Social media has become one of the most cost-effective ways to engage with your community and help market your practice. Recently, Instagram has outpaced Facebook in terms of popularity. Plus, it’s the most preferred platform among young adults. You know, the ones with families! But unfortunately, many dentists and dental practitioners are intimidated by social media or unsure where to start. One of the most popular questions we get is, “How do I know what to post?” Well, we’re here to tell you that posting content to your Instagram page isn’t as scary as you think. Here are a few tips to get you started. And, if you still find that it’s too much for you to handle, ask us about our social media content packages, where we create and publish daily content for your social media platforms.
Where to start…..
Plan, plan, plan! As Dale Carnegie once said, “An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.”
You’ve probably been around long enough to know that planning many other aspects of your life makes the road less rocky as you travel. And managing an Instagram page is no different! It’s best to sit down and spend a little time planning your content and what you will post for the week (or month!)
Here are a few tips to help you generate some content ideas for Instagram:
- Think about what’s happening in your office. Are you celebrating anything (birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, new baby arrival, holidays?)
- Are you running any specials? (Teeth whitening for the holidays, special promos on specific services)
- What are you doing in your community? (Does your team or any of your team members volunteer for community events?)
- Do you have any internal contests you could post about? (Think pumpkin carving, Halloween costumes)
- Did you decorate your office for any special occasions?
- Answer some common questions that you get from patients.
- What new technology or treatments does your practice offer?
These are just a few ideas to help. The biggest thing is don’t assume that Instagram posts have to be super creative. It’s really about engaging with your followers and the community. Show them what’s going on in your office. Show them that you’re real people behind those masks. Followers want to see more of you and fewer ads or salesy posts. However, it’s helpful to mix in some informative posts like FAQs, True or False, or Did You Know? posts to showcase answers to commonly asked questions. Just don’t bombard your followers with “ads.” Make it fun. Make it engaging. You’ll be surprised at the responses you get from followers, which makes creating new content even more exciting!
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