Instagram, Instagram, Instagram. You hear it everywhere.
Even when you mention social media, most of the time, Instagram is the first platform mentioned.
Instagram is honestly one of the fastest growing social media platforms out there. 35% of adults are on Instagram with an astounding 64% between the ages of 18-29 and 40% the ages 30-49. Social media platforms are a massive contributor to online SEO for your medical practice.
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Instagram is a visual platform that offers an excellent opportunity to connect with your audience differently and bring them into your practice without them ever stepping foot inside.
If you’re a physician, Instagram can be a fantastic tool to generate new patients. Utilizing Instagram to share current and past patient before and after’s and successful aesthetic results can be great exposure for your practice and show off your advanced capabilities as a surgeon.
Instagram also utilizes a unique search and geo-targeting to help get you in front of your ideal patient demographic. Instagram can function as a marketing tool to put your physicians on display, show results, provide excellent ways to reach your target audience, promote specials and events, and boost SEO. It is crucial when implementing Instagram for your medical practice to keep it clean and consistent with your medical brand services.
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A successful Instagram should have:
- Proper business profile set up & completed bio
- Posts should contain relative keywords and descriptions to your practice
- Posts should be uniform and include the medical practice brand
- Overall style and branding of a page should follow a given “theme”
- Regular posting and interaction with the target demographic
- Unique images to the medical practice – not just stock photos
- Location-based keywords
- Feature visuals of the practice medical services and procedures
- Calls to action
- Tracking & analytics to monitor calls, website clicks & direction requests
Some doctors and surgeons have achieved enormous followings on social media by posting procedural videos from the gross (Sandra Lee, who goes by the nickname “Dr. Pimple Popper”) to the straight-up gory. In 2015, Dr. Michael Salzhauer, or “Dr. Miami” began posting graphic videos of himself performing butt lifts, breast surgery, and liposuction on Snapchat, which regularly garnered more than a million views.
Connecting with patients on a personal level through engaging digital content directly benefits your bottom line, and an active and engaging Instagram account is the perfect place to begin establishing your social media presence.
Not only does Instagram boast over 1 billion monthly users, but 75 percent of them “take action” in response to the platform’s content. These elements make Instagrammers a particularly promising audience for healthcare providers, as users tend to interact more than those on other social media platforms, and demonstrate a widespread willingness to visit company’s websites, profiles, or product pages.
Here's how to get started:
1. Create an Instagram profile that informs and reflects your business
To get started with Instagram, set up a business profile. It’s important to set up (or convert your current Instagram profile) to a business Instagram profile, since it allows you to access great features to measure the success of your Instagram marketing efforts, and drive patients to contact your office directly from your profile.
Next, choose an Instagram username (@yourusername) — but don’t just pick any name. You want something that
identifies you, your practice, and your specialty, if possible.
Add a profile image that’s high quality and reflects your business. We recommend using either a professional headshot or a company logo, depending on your branding.
Finally, add information to your biography. Your Instagram profile bio should tell the basics: name, specialty, location. Don’t forget to include a link to your website, so prospective patients can click directly from the Instagram app to your site.
It’s also great to add other highlights that set you apart as a provider, such as services you focus on, awards or certifications that distinguish you in your field, and maybe an interesting fact or two.
And don’t shy away from using hashtags (branded or specialty) and emojis to reflect your personality. Make your Instagram profile a combination of you and your practice to give followers and potential patients an idea of what working with you is like.
2. Create engaging Instagram content
Your Instagram profile is set up. Now it’s time to build a plan to create high-quality, consistent posts that help your private practice’s Instagram marketing.
> Make a calendar
Spend some time planning your Instagram content at least one month in advance, and think about three things you want to try and accomplish with each post: speak to a specific audience; offer them something that informs, entertains or inspires; and highlight a service you offer. A good Instagram marketing rule of thumb is to focus 80 percent of your content on providing value for your followers, while 20 percent focuses on self-promotion.
> Select great images
Choose high-quality images, whether they’re stock images or original. Focus on the types of content that help showcase healthcare providers, such as: before-and-after photos of patient results, patient testimonial quotes or videos, behind-the-scenes content, and products or services. Images are important, because posts with photos generate 36 percent more likes.
> Write creative captions
Instagram captions showcase your creativity and personality, so make them snappy and quippy. Add a location so your images will be automatically incorporated into a photomap.
> Link related users
Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram doesn’t want you to stray. Not only is Instagram designed for the mobile user — your account can be accessed from a computer, but you can only share pictures, videos and stories via the app — you’re also only able to share one live link on your profile and zero live links in your posts. You can, however, link through profiles, such as @mayoclinic, and include URLs that aren’t clickable links.
> Include relevant hashtags
Hashtags — the # symbol followed by a relevant keyword — make it easy for other users to find you when they search for a word or phrase. For instance, if you add #zoomteethwhitening to a before-and-after post of your patient’s smile, someone clicking around Instagram for [Zoom teeth whitening results] could come across it and become both a follower and a patient.
Don’t forget the hashtags, because posts with at least one hashtag gain more engagement. You can add up to 30 hashtags to your caption, but research has shown that engagement is highest when you use about 11 hashtags per post.
Although using hashtags that are specific to your industry and popular with your audience are important for users to discover your content, you should also consider creating your own branded hashtag. This could be the name of your practice, or something that users could use as a community hashtag to engage your user base. These hashtags are a way to distinguish your brand for ultimate practice marketing success.
3. Expand and engage your following
Spending time to increase and engage your followers will be crucial in building out your Instagram marketing strategy. You can start with simple tactics, such as following colleagues and referring local providers or other area business owners or influencers.
Featuring patients in an image or video — with written consent, of course — can be a great way to showcase patient results and engage potential new patients. Just know you should never tag or share any information that could identify specific patients without their written consent. Patients can self-identify on social media channels, but providers should never divulge protected health information or offer medical advice specific to the patient.
Read: How to engage on social media with HIPAA in mind
Track your success
You’ve set up your profile, and you’re creating great content to represent your business. Now you’ll want to monitor what your audience is responding to, and use that to inform how you should make content for marketing your private practice in the future.
Using Instagram Insights, you can track a number of different engagement activities related to posts, stories, and your overall account. You don’t need to focus on all these metrics; rather, it’s best to focus on two or three that support your business goals, and measure growth in these areas.
For example, if you want a super-engaged following, consider tracking the likes and comments from your posts. If you’re looking to increase your following, tracking profile visits and followers would be your best strategy for success.
Take note of which types of posts and topics get the best results. If you find a before-and-after video of Botox injections is your best performing post, consider creating more original videos featuring patients — with their consent, of course.
