Instagram SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is all about optimising your practice’s Instagram page so that it can be discovered in peoples’ search results. By utilising SEO tactics for both your profile and content you can ensure that your profile is optimised efficiently for maximum reach to new audiences and potential patients. 

When a user (i.e. your potential future patient) searches for a specific keyword or hashtag in the Instagram search bar, the algorithm will look for relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and locations to show them in the search results. 

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So, what quick and easy things can you do to help boost your Instagram SEO, right now?

Optimise Your Instagram Bio

Your Instagram bio, which sits at the top of your Practice’s profile, is the first piece of written content that a user sees when they visit your page. It’s your first impression – and we all know that first impressions count! So whilst many believe it’s the best place to shove as much information as possible, it’s actually better to be cool, calm and considered with your chosen copy and ensure that it’s Search Engine Optimised. 

By simply even adding your business location you are immediately boosting your visibility to potential patients that are searching for dentists in their area. 

Be sure to also include your key services too (we’re talking the big money making treatments!). For example if you’re a specialist in orthodontics – add that in there. Or if you’re an Invisalign Platinum Provider – make sure that’s included too. The key here is to not overstuff but to pick key pieces of information that you want to showcase. Your VIP treatments, your USPs and your location. 

Don’t forget to add a Call To Action (CTA) in there too – remember your profile is to serve a purpose, so what do you want people to do when they visit your page? Book an appointment? Find out more information? Meet the team? Whatever it is we suggest adding in a shortened URL link to the appropriate page of your website, (use Link Tree to get these!) – to direct users to take the action you want them to. 

Here is a great example of a Search Engine Optimised Instagram bio:

Use location tagging in every post 

As a business, when creating a new post, you should always include your location. It will help to boost your Instagram SEO and also displays at the top of every post, so when one of your posts appears in a user’s news feed as they’re scrolling, they can see your location straight away! Users can click on your location too, to view it on a map. 

When adding your caption, you can tag other users (a great feature to tag your dentists’ individual profiles too) and then you can select your location. 

Add specific keywords into your captions

Just like your Instagram bio, your post captions should be considered and packed with Search Engine Optimised keywords, to make sure your page stays relevant and discoverable. Be sure to include specific terminology for your treatments, your practice name, location, and product names. All of these help when users are searching for profiles or content. 

Maintain your account

Just like any well performing machine, your Instagram page requires you to keep up with the regular housework. Ensure that you are posting regularly by setting up a content calendar, aiming to post on your main feed 3 times a week and utilising your stories, reels and IGTV’s as often as possible. Also, be sure to regularly update your calls to action and review your hashtags, making sure that your content is continuously up to date and at its most relevant. 

Don’t forget to stay up to date with Instagram’s recommendations and latest features too. The platform favours accounts who utilise its range of functionalities as it recognises the activity and rewards you for it. 

Finally, and most importantly, continuously review and adhere to the ever evolving community guidelines. Regularly checking the ASA guidelines can help. The ASA, (Advertising Standards Authority) is the UK’s independent advertising regulator, that makes sure Ads across UK media stick to the advertising rules, including across Digital Marketing and Social Media. 

The ASA offers advice and outlines the appropriate codes of conduct for advertisers to ensure that users are marketing within legal guidelines. They can make a huge difference in making sure your content isn’t banned, or even worse, your whole account is shut down! 

Read our advice on Top 5 Do’s and Don’ts to remember when advertising Botox and Facial Aesthetics on Social Media

Let us know if you give your Instagram an SEO makeover by tagging us @dominate_dental or why not Get in touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your social media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.

As video content continues to dominate social media marketing, Instagram has taken big steps in making sure that video becomes a central part of their overall user experience. 

Video marketing is a quick and easy way to give your patients behind-the-scenes insight into who you really are as a team and a business, whilst expanding your overall reach. It’s also a highly effective way for you to easily share engaging content to your social pages.  

In the first of many updates and in order to maximise user engagement, former IGTV videos and feed videos are no longer two separate features. They’ve now been merged into a new complete format called ‘Instagram Video’. 

So, what is Instagram Video? 

This latest feature can be found in the a new Video tab in the user’s main profile, making it easier for people to discover video content directly and to navigate more swiftly through the content. 

Whilst Reels remain unaffected, staying in their own Reels tab, users can now fast-forward through a video by long-pressing on the screen and sliding their finger to select a different point in the video.

Now when users encounter videos on Instagram, they’ll be able to tap anywhere on the video to enter the full screen viewing mode.

What else are Instagram introducing?

Following the launch of Instagram Video, the app is also testing several other new options that would further integrate its various video functions. 

New longer video uploads in Stories are being trialled too. This will essentially enable you to upload full Reels clips to your Stories. Reels clips were extended to 60 seconds back in July, and with this expansion in Stories, that’ll mean that you can upload your whole Reel to Stories as well, instead of directly to the specific Reels feed. 

Reels are one of the latest features that have been met with great success. Short video clips, which can be edited to include music, text overlays and visual effects, helping you to create fun and engaging video content. Think Insta’s own version of TikTok but not quite so advanced.

And that’s not all, Instagram is also trialling a new tool called ‘Collabs’ that will allow a user to invite another user as a collaborator on a post or short video on Reels.  Posts and videos that are co-authored will be shared to both sets of followers. Views, likes and comments will also be from both accounts, doubling the amount of engagement – a creators dream!

But what does this mean for my Dental Instagram page?

As Instagram consciously moves away from the “square grid picture sharing” app that it was once known as, your opportunities to diversify your digital marketing increases too. Users want personalised, engaging and dynamic content from social accounts, gaining more information from a business page in a shorter amount of time. 

Personality and creativity becomes key for your dental practices marketing strategy. Utilising engaging video features to your advantage, showcasing your team, your services and your practice is a great way to make sure you’re utilising your platform to the best of it’s abilities. Collaborate and engage with other businesses and users too, to build your reach and increase your following. 

Staying ahead of the trends for your dental practice’s page is an important part of showcasing who you are, what treatments you offer and ultimately a way to grow your patient list. 

However, we get it, sometimes keeping up to date with new features on social media can be overwhelming, so why not Get in touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your social media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.

Forward planning and advanced scheduling of quality social media content is the bread and butter of a well performing social media account. However, as all good marketing sandwiches go, your bread and butter becomes even more appealing when you also add lots of tasty fillings. 

You can easily enhance your accounts by ensuring that not only are you active in real time, but that you are integrating a few social media strategies into your daily workflows. 

So let’s learn how to grow your social media presence, increase your organic following and systemise your engagement, with these three social strategies – or as we like to call them – your social marketing sandwich fillings!

Strategy #1

Quite simply when you are active on your dental practice’s Instagram account you should be following, liking and commenting on other profiles on a daily basis on Instagram!

When one of these three actions are performed, a notification is sent to the other account making the user aware that you have engaged with their content. They are likely to then return the favour by engaging back and they may even enquire about your services via a DM… That enquiry can turn into a prospective lead, and ultimately a new patient!

This is the basis of the Gary Vee Strategy! Social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk composed this simple growth Instagram marketing strategy that follows three simple steps. 

Step 1 – Find a hashtag that is relevant to your business or services (#Invisalign) and engage with the Top Posts of this hashtag. 

Step 2 – Try to avoid being generic, and add value where you can. E.G. “Wow, we love what a difference an iTero can make on those initial smile evaluations”.

Step 3 – Repeat the two steps above for other hashtags that are relevant to your brand, services or location.

The content that is ranked in the Top Posts has a higher level of engagement meaning your comments are visible to more users! 

Strategy #2

Utilising location and places tagging! This Instagram feature is perfect for engaging with accounts that tag a specific location. For you, that would be accounts that have tagged a location or place that is in the local area/radius to your dental practice. 

This feature will allow you to see which accounts are ranking in the Top 9 posts for engagements and which accounts have recently posted content in your local area.

Search your current location, for example ‘Birmingham, United Kingdom’ and engage with 5 accounts that have recently posted content in this location. Don’t forget to leave a ‘considered comment’ on 3 accounts that have ranked in the Top 9 posts.

Try searching for businesses in your local area, too. That coffee shop down the street?  Take a look at who has been tagging them on Instagram. It is more than likely that the coffee shop’s customer is a local resident, who could be on the search for a new dental practice – and what’s better than one right on their doorstep (that has engaged with their social media accounts!) 

Strategy #3

Instagram is packed full of features, other than sharing to your main feed, that are just waiting to be utlised and work to build your page engagement. Whilst you may not have time to create unique reels, IGTV’s and stories on a daily basis you should definitely strategise sharing content!

Reshare Instagram Posts to your Instagram story from relevant social accounts that you follow. 

For example, you might find an Invisalign tip that’s worth sharing with your audience, repost it and add extra text to the story like ‘Check out this Invisalign tip by…’. 

Or you might be able to repurpose the content from another user’s reel to match yours! For example, you find a Reel showcasing some food/meal prep, you could mention in the comments the oral health benefits of eating this type of food and then repost it to your story and include a question to your existing audience like “We love these great healthy meal prep ideas, which ones are your fave?” 

This not only helps you engage with other users on Instagram, becoming an active part of the online dental community, but engages your own following with new content! 

So, what next?

Assign a team member one day of the week to complete all of the above OR share out a certain task that each team member must have to complete that week. 

We can guarantee if you begin to build these social strategies into your marketing management you will begin to see your engagement and audiences grow across your social media pages. 

We get it though, when it comes to preparing and running a successful social marketing strategy for your dental practice, it is no easy task to come up with dynamic and engaging content, stay up to date with the latest features AND implement organic growth strategies that perform well for your business…  

So why not Get in touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your social media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your Digital Marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.

TikTok is now watched by its users, on average, for longer than YouTube in both the UK and US. It’s clear that the latest social media app is only increasing in popularity. 

According to app monitoring firm, App Annie, the average time per user spent on the apps is higher for TikTok, ultimately meaning higher levels of engagement, too. 

Boasting an estimated 700 million users, TikTok is also currently ranked the most downloaded app worldwide since 2020! 

So, how does a dental practice capitalise on the popularity of the app that everyone is talking about…? 

Create their own TikTok account of course!

Once you have created your account (use the same handle as your instagram, facebook and twitter account for consistency) , added a branded profile pic and crafted a powerful and punchy bio – it’s time to start posting some content.

However, if you don’t know your Doja Cat from your Bella Poarch, we have got you covered with 9 of our quick and easy creative TikTok ideas for dentists…

1.The Treatment Process

Why not consider recording a treatment process that one of your patients is undergoing?

This will give your audience a behind-the-scenes look into what actually takes place during a specific treatment.

What’s great about TikTok is that you can record short video segments without having to record a full-length video or you can create a short video clip using pre-recorded videos that you already have saved on your phone! Easy right? 

You could document a whole treatment process like Invisalign and turn it into a 60-second video clip using TikTok.

Check out @dr.ndeokie’s TikTok video called the ‘The Invisalign Process’

We love that you can see the initial stages the patient has gone through before the aligners are fitted. @dr.ndeokie has even used a suitable song choice ‘Katy Perry – Smile’ to add to the overall experience.

@dr.ndeokie

The Invisalign Process#trinidaddentist #trinidaddentistry #womenindentistry #invisaligntt #invisalign

♬ Smile – Katy Perry

2. Make your Potential New Patients Laugh!

Everyone loves funny videos including your audience! These are the ones that are the most shared too, so it’s time to get that comedic career off the ground.

If you can make your audience laugh through your social media content then it’s very likely that they will engage with the content and they may even decide to share it with their followers.

@thekillakay_ TikTok video called ‘Dentists when they’re working on your teeth’ is a great example of a funny yet effective video that people can relate to about visiting the dentist.

@thekillakay_

♬ original sound – Killa Kay

3. Treatment Information

TikTok videos that share important information about a specific treatment are a great way of answering commonly asked questions within a short video clip.

@teeth.by.az TikTok video does exactly this, where he answers 3 important questions about Invisalign whilst making it fun and engaging. What’s great about this is that users may have to watch it more than once to read everything, this adds to the overall view count of the post. More engagement = more power on TikTok! 

@suttondentalaesthetics

#foryoupage #fyp #invisalign #teethbyaz #teeth #dancingdentist #dentist

♬ original sound – suttondentalaesthetics

4. Before & Afters

Before & After shots should be a fundamental part of a dentist’s social media content!  It’s important to showcase your work and show your audience what kind of dental results they can expect from you.

@drtejaspatel TikTok video is an engaging Before & After video which shows you the massive difference the treatments have made to the patient’s smile. This is a perfect example of a smile makeover. We really like how he times the video and makes sure that the ‘After’ shots fall on the beat of the song, too! Don’t forget to use trending music to increase your chances of being featured on the For You Page, too! 

@drtejaspatel

#beforeandafter #smilemakeover #dental #dentist #transformation #cosmeticdentistry #teeth #fix #permanent #teethwhitening

♬ original sound – RaveCentral

5. Testimonials

Sharing testimonials on your social media pages is a fantastic way to increase the reputation of your dental practice and to build further rapport between you and your audience.

@dr_plolo TikTok video is a testimonial from a dad who suffers from dental anxiety and how the dentist helped calm down his son who suffered from the same anxiety. This dentist is taking a kind and caring approach and is showing his audience that he cares about his patients.

@dr_plolo

Follow MY IG @dr_plolo Testimony From Dad #dentist #dentista #dentistryworld #dentistsoftiktok #fy #fyp #foryou #foryoupage

♬ Wants and Needs – Drake

6. The Dancing Dentist

TikTok dancing trends are a fun and entertaining way of driving extra engagement and views to the content. We love the idea behind @davidcohendds TikTok video, rather than just simply dancing along to a song in the video, he shares oral health advice around the topic of ‘Drinks that stain your teeth’.  Education and entertainment? It’s a 10/10 from us!

@davidcohen

Hardest woah I ever hit #learnontiktok #tiktokpartner #dancingdentist

♬ KyleYouMadeThat – All About Cake – KyleYouMadeThat

7. The Singing Dentist

Dr Milad Shadrooh who is also known as ‘The Singing Dentist’ is a famous social media dentist for his unique talent of singing dental parodies to popular songs.

The Singing Dentist TikTok channel is full of funny and engaging video content that is worth checking out for creative ideas that have a dental related theme.

So if anyone in your team has a hidden talent for singing/rapping, encourage them to record and cover one of their favourite songs and to add a little dental twist to it. 

@dentistsinging

Body Parody – @russmillions @tionwayne9 @arrdeetik #foryou

♬ original sound – Singing Dentist

8. Birthdays

Is there a staff member’s birthday coming up?

Why not record a quick happy birthday video for them and share it on your social media pages to wish them a happy birthday and to thank them for all of their hard work.

Here is a perfect example of a dental team doing just this – https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRVWh2u8/

https://www.tiktok.com/@numbnanos/video/6932385196566252806?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8pYH0DyNa3FRmiqV%2FBfPDVwG5nU00CEieI9D5mKRZVhNwhuJj756EwkjMNDcGDUGuKRcA2CLRHqO5mZEJGgA%3D&language=en&preview_pb=0&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=6932385196566252806&share_link_id=FB31466F-8C94-4E1D-A4CC-41A67EE0517A&source=h5_m&timestamp=1632139468&tt_from=copy&u_code=0&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1

9. #Trending

Keep your eye on the latest TikTok trends and join in on the fun. There is always a way to make a TikTok trend suit your audience and USP, with a little bit of creativity. 

Check out  one of our clients, @teeth.by.az who created his own version of this questions and answers trend. Using the trending music too, Asim was able to create a tailored, and fun, dental version of the TikTok trend that everyone was joining in with! 

@suttondentalaesthetics

#invisalign #dentist #smile #teeth #foryou #cosmeticdentist #fyp #teethwhitening

♬ Jalebi Baby – Tesher

 

We hope a few of these ideas have sparked your inner TikTok creator, and you’re excited to start creating your own content. Don’t forget you can also utilise any content you create across your other social channels too – a TikTok can be easily modified into an Instagram reel or added as a Facebook video. 

Why not check out one of our other handy guides on getting the most out of your Social Media marketing too? Read our post on 21 Creative Instagram post ideas to inspire you into posting regularly and with confidence or our top tips on introducing Instagram’s latest feature, reels, to your practices page. 

https://www.dominatedental.com/21-creative-instagram-post-ideas-for-dentists/

https://www.dominatedental.com/how-to-boost-your-dental-practices-social-media-engagement-with-instagram-reels/

If you follow any of our top tips, don’t forget to let us know and tag us in your creations:

@DominateDental 

Or, why not Get in touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your Social Media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.

Often, dental practice owners focus on driving more traffic to their website; this is all well and good but if your site is not correctly optimised to convert those visitors into new patient enquiries (aka. leads), then your website isn’t working to the best of its abilities. 

Luckily there are a few quick and easy things you can do, right now, to make sure your website is performing to its optimised potential. 

So, let’s jump in shall we? 

Revamp your About Us Page

Often an afterthought in website creation, your About Us page can be a great place to quickly boost your website’s performance with a simple make over. It is one of the top three most visited pages on your site after all! 

Your website should be a pleasure to visit, navigate and read. Don’t overwhelm your reader with technical jargon on your ‘About Us’ page. Make sure your copy is easy to read, communicates your message and is sanity checked for all grammatical and spelling errors. 

Add some personality, too! The reason your About Us page is so frequently visited is because your potential patients care about who is going to be treating them, so the more clear and effective you are with this page, the more your patient can get to know about your practice and your services.  

Don’t forget to add in real photographs of the team and the practice, as this helps the reader to immediately get a feel for who you are and what your practice looks like. Get some professional pictures taken of the team so you can introduce them, highlight their strengths, qualifications and personalities.

Add Social Media Links

The chances are that if you’re reading this article, you already understand the value of digital marketing, so will have a social media presence for your practice already. (If not – you should definitely get these set up and get posting)

READ OUR ARTICLE ON 21 CREATIVE INSTAGRAM POST IDEAS FOR DENTISTS

So why not make sure the two are linked? Your digital presence should be a coherent, well rounded strategy, and your website and social media should not exist seperately. Make sure that your website features buttons to your social media, in the header or footer of every web page. This immediately gives your web traffic the option to engage and explore your digital presence further, and leads them to more of your content. Plus, it ultimately improves your search engine ranking – boosting you higher up the list on google! 

In turn, having an active social media presence will benefit your website by driving traffic from there to your website too!

Create Clear Calls To Action

It may seem obvious, but, what are you actually inviting your website visitors to do when they visit your website? Book in for an appointment? Call the practice? Book a free consultation? 

Whatever goal you have for your visitors, make it clear with a call to action. Make what you want your visitors to do obvious with large buttons and quick, enticing descriptions. You only have a limited amount of time to make an impact on a visitor (on average only 15 seconds!) so make it count.

Give website visitors an easy path to convert by making sure your calls to action are featured several times on the page, are easy to navigate and to interact with. 

Don’t forget to create a sense of urgency by adding ‘action words’ in your CTA button too, like; “Immediately”, “Today”, “Now” and or “Instantly”. 

Make sure your site is technically sound

You know your website looks good, you know it sounds good and you have made sure that you have clear calls to action to point your web visitors to where you want them to be. But have you made sure that it is ‘technically sound’?

You don’t need to be a professional website designer to make sure that your website works efficiently and effectively, there are several quick and easy things you can do to make sure it works the way it should. 

Check that your website is mobile-optimised!  More than half of all web traffic comes via mobile devices such as smartphones. So if your site doesn’t look great on a mobile, prepare to lose readers fast. Make sure that your design is suitable for mobile, that navigation is easy and all of the information can be viewed and accessed. 

Have you thought about your 404 pages? Not every web page can be a winner, and sometimes an error (or 404) page emerges. If that happens, don’t let your potential new customer click away — reroute them to other parts of the site with a helpful, custom 404 page.  Link to the site’s most popular pages and also include a search box on the page. 

Is your website loading fast enough? Make sure that you check the speed of your website, as a slow site kills your SEO ranking, and in worst cases makes your site completely unsuitable. 

You can also submit the site to usability testing communities who will ask who your target visitor is and then submit your site to hundreds of users who fit the profile. They will then feed back a report and videos of them using the website! A quick Google search for “website usability testing” will return some great results to get you started. 

Seek expert advice! 

We get it though, sometimes the idea of staying on top of your digital presence, generating engaging content on social media, staying ahead of your competitors and *actually* running your practice day to day can feel a bit overwhelming. So call on the marketing experts!

We have some great free resources to get you started, like our 21 Point Checklist, that gives you a step by step list of things you can do to fine tune your existing website, turning it into a lead generation machine. Or find out how your website’s SEO compares to your competitors and get an SEO score and full report, in less than 60 seconds. 

Or, why not Get In Touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your website is the best it can be, and all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.

When it comes to using hashtags on Social Media, a lot of the time they can be an element that is  overlooked, or simply an afterthought when sharing content, but the reality is, using hashtags on your Social Media can really be the secret sauce to success. 

One of the quickest and simplest ways to guarantee more eyes on your page is by utilising hashtags to your advantage. They allow you to show up in various searches for your target audience and ultimately drive traffic to your content and page. 

So, how do you use hashtags on Instagram to your advantage? 

Your Instagram feed posts are your best opportunity to appear in search results using various hashtags. But not every hashtag will work the same way. It helps to be strategic about which ones you use and how you combine them.

Whilst you may only have a 30 limit for using hashtags – utilise them. We suggest using a minimum of between 15-20 but if you’re able make use of your 30 allowance, make sure you use them well! 

The best way to do this is to combine a variety of hashtags from different categories of popularity. To see how popular a hashtag is, go to search on Instagram and type your hashtag in the search bar. Tap on the # tab to see how many posts are associated with the hashtags relevant to your search term.

Once you have done that follow the below steps to create a list of hashtags you can start using:

• Choose three to five popular hashtags. Popular hashtags have around 300,000 to 1 million posts for a specific hashtag. Anything more than 1 million generally is irrelevant to you because it’s so saturated with content that the only thing you’ll attract are spam accounts! 
• Select three to five moderately popular hashtags. These are the hashtags that fall in the 80,000–300,000 range.
• Pick five to ten niche-specific hashtags. These are super-targeted specifically to your industry, what you do, the solution you provide, and what your customer is looking for. Such as your location, the dental treatment you’re offering or the type of technology you’re using. 
• Include one or two of your own personal branded hashtags – you can create these yourself E.G. #DominateDentalSmiles #DominateDentalDoesItBetter

Try to avoid using popular and generic hashtags like #love or #family, or something that’s trending or hyper-popular because your page is unlikely to be found amongst the over populated noise of others. 

Instead, pick hashtags that are very specific to your industry, the content you’re posting, or what you offer as a solution.  

So, where should you actually *put* your hashtags? 

When it comes to using hashtags in your main posts, you may be questioning if it’s best to add hashtags in your caption, or to add them as a comment below? 

Well, the truth is, it doesn’t really matter. The algorithm doesn’t judge your content based on where you put the hashtags, and it won’t affect the search results either. 

It really comes down to a matter of personal preference as to where you put your hashtags – personally we like to add them to the main caption, with a neat divider line so that the user isn’t overwhelmed by lots of hashtags when reading.

However, when it comes to adding hashtags to your instagram stories, you want to make sure that you’re featuring your own branded hashtags in your content. That way, when a user clicks on your hashtag it gets taken directly to your curated content, not someone else’s. 

There are two different ways you can add hashtags to your stories – through the hashtag sticker or the text box option. With the hashtag sticker you can only add one hashtag, however with the text box option you can add as many as you want. We recommend using up the three so that they remain legible and easy to read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only variation you may find is if you’re sharing a live event to your instagram stories; such as an Invisalign open day. Instead create a hashtag for that live event only, such as #DDOpenDay, so that all of your specific content can be found in one place. 

For IGTV’s you can use a similar strategy to that of main feed posts. Add up to 30 hashtags that all have a varying degree of specification to your content and then include these either in the caption or comment section of your upload. 

But, how do you know if your hashtags are making a difference?

Well, quite simply, you should see your engagement rate increase! This means more likes, more followers and more comments on your content. However, you can dig a little deeper to really analyse your hashtag performance by making use of Instagrams Insights! 

Tap on “View Insights” (you may need to make sure your instagram page is set up as a business page first!) to open up a small screen of information. Keep scrolling and at the bottom of the screen you’ll be able to see where your impressions came from, including how many impressions came from your hashtags! Whilst you won’t be able to tell which individual hashtags produced how many impressions, you can see overall hashtag performance.

Not every post will perform well with hashtags, but don’t be disheartened. Review and look at multiple posts and see how your hashtags are performing for each of those posts. 

Consider questions like:

• How many times did your content show up in hashtag searches and what was the consistency for those higher-performing posts?
• Was there a consistent component? Perhaps every time you used the colour blue in your content, you got better search results.
• What time did you post your content and can you identify a pattern in the success of your performance to peak posting times? 

Take a look at your post details to help determine what content performs better for you and make notes of your performance so you can consistently manage your use of hashtags. 

Hashtags really can be the key to success on Instagram. To reach more people, grow your audience, and get more engagement on your content—across all Instagram components—you need to use hashtags strategically and analytically.

Ultimately, they allow you to be found by the right people, getting your content to the people who could potentially become a new name on your patient list.

If you follow any of our top tips, don’t forget to let us know and tag us in your creations:

@DominateDental 

Or, why not Get In Touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your Social Media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.

When it comes to promoting the treatments you offer at your dental practice, Social Media is a great place to attract new patients, showcase your work and advertise exactly what you offer. 

It can be hard to keep on top of the ever changing landscape of Social Media and how to best utilise its features  (why not check out our post on How to Use Instagram Reels to increase engagement for your practice) so it’s always important to remember that, with any marketing and advertising, Social Media has rules and regulations on how to promote your business ethically and responsibly. 

As Social Media continues to evolve, so do the guidelines on promoting your business and treatments. 

In a recent Parliamentary debate, one MP even described the non surgical beauty industry to be ‘The Wild West’ when it comes to the lack of regulation, and is calling for a review on misleading advertising on Social Media. 

The ASA, (Advertising Standards Authority) is the UK’s independent advertising regulator, that makes sure ads across UK media stick to the advertising rules, including across Digital Marketing and Social Media. The ASA offers advice and outlines the appropriate codes of conduct for advertisers to ensure that users are marketing within legal guidelines. 

Not only that, they can make a huge difference in ensuring that your Digital Marketing efforts on Social Media are responsible and transparent, and help you avoid the possibility of being banned from the use of potentially misleading, harmful, offensive or irresponsible content. 

So what is the ASA’s advice for Dental Practices utilising Social Media to promote their Botox and Facial Aesthetics treatments?

We have gathered up some of the top pieces of advice to always consider before posting online…

Do NOT use the word Botox (or Botulinum toxin) in your posts

It’s a hard fact that Botox – or Botulinum toxin injections –  are prescription-only medicines (POMs)  and as such cannot be advertised to the public.

Take care not to directly or indirectly promote POMs to the public when promoting the treatment services you offer on Social Media. 

Remove direct references to Botox or other POMs. This includes any brand names or variations for anti-wrinkle injections such as “Beautytox” or “Beautox” where the obvious inference is a reference to Botox.  Remember – this includes references in images and hashtags e.g. #botox.

This rule applies to all promotional marketing, like offering “Botox parties” or “Botox treatment” as a competition prize or in a sale package.

DO promote the service you provide and the consultation itself

Claims such as “a consultation for the treatment of lines and wrinkles” may be acceptable – but if using this approach you must be careful not to directly or indirectly advertise the POM. 

Be careful with your wording and  try not to substitute direct references to POMs with indirect phrases that can only refer to that treatment such as “wrinkle relaxing injections”. This can be seen as an indirect promotion of a POM, and just as much of a problem. 

Instead try to find language to promote the consultation and what the patient can expect from a procedure with yourselves. Will they be coming in to meet your friendly and helpful team? Perhaps they can utilise your floral inspired selfie backdrop after their treatment – or will be met with a complimentary glass of fizz after? Stick to these details that help to promote the consultation – rather than the implementation or promotion of Botox. 

Do NOT reference Botox as a way of treating medical conditions

This can also be an easy trap many fall into, when it comes to the murkier waters of medical conditions (e.g. excessive sweating) and Botox being used as a potential treatment. 

Be sure to avoid promotions that could indicate the promotion of a POM, for example “injections for excessive sweating” (hyperhidrosis). If you offer non POM treatments, however, you could instead refer to “treatments for excessive sweating” or similar.

DO be specific when promoting alternative facial aesthetic treatments

Non-POMs, such as dermal fillers, may be advertised provided there is no implication that a POM is also available.

Be specific when promoting these alternative treatments instead, and use terms such as “dermal fillers” or “cosmetic fillers” to be expressly clear that you are only advertising your non-POM “filler”. 

Try to avoid describing your non-POM product range in an ambiguous way. For instance, avoid juxtapositions such as “anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers” which would imply that the “injections” in question are POMs.

Do NOT share ‘before and after pictures’ to promote your cosmetic treatments

You cannot share imagery if you only offer prescription-only treatments or an image shows the ‘before and after’ of a client who has received Botox,  as this will be seen as an Ad for the prescription-only treatment.

However, if you offer both prescription-only treatments like Botox and also non-prescription only treatments like fillers, you are able to include images if they show someone who has received a non-prescription only treatment. 

Be careful to ensure that you’re explicit in the caption that the photos relate to the non-prescription only treatment.

It is worth noting that it is also unlikely to be acceptable to show a ‘before and after’ image of a client who has received Botox and then falsely claim that they received a non-prescription only treatment, because this can be seen as materially misleading. So make sure you’re careful when taking and sharing images from your different treatments. 

The best practice is to make sure you have a signed and dated proof that the photos are genuine, and representative of what can be achieved.

Overall – remember: 

• You cannot imply that someone could or should look better than they already do
• You cannot target people by their ‘pain point’ – e.g. thin lips, crows feet
• You cannot use before and after photos of a Facial Aesthetic treatment 
• You cannot use brand names in your Social Media posts 

Then remember: 

• You can advertise and post about the consultation your patients would receive 
• You can post ‘after’ photos of those who’ve received a non-POM treatment
• You can discuss ‘fillers’ and non-POM treatments 
• If in doubt – air on the side of caution and only write about how fantastic your patient looks and feels after a ‘visit’ to your practice.

Why not download our FREE SWIPE FILE! Click here to grab our Social Media Patient Consent Form to ensure you’re covered when it comes to using patient images across your media.

You can read the complete ASA guidelines on Cosmetic Treatments here: 

https://www.asa.org.uk/asset/06D92630-75DE-4DDC-81F365D94E7BA21C/

NB: This article was correct at the time of its publication (22/07/2021) Dominate Dental assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this article. This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. 

When it comes to preparing and running a successful marketing strategy for your dental practice, it is important to remember that a great Social Media presence really can make all the difference between simply having an online presence to one that actually performs well for your business.  

Social Media marketing helps you reach thousands of users every day, it allows you to connect with your patients, increase your brand awareness and boost your leads and sales. 

But with such a saturated market it can become quite overwhelming to stay ahead of the competition and maintain a successful presence. 

So, why not incorporate some giveaways and competitions into your Social Media marketing strategy? 

Competitions are a proven way of growing your Social Media following, increasing your engagement and driving more traffic to your Social Media accounts. People love the chance to win something for free and you have a chance to boost your engagement and build further rapport with your followers whilst expanding your reach to new followers. 

Competitions that we have run for our clients have had some great results! One of our clients gained 94 followers on Instagram, organically, without any additional ad spend and another client acquired over 108 leads and 143 new Facebook page fans all within 15 days!

Sounds good doesn’t it? And it’s not even difficult…

Here are our 10 Social Media Giveaway & Competition Ideas that you should consider rolling out as part of your Social Media marketing strategy.

1. Holiday Themed Giveaways

Is there a National holiday coming up? 

National Holidays such as Valentines Day, Halloween, Christmas etc. are a perfect time to run competitions. Aspects of the competition can be heavily focused on the national holiday, for example, you might consider giving away a ‘Romantic Hamper’ as a prize for Valentines Day or for Halloween the competition entry requirement might be ‘Wear Your Best Halloween Costume’.

Remember to include the ‘holiday hashtags’ in the caption of the post i.e. #Christmas2021 and #Halloween2021 to drive further Social Media traffic to your competition. Combine this with hashtags for your local area to ensure you’re hitting the right geographical target. 

2. How many sweeties are in the Jar?

You’ve probably seen this type of competition before, where you have to guess the number of sweets that are in the jar in order to win a prize, but why not take it online!

This type of giveaway will generate a high level of engagement as your audience will have to leave their answer in the post’s comments, generating lots of interaction on your comment section. 

You could also add an additional rule where each person has to tag 3 others accounts to be a valid entry, this will increase your post reach, drive additional Social Media traffic and generate more post engagements.

Top tip: got a tonne of toothpaste samples? Why not use these instead! Make thing relevant to your practice.

3. Last-minute giveaway

A last-minute giveaway can create a sense of urgency by running the competition within a short time frame, for example:

“LAST-MINUTE GIVEAWAY – WIN a hygiene appointment! Competition ends in 48 hours!”

You will be surprised how many entries you will receive when the window of opportunity is limited and you create a sense of urgency. 

4. ‘Followers Milestone’ Giveaway

Are you trying to reach a specific number of followers milestone on Instagram and looking for that extra boost? 100? 1000? 10,000?

Share a post on Social Media announcing that when you reach 1000 followers (for example) on Instagram you will be giving away ‘FREE Teeth Whitening to 1 lucky person’.

To enter, they must follow your page, share your post in their Instagram feed, add it to their story and tag your account to qualify as an entry. 

This will cause a snowball effect that will help you to gain more followers, as other accounts will see the reposts and they will start following you so they can enter the competition, too.

5. Raffle

One way you can reward regular patients is by running a raffle to be in with the chance of winning a series of prizes.

Every patient that attends their appointment throughout a specific month i.e. July, will receive 1 raffle ticket. If a patient attends more than one appointment they will receive an extra ticket, increasing their chances of winning a prize. 

You could even Livestream the raffle on Social Media, informing your patients where and when to tune in to watch the prize draw to really create some excitement around the giveaway. 

6. Multi-Business Giveaway

Try teaming up with one or more local businesses and agree on running a multi-business giveaway consisting of a variety of exciting prizes.

This can be a fantastic way of bringing more awareness to your dental practice, as other local businesses may have a larger Social Media presence consisting of local-based followers who are not currently patients at your practice.

Help each other by tapping into each other’s follower base and market. 

Here is an important tip to remember when running this type of competition: Create 1 Social Media post (caption & image) which can be used across all of the business accounts who are involved.This will help keep the competition information, rules, hashtags and imagery consistent throughout.

7. Frequent Competitions & Giveaways

You might consider running a competition on a regular basis (monthly or quarterly) as this will help to keep your followers engaged and looking forward to the next competition.

You’ll also notice that your engagements will gradually increase over time, as more people are aware that you are running giveaways frequently and that they have another opportunity to win a prize. 

Try to vary the prizes each time round to keep the competitions interesting.

8. ‘Biggest Fan’ Giveaway

This is where you turn your patients into your fans on Social Media! 

Ask your patients to share a photo of themselves showing off their smile after treatment or holding a sign saying “I ❤️ my dentist”.

You can ask them to share this photo to their Social Media feeds (tagging your account) and to include a testimonial in the caption of the post. They must tag you in their photo in order to qualify and the best testimonial wins a prize.

A good percentage of your patients’ followers will be local friends who may inquire about your services and your dental practice, those are quality leads right there!

9. Big-ticket Item Giveaway

This one can really get people’s attention, consider giving away a big-ticket item (BTI) which is a high-priced item that everyone will want to win.

The BTI could be ‘FREE Invisalign treatment to 1 lucky person’, and you could create a landing page on your website to enter the competition and to acquire each entry’s contact information.

You could offer everyone that participates a ‘Free Invisalign Consultation’ as an incentive to come into the practice (then of course, work your magic to convert them into a paying patient anyway!). 

Consider the lifetime value of a new patient… It’s totally worth taking the hit on a BTI in the long run. 

10. Best Caption Contest

Post a funny or silly photo of someone in your team and ask your followers to caption it. 

The best caption wins a prize! 

Your team can even vote on who made the best caption. Have some fun with this one and get creative. It’s a great way to show off your practice personality and get the team involved too. 

We hope these ideas have started to get your creative juices flowing for your Social Media pages. 

Why not check out one of our other handy guides on getting the most out of your Social Media marketing too? Read our post on 21 Creative instagram post ideas to inspire you into posting regularly and with confidence or our top tips on introducing instagrams latest feature, reels, to your practices page. 

https://www.dominatedental.com/21-creative-instagram-post-ideas-for-dentists/

https://www.dominatedental.com/how-to-boost-your-dental-practices-social-media-engagement-with-instagram-reels/

If you follow any of our top tips, don’t forget to let us know and tag us in your creations:

@DominateDental 

Or, why not Get in touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your Social Media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms today, and that’s not changing any time soon!

More than 80% of Instagram users follow at least one brand on Instagram, and more than 70% intentionally look up brands to follow. When you combine this with Instagram’s higher-than-average engagement rates, it’s easy to see the importance of making sure your dental practice has a strong Instagram presence. Plus it can really help you expand your reach – a simple way to attract new patients and connect with current ones! 

However when it comes to actually posting content to your Instagram page it can often be very overwhelming. With such a saturated market (there are a whopping 1 billion accounts on Instagram!) often your Instagram page can become neglected, or posting can become a bit of a chore – irregular and uninspiring. 

Fear not! We have created a list of 21 fun and creative Instagram post ideas to inspire you into posting regularly and with confidence. 

National Holidays

Keep a calendar of notable holidays and national celebration days and weeks so that you can use these to create content. Plan ahead and utilise trending hashtags on these celebratory days too, to enhance your post’s reach – meaning more people will see your posts appear in their newsfeed! 

Team Selfies

Your team is one of your greatest assets, so show them off! Share pictures of the team, individually, and as a group. Give your followers a behind the scenes look at what your staff get up to on a day to day basis, injecting some personality into your feed. Potential patients viewing your page for the first time will get a great feel of who you and your team are with team selfie posts, building a natural rapport before you even meet them in person. 

Happy Patients

There is nothing quite like a smiling patient who’s satisfied with their dental treatment, so don’t forget to post them to your social media. After gaining patient consent, upload a picture of your satisfied patient, including details of their treatment in the caption. Be sure to inject some personality into your post, by adding a practice logo or border in your brand colour(s) and include as much detail as possible into the caption. What treatment did they have? What technology/products/brands did you use? What were the patient’s thoughts and feelings before, during and after the treatment?

FREE SWIPE FILE! Click here to grab our Social Media Patient Consent Form to ensure you’re covered when it comes to using patient images across your media.

Testimonials

Reviews are paramount when it comes to converting a follower into one that makes an enquiry, and ultimately becomes a new patient! Infact 88% of consumers say that they trust online reviews as much as they would trust a personal recommendation from friends or family. Create a branded template to showcase your positive testimonials and post these to your page every time you get a new, glowing review. 

Check out our post on 5 handy ways to get Patients To Write Reviews

Before and After Photos

Before and After Photos are the bread and butter of great social content for dentists, so be sure to include these on your Instagram page. Just by spending a bit more time and effort on these posts, it can really make the difference in making your page stand out from the crowd. Develop a standard process for capturing your patients’ before and after photographs to ensure consistency throughout your posts – a stylistic curated page really does help to engage your followers. 

Read our 7 Easy Do’s and Don’ts when creating your smile gallery for more inspiration. 

Staff Highlights 

Have you and your team just finished a training day? Or perhaps a staff member has just been awarded a new qualification! Or you’re celebrating a personal celebration like a big birthday or engagement. Include these on your Instagram page. Adding some personality and showcasing more of your staff will really help your followers get to know you and your practice. Plus people like to engage with celebratory posts, which in turn will help to build your social media presence. 

Competitions & Giveaways

Competitions are a great way to increase engagement and followers to your Instagram page. Running a competition or giveaway can be a simple way to boost your visibility, by encouraging your followers to like, comment and share your posts. More often than not these posts end up doubling your return on investment, gaining you more enquiries and patients than the cost of the giveaway. 

Local/Community News

Utilise your practice location to your advantage and engage with the local community on your social media pages. Showing your followers that you’re up to date with community news, and in the know, helps to build up a great relationship and ultimately trust in you and your business.

Inside your Practice

Everybody loves to know what goes on behind the scenes, so show your followers your practice before they even step through the door. Sharing pictures of your reception area, surgery and the general ambience will help people get a feel of what they can expect when visiting your practice. Don’t forget to show off your unique selling points, things that you have that other practices may not. Do you have a coffee machine for patients to use or perhaps you regularly supply your reception area with seasonal flowers? Share these regularly with your social media followers. 

Dental Top Tips

Utilise your Instagram page as a secondary dental chair and give your patients a taster of your dental knowledge by sharing some of your top tips. Educational posts make for great shareable content too, meaning that users are more likely to engage by sending them to friends and family, saving them or sharing them on their own pages. Start a weekly series called “Top Tips Tuesday” in which you share a piece of advice to your followers. Regular posting helps to build your following and engagement too!

Favourite Pets

Who doesn’t like a cute puppy picture appearing on their newsfeed?! There is a reason why animal content always does so well on social media – and that’s because we’re a nation of animal lovers. It’s estimated that, in the UK, 12 million households have pets, so you’re bound to find common ground with your followers by sharing your fluffy family member. 

Hint: National Pet day is on the 11th April – a great time to share your practice’s pets on your page! 

Team Tuesday

The hashtag Team Tuesday has an impressive 72K posts on Instagram alone and is a great way to show off your staff members individually each week. Celebrate your staff by sharing a picture of them and their credentials, a bit more about their qualifications and some personal anecdotes or a direct quote. This is another great opportunity to showcase your practice’s personality by making sure the team pictures reflect who you are as a working family. Warm, approachable and family friendly? Then forget your professional headshots and share a more relaxed smiley picture each Team Tuesday. 

Videos

Video offers an opportunity to showcase your personality, team, and stories in a compelling and dynamic way, and make for a great alternative to a static post. We recommend creating an Instagram Reel, which is the latest video feature on Instagram that allows you to create 15-30 second video clips, which can be edited to include music, text overlays and visual effects, helping you to create fun and engaging video content. 

Read our handy guide on How to Boost Your Dental Practice’s Social Media Engagement with Instagram Reels

Memes

Don’t be afraid to show your sense of humour on your Instagram. It will come as no surprise that not many people tend to think of the dentist as a relaxing, fun place to go, but you can always help to alleviate some of the nerves by showing that your dental practice isn’t as scary as some may think! Keep an eye on what is trending in popular culture and what is being used across social media—and consider sharing some dentistry memes to get in on the action.

Check out some of these funny dental memes on pinterest.

Trending Hashtags

A sure fire way to maximise on engagement is to keep an eye on trending hashtags, in both your industry and location. Creating posts around popular hashtags increases your chances of being seen on a higher number of users’ news feeds, as well as being featured on Instagram’s “for you” page. While Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags per post, your time is better spent researching and using a handful of super effective hashtags rather than stockpiling a ton of tags per post. We recommend that on each post you use a minimum of 11 hashtags, the more relevant to your followers, the better. 

Quotes

Quote posts on Instagram are effective and persuasive, because people are drawn to brief but meaningful, relevant, engaging content. Quote posts can be another way to showcase your practice personality and ethos, which helps followers to connect with you. They’re also quick and easy to consume; we know with an average social media user’s attention span being 8 seconds that this is a great way to capture their attention and engagement. 

Health & Wellness tips

When it comes to dentistry we all know there are many factors that contribute towards healthy teeth, including a healthy lifestyle and your Instagram is a great place to share some health and wellness advice. Share tips and benefits of a healthy diet, quitting smoking and looking after your mind and well being. Point to other great accounts or wellness advocates that reflect your values too. 

Reposts

When your patients are in your practice encourage them to follow, engage and tag you in their own social media posts. Resharing content to your own page or Instagram stories can be another great way of increasing your reach but also for potential new patients to relate to others. After treatment, ask your patients if they’d like to “snap a selfie” of their final results and to share and tag you on Instagram. It’s a great quick and easy way to generate content and make sure your posts are reaching new audiences too. 

Product Mentions

Shout about other accounts on your Instagram! Have you used a particular whitening treatment or introduced a new piece of technology to your practice? Tag them in your posts and mention them on your page to encourage them to share your account to their followers too. 

Ask A Question

Sometimes a creative post doesn’t always achieve the engagement with your followers that you might like, so engage them directly by asking your followers to interact with you through asking questions. From fun opinions to direct polls, encourage them to answer in the comments below, opening up conversations or pointing them in the direction of your direct messages. 

Include Influencers

Influencer collaborations can be a great way to open you up to new followers and to point them to your page. Collaborating with the right influencer whose niche aligns with the core of your brand is everything and can be the highlight of your decision. This is because it gives you an already engaged audience and helps your product get the attention that it needs. Do your research on local influencers and reach out to them to see if they would be interested in having a gifted or discounted dental treatment in return for some social media coverage. 

The possibilities really are endless when it comes to creating unique and interesting content for your social media pages, and they can be paramount in the success of your digital marketing efforts. 

However we understand that often time restraints, alternative responsibilities and simply the effort that goes into running your social media accounts, whilst running a dental practice, can become a bit of a challenge. So, why not Get in touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your social media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.