3 Key Areas of Instagram for Marketing Medical and Dental Practices

As of June 2018, Instagram has reached an astonishing feat: 1 billion users, compared to only 77 million users reported back in 2015. The mostly mobile social media platform is one of the most popular in the world and shows no signs of slowing down, but it's also one of the most underutilized marketing platforms by businesses, especially medical and dental practices. For industries so focused on visual outcomes such as cosmetic surgery or cosmetic dental work, many are missing out on a huge opportunity to not only grow their business, but also to increase their brand exposure.

There are three key areas of Instagram that can be used to build your image on the social platform, and some, such as IGTV, are brand new.

Cultivating a Following

The most basic use for Instagram is organically growing a following using daily posts with high-quality images and relevant hashtags to reach people across the nation who could be interested in your services. Due to the highly visual nature of Instagram and the frequency with which people use the app throughout their day, you can post multiple times a day for the best results, unlike Facebook, where best practice is still only one post a day.

Instagram Stories

If you've ever used Snapchat, you'll have no trouble understanding how Instagram stories work. The concept is a post featuring an image, maybe some text and even some fun stickers or other relevant graphic effects that disappears after 24 hours and doesn't stay on your page permanently like your regular posts do. This is a great way to feature behind-the-scenes looks into your practice or to show off fun events you may be hosting or participating in. Newer updates of Instagram also allow for links and even shopping options using the stories feature.

Instagram TV (IGTV)

IGTV is the newest big feature rolled out by the social media giant. In the past, video content was limited to 15 seconds on Instagram. IGTV allows users to upload videos up to 10 minutes long. This is a great way for medical and dental practices to feature in-depth discussions of procedures they offer or answer questions many patients may be asking. You could even demonstrate things visually in the video to make it more engaging and interesting.

Instagram is a great tool for doctors and dentists to get ahead of the competition and grow a large following of potential and current clients. It can also be used when running Facebook ads, making your advertising dollars stretch further and reach more people on multiple social platforms with the same ads.

For more information about how we can help you grow your practice's social media platforms, call us today at 214-654-9180 or email us at helpme@dogstarmedia.com.