If you’re a dentist, you should already be using Instagram to promote your dental clinic. After all, it is one of the most popular social media marketing platforms out there. 

Instagram allows you to present the best version of your dental practice to attract more patients. But you can make the most out of marketing on Instagram by knowing the platform well. In this blog, you’ll learn about the most useful Instagram features that will help you grow your dental practice.

First, let’s start with some interesting facts about Instagram.

Instagram, founded in 2010 by Michael Krieger, continues to be a powerful marketing tool for dental brands and other businesses. Some mention-worthy Instagram facts listed below are responsible for making the platform what it is today.

Here are five Instagram features you can use to grow your dental practice.

1. Connect with your followers through Instagram video calls

Your Instagram Direct Message (DM) is a powerful tool that lets you make live video calls with your followers. You can add up to four people at a time in one call.

You need to have an active Direct Message conversation with the people you wish to do a video call with. No worries, other followers can’t spam you with video calls at the same time.

How the Instagram video call feature can boost your dental business:

• Use video calling to connect with your followers interested in your dental services and treatments. You can invite your patients that have already taken similar dental services from you to talk about their experience in your video call.
• You can call people with questions about dental care and help solve their problems face-to-face. 
• You can also try video-calling your existing patients to follow up and show them that you believe in providing the best after-care services to them.

2. Use the “Ask me a question” sticker in your Instagram Stories

This Instagram feature is one of the best ways to engage your audience. It can leverage your marketing efforts and help you to find out a lot more about your followers. 

You can use this sticker feature in two ways. Either you can let your followers ask you a question or let them reply to your specific question.

How the Instagram question sticker can promote your dental business:

• Ask your followers whether they know about your newly launched dental treatments, services, and products. 
• Find out how informed your followers are about dental hygiene. 
• Take feedback and redirect your followers to your website.

This useful data can give you insights into the dental products and services you can offer in the future so you can grow your dental brand.

3. Add and capitalize on shoppable Instagram posts

If you sell oral hygiene products, you can capitalize on this Instagram feature. This shoppable post feature is available for business Instagram accounts. It allows social media users to shop directly from your posts.

How the Instagram shopping feature can help your dental business:

* It is an uncomplicated way to improve your sales.
* This seamless shopping method retains users on your Instagram posts and makes it quick for them to purchase your products.
* You no longer need 10k followers to set up shop on your Instagram account.

4. Repost stories and posts to your Instagram

Reposting posts or stories is the simplest way of convincing people to purchase your services and products. You can repost posts or stories from your followers, patients, and colleagues to benefit your clinic.

More or less, this user-generated content works as social proof for your dental brand. Reviews and testimonials from your patients are the perfect examples of shareable content for reposts.

How the Instagram reposting feature can boost your dental business:

• When patients or brands tag you in their Instagram stories and posts, you can directly repost them to your Instagram story.
• This cross-promotion can increase the exposure of your dental brand so you can be visited by more users.
• Giving or getting shoutouts on Instagram can improve your brand awareness and grow your dental practice more than you can imagine. 

5. Share short and long videos with Instagram Reels and IGTV

The most fun yet valuable features on Instagram are Reels and IGTV. You can share a 60-second (max.) video with Reels and a 10-minute (max.) video with IGTV. This is a more convenient alternative to starting your own YouTube channel and posting content there.

How the Instagram Reels and IGTV features can boost your dental business:

• You can share quick tutorials on oral care, the use of dental tools, DIYs, and more. The Reels feature lets you add your favorite music to your video directly from its music directory, helping retain users for a longer duration on your posts. 
• With the IGTV feature, you can add a link in the description of your video. For instance, if you post a video on one of the dental treatments at your clinic, you can add a link in the description of that video to direct people to your website so they can book an appointment with you.
• You can humanize your brand by uploading a video featuring your clinic, staff, or patients.

Final thoughts

Instagram marketing can boost your dental clinic business and attract more patients than you’re already getting. Since the platform frequently keeps introducing new features, you need to keep track of the application’s updates to start incorporating them into your social media marketing strategy. 

This way, you can take advantage of the latest Instagram features to promote your dental brand and stay ahead of the competition.

Since social media marketing is a process requiring perpetual effort, it can be difficult to dedicate time to it every day. It is also very challenging to focus on your social media growth when you need to see patients regularly, manage your dental clinic, and keep your business running. What can help you is a strategic dental social media marketing plan. 

A social media marketing tool can reduce more than half of your effort to effectively promote your dental clinic on Instagram and other popular social media platforms.