you need any help in order to market your dental service, then contact an expert marketing agency.
Other blogs on dental clinic marketing:
Landing pages for Dental Clinics
Dental Clinic SEO and blogging done right
How to optimize a low traffic dental clinic website
Why your Dental Clinic should have a blog
What can a dentist do to get more patients in 2017?
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