Many of us have been working professionally since long before social media was invented, let alone part of a marketing strategy. Nowadays, social media should be a key focus of any marketing plan.
For 2020, Instagram is the leading vertical for any successful marketing strategy, but best practices are always evolving — and it’s important to stay on top to ensure you’re getting the best results. Here are areas to focus on this year to maximize your success on Instagram:
Hashtag Strategy
Pursuing too many audiences all at once dilutes the impact of your content and returns. Instagram may allow up to 30 hashtags in a single post, but it’s best to aim for five to 10 relevant and thoughtful hashtags. Two to three should be unique to your own brand (e.g., #ASDSSkinMD).
Scheduling Tools
Automating your posts in advance with a scheduling tool, such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social, is a great way to manage your social media. However if you have the resources in place, we recommend forgoing all automation and posting in real-time. Since you should be responding to comments and direct messages in almost real time, you might as well handle posting the same way. Plus, this allows your posts to be even more timely and relevant and overall appear more authentic.
Evaluate Website Traffic From Social
A data-driven approach to social advertising is paramount. Analyze the traffic coming to your website from organic social media posts and cross-match the content to engagement and website conversions. This will help you better understand what your viewers need to actually convert from prospect to patient (and not just be engaged) and how to plan your future content. For example, if you see a blog post driving lots of conversions on your website, try posting it on social media with ad dollars to boost it so you are spending your marketing dollars on content more likely to drive results.
Review Your Insights
Instagram insights offer a tremendous amount of data to analyze. Since much of it changes weekly (for example data from stories only appears for 14 days), it is important to review your analytics often. What percentage of your followers are local to your city or state? How does the average age and gender compare to the actual average demographics inside of your practice? Most people may be surprised to see they are actually not the same, and the better you understand your audience on Instagram, the better you can cater content for them.
Add Links in Stories
Once you hit the 10,000 follower milestone, you can add the highly desired ability to add a web hyperlink to your Instagram Stories via a swipe-up link attachment. You can use this feature to easily direct followers to the resources and products on your website to ultimately drive more website traffic and patient conversions.
Content Mix
An ideal grouping of content consists of educational information, practical tips, aspirational or idealized concepts, lifestyle topics, proprietary or unique information to your practice, and evergreen content that will not go out of style with the changing trends. Overall, make sure you are providing value to your audience to keep them engaged.
The Top Nine
Think about everything in batches of nine. When someone new finds your profile in the Instagram app, he/she will see nine posts above the fold. This means your content should be an ideal mix of practice branding, messaging and information. Keep posts on-brand by using consistent colors, borders, graphics and fonts. This takes aesthetics to the next level. Some users even opt for a checkerboard pattern by alternating post types, for example alternating between black and white posts and color images, or maintaining a specific theme for three posts in a row.
Video Content
In a perfect world, video content should be the majority of the content on your page. Posted through IGTV, feed posts (for videos under one minute) and stories, videos are highly engaging and absolutely trending for 2020. Before filming, think about where you will use it (i.e. should it be filmed in portrait or landscape), and make sure the sound and lighting are not distracting. The video doesn’t need to be professional, but make sure to consider the background, shadows and overall framing of the shot. The 2017 Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Complete Forecast predicts that by 2021, 80% of all internet traffic will be video, so get moving!
Show Personality
Make sure to change up your posts to keep people guessing! Relevant memes and jokes can bring a smile to everyone’s face, as can games like “finish this sentence” or “caption this post.” You’ll be surprised by what your followers will come up with sometimes. Great examples are: “I’m a board certified dermatologist because ____” or “One thing I wish I could change about my skin is ____.”
Be Interactive
In the stories feature, you can utilize countdowns, polls and quizzes to let your followers further interact and engage with you. Ask people whether they prefer before and after photos or educational posts. Quiz them on which lasers are offered at your practice. The feedback can be great for market research as well.
Exclusive to Instagram
Offer unique content, promotions and sneak peeks to ensure your Instagram followers feel special and that they are getting exclusive access to information.
Go Live
Live stories appear separate from regular stories, so take advantage and make sure you post both every day. Live is great for behind the scenes shots and how-to videos. The Instagram algorithm rewards live stories, so your account will often be listed at the top of the app’s newsfeed and even send a push notification to alert your followers, greatly enhancing your possible exposure.
Be Local
Assuming you are not in a national business model, prioritize local events, happenings, news and weather to appeal most of all to your local followers. One easy way to stay in the know is to follow your local news and city channels, commenting and engaging with them and resharing their posts to your own story. Overall, remember a strategy that works for one practice may fail for another, so pay close attention to your insights and analytics and use them to continually improve your Instagram marketing campaign.