Instagram should be the focus of your practice’s social media strategy. The platform is best-suited for aesthetic and dermatology practices looking to engage with new patients. For the best engagement and regular access to your audience, stories are the way to go.
As a refresher: Stories are brief snippets of text, photos or videos that appear at the top of the Instagram app’s home tab. Each story lasts for 15 seconds and stays live for 24 hours before disappearing. They’re a great way to share timely and fun content that your audience can consume quickly. But with everyone using stories now, how can yours stand out? With a bit of planning and creativity, you can make stories the cornerstone of your entire marketing strategy.
Storytime
It is obvious, but you can tell a “story” with stories. Whether it is a step-by-step video of a procedure, a fun interactive quiz or a Q&A, use your stories for quick bites of content that can keep your audience engaged and entertained. The key to stories is variety; don’t just repost your feed content. Share posts from other ASDS members, VIP patients and vendors to showcase to your audience (and to the almighty algorithm) that you’re diversifying what you see and what you share. Your stories don’t all have to be promotional content; a meme or funny video relevant to your practice will keep your audience tuned in.
Guest Takeovers
While posting daily in your stories, you will need to freshen it up and make your content worth viewing. A great way to do that is by scheduling a “takeover” of your account. Hand over your login credentials to a VIP patient, physician, staff member or influencer and have him/her document a visit or behind the scenes of your practice. Not only will it give your audience a new perspective, having someone else at the reins could be a great way to gain some inspiration. Schedule your takeovers a few days in advance and promote them with Instagram’s countdown feature to drum up hype.
Reels
“Reels” is Instagram’s newest feature, and the algorithm is making sure that if you make a Reel, it is getting in front of as many people as possible. Reels are perfect for stories because you can make a quick, fun and click-worthy video that entices users to interact with your profile. Reels can be informative, but they’re also a great way to be funny and creative while hopping on the latest memes and trends. And don’t worry about video editing; Instagram makes it easy to record and edit videos within the app.
If you’re creating TikToks, you should be using the same content on Reels. Reels are Instagram’s response to TikTok (by the way, you should be on TikTok too!) Just be sure to upload the video without a TikTok watermark in the corner to ensure IG’s algorithm picks this up as new, original content.
Get to the Swipe Up
Growing your followers is beneficial for a lot of reasons. Besides widening your audience and lending clout to what you say, Instagram rewards you as you grow. One of the biggest perks is the ability to use “swipe up” hyperlinks in your stories when you reach 10,000 followers. Swipe up links are IG’s olive branch to those who want to send people off the app to consume content. The swipe up link opens in an IG browser and technically never lets the user leave the app, but you can use it for email sign-ups, videos, your online store, blogs and more!
Tell Your Story
Stories can be a fun addition to your practice’s social media strategy. By allowing yourself to be creative, you can show patients a new, fun and approachable side to your practice. Try out Instagram Stories, and you’ll see your interactions soar as your network grows.