Instagram is one very popular social media platform — it has over a billion users. We love it and we think more dental practices should be using it as part of their digital marketing strategy. It’s an easy way to create awareness around your practice’s brand and reach more potential patients. Just follow the steps we have outlined for you here, and you’ll be on your way to becoming an Instagram aficionado in no time.
First things first, you need to have an account. The good news is, if your practice already has a Facebook account, you can log into Instagram with the same credentials because the two platforms are owned by the same company. Once you’re logged into your account, posting is pretty easy. Start by clicking on the [+] at the top of the screen. It will take you to a screen where you can choose a photo from your photo gallery, or you can click on the camera icon to take a new picture.
The next step is to edit your image to make it look great on Instagram. You don’t need to be a professional photographer to create good-looking content. The platform does a nice job of simplifying that process for you. There are a range of filters to soften the image or make it more captivating. You can also crop the picture to feature only what you want to feature. If you want to get a little fancier, you can adjust the contrast, the brightness, the warmth, the color saturation, the sharpness, and other aspects. These features are not very complicated and work like any other photo editing app you already have on your phone.
Once you’re happy with the image, it’s time to create a caption. Context is important. Simply posting a photo with no explanation is not liable to generate much interest. So you want to think of something snappy to describe your picture. It’s also a good idea to incorporate hashtags because Instagram users can search by hashtag. A simple and important hashtag to start with would be your practice’s name. You can certainly get more creative than that as well and also use multiple hashtags in your post. If you already use hashtags in your Facebook posts, use the same ones on Instagram.
The next thing you want to do is get your post in front of faces. You can do that by tagging other Instagram users. Start by tagging the people who work at the practice. If you have Facebook followers who you know also use Instagram, tag them as well. You can tag people by including their username with @ in front of it in the caption. You can also use the “Tag People” feature. Along the same lines, you want to add your location to make it easier for people to find your post. The “Add Location” function lets you do just that.
Your post is probably looking pretty good by this point, but there is one more thing you can do to make it even more eye-catching — add emojis. When you put emojis in the caption of a post, it automatically becomes more interesting. There are a variety of emojis to choose from, just like on Facebook and the text messaging app you have on your phone. And there are even some emojis that work great for dentists. So, don’t be shy. Have a little fun with it.
Now that your post is ready for the world of Instagram, you want as many people as possible to see it. The last step, then, is to make sure to share your post on other social media platforms. It’s easy to share an Instagram post on Facebook and Twitter. All you have to do is find “Post to Other Accounts” on your screen and slide the bar to the right for the platform you want.
Now you’re ready to post. But before you do, we recommend looking everything over to make sure there are no typos. If you do find a mistake in something you’ve already posted, it’s easy to go back and fix it. Instagram lets you Edit your posts any time.
The steps are simple and the platform continues to gain in popularity, so there is really no reason your practice shouldn’t be using Instagram as a digital marketing tool. It’s a great way to reach more people and keep your practice relevant in this digital age. And, since it’s easy to share your posts on other social media, you can get a lot of mileage out of a single post. It makes sense and can only help your practice grow in 2022.
