Let's talk videos. If you asked me what you should consume your precious time on to make the efforts rewarding, I would tell you without hesitation to start with selfie videos.
Let's first discuss the hidden benefits to using videos in your social media game.
There's magic in watching a video with a live person behind the camera compared to viewing perfect, yet still images.
Imagine yourself in your patient's shoes..
You have no clue what is good and bad in the oral health department other than what you find in search engines. One day, you come across this local dentist on social media. He shows up in your feeds more than once (boosting sponsored ads- I'm talking about here). His video always seem to pop up when you're browsing on Facebook (or Instagram) and at one point, you stop to watch because you are now curious.
In the first video, he's talking about how many minutes an adult should spend brushing teeth in the evenings and why it's important. Then, you want more..
You go into his business page (on social media) and discover there are many other videos where he shares about the technology he’s collected to make his patient’s experience smoother and up-to-date. In another video, he's talking about his favorite patients, shouting out their names saying, "..thank you from the bottom of my heart, for being my patient for the last 12 months".
Another video has him sharing his passion as a former high school athlete supporting local youth athletic club teams and how much he's decided to increase sponsorship this year.
Ok, for the sake of time, I'll have to end it there. I'm really hoping you were intrigued by this point.
Let's get you started.
Start with posting stories in your Facebook and Instagram (your choice but I'd do both). Stories are great for beginners because it goes away in 24 hours. Another great takeaway here is that you can view who is watching it (for 24 hours).
Stories feature in both social media platforms are fun, too.
In stories you can add:
gifs
stickers,
music
filters
writing
mentions (of other people's pages)
hashtags
location
time
poll
questions (for people to answer)
countdown
quiz
chat
temperature
As you can see, this is a great feature where you can exercise both your artistic and creative sense.
Here's a sample of stories I share in my page every single day. My growing in the amount of views in my stories have grown immensely due to my consistent valuable videos and informations posted daily.
Where does it appear?
On Facebook, it appears in three difference places. Messenger, home screen (right when you open Facebook) and in your business or personal profile page. On Instagram, it shows up in the chat, home and in your business or personal profile page.
Can you create a sponsored ad in stories?
Yes. You can easily create an ad using a video that meets the screen requirements (1080 pixels wide and 1920 pixels high). You can choose to use a video already edited using your favorite video editing tool or film one.
You then go to Facebook page (Instagram is owned by Facebook in case you didn't already know) and click on the Home tab in your desktop. On the left side of the screen, you will see a tab called Ad Manager. You can easily create advertisements using your stories. Start your test ad with $10 and increase it once you’ve got the game plan down.
If you're interested in learning how you can effectively use the Ad Manager to gain new followers, direct people to your website or even get awareness for an event you're promoting- let me know in the comments section below. I will make a video showing you all the interactive tools in this feature.
Next, let's discuss what difference videos make compared to still image contents to your patients and future patients’ viewer experience.
I've listed a few in the "imagine moment" above. Now, let's give you a better idea of who you're posting for and why.
Say, you had a patient in your office who came in for the first time. She has many questions as she's ready to bring her whole clan in. She's also a super researcher type and wants to know anything and everything before she ever opens her wallet or say. “yes”.
Her first question is, how long have you been practicing here? Then, she goes on about how she's had a great experience in her previous dental office before she moved...
She's wanting to know just about everything about your practice, about you.
How would you respond?
This is what social media is. It's a place where people find thrill browsing for anything and everything. It's a market place without having to physically be there.
You can literally meet thousands of people in your town without ever stepping out.
This is why I say, video is KING. With still images, you can't really respond to people's questions. You can only cross fingers that your image content is grabbing enough to make them stop to read your caption (the writing in your post).
With videos, you can capture a snapshot of your message and assuming that your other contents in your feeds are valuable too (check out my blog 5 Types of Contents), you now have a growing number of following to your page.
What does that mean for you? The more the merrier prospect patients. Isn’t that why people spend a ton of money to send out postcards, build websites and hire marketers to post on social media for them?
In my next blog, I'll be sharing with you a few of my must have apps in my smartphone.
Helen's Instagram @helenistique
Master's Arch Provider Instagram @maproviders
Connect with me and let me know if you have any questions. I would love to know if this blog made a difference and inspired you to post more videos!
With lots of love and care,
Helen Han