The strength of a brand lies in the passion and consistency of the voice that promotes it, ensuring familiarity and long-lasting appeal.
And, whilst delegation and team work are core principles of the business of dentistry – think scope of practice and clinical skills – when it comes to developing an Instagram profile, this is often best left in the hands of someone who best understands you and your business. Most likely, this is going to be you or someone within the four walls of your practice.
Only you will know what you want to say, the image you wish to project and how to appeal to your target audience.
How do you communicate? What language do you use? What are your interests and core skills? What area of your profession are you passionate about? And, who knows the answer to these better than you and your internal team?
A successful Instagram account
The nurturing of an online personality, or indeed the marketing of any brand, plays an essential supporting role in the promotion of dental services – and success lies in the authenticity of all communication, both online as well as face-to-face.
In dentistry, a culture of honesty and openness lies at the heart of your practice and the same should apply to your digital marketing. Indeed, you run the risk of losing trust should a patient recognise a disparity between the online version of you and the real deal when in your chair.
I’ve met many dental professionals who often seem confused about how to use Instagram to their advantage – and, whilst my area of expertise is dental marketing, I believe outsourcing the job to an agency is not always the best option if the practice is looking to achieve and nurture on-going and fruitful relationships with patients.
A successful Instagram account is reliant on instant engagement, which means responding to followers, acknowledging mentions and ‘regramming’ posts as and when this needs to happen.
Frequent activity plays a considerable role in building a successful Instagram presence, and outsourcing your account might impact this negatively due to a lengthy process of approval that goes against the ‘in the moment’ principles of online interactions.
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