Figuring out what to post on social media can be an overwhelming task. 

It is important to post content that is relevant to both your patients and your social media audience. Thinking about who sees the content and the target audience can go a long way towards helping to increase engagement. Defining your target audience will help you understand what type of content you should be posting to your social media profiles. 

Niche Down

The first step in defining your target audience is identifying your ideal patient.

Narrowing down your audience by using key characteristics, such as common behaviors or demographics, can help identify the group of people that have the most potential of becoming a patient. Let’s say you are a pediatric office looking to bring in new patients. In this case, you would not target the patients themselves as they would be young children who are not old enough to be on social media. Instead, you would target the parents of those young children and create content that resonates with them. 

Data is Your Friend

In addition to identifying your ideal patient, another step in helping you define your target audience is reviewing current data from your social media accounts. This information is free and can provide valuable insights on your current audience and prospective patients. For example, Facebook Insights breaks down your social media audience by demographics such as age, location, gender, education, marital status, specific interests, and more. If you notice your largest demographic on Facebook is mothers, then creating content they would be more likely to interact with will increase your changes for engagement and overall success on social media.

It is also important to look at what type of content is already successful on your profiles. Seeing what your audience is already interacting with can make it easy to decide what content you should be creating more of. Whether it’s photos, videos, articles, or posts of the staff themselves – seeing what gets the most engagement and creating similar pieces of content will keep your target audience engaged.

Effective Marketing Starts with Determining Your Target Audience

Defining your target audience is an important step in creating an effective marketing campaign. Failing to define your target audience will make it difficult to create content that keeps them engaged. Knowing who your audience is and what type of content resonates with them will help you focus your efforts. It may take some time to understand what your patients are responding to on social media but your efforts will result in increased engagement and higher interaction with your content. 

As always, be sure to have fun with the content you post and reach out to the Sesame Social Team for more tips on targeting the right audience!

—Tyler Harris, Lead Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Capturing Your Target Audience via Social Media appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Surprise! Google and most other prominent search engines don’t treat mobile and desktop site versions the same. 

Google and other search engines have been slowly switching to indexing the mobile versions of sites instead of desktop versions, meaning they care MOST about the mobile version because a majority of search queries are now performed on mobile devices. 

What’s Important with Mobile-First SEO? 

With Mobile-First SEO, there are some key steps your practice should take to ensure your rankings continue to improve so that prospective patients can consistently find you via their mobile devices. 

They include:

• If you are involved in Pay Per Click (PPC) efforts via Google Ads, always allow your ad campaigns to appear on mobile versions.
• Make sure the images on the mobile version of your website are high-quality and are in a supported format.
• The alt text on the desktop version of your website should match the alt text for the mobile website.
• Be sure the content and landing pages on the desktop version match up with the content on the mobile version – do not cut off any important content from one version to the other.
• If you have any videos on the desktop version, be sure they are not slowing down the page load speed, as this will also slow down the mobile loading speed.

If your site has separate URLs for the desktop and mobile versions (also known as m-dot), we recommend the following additional best practices:

• Make sure that the error page status is the same on both the desktop and mobile sites. If a page on your desktop site serves normal contents and your mobile site’s version of that page serves an error page, this page will be missing from the index.
• Make sure your mobile website version has an accordion or drop-down style format. That way the search engines can crawl and still find its content without thinking the landing page information is “hiding.”

If you have any further questions regarding implementing new strategies with Mobile-First indexation, please reach out to the Sesame SEO Team so they can offer the insight you need or answer any questions you have. 

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist II, Sesame Communications

The post What is Mobile-First SEO? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

There is so much more to the Sesame social tool than just the ability to schedule out posts to your Facebook and Instagram profiles!

Keep reading to learn about what the tool is, key features, and how to ensure that you are using the Social Tool to its fullest potential.

Social Tool Overview

The Sesame Social Tool allows you to easily schedule out your own posts, see what Sesame has scheduled for your office, and edit your images. You can edit your own images with your logo, add custom frames, stickers, plus add text and shapes to your photos.

Within the tool, we also have a library of content available for you to utilize when you are stumped and don’t have anything to upload.  

With many different functions and tools available, posting to your social media profiles can be a much less time-consuming process!

Location Tab

The Insights tool is the home page where you will find all the high-level data about your connected social media channels.

Your overall following, reach, and engagement are located at the very center of the page. These numbers illustrate how your posts are performing and an overview of where improvements can be made for future content. 

Further down the page is more in-depth information on your following. Details such as overall fan and engagement demographics, your engagement status on posts, your peak time (when your followers are most often online), and information about social reviews are available. 

This tool is especially useful when you are starting off your journey on social media and don’t know how to best utilize our social tool. Also, if you need a quick highlight of your overall account health, the insights tool lays it all out succintly. 

The Location tool is also found on this tab. If your practice has multiple locations this tab allows you to house all of your locations under the same account.

Another useful tool under the Location Tab is the Templates tool. This tool allows you to create templates to respond to messages, reviews, and comments. We highly recommend that you have a few templates created and ready to post so you never miss the opportunity to engage with your audience.

Social Tab

Within the Social tab, there are a few different sections worth mentioning. First, there is the Queue and Published tools. Both tools go hand in hand, as they do very similar things. The Queue shows all your posts and when they are queued up to post. You can see your graphic and captions, whether the post has been approved, and you can edit and delete the post in this section. 

The Published tool allows you to see all your published posts as well has how the content preformed. You can also engage with the published content directly through the tool with actions such as respond to comments, share, edit the post, or delete it. 

This area also features the Libraries and Images tools. The Libraries tool allows you to see all the content you have uploaded with the caption. You can also see how the post performed. Within the Images tool, you again can see all the content that has been published to the Social Tool by your practice; however this is just the content itself – it does not include any copy. Within both tools, you have access to the Sesame Communications Library of images and graphics. This content is all tagged with key words so you’re able to find what you need.

To access this library simply navigate to either the Libraries or Image Tool, click on the drop-down menu next to your Location Name (i.e., the name your practice or doctor), and select Sesame Communications. From there you can type in anything you would like in the search bar and all the content with that tag will pop up for you to download and use. 

Finally, there is the Scheduler. This section is where everything is housed and scheduled. As long as you have your social channels connected, you will be able to schedule out future content from here. 

 Not only can you post right in the moment, but you have the ability to schedule your content out as far as you would like. You can post up to 10 images and graphics within one scheduled post. This makes it much easier to diversify the type of content that is on your social profiles.

Within the Scheduling tool, you can also edit your content directly. When you have an image uploaded and ready to schedule, click on the pencil icon. This will bring up the editing tool. From here you have very basic editing functions such as the ability to add text, rotate the image, apply filters, and a personal favorite, adding in your custom logo frames.

Finally, you can edit or delete any of the content we have scheduled for you. You can also move any of it around to fit what works best with your social media strategy.

Let’s Recap

Now that we have gone through a detailed overview of what makes up the Social Tool, let’s talk about what you can do to ensure you’re maximizing your use of it. 

Remember, consistency is the key to improving your overall performance. Personally, I find that it’s easier to create a whole month’s worth of content in a week or two and get that scheduled to post. For me, it helps eliminate a lot of the stress that comes with content posting.

Don’t forget to use our searchable library of content! We curate content for all different occasions and services. Whether you’re looking for a summer post or something more specific to your practice such as a teeth cleaning theme, we have it available. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for, reach out to the Sesame Social Team and we will add in some content that is relevant to your practice.

We also highly recommend you use the Logo Frames that are available. They are custom made for your practice and include your branding. Not only are they an easy add but they help differentiate your practice from your competition. 

In short, please take advantage of this awesome tool that allows you to take control of your social media efforts. Managing your social media profiles has never been easier!

If you’re not currently a Sesame Social Member, please reach out to our team if you are interested in our social tool or would like a more in-depth overview of what it can do.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Understanding the Sesame Social Tool appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Since the start of the pandemic, short-form video content popularity has completely taken off. Viewers can easily scroll from video to video, ingesting up to 60 seconds worth of content at once.

Businesses have started utilizing this type of content to promote their goods and services. In this blog post, I will talk about how your practice can leverage TikTok to show off your services to prospective patients.

Why TikTok?

When you hear TikTok, I’m sure the first thing that enters your mind is the younger generations. It’s not hard to not associate the platform with youth because many of its users are under the age of 40. About 70% of TikTok users are under the age of 40,  after all. 

If your practice caters to an older demographic the logical question becomes why would TikTok be a good fit for you?

The answer is, perhaps, not so obvious. Even if your practice does not directly target Millennials or Gen Z patients, you can still benefit from having a TikTok presence. 

With the app, you can:

• Promote your services for free. Think of it like free social advertising. We know that short-form videos can perform very well on different platforms. With the right audio, hashtags, and engaging content, your services can potentially be seen by thousands of people.
• Enlarge your audience. With millions of users across different countries, you can easily reach as many prospective patients as possible. You never know who may need your services.
• Attract new patients. You may have a very niche practice that is targeted toward a certain demographic. Even though you only serve a specific group of people, there is always going to be someone who is missing out from your marketing efforts. With TikTok, creating engaging content and lasting relationships is the name of the game. Your practice could be exactly what someone has been waiting for.
• Increase your practice’s brand awareness. TikTok offers another platform for increasing your practice’s exposure to could-be patients. 

Be You!

Being authentic with content across your social media platforms leads to the best content that you can possibly produce. Unlike other platforms, TikTok is good at pushing out the content created by smaller creators and accounts. This means that your practice is more likely to reach a wider audience. If your content is clean and authentic, it will help you attract new patients. 

Many practices Sesame works with have success with behind-the-scenes content as well as oral health content. If you are stuck on what types of content you should produce, check out our previous blog post about Reels.

#Hashtag Your Content

Pay attention to what hashtags your target audience engages with! This makes it a lot easier for them to find your content and practice as well as remaining a part of the TikTok algorithm that is used to make suggestions. 

Think of hashtags as a label for your content. If your users are looking for a dentist’s office near them, they’ll turn to social media and type in “dentist.” If your content is labeled with that term, you’re more likely to pop up in their results. 

To get started, use hashtags that are relevant to your practice. If you’re a dental office don’t forget to add in “#dentist.” In a separate scenario, if your practice offers cosmetic services, so you’ll want to use “#veneers” or “#dentures.” The possibilities are endless. 

Add in Audio

TikTok offers the option to add audio to each video. Depending on the audio you choose, your content could be pushed out in front of thousands of people.

Similar to hashtags, each audio has its section. From there users can see all the content that was created using that audio. If your content is performing really well, you’ll be displayed at the top of relevant results.

The trick with adding in audio is making sure that it works with the video(s) you are using. And of course, the early bird gets the worm. If you’re able to be amongst the first to use trending audio, you’ll have a much higher chance of reaching more users.

There are not a lot of dental practices that utilize TikTok and, if they do, they are often high-performing accounts. That means the platform holds plenty of opportunity for generating great visibility! 

If you have any questions about the platform or need help setting it up, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our social team. 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Tips for Leveraging TikTok appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

There are approximately 4.6 billion social media users. This is over half of the world’s entire population. 

Social media platforms offer people many options for absorbing information. Whether it’s seeing what friends are up to, learning a new skill, shopping for new furniture, or looking for a new and local dentist, everything can be found in one place.

But how exactly can social media impact your practice and its success? Keep reading and I will cover everything you need to know about how social media marketing can benefit your practice.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is the use of a social media platform to grow your business. As a small business owner, you are likely always looking for ways to get your practice on the radar of potential patients. Maintaining an active presence on different social media channels is a great way to do just that.

Today you can find 96% of all small businesses using social media in their marketing strategy. With that many small businesses available online, it is much easier for consumers to get the information that they need. In fact, 74% of consumers rely on social media platforms to guide their purchasing decisions and customers who engage with a business on social media spend up to 40% more with that business in the long run.  

In short, social media marketing isn’t just helpful for your practice, but it can also be the determining factor in a new patient selecting you over a competing practice. 

What are the Benefits of Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing has many different benefits. Let’s take a look at a few of the most valuable ones.

Connecting with Your Audience has Never been Easier

Social media exists solely online. This means at any given place and time, consumers can find you online, get to know you as a practice, and decide if they want to move forward with you. 

From your perspective, you can market your business no matter where you are in the world. With social media marketing, you can increase awareness of your brand. Whether you do it through paid advertising or through organic advertising it is up to you. 

With help from reporting, you can also learn about who your audience is. This can greatly improve your interactions with your audience online. Not only will can you determine what they like, but you can also know exactly what they need from you. This can help with paid social advertising, which I will talk about later.

Grow Your Customer Base while Humanizing your Practice

With the help of social media marketing, your practice can connect with potential clients. This can be a great way to talk about your services and foster real relationships with individuals. Doing so will not only increase a potential patient’s respect for you but also introduces you as more than just your business.

Creating personal connections with your patients and prospective patients can be crucial to separating yourself from your competitors. As a small business, you have an advantage over the bigger businesses in that you can create this relationship with your followers. Take the time to figure out what your patients need but also show them what you can do. Post about these achievements on your social media profiles for everyone else to see as well. At the end of the day, authenticity builds trust.

You’ll Save Money on Your Campaigns

Not only is social media marketing one of the most effective ways to market your practice, but it’s affordable as well. Let’s take a look at where your money goes when working with social media advertising:

• Each account you create for your practice is completely free
• Within each platform, you can review pertinent data that relates to the performance of your content, without a subscription
• Posting content about promotions and sales is completely free and consumers are also more likely to share your content if it’s engaging, which can generate even better results 
• If you do decide to pay for advertising through social media platforms, there are algorithms in place to ensure that you are targeting the audience that is most relevant to your practice, meaning you can target your local customer base

Protect Your Reputation

Sometimes patients take it upon themselves to vent on your Facebook page. This is a great opportunity for you as the business owner, to respond back to them and make it right. Not only will this most likely lessen the severity of the situation, but it can also show the rest of your following that you welcome any sort of feedback. It’s important, after all, to take time to highlight the positives about your practice but also address the negatives before a situation worsens.

In addition, you can gauge the sentiment around your brand because social media gives you an indication of how much people are talking about your practice. As mentioned previously, staying on top of your feedback can protect your brand reputation.

So, have I persuaded you to create a social media account? I sure hope so! At the end of the day, it all boils down to your presence. With the help of social media, you can help build your practice’s presence and it will, in turn, help provide successful results.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post What are the benefits of Social Media Marketing for your Practice? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Does your practice need a content refresh this season? We’ve got you covered!

Being consistent with content is incredibly important for boosting visibility across digital channels. Still, it’s not always easy to be consistent so this post is dedicated to offering some great themes your practice can utilize. 

Single Photo & Carousel Content Ideas

Single posts and carousels offer a solid go-to option because the content is easy to create, and the opportunities for creativity are endless.

Here are a few ideas we have for this spring:

• Before and After – Show patients before their procedure and after they have completed the procedure.
• Spring Contests and Giveaways – Contests and giveaways are a great way to get your patients more involved in the social media side of your practice. Not only are you able to give back to the patients that support your practice, but you are also able to have some fun!
• New Products and Services – If you are introducing any new products or services, now is the time to post about them.
• Spring Office Updates – Have you added anyone new to the team? Maybe you have changed your office décor for spring? Regardless of what the changes are, share them for everyone to see.

Story Content Ideas

Story content is typically content that is relevant and interesting to your followers but doesn’t find a place on your feed. We like to cover holidays and national holidays in our Stories, for example. They are also great for showing in-the-moment content.

A few ideas we have for utilizing Story content include:

• Holidays – Ramadan, Easter, Passover, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, and the first day of summer are all coming up soon and offer holiday-themed material. 
• National Holidays – Dental Hygienist Week (2^nd week in April), Oral Cancer Awareness Month (April), Root Canal Awareness Week (2^nd week in May), Root Canal Day (2^nd Wednesday in May), National Receptionist Day (May 12^th), Dental Smiles Month (June), Dental Diversity Month (June), National Toothbrush Day (June 26^th) are upcoming, industry-specific, options. 
• Go Live! – Notify your followers ahead of time that you are going live to answer questions about your services or practice then gather a few questions to begin your live story.
• Ways to get involved in your community – Do you have a favorite event that you like to attend every spring? Is your practice involved with any organizations that are hosting spring events? Promoting and showing your involvement in your community offers a great way to create more content while showcasing things that matter to you and your business.

Reels Content Ideas 

We have noticed that Reels have a huge impact on improving visibility for many practices. Instagram takes priority in pushing them out through the Instagram algorithm which makes your page more likely to be discovered by potential clients.

With Reels, there are a few things to take into consideration when you are creating them. Number one and probably the most important, make the Reel engaging. Then you’ll need to add in a trending sound, which helps the algorithm push it out.

Reel ideas we have for this Spring include:

• Spring Cleaning! Tips and tricks for having a healthy smile – Record yourself showing some of your favorite tips and tricks for maintaining good oral health and don’t forget to add in a voice-over explaining each one.
• Behind the scenes of a cleaning procedure – Record yourself going through the steps of doing a cleaning for one of your patients.

Website Content Ideas

Don’t forget your website content as well! If you are a part of the Sesame Social service, you are already getting weekly blog posts to your website. However, just like everything good in life, more is always better!

Our spring website content ideas are to cover: 

• Your favorite indoor and outdoor Spring activities – Write about your favorite activities to do this spring.
• Spring do’s and don’ts – With the weather starting to warm up in many places people are beginning to change their regular habits such as eating, going out, and such. Take this time to go over some do’s and don’ts related to oral health.

I hope your practice is able to turn a few of these ideas into great social or blog content!

Don’t forget, if you’re a Sesame Social Member, you are able to utilize the Monthly Content Newsletter and the Monthly Blog Questionnaire to get even more content for your socials and website! 

To any non-Members reading this post, if you’re interested in hearing more about what our social service has to offer, please reach out to our team! 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Spring Content Ideas for your Practice to Utilize appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the act of performing on-site and off-site optimization so that your website appears prominently in search results. 

Developing a dynamic SEO campaign for your practice requires plenty of hard work and hours of perseverance. At the end of it, you’re left with a sense of achievement (and exhaustion). Does this sound similar to another time-consuming hobby many of us enjoy on the weekends?

Surprisingly, SEO has many similarities to planting a garden. Much like planting flowers, your online performance has the potential to wilt faster than it can grow, which is why it is so important that you have an active SEO campaign in place for the entire life of your website.

Planning

Creating a sanctuary of relaxation and fulfilling your botanic goals requires thorough planning. You can’t start planting trees without having a visual representation to aid in the design. 

It’s essential for any successful landscape project and keeps everything within budget from concept through to completion. The same can be said for an SEO campaign which also always requires a game plan. 

Preparing the Ground

After the planning stage, comes the initial work on the foundation. In gardening terms, it’s essential to have nutrient-rich soil to provide optimal conditions for young roots to grow.

Websites must also follow suit and have the initial architecture to support and sustain growth. All this should be developed with the search engine algorithms in mind. Appropriate use of metadata, URL navigation structure and effective microdata such as schema are just a few of the fundamentals. Get these wrong in the initial stage and your “garden” won’t flourish.

Planting & Sprouting

When planting a variety of shrubs and trees, each species may require a different method. Without tailoring the approach, a garden can quickly become a disaster and lack potential.

Similarly, SEO requires an acute level of optimization for each individual page. Focusing on a primary dental service & a single topic on any given page is important for improving placement within search results. As with the sprouting stage of plants, this process will continue throughout the initial campaign stages.

Feeding

A well-nourished garden is a happy garden. Adding fertilizer may not be essential but it can have a major impact – protecting plants, encouraging growth and improving the overall beauty. In SEO terms, this translates to the constant application of relevant and engaging content to a website.

Not only should this continue to attract visitors as other websites or citations link to it, but this quality is also recognized by the search engine bots. Since they favor the websites that offer the best user experience, it’s essential to have original and meaningful content.

Pruning & Maintenance

As mentioned earlier, gardening is a thankless task and doesn’t finish once the landscaping has been completed. To keep a garden looking good, it requires an ongoing level of care. The SEO equivalent to pruning and maintenance is the editing and reviewing stage.

Search engines always assess the last date of content revision to understand how up-to-date and therefore worthy of high rankings a website may be. For this reason, it’s important to edit and update non-evergreen content to continue making it relevant for your users. At this stage, other SEO tweaks can be made to ensure you stay at the top of your game.

Garden Essentials

By adopting a strategy of planning, preparation, launch, continuous updates, and regular optimization your practice can create a vey solid basis for great visibility within relevant search results. 

If you have any SEO questions or your practice is in need of SEO support please reach out to our team!

—Naomi Newell, Lead SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Blossom your SEO Strategy this Spring appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Setting up your practice’s Facebook page wasn’t too complicated, was it? The real challenge is in continuing to maintain it while appealing to people to like your page.

Are you in need of some Facebook profile optimization tips? If so, keep reading!  

Enable Reviews

Reviews are often a great tool to have on your Facebook page. They are frequently a critical factor that prospective patients keep in mind before choosing to engage with your practice. Because of the visibility that Facebook offers to businesses of all sizes, reviews can help aid in generating new business for your practice.

To enable reviews on your Facebook page, follow the steps below:

1. Log into Facebook with your Admin profile
2. Navigate to your practice’s Facebook page
3. On the left-hand side, there will be a “Settings” tab you will click on 
4. Click on “Templates and Tabs”
5. Toggle on the Reviews

Currently, Facebook is in the process of changing its pages and these steps may be different with the New Page Experience. If you have any questions or run into any issues to enable your reviews, reach out to our social team.

Consistent and Clean Branding

Branding is very important for your practice. When you begin to market your practice, you will want your branding to be consistent and clean. This will allow your practice to be easily recognizable across all digital and traditional channels, generating a bigger impact on your audience. It will also show that you have credibility in your industry, and you will easily be able to convey your message.

For Facebook purposes, we suggest creating a logo for your practice and using it as the profile photo for your Facebook page. Make sure that the name of your Facebook page is the name of your practice. For your cover photo, we suggest using something representative of the practice or of the team to humanize the page. However, only use photos of the highest quality as looking professional is a necessity. 

Don’t forget, if you have the Sesame social service you can also add your logo frames, located in the social tool, to any of your photos to upload to Facebook.

Thorough “About” Section

The “About” section is one of the most visited areas on a business’ Facebook page. It tells your story, describes who you are, what you do, and explains your mission.

Don’t neglect the “About” section. Make sure to add in the basic information about your practice. Things such as contact information, hours, pricing, address, etc. should be included. We also suggest that you add in a small snippet about the doctor and practice so prospective patients can get a  better idea of the practice in general.

You can even add in testimonials from happy clients or milestones that are worth highlighting. Just make sure to include strong keywords that relate to your business and services so people can easily find you when searching with Facebook.

Thanks for reading. If you are looking for even more best practices for your Facebook page, reach out to our social team and they will happily evaluate your page to ensure you have everything you need!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 3 Facebook Business Page Best Practices appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Social Media Advertising can be a useful method of driving prospective patients to established and new practices alike. However, deciding when it’s time to include social ads into your marketing strategy isn’t always a simple task. Below you’ll find a few key factors to consider when deciding if social ads are a good match for your practice! 

Your online presence 

The very first thing you need to check before running social ads is to make sure that you already have a professional-looking business page on Facebook or Instagram. Even if you aren’t using ads to directly promote your Facebook or Instagram pages, any ads shown through these networks will include a clickable profile picture with your business name that will allow people to see the page you used to create them. 

As such, make sure that your Facebook and Instagram presence is all updated, branded correctly, and ready to receive any leads that might come through ads indirectly. 

Along the same lines, it’s important to have an updated website. An excellent website can provide great landing pages for ads to gather leads and additional traffic data. Plus, it can also give additional information to your potential patients regarding who you are, your available services, and offer an easy way to book appointments. What’s more, when using tracking codes and Facebook pixels you can always gather traffic data from your site and use it for retargeting campaigns later on. 

Available time and budget   

Any successful advertising strategy involves data-driven decisions. Thankfully, a huge benefit of social Ads is the additional data they provide on who is actually engaging with your content. This means your business can limit guesswork and adjust your campaigns based on hard numbers as your goals and results change over time. Ultimately, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy that will guarantee you results so your business needs to have the time and budget to test different approaches, offers, and audiences to optimize your results. 

Business goals 

Social ads can be employed at any stage of the business cycle but you need to make sure you are using them correctly based on your practice’s unique goals and needs. For example, if you’re a new practice with little website traffic and no current customer lists, you might be better off creating ads to generate exposure to speed up the process of building your core customer base.

Likewise, if you already have a substantial customer list and have exhausted other marketing channels, social media ads can provide you with an untapped market to generate more new patients. Regardless of what your goals are, social ads are best utilized when boosting/intensifying growth. As a result, make sure you couple them with an organic marketing strategy for the best possible results.  

In short, social media advertising can be an effective marketing solution for most practices. Just make sure you evaluate your existing social media presence, the time and money you have available to dedicate towards social media advertising, and a strong awareness of what you’re practice wants to achieve via social ads.

As always, please feel free to reach out to us with any related questions you may have! 

—Jonathan Giraldo, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Is Social Media Advertising Right for Your Practice? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In the past few years, Instagram Reels have become very popular. Many businesses utilize them to build engagement with their followers. Today, it is crucial for practices to incorporate these types of posts into their content marketing mix.

In this blog post, I will be going over some Reel ideas for marketing your services, resonating with patients, and reaching a wider audience. Whether you are a beginner or just looking for some new ideas for your already existing Reels library, you’ll be sure to find something below!

Behind the Scenes

Rarely do patients get the chance to glimpse “behind-the-scenes.” Things like setting up for a procedure or building a retainer are often interesting to patients. 

Take the time to pull back the curtain and show the work that is involved when your patient comes in for the next visit.

Educational

Similar to the behind-the-scenes footage, take the time to shoot educational videos talking your followers through how certain procedures are done. We suggest doing popular procedures such as teeth cleaning, teeth whitening, putting braces on, fitting a retainer, veneers, implants, and such. 

This footage can also be repurposed for your website as well as blog posts if you ever choose to write about select procedures.

As a bonus, they can also help ease anxiety stemming from upcoming dental appointments.  

FAQ

Do you get the same questions asked repeatedly? If so, FAQ Reels may be your solution. FAQ Reels can be super helpful, especially to prospective patients who are looking for a new doctor.

Are your patients constantly asking what your hours are during the holiday season? Do many patients want to know the difference between braces and Invisalign? Regardless of the questions, take some time to jot down a few of your most frequently asked questions and start recording your answers. 

I suggest answering 2-3 related questions per Reel. Add in text and some music to your Reel to make it more engaging. If you’re feeling extra creative, throw in some cool transitions like changing your background after answering each question.

Meet the Team

If you are looking to break up some of the more dental health-related content, meet the team reels are just the right choice! Not only will they humanize your social media presence, but your followers will get to see your team’s personality firsthand.

While Reels must be 60 seconds or shorter, it might be beneficial to break these up by each employee. That way you get an in-depth look at who everyone is and how they contribute to the practice, and you’ll have between 10-20 pieces of content, depending on how many employees there are.

A Day in the Life

Don’t confuse these videos with introducing the team. These videos are meant to showcase the different, yet crucial, roles team members play. For example, you could follow a doctor around and record a Monday in the office. Or if your front office staff has a weekly ritual of restocking all the supplies in the office on Thursday that could be interesting. 

We also suggest adding in elements that are not necessarily at work. Things like waking up early to make a nutritional breakfast or going for a daily walk during lunch. Relatable moments and fun can help your audience connect with you on a human level. 

Whatever it is, as long as the content is reflective of what each team member does for the practice, then you will have engaging content. The only thing we caution with this content is to make sure that personal information is not be included in the Reel without approval. 

Bonus Content

Of course, we couldn’t leave you without adding in some fun and extra content!

Sensory Satisfying Videos

Many of you know how popular Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR, videos are – especially to the younger generations. As time permits, just record some exaggerated sounds of everyday tasks. These could be the sounds of the printer printing out paper, the sound of your pick on your patient’s teeth, or the sound of the suction tool. Whatever sounds you feel like you are hearing daily, edit them all together, and voila, your own ASMR Reel.

Trending Content

At some point, you have been online and seen a funny social media trend. I’m sure you have also looked at the response that came with those videos.

Well, now is the time to get on those trends. You can easily go to Instagram’s Discover page and find trending content. Get some team members together and spend a few minutes recording some trending content. Don’t forget to add in music or a trending sound – this is what makes or breaks the Reel.

Quick Tips

Quick tips can also help get your practice seen. It’s been proven that consumers like to see easy and digestible information in a short period of time. If the content is incredibly helpful to the initial viewer, they may choose to share it with friends and family as well.

Do you have any secret tips you are always sharing with your patients? Share them with the world too!

Before and After

Before and after content is a great way to showcase your talent as a doctor. Essentially, it’s like a portfolio of your work and can help make you more creditable.

While many practices opt to make these static posts or carousels, take it a step further and record some videos of your patients before and after. Just don’t forget to get their approval!

Creating content doesn’t have to be overwhelming or hard. Take the time to make good and engaging content and you will see the results. 

If you are looking to learn more about Instagram Reels, check out our previous blog post!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 5 Reel Ideas to Boost Engagement on Instagram appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

When you increase website traffic for your practice, you generate more opportunities to capture potential customers and boost your chances of turning prospects into patients.

Using established search engine optimization (SEO) techniques on an ongoing basis is important for traffic growth. Still, efforts should not end there. In addition to the standard SEO optimization strategies, it’s important to leverage some lesser-known digital marketing techniques to help build your online presence. Keep reading to learn about 3 excellent options!

1. Improve Website Speed and Security

Search engines like Google favor sites that allow visitors to find what they are looking for quickly and easily, no matter what type of device they’re using. If your site does not render quickly and correctly across different device types like desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone Google will not favor your site if competitors provide a great cross-device experience. For example, if your site isn’t optimized for mobile search, it likely won’t show up in search results performed on mobile devices. 

Website security is also a critical issue. Search engines favor secure sites over non-secure ones. Also, if you have not transitioned from HTTP to HTTPS (non-secure to secure browsing), warning pages will appear for site visitors. If a warning appears saying the website someone is about to view is not secure, prospective patients are likely to get nervous and close out of the browser, losing you that potential business. 

2. Increase Content Marketing

The search engines favor engaging, well-written content vs. irrelevant and unhelpful wording. To drive more traffic to your website, regularly add fresh content.  

Start with two original blog posts a week, if feasible, and refresh your main site content every 6 months. Make sure content covers a service you offer or answers a question that your potential customers have. Readers must be able to instantly recognize the value that your content provides, which will help to keep them on your website. 

Ensure that your content is free of spelling and grammar errors. After all, your prospective patients don’t want to work with a business that does not prioritize intricate details.

It’s also important to format your content using visual elements such as photos, infographics, and animation. Break up the text so that it is visually appealing. Giant chunks of text are likely to get the potential customer to click off the landing page if they think they will have to keep scrolling far down the page to find the information they are looking for.

3. Improve Local SEO

Local SEO is one of the most important channels you can leverage to drive more traffic to your website if your business serves one or more geographic areas. Google, Bing, and Yahoo all offer local search platforms.

For example, Google offers ways to make sure your business is found via a listing on Google My Business. If you haven’t yet done so, you will need to create/claim your Google My Business (GMB) account and ensure your information is current and accurate. 

If you work on building your collection of customer reviews within the Google interface that will also help boost traffic volume. Doing so supports the increase of your “authority” on Google, which can improve your site’s positioning for relevant search results. 

By optimizing your practice’s website site speed plus security, content, and local search presence you will be well-placed to boost relevant traffic volume. 

If you have any questions or needs regarding any of these 3 optimization options or around SEO in general, please feel free to reach out to us!

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist II, Sesame Communications

The post 3 Pro Tips for Boosting Website Traffic appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

March marks a month-long celebration for women all over the world. This month we want to highlight the women who have made an impact on dental history. While there are so many wonderful and amazing women we wish we could highlight, here are just a few that have allowed women to assume the crucial roles in the dental industry that they hold today. 

Amalia Assur

Amalia was a Swedish-born dentist who is celebrated for being one of the very first women dentists in the world. Amalia Assur grew up surrounded by dentists with both her father and brother taking part in the profession and she started her career as her father’s assistant.

In 1852, she became the first female dentist in Sweden with the Royal Board of Health giving her permission to practice as an independent dentist. At that time, female dentists were not legally allowed to practice in Sweden, so she had to acquire special permission. In 1861 Sweden publicly opened the profession to women.

Emeline Robert Jones

Emeline lived in a time when female dentists were frowned upon. It wasn’t until she married her husband, a dentist named Dr. Daniel Jones, that she discovered her love of dentistry.

When she approached him to relay her newfound passion, she was met with dismissal as her husband did not believe she had the ability to do his work. Regardless of his decision, she continued to pursue her career in dentistry, and it wasn’t until she presented him with a jar full of hundreds of teeth, that he finally accepted her.

She began her career as her husband’s assistant in 1855 and it wasn’t until 1859 that she became his partner. After her husband passed in 1864, she continued running his practice until 1876 when she moved her family to New Haven and established her own successful practice.

Emeline Roberts Jones received numerous awards and honors as a dentist. In 1893, she served on the Women’s Advisory Council of the World’s Columbian Dental Conference. She was elected to the Connecticut State Dental Society in 1883, and in 1914 she was made an honorary member of the National Dental Association.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Lucy Hobbs Taylor had to overcome many obstacles to achieve her dreams. She is known as the first woman to graduate from a dental college in America.

At the age of 12, she was orphaned along with her 9 siblings so she took on the responsibility of raising and caring for them. To provide for her family, she started working as a seamstress all while attempting to continue her education.

She eventually discovered her passion for medicine. When she became aware of her new passion, she started to apply to medical schools but was rejected from each of them due to her gender. Instead of giving up, Lucy continued by seeking out mentorships from professors and graduates to learn the skills to open her own practice.

In 1861, she achieved her dream by beginning her career as a dentist. In 1866, after only one year of school, she graduated from Ohio Dental College and became the first woman to receive a degree in dentistry.

Ida Gray Rollins

In her early adulthood, Ida Gray Rollins started working for the dental office of Jonathan Taft while she was finishing her high school degree. Despite enduring a difficult childhood after the passing of her mother, Ida was determined to work hard.

Jonathan Taft had recently become the dean of the dental college at the University of Michigan and encouraged Ida to apply to the school. He spent hours helping her prepare for entrance exams and because of his mentorship she passed.

In 1890, when she graduated from the school, she was one of only three women in the graduating class and became the first-ever African American woman to become a dentist.

Minnie Evangeline Jordan

Minnie Evangeline Jordan was the first-ever dentist to fully specialize in treating children and pioneered the field of pediatric dentistry. She graduated college in 1898.

She began to understand that dentists needed to alter their care when dealing with children and decided to dedicate her professional life to ensuring that children could have a comfortable experience when seeking dental care.

She also played a role in founding the Federation of American Women Dentists and helped found the American Society of Dentistry for Children.

These women and countless others worked hard to make a mark for themselves and open doors for future generations. Without their willingness to push unfair boundaries, it would be hard for females working in the dental industry to be where they are today.

This month we celebrate Women’s History Month and invite you to join us in celebrating all the women who have made their mark on the world, big or small!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Celebrating the Women Who have Greatly Impacted Dental History appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

With large platforms such as Facebook and Instagram offering advertising options, reaching your target audience has never been easier. But how do you know if you are optimizing your ads to reach your biggest target audience? Keep reading to learn more about defining your target audience and how doing so will help make your social media advertising efforts more effective. 

What is a Target Audience?

It’s important to have an idea of who you are targeting with your marketing campaigns. Your target audience is composed of the group, or groups, of people who are most likely to need the services your practice offers. These are the people who should be seeing your marketing campaigns. 

The target audience is dictated by age, gender, location, interests, income, behavior, connections, and other demographics.

The Benefits of Knowing Your Target Audience

From a marketing standpoint, knowing your practice’s target audience is vital for successfully executing your marketing efforts.

You could produce a whole campaign around teeth whitening but if you’re showing the ads to everyone without any rhyme or reason, then you are going to end up wasting your advertising dollars. However, if you are creating your target audience specifically for a teeth whitening campaign, your ads may be seen by fewer people, but they will be the right people. 

In addition to increasing your return on investment, understanding your target market allows for better communication and trustworthy relationships with prospective patients. Because your campaigns will be more personalized, they are more likely to resonate with your target audience, meaning that group is more likely to take the action you desire.

What Facebook Audiences are Available?

Facebook has gone further than any other platform when it comes to social media advertising. In doing so, they allow businesses to create different audience types and targeting options. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Saved Audiences

Saved audiences target users based on their location, interests, demographics, and behavior. If you are running multiple ads within the same campaign, you can create your audience within Facebook Ads Manager and then save it to utilize in your next ad. Detailed targeting allows you to go one step further by narrowing your saved audience and including (or excluding) people based on demographics, interests, and behavior. Adjusting for these factors will guarantee the best possible audience.

Custom Audiences

Custom audiences are audiences you can make based on data collected on your website or Facebook page. These audiences are made from people who have already interacted with your practice. They are especially good if you are looking to target previous website visitors who have already engaged with your online presence.

Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike audiences look to find people who are similar to your existing audience or customers. By creating a lookalike audience, you can tell Facebook to find similar people to your already created custom audience. However, if you are looking to create a lookalike audience, you will need to have a previously established custom audience created.

How to Define Your Audience?

One of the easiest ways to determine your target audience is to look at your existing customers. What is their typical age, where are they located, what are their interests? You can collect customer surveys or review this information on your social media accounts if you’re not sure. 

Another way to define your audience is by looking at the available information. Through market research and analyzing your competitors, you can determine what other practices are focusing their efforts on.

Another important step in defining your audience is to create personas. Personas allow a business to determine the demographics, personalities, and needs of its target audience. They can be created based on data, surveys, engagements, and other information that can be pulled. Ideally, you want to develop 3-5 personas to get an all-encompassing idea of who meets the criteria in your target audience. 

It’s also important to understand which demographics don’t fit into your target audience. Going back to our teeth-whitening example, those who typically care about the appearance of their teeth are people in the age range of 20-45. So, do you think teenagers would be the best fit for your campaign? Probably not.

It’s very important to continuously reevaluate your target audience. As you collect data from your campaigns, start looking for trends and understand the accuracy of your audience. From there you can constantly optimize and improve your personas to achieve the best possible results. 

You get to set the rules of who sees your ads and when. With that much freedom, you will be able to deliver the ad to be seen by the right people. If you’re still struggling on defining your target audience and with social media advertising in general, we invite you to learn more about Sesame Social!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Targeting Your Audience via Social Media Ads appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Blog posts allow you to provide patients with updates regarding services, best practices, office announcements, and more. It’s important for the contents of your blog to align with your practice and the services you provide while keeping your patients in mind.

When it comes to how often your practice should be launching new blog posts, there are many factors at play. There isn’t a “one size fits all” number. In fact, it’s up to your practice to determine what works best for you and your audience. 

That said, in this blog post I will highlight four important questions that your practice needs to consider to help determine how often you should be posting. Keep in mind that this varies from practice to practice and what might work for one, may not work for another. 

Who is your audience? 

When it comes to blog posts, it’s important to think about your audience. If you’re unsure who your target audience is, figure that out before proceeding. For most practices, their audience tends to be current patients as well as prospective patients. How often will they be able to read your content? And what kind of content will they be interested in reading about? 

What is the intention behind your blog? 

After your audience, the next big question is “what is the intention behind maintaining a blog?” Is your intention to provide a steady stream of updates to your current patients? Are you looking to expand your reach to create a bigger following and bring in new patients? Or are you looking to provide an occasional update about your practice? Your answer to these questions will help determine the frequency in which you should be launching blog posts – whether that’s daily, weekly, or monthly. 

The rule of thumb is if you are looking to expand your reach and create a bigger following, the more posts the better. In this scenario, you may consider posting multiple times a week. This kind of consistency will allow your posts to be seen more frequently and help boost traffic from search results. 

If you have a dedicated base of patients and want to provide them with a steady stream of updates, your practice might be more inclined to post weekly. If you aren’t as concerned with posting regularly, don’t have the resources to do so, or only want to post information as needed, then monthly blogs may be right for you. 

How much time can you commit to posting regularly? 

When it comes to posting on social media, the key is consistency. By creating a consistent posting schedule, patients are more likely to see your content which can help generate more traffic to your website. Before you start deciding on a posting schedule, it’s important to consider whether or not it’s manageable for your practice. 

If you are working with a small staff and don’t have a dedicated team to work on blog posts, it may be hard to set the expectation to publish multiple times a week. Doing so could quickly lead to burnout and lower-quality content, which will obviously not benefit your practice. In this case, it may be best that your practice aims to post once or twice a week or bi-weekly. 

In the event you have a larger team, posting multiple times a week may be a more realistic expectation. Just make sure you stay consistent with your posting schedule and keep your audience in mind. If you find that you have the resources to post more, but don’t have enough blog-worthy content to go out multiple times a week, then your practice may not require as much posting. 

Instead, you might consider using the extra time you have to update old posts from weeks, months, or years ago. By updating the content and keywords in older blog posts, you can help them gain visibility in search results even after they’ve already been posted. 

Would you risk quality over quantity? 

According to HubSpot, the suggested frequency for publishing posts is 3 to 5 per week in order to maximize your organic traffic. However, if your practice finds it hard to achieve consistency while maintaining quality posts, posting weekly or even less often is likely the right path for you. 

One of the benefits of posting more frequently is that you can gain increased traffic to your website. That being said, it’s important that you maintain the same high-quality content while doing so. If you find that you’re struggling to keep up with your posting schedule, your practice should consider reviewing your posting schedule. As we’ve said before, your posting schedule is unique to your practice and what may work for one, may not work for another. 

If your practice does opt for a lighter posting schedule, that doesn’t mean that traffic will totally drop. Instead, your practice will have the ability to create more high-quality content within fewer posts, rather than maintaining an overloaded posting schedule which could risk losing your audience’s interest. If it comes down to quality vs. quantity, we always opt for less frequency and higher-quality content. 

Recap

So, what is the magic number? Well, when it comes to blog posts, it’s up to your practice to decide.  While it’s best to maintain a consistent posting schedule with your blog, consistency can look different from practice to practice. You may find that posting daily, multiple times a week, weekly, or even monthly works best for you. To help determine what your optimal posting schedule should be, consider your audience, resources, and goals. Happy blogging! 

If you are a Sesame Social service Member and/or are interested in learning how you can utilize blogs to your practice’s advantage, be sure to give the Social Team a call at (866) 856-2050 ext. 1. Our team would be happy to speak with you about your current efforts to help your practice achieve your blogging goals. 

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post What’s the Right Blog Post Launch Frequency? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Are you looking to start promoting your services on your social media profiles? Well, you’ve come to the right blog post! Keep reading to learn about things you can do to get started on your campaigns.

I will cover organic (free) strategies that your practice can utilize to promote your services. These strategies will generate traffic to your website in natural ways and will work towards the goal of improving brand awareness. 

Running Virtual Contests

Running contests online is a highly underrated marketing option. They are a great and subtle way to promote your services without advertising them. By running a contest on your social platforms, you’ll be able to drive your audience’s attention directly towards your offerings.

Choosing things such as liking, commenting, and following to be entered into a giveaway will also help increase engagement numbers! Are you a Sesame Social Member? If so, you can easily set up a contest within our social tool platform and manage it all from there. While Sesame does not offer any sort of service to manage contests, we can help you get started by creating a graphic for you.

Setting up Promotional Codes

Offering promo codes to your followers is another great, and free, option for promoting your services via social media. Not only can you generate more sales, but if customers see that you are periodically running promotions on your social media profiles, it will help keep them engaged.

Of course, there are many different types of promotional codes. However, customers tend to respond best to personalized ones. Birthday or anniversary promo codes are one of the most popular options. For example, you can offer a pricing incentive for patients who reach a milestone visit. 

Share Creative and Visual Content

Engagement is an important part of success on social media platforms. Part of the engagement process entails creating and posting images, videos, and other visual content of your services on different social networks to help drive more online visibility for your practice.

As a reminder, you want your content to be visually appealing and aesthetically pleasing but also engaging. Test different ideas to find new and creative ways to promote your services.  

Utilizing User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is exactly as it sounds – it is content created by patients and followers that pertains to your practice. 

The biggest benefit to UGC is the trust you will build from your clientele. See, a lot of UGC comes with positive opinions about a service or a practice. When people make informed decisions about which practice to trust, they feel more comfortable knowing about the experience of other patients rather than being influenced by advertisements. 

Now that we’ve taken a look at a few examples to maximize your promotions on social media, it’s time for you to get out there and get started! Each of these options is a piece of the puzzle and by piecing together multiple strategies you will help position your practice to reach your ideal audiences online. 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post How to Maximize Promotions via Social Media appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Planning and creating content are very time-consuming tasks. It may feel overwhelming, especially when you have no creativity flowing, and some days you may just want to not deal with it altogether. Yet, social media platforms and their algorithms value consistency immensely. That translates into considerable benefits for posting regularly.

But what do you do if you’re out of ideas and are needing to post? This is where user-generated content or UGC, gets brought into the equation.

What is User-Generated Content?

Many consumers rely on other consumers’ content to weigh out purchase decisions. As a result, many people have found the need to create content for products and services to educate the world. This is what is known as user-generated content. 

User-generated content is a powerful way to connect with your audience authentically while driving down the cost of creative production and integrating unique ways to bring your brand to life. And with the growth of an online presence, brands are increasingly leveraging UGC to feature and connect with their customers.

It’s important to note that before you begin with any sort of user-generated content, you should consult with the owner of the content to get confirmation that you can share their content on your profiles and in your ads. And if you have any hesitations, always double-check with a legal authority.

What are the Benefits of User-Generated Content?

Besides having a pool of content readily available at all times, there are plenty of benefits to this type of content. UGC may be the answer to your budget constraints while boosting performance.

With UGC, you are getting the authentic views and perspectives that your business has to offer. This is incredibly important because many consumers rely heavily on another consumer’s opinion when deciding to make a purchase, and they tend to overlook what the brand is saying about their own services. Remember, UGC is entirely based on community behavior.

What Types of User-Generated Content are there?

User-Generated Content can provide deep wells of content and refreshing, creative approaches. There are many content ideas that you can experiment with within each of these verticals. Still, a great feature of incorporating each of the following types of UGC is you’ll be able to reach a broader audience across different platforms!

Creator Endorsement

While creator endorsement holds a very strong place in user-generated content, it is not the only source. Many creators share their opinions of products and services on their social media platforms. They can be paid or organic (free channels). However, both are examples of UGC.

Testimonials/Reviews

Adding “social proof” to your advertisements using testimonials and/or reviews is a great option to incorporate user-generated content into your marketing strategy. It is important to note that the type of content that you want to select for these campaigns should highlight the benefits of your practice’s services. Customer reviews are authentic and enthusiastic and that is why they make great sense for user-generated campaigns.

Industry Endorsement

Industry endorsement is another great way to include user-generated content in your marketing strategy. Using ambassadors of your practice to promote you will provide you with even more content.

Customer Photos and Videos

With already created content, practices can utilize UGC for ads and remarketing campaigns. Leaning into photos and videos made by patients is a great way for potential customers to envision themselves using those specific products as well. It’s been proven that this method increases conversions and aids in lowering the cost per conversion. And this strategy helps bring higher visibility because it can increase your audience size. 

How to Get Started with User-Generated Content in Campaigns

Start by digging through your user-generated content! If you have a Google My Business or a Facebook page, you may already have some reviews that you can use. Type your business name into Google, Instagram, Facebook, and any other social media platforms you may be on. You’ll be able to find anything that was tagged with your business or practice name. You can also use comments on your posts, previous reviews, or press clippings you may already have!

The next step is identifying a new reason that people should choose your practice. With user-generated content, creators open the door for new possibilities on how to use and market your products. By reviewing existing content, you may be able to find new ways that people are connecting with you. Be prepared to accept different ways your solutions are being used!

The next step is looping in your creative team. Of course, not everyone has a specific team to create content but there are some important elements to consider when you are looking to bring your decision to life. Things like brand overview, audience and insights, objectives and goals, and overall execution parameters can help. From there, you can create a storyline that unifies everything.

Finally, don’t forget to include the basics such as a call to action! Then tie everything in from previous steps to complete your user-generated campaign!

User-generated content can be incredibly important to your marketing strategy. Not only can customers see your products and services in real-time with real opinions but you, as a business, can learn how customers are responding to what you are offering. Don’t be shy with sharing user-generated content because just as much as your patients support you, you should show that you support them as well!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post The Power of User-Generated Content appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

There are many tools available for business owners and content creators to utilize through the Instagram Professional Dashboard. In this post, I’ll go over what is available for you to use!

Ad Tools

Similar to Facebook, Instagram has its own way of doing ads called Boosts. When a post is boosted, it means that the business owner or creator has created an ad campaign around a specific post.

When you choose to Boost your post, you will need to fill out a series of questions so Instagram can ensure that the campaign budget is maximized to cover the best audience possible. They will start by asking you to select one of the following goals:

–    More Profile Visits

–    More Website Visits

–    More Messages

From there you will be able to define your audience. Of course, it is completely up to you how you would like to set your audience. However, Instagram does have a feature called Automatic Audience that will target people like your followers. You can also select special requirements that will shift certain demographics such as age and gender.

Finally, you will set up your budget and duration for the campaign. Depending on what dollar amount you select and how many days you would like the campaign to run, you will be given an estimated reach count for the duration of the campaign.

Once you have gone through and verified everything, your post will be placed in the review period where Instagram reviews the boosted post to ensure it meets community guidelines.

Saved Replies

The last tool I want to go over is the Saved Replies Tool. You likely get many new potential patients every day looking to enquire about your services. Sometimes the questions that are sent in can be repetitive and time-consuming to respond to. This is where Saved Replies come in!

You can now create a saved reply to apply when speaking to someone in direct messages. Instead of spending your afternoon responding to messages asking what your hours are, you can create a shortcut to essentially copy and paste a message into the chat. This is such a time saver!

Educate Yourself on All the Trending Topics

At the bottom of the Professional Dashboard, you will find a section called Tips and Resources. Here, Instagram provides helpful articles that are designed for you to achieve all your social media goals on their platform. You can find how-to’s, tips, and exciting news all located in one section.

Effective utilization of these tools can really influence your practice’s social media performance. Take a look at what’s available and you may be surprised by the cool posting tools that you can utilize within the platform.

As always, please feel free to reach out to the Sesame Social Team with any questions or social media management needs you may have! 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Instagram Professional Tools You Can Utilize appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In recent years, Instagram has transformed into a useful platform for many business owners and professionals. 

Beginning early 2021, Instagram added a Professional Dashboard, allowing all professional accounts (business and creator) to access account performance data. With this new feature added to the platform, business owners are able to achieve their social media goals in relation to their business growth.

If you are struggling with understanding what everything means in your Instagram Professional Dashboard keep reading for a quick tutorial!  

What is the Professional Dashboard?

The Professional Dashboard gives businesses the tools that they need to track account performance, access, discover professional tools, and explore educational information. With the promise of streamlining your administrative tasks, Instagram’s Professional Dashboard gives you an easy-to-access dashboard to house all of the necessary Instagram tools. 

The Dashboard will allow you to review insights and trends based on your account’s performance. It will also allow you to efficiently access tools to run your account, discover new tools to help grow your business and check monetization status and eligibility. 

With the dashboard, you can also learn how to make the most of Instagram through curated educational resources that include tips, tricks, guidance, and content inspiration.

This tool allows business owners and creators to use Instagram as a backbone to their business strategy. Instead of chasing down data and metrics, everything is easily accessible for you to review in one spot.

Understanding your Account Performance and Data

The biggest selling point to having your business be on Instagram is the built-in metrics and data. Typically, businesses must manually track their information or rely on a third party to provide this information. With Instagram, you have everything from your account performance to the breakdown of your audience right at the tip of your fingers.

When you open your Professional Dashboard, you will immediately see your performance over the last 30 days. This will give you a general overview of how many accounts you reached. Above your chart, there will be a section for Account Insights. Let’s go ahead and take a deeper dive into what kind of data you will have available through the dashboard.

The first thing on your Insights page is your data range. You can view the data from the last 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, 90 days, or the previous month. You can also view a custom date range. 

On your Insights Overview page, there is a breakdown of your data by Accounts Reached, Accounts Engaged, and Total Followers. In the following sections, you will see the different types of content you have shared during the selected date range.

Accounts Reached

Accounts Reached displays the information on the accounts that you have reached through organic content and paid promotions. The data is created through analysis of the specific demographics of your audience. 

It is broken down by top cities, top countries, top age ranges, and gender. You can also see how your content reach is performing by followers versus non-followers.

Moving down the page you will see your top pieces of content, including posts, stories, reels, IGTV videos, and live videos. It will display the number of people reached per that piece of content, whether the content was boosted, and when it was posted.

At the very bottom, you will see the total number of impressions for your entire profile for the specified date range as well as how many profile visits and email button taps you received.

Accounts Engaged

Engagement is very different from reach. This metric shows how your audience engaged with your content, such as liking it, commenting, sharing, and such. As in the Accounts Reached section, you can select the date range. You are also able to review whether your engagement performance primarily comes from your followers or non-followers.

The major difference between the Reached and Engaged dashboards is within Engaged – there is a section called Content Interactions. Within this portion of the dashboard, you can see how many interactions you received for your selected date range. It is broken down into four categories (Likes, Comments, Saves, and Shares). You can also see a general overview of how each individual piece of content performed based on specific interactions.

Total Followers

This section is a complete overview of your Followers. I would like to note that this section has nothing to do with engagement or reach and just simply highlights your follower data.

Just like all the other sections, you can filter this one by date range. From here you will see how many followers you gained and lost during that time. You can even see what your overall growth was on any given day by simply selecting a day on the graph provided by Instagram.

Below the graph, you will find additional followers demographic info including top location by cities and countries, age range overall as well as age range by gender, and the gender breakdown of your followers.

The last info in this section is called Most Active Times. This is one of the coolest features within the Professional Dashboard as you get insight into when your followers are the most active by day and within what frame. You can utilize this feature to post at the most appropriate times.

Using Data to Inform Decisions

The existing data provided by Instagram offers your practice a resource for shaping the types of posts and frequency of posting you undertake. We strongly recommend using the available data to inform your posting decisions! 

For information on using the tools Instagram offers, we invite you to return to the Sesame blog next Tuesday (1/25) for pt.2 of this series.

As always, if you have any questions pertaining to Instagram or social media in general please feel free to reach out to us!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Tracking Instagram Performance – A Brief Overview appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

To pay, or not to pay? That is the fundamental question most businesses must answer when developing their social media strategy. 

Organic posts and paid advertising each have their strengths and weaknesses. Keep reading to learn when you should use one vs. the other and how you can develop a winning social media plan!

Organic Content

Brand Development and Cost-Effectiveness

Organic posts are the building blocks for any social media marketing strategy. They provide a cost-effective way to expand your brand´s reach exactly where your customers are spending their time online.

Organic content consists of posts that your business can share for free such as photos, videos, stories, and the like. These posts stay on your profile page indefinitely with the only exception being “stories” when not added to your “highlights.” 

The audience for this type of content is limited to the people following your page along with their network (provided your followers engage with your content).  As such, your audience in this case is likely expecting your content already. That is to say, organic posts serve as one of the most cost-effective and least invasive methods available to develop a deeper relationship with your existing patients.

Despite the low financial entry barrier, an organic content strategy takes a lot of time, effort, and trial and error to be successful. What’s more, algorithm updates have shrunk organic reach over the years and this trend is only set to continue in the near future. 

With this in mind, it is becoming more unrealistic to rely on organic content alone to reach new audiences. However, Social Media Advertising can bridge the gap. 

Social Media Advertising

Reach New Horizons

With Social Media Advertising, businesses are able to pay money to social media platforms in order to tap into entirely new audiences that are more likely to be interested in their product or service.

 Unlike the organic posts that stay on your page, paid social posts will show up on your targeted audience’s feeds and stories for as long as your campaign is running. This means paid posts are by nature temporary but in turn, they provide a faster and more direct way to reach new patients when compared to organic posts.

Targeting and Data

While organic posts have a predetermined audience that´s well-defined (followers and their network), paid social targeting allows businesses to use ad parameters such as location, demographics, and behaviors to pinpoint who they want their content to show up to.

This ability combined with budget flexibility makes social ads a powerful and scalable way to promote offers and events, generate customer leads, and consequently boost revenue growth.

Equally important, paid social provides more detailed data on the type of traffic your content is reaching. This allows your business to learn who your audience is and adjust your targeting and content for better campaign performance.

The Verdict

While very different in nature, organic posts (cost-effective but time-consuming) and paid social advertising (quick but requires a financial investment upfront) work best together. In tandem, they are the ideal option for achieving social media success. 

If you have any questions about organic or paid social media efforts or your practice is in need of social media profile management support please reach out to the Sesame team!

—Jonathan Giraldo, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Understanding Organic vs. Paid Social Media appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Taking the time to plan out your content and get it scheduled can be a time-consuming process. Still, consistency is key. Planning and scheduling are necessary elements of growing engagement on your social media profiles.

So, what is the solution for planning and organizing your content strategy? It’s simple. Have a content calendar!

What is a Content Calendar?

You may be asking yourself, is it necessary to plan everything out ahead of time? The answer is “yes.” Growing your social media presence does take some time and effort. As we stated in a previous blog post, ideally you should be posting around 2 times per week across all social media platforms that you are using. If you stick to a single platform, you may only be posting 8 times a month. However, if you are using multiple platforms that number will be higher. 

A content calendar will help you organize all upcoming content including what piece of content you will be posting to what platform and when. With all of this in place, you will be able to dedicate a lot more time to your business and not have to rely on remembering to post to your social media platforms.

How do You Build a Content Calendar?

While the overall structure of your calendar is up to you, there are key elements that should be included.

You can either create your own content calendar and have the responsibility to remember posting when necessary, or you can subscribe to a third-party tool that can handle the posting for you. With a separate tool, all you will need to do is schedule posts within their calendar. This is the method the Sesame Social Team uses for posting content.

If you would like to create your own, the best place to start is by analyzing your social media content. Figure out what you need to improve on and what is working well. Review your social media goals and keep them in mind when you are creating new content. Another important part of this step is analyzing your target audience and what platforms they tend to use. If your audience is mostly on Tik Tok, make sure to make that social channel part of your strategy.

To create the actual calendar, determine what kind of information you need to track within the calendar itself. You will want to include the date, time, platform, copy (captions), visuals (actual content), and links to any assets such as a website or published posts. These items are just a starting point. If you prefer to add additional details that’s even better!

Once you have determined what things you need to add in the calendar it’s time to start creating! Begin by establishing a place to house all of your content. We suggest something like OneDrive or Google Drive so if you have multiple eyes on the post, content can be easily accessed. When you have a place to upload all of your raw content you can begin creating it. Don’t worry about perfection – especially if you have an additional team to review the content for you. And of course, you can always head over to the social channels you will be posting on to gain inspiration for what is trending.

The final step entails launching your content. Before doing so it’s important to ask yourself a few questions to determine a posting schedule and frequency. What posting frequency should you follow, what is the best time of day to post, who is involved in posting, and what days should you be posting? Answers to these questions can help make your content calendar process a lot smoother. Once everything is ready to go make sure you follow the posting schedule you have created and watch your social media results soar.

Posting Services

If you are looking to have a pre-made calendar, you can always subscribe to a posting service where all you would need to do is upload your content to a website and schedule it out. Here at Sesame Communications, our social team utilizes a platform called SOCi to post all our content. As part of our social service, our clients can also utilize the platform as well and can schedule out their own posts directly to their Facebook and Instagram profiles. Other helpful tools include Asana, Loomly, Excel, HubSpot, Google Drive, Trello, SproutSocial, Evernote, and Hootsuite.

A content calendar, if created correctly, can be a crucial aid for organizing and streamlining social media content across all channels. The key to social media is consistency in all steps. If you are consistent in taking the time to prepare your content calendar each month, you will see how much of a breeze it is to post on all of your profiles.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Get Organized with a Social Media Content Calendar appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.