In this era of rapidly progressing technology and global connection, a social media presence is necessary. Gone are the days when people used to carry telephone directories and recommend preferences in person. Now, if something or someone is good, it stands out in the social media world and becomes a trend.
From follows and likes, to comments and shares – the online world assesses the user and rewards it by marketing him or her, itself. It is almost like a domino effect; you put in little effort and make ten times the influence if done right.
Due to the application having 500 million daily users, people now use it as a platform to build brands and make brands out of themselves. Compatible with all devices and software programs, and with a few steps sign-up process, Instagram will open an entire world of possibilities to you.
How Can I Market Myself On Instagram?
Before we get to the marketing, make sure that you have all these things checked:
• First of all, you need an active internet service that allows you to stay online on Instagram. If your internet connection is troubling you, cancel your subscription, and sign up for Spectrum Internet as it comes with incredible speeds, unlimited data, and most importantly, 24/7 customer support.
• You have an Instagram business account made. You can set up a new account or switch the old one to a business one. This will make the account public, will allow easy branding, and give the audience insights that can be tracked.
• Decide if you will be handling the account or if you will be hiring a social media expert. Some professionals do both. They guide the individual on what they want, and because of less time on their hands, let the expert do his work.
• Have in mind your target audience. This is important because you will be promoting your stories to these people. Defining the audience will also help you generate the content you know that they would like to see.
• Commit to a regular posting schedule. You will have to treat IG like your personal diary. This will bring you customers and revenue, and for that, you need to be active on it.
• Search your competitors on IG and make sure that your feed stands out. You need to have all that they have, only better.
• Optimize your bio. Put on a recent profile photo, and be yourself. It will make you stand out. Make sure that your profile is complete. (Name, username, website, contact number, address, etc.) In the business profile, you can add action buttons as well.
- You are going to speak through your photos so make sure that they are edited.
- The photos and captions go side by side. A great photo requires a great caption.
- Understand that it takes time. You will grow, but patience and dedication are required.
1. Attract Potential Patients
For dentists, surgeons, and dermatologists, this is the perfect way to showcase your talent. An image on IG speaks louder than words. Put up those ‘before treatment’ and ‘after treatment’ images on your grid and show your potential clients how you can make their life better.
2. Leverage Influencers
Based on your location, reach out to influencers on IG near you. You can have them come in for a free medical procedure, or given the COVID circumstances, offer them virtual consultations at discounted rates. If you have a medical product, you can have them try it out and review it. Doctors collaborate with social media influencers because of the following reasons:
- It gives their service or product credibility.
- It increases their following.
- It attracts potential patients.
- People want to have the same experience only because an ‘influencer’ has raved about it.
3. Do Giveaways
Everyone loves freebies. Put up knowledgeable quizzes, polls, and questions and offer a free medicated treatment to the winner. The way to put up a giveaway post is to mention the rules and regulations, and the date you will be announcing the winner.
4. Use Hashtags
Hashtags are the universal language of Instagram. Search popular hashtags based on your specialty and use them in your posts. For example, if you are a psychologist, you can use #mentalhealth, #happiness, #youcomefirst, #selflove, #anxiety, #positivevibes #recovery, etc. the trick is to use them subtly and not overdo it.
These hashtags will allow users searching for the given topics to stumble across your post and follow you. You can use 30 hashtags but it is recommended that you use 11. You can also make a hashtag of your brand, for example, #drxyz, and put it up with every post.
5. Use The Story Feature Religiously
The best part about Instagram is that you can share your day with your patients without spamming their feeds. Announcement? New timings? Multiple videos? Use the story feature! The feature will allow you to voice out whatever is that you want the followers to know with the options to tag people, use gifs, put polls, let people leave their suggestions (question box), add your location, countdown, and even put up a quiz.
If you cross 10k followers, you get the ‘swipe up’ feature to link your stories to blogs. The stories can also be saved as ‘highlights’ on your feed so that the user does not have to endlessly scroll down your newsfeed to find something.
6. Go Live
A relatively new feature, this allows users to stream themselves online from their mobile devices. When doctors go online, their followers are notified and they ‘join the life’. During it, the doctor gets questions on the screen which others can see too, and then the specialist answers them.
7. Make It About The Patient
In the end, when you know what IG has to offer, you need to put out there what the patient wants. IG even has an option to ask your audience what they want to see. You can experiment and post and then track the analytics. You do not have to have any knowledge about it.
IG has an in-built analytical tool that tells you during what days and hours your audience is most active, where your audience is from (demographics), what is the audience’s age, how many people have followed/unfollowed you, and what gender follows you the most, etc. All this can be accessed by going to ‘Insights’.
8. Promote Your Posts
Invest in your gram by promoting posts and stories. After choosing your location and target audience, you can make your profile appear on potential patients’ feeds without them being your followers. This is a quick way to increase engagement and gain followers. The more the followers, the merrier.
9. Do Partnerships With Brands
When you start building your IG community, your local medical brands will definitely start sending you PRs and offer you to collaborate with them. If it suits you, you can accept the gig, if not, you can let it slide. Promote what you will want your patients to use. Be honest with the gram! Partnering up with brands helps gain popularity.
Wrapping Up
It is the era of digital marketing and if you have a strong presence on social media, you can attract people from around the world. Instagram is a perfect platform for personal branding and if you are a health professional, you can create your own brand and increase your worth as a professional by marketing yourself on this widely used platform. Just follow the guidelines above and see how steadily your business grows.
