How many times in dental school were you told that if you had to pay for marketing then you weren’t running a successful practice? All we need to do is recycle our overdue patients, treat our current patients well and internal marketing will bring the numbers in, right? Wrong! We are in the era of social media. You can be the most incredible dentist, but because someone saw a dentist they liked better on their Instagram they’ll pick them over you, all skills aside. Whether you go big or small, social media needs to become a part of your practice. Here are my top tips on how to be successful in doing that.

• Establish your target audience. I highly recommend reading part 1 of this blog to learn more about defining this. It’s so important and the area where I most commonly see dentists make their mistakes. You always want to post with your target audience in mind.
• Find your inspo. Find Instagram accounts that you love to follow and imitate their techniques. I have three different categories of accounts that I follow to pull inspiration from. First, are pages with the aesthetic or editing styles that I am drawn to the most. Videographers, photographers, lash artists, estheticians are all great places to start. Second, I follow successful business pages (mostly local to my area) to study types of content that people in my community engage with. Hair stylists, restaurants, medical spas, and other dental offices are good options for this. Lastly, I follow accounts that post about different trends on Instagram, app tips, and photography/videoing tips. Anything that saves me time researching is something I’m interested in!
• Learn how to use the essential apps. My favorite apps that I use almost every day for my accounts are Canva (for creating still posts, stories, printouts for the office, etc.), Lightroom (for editing pictures), and CapCut (for editing reels). They each have their own learning curve, but each will change your social media game immensely!
• Invest your time and money into quality content. Two of the best things I ever did for myself were learning how to use a DSLR camera and how to edit pictures using Lightroom. When I pull out my camera to take pictures of patients I often get the comment, “Wow, that is such a nice camera!” The truth is it’s actually not an expensive camera (Canon Rebel T7i), I just learned how to properly use it. You Tube is an amazing resource for learning how to use a DSLR. For Lightroom, find photographers with similar styles to yours and purchase their presets. Some even post tutorials on how to use them so look out for those. Photography is the most underrated skill to have for both your social media and your practice as a whole!
• Make your content pretty. Use good lighting (face your subject towards a window or use ring lights/flashes), make sure your phone settings are set for the highest quality footage (4k at 60 fps on your camera settings), use the best angle to feature before/after photos, and try to keep your editing style consistent.
• Be authentic. People follow you because they like your posts, they stay engaged because they like you. Share your skills and assets, but also make sure to give your followers glimpses of who you are. One strategy that I like is to post professional content on your profile grid and share more personal parts of your life on your stories.
• Be consistent and just post! The more consistent you are, the more followers you’ll attract. It’s just like anything else. Practice makes perfect. The more you post, the more you’ll learn your own style and find what is most successful for you and your practice. Don’t overthink it and have fun with it!

No matter how much we want to avoid it, social media is becoming an integral part of our practices. For me, it’s become a fun, creative outlet and a way to keep me accountable and reflective on the quality of my work. I first started my page to gain more patients for Botox and dermal fillers. Now, after only a year of being certified and using my Instagram to promote it, I am on track to do more than $100k in Botox/fillers for the year (all with only a thousand followers). Write down your goals and promote the parts of your practice you truly believe in! People will see and it will hugely pay off.