4 Instagram Stories Tips for Orthodontist

Solutions By Design

Instagram Stories are one of the most popular features on Instagram. You could argue that Instagram Stories is a social media platform in and of itself, separate from Instagram. Approximately 1 billion people use Instagram each month. Instagram Stories usage is 500 million people, according to Hootsuite. One-third of Instagram Story views are attributed to business accounts of all types. That could include your favorite coffee shop to your hairstylist to your orthodontic practice.

Launched in 2016, Instagram Stories quickly became a staple component on Instagram. If you are not using Instagram Stories, then you are missing out on an important marketing opportunity on Instagram. Instagram Stories are another great way to showcase information and reach a new network of an audience who may not be following you. You can do this by using hashtags and tag locations on the Stories. It is also a great way to showcase fun, behind the scenes of your business.

Here are 4 Instagram Stories tips for orthodontists. Be sure to check out our Instagram tips here.

1. Showcase Behind the Scenes:
Showing your orthodontics practice culture and personality can help make a potential patient feel better about orthodontic treatment. It can also be the deciding factor whether they choose your orthodontic practice. Parigini Orthodontics showcases a behind the scenes of fun with Dr. Parigini, the team, and patients, all giving a glimpse of what a patient's appointment will entail.

2. Your Patient’s Bright Smiles on Display:

If you're not sharing your patients' smiles on social media (of course with parent permission), you're missing a big marketing opportunity. Patient smiles not only showcases the doctor’s work, but it also gives an opportunity for potential patients to see their possibility. 

Sharing smiles also allows the patient and their parents to share your social media content to their networks. Showcasing your smiles on Instagram Stories allows you to highlight your smiles through Instagram Stories Highlights. That way anyone who visits your profile can view them anytime. 

3. Use Location Tags and Hashtags! 

Use location tags and hashtags to reach more people. 63% of Instagram users log in at least once per day and 42% check multiple times per day. Creating and sharing content on Instagram Stories is a great way to reach a larger audience who are in one specific location. Using location tags and hashtags will allow you to appear on the city highlights and any hashtags that people are searching for. 

4. Post about Your Events! 

Instagram Stories is the perfect social media channel to post about an upcoming event or even post about an event, using a story highlight to share with your audience. You can share your team and office celebrating a fun holiday or showcasing a fun event in the community. 

Instagram Stories are another social media vehicle to showcase work, reach your current and new audiences while building a reputable orthodontic practice online. Instagram will reach 112.5 million U.S. users in 2020. That’s a 5.4% increase over 2019, as estimated by eMarketer, which also predicts the network will reach 117.2 million U.S. users in 2021, according to Hootsuite. Instagram Stories is a staple component on Instagram. If you are not using Instagram Stories, then you are missing out on an important marketing opportunity on Instagram. 

Solutions By Design can help you make professional and intelligent decisions that will be advantageous in setting the fate of your overall digital marketing efforts. Never miss a fun holiday, by downloading our yearly calendar of fun holidays here. 

Social Media: Instagram “Likes” are Disappearing

Social media likes may soon indefinitely be a thing of the past, at least on Instagram. It seemed like 2019 was full of updates for all social media platforms. From Facebook to Twitter banning political ads to Instagram’s various updates, social media is constantly changing and evolving.

One noticeable social media change happening to users of all kinds is the disappearance of “likes.” It was first announced that Canadian users would experience their likes disappearing back in April 2019. In July 2019, the same changes applied to users in Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. Facebook began testing hidden likes on its platform for some Australian users in the Fall.

“The new feature hides users’ public like counts on videos and photos in the Feed, on the web, and within profiles.” Instagram announced that it wants followers to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.”

“As you scroll through your feed, there are no like counts,” explained Mark Zuckerberg at F8. “You can see who liked a photo or video, you can tap through to see [the list], and if you have the time you can add them all up yourself.”

Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps with more than 1 billion monthly users and about 500 million daily users on Instagram Stories. There is no opt-in or opt-out to hiding Instagram likes and only time will tell if this feature will altogether be removed for everyone on the popular platform.

Zuckerberg said as much during his keynote, stating: “We want people to be less interested in how many likes a post gets, and focus more on connecting with other people.”

Here is what it looks like when the likes count is gone:

Photo: CNN

What does this mean for users and businesses altogether? The challenge is to continue to create engaging content and engage with your followers. Download selfie signs and a social media calendar of fun holidays for free here. This will help you stand above your competitors and help create new content for your social media platforms.

4 Instagram Tips for Orthodontists

To stand above the crowded noise of social media, you must have excellent content! Canned posts, status updates with no images, posting at random times are a big red flag that will get your content pushed behind, lost where few people will see it. Instagram now has more than 1 billion users. With more than 1 billion users on the popular social media platform, your target audience is most likely on the photo-sharing app. With filters, selfies and sponsored posts, you have to ask yourself, “is your orthodontic practice on Instagram?” If you are on Instagram, great! But are you utilizing the platform efficiently? 

Here are 4 Instagram tips to help you stand above your competitors in 2019!

1. Real Photos! 

As a practice, you are interacting with your patients every day and providing a wonderful service people prioritize and spend money on. If you are not capturing photos with your patients before, during and after treatment, then you are missing out on a big marketing opportunity. You should prioritize and take the time to take photos with your patients because it would create content for your website, social media, search engines and for people to see the amazing work you do. 

2. User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content is content that your patients share on their social media accounts. By simply posting their smile (and if they are satisfied a great review) they expand into their network and community. You benefit from this by getting a solid reference from your patient and of course content that you can repost and share on social media. Be sure to encourage UGC by telling your patients to tag you in their social media posts. 

3. Instagram Stories 

Launched in 2016, Instagram Stories quickly became a staple component on Instagram. If you are not using Instagram Stories, then you are missing out on an important marketing opportunity on Instagram. Instagram Stories are another great way to showcase information and reach a new network of an audience who may not be following you. You can do this by using hashtags and tag locations on the Stories. It is also a great way to showcase fun, behind the scenes of your business. 

4. Story Highlights

Story highlights was a feature launched in 2017! You now are utilizing Instagram Stories, fantastic! Now curate your stories and save them on your profile. This allows your stories to be saved and archived on your profile. A great way to utilize this as a practice is to put patient reviews, a smile gallery and an "About Us" - this way users searching for an orthodontist, will not miss all the information from you. 

Solutions By Design can help you make professional and intelligent decisions that will be advantageous in setting the fate of your overall digital marketing efforts. Never miss a fun holiday, by downloading our yearly calendar of fun holidays here. 

Introducing Instagram Stories

Many of our clients have asked about or considered starting a Snapchat account, but after realizing that it really requires a full-time staff member to maintain an active successful account, they opt out. Well, we have some good news for those of you wanting to add to your social media presence, but not ready for the responsibilities of Snapchat. Earlier this month, Instagram announced its latest feature: Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories allows users to upload impromptu or behind-the-scenes pictures and videos to their followers that last for 24 hours. After the 24 hour period, the upload will disappear without changing anything on your Instagram profile. The process of uploading your Instagram Stories is almost identical to that of Snapchat, but if you’re unfamiliar with the process don’t worry, we have you covered!

Check out the steps of adding a story to your Instagram account and take advantage of this feature for your business.

Step 1: Click the plus symbol on the top left corner of your Instagram feed. 

Step 2: Hit the circle camera button to take a picture or video. Hold it down for the video option.

Step 3: Be creative. Add a drawing to your upload by using the buttons on the top right corner.

Step 4: Swipe left or right to choose a filter. There are 7 options. 

Step 5: Hit the check mark on the bottom to add the picture or video to your Instagram Story.

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