The temperature is dropping, and leaves are changing colors. These could only mean one thing — it’s fall! With the arrival of fall comes more than just seasonal changes, it also brings many opportunities for your social media content. From smile-friendly autumn recipes to Halloween festivities, fall is the perfect time to show off what is happening in your office and connect with your patients online. Because fall fun is just around the corner, below are some quick and easy ideas to boost your content this season!

Seasonal Hygiene Tips

Fall is the perfect time to share some seasonal oral health-related tips! Keeping your patients up to date with seasonal tips and tricks is a fantastic way to promote good oral health while also encouraging engagement on your social sites. Consider a blog or Facebook post on some fall tips, such as tooth sensitivity from hot beverages or the importance of wearing mouth guards during fall sports. Also, it is the perfect time to remind your patients of the dangers of too much Halloween candy!

Fall Foliage

As the season changes, so does the scenery around the office. Be sure to capture the changing colors for your social media! Sharing seasonal updates such as photos of the office is a great way to keep your patients involved online. Fun fall activities like visiting a pumpkin patch or local farm are also fantastic ways to highlight local involvement on your social media. A lot of offices see success in having an in-office pumpkin decorating contest, where each staff member creates a pumpkin and your patients can vote for their favorite!

Halloween Fun

Halloween is the perfect time to create some in-office content for your social media. Whether your office team is dressing up on the day of (Halloween is on a Tuesday this year!) or you are just decorating for the season, capturing a few photos of it for Facebook and Instagram goes a long way in keeping your patients updated on the office happenings! Also encouraging your patients to dress up for their appointments on Halloween can be an excellent way to get them involved in some in-office fun.

Thanksgiving Gratitude

A great time to share your gratitude this season is during Thanksgiving. This is the perfect opportunity to thank your amazing patients for supporting your business. Be sure to utilize patient testimonials and reviews in your social media posts and encourage others to share their experiences with your office! Thanksgiving is also a great chance to thank your staff members — consider a staff spotlight blog post or a Facebook shout-out post to show your appreciation to your team.

Favorite Fall Recipes

There are so many delicious, tooth-friendly fall recipes that promote oral health. Does your office have any favorites? Now is the perfect time to share them! We recommend sharing a blog post highlighting some popular fall favorites in your office. You can also get your patients involved by asking for some of their favorite recipes on your Facebook page!

Final Thoughts

Fall is all about change, so make sure you highlight these changes in your office this season! Patients love to see what is happening in the office, so be sure to show them just that by posting any fall fun online. We can’t wait to see what your office is up to this season on social media!

—Tyler Harris, Lead Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Festive Fall Fun for Facebook appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

What Are PPC Ads?

PPC Stands for pay-per-click. As the name implies, these ads appear above organic search results, but you only dip into your ad budget when someone clicks your ad. They offer fast results and custom options, and they are utilized by many today. But are they right for your practice?

The Benefits of PPC Ads

Fast Results – SEO, while vital, can be slow, and ranking in the top three spots can be incredibly difficult, especially if you practice in a competitive area. If you’re in a rush to get your name out, or you want to advertise for a service that you’re having trouble ranking for, PPC ads could be a great option.

Show Up At the Top – PPC ads give businesses the ability to pay for the top three spots on Google search results. This offers a unique opportunity to showcase yourself in ways you may otherwise struggle to with organic methods. As an example, if your practice primarily offers dental services, but you also provide Invisalign, you could run an Invisalign-specific ad campaign.

Set Your Own Budget – You can choose how little or how much you want to spend on your PPC ad budget each month, allowing flexibility for seasonal or economic shifts.

Location Targeting – PPC ads offer the ability to target specific areas in a radius. This can be especially useful for practices that want to expand their audience to a town or several towns nearby.

Organic-Looking Ads – PPC ads appear right above organic results in a search, and they look similar to regular website options. This avoids the spammy look of other ad options.

What to Consider Before Implementing PPC Ads

PPC ads can offer many benefits, but you need to consider these factors to consider before starting up your first ad campaign.

Sales/Patient Influx – PPC ads may increase your sales or your number of patients. Plan accordingly to ensure that you have the resources available to support influxes.

Required Knowledge – Setting up ads requires know-how and time. Additionally, an ad campaign will need to be monitored and adjusted as time goes on. Many businesses hire professionals or agencies to manage ad campaigns on their behalf for this reason. 

Website/Landing Page – The job of an ad is to bring users to your website. There is no guarantee that a user will call or make a purchase once on your website. Ensure that you have a functional, user-friendly and aesthetic website in place beforehand to increase your chance for conversion.

Should I Start a PPC Ad Campaign?

If your practice is new and you need fast results to get your name out, you want to target an audience one town over, or perhaps you’re just seeing fewer patients than normal and you want to try a new strategy, PPC ads could be a good place to start. Because they take skill to navigate and manage, however, ensure that you have time to learn how they work or consider hiring a professional.

—Team Member, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Are PPC Ads Right for My Practice? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

As most people already know, social media advertising (ads) can be a powerful tool to help practices attract new potential patients. But what if we told you, social media ads could benefit your existing patients as well?

While you may have only considered how social media ads can help your practice gain new patients, this blog can help you get a better understanding of why social media ads are not only important for growth, but beneficial to the patients you already have.

Here are three social media ads that can benefit your existing patients.

Promoting New Service Offerings

Is your practice adding some new service offerings? Consider creating a social media ad to promote it. Social media ads are an effective way to inform existing customers about any new services you are adding to your practice. This can be anything from what the service entails to how it can benefit the patient, especially if a special offer is involved. By keeping patients informed, your practice can keep their interest to ensure they are getting the most out of the services you offer.

Communicating Office Updates

Changing locations? Adding a new doctor to your practice? Create a social media ad about it. This is a great way to communicate with new and existing patients about any upcoming changes to your practice. This is not only informative for anyone new looking at your practice, but it keeps your existing customers up to date about what new things your practice is offering so that they know what to expect during their next visit.

Highlighting Promotions, Contests or Giveaways

Social media ads are a great way to highlight exclusive offers from your practice. Whether it’s a promotion, contest or giveaway, these offers won’t go unnoticed. Plus, by hosting a contest or giveaway, your practice could see increased engagement and followers, especially if your existing patients are sharing your ad. Utilizing your social media ads to highlight these special offers is a great way to reengage with existing patients, especially if it’s an exclusive promotion. These kinds of offers will incentivize patients to visit your practice over your competitor by building brand loyalty.

The Importance of Social Media Ads for Existing Patients

Now that we’ve gone over three ways social media ads are beneficial to your existing patients, let’s go over why this is important.

Posting social media ads is a great way to build a deeper relationship with existing patients. As we mentioned above, these ads provide timely updates to your audience about services, office updates, and any promotions going on. This kind of communication is vital for long-term success as it allows your practice to cater to the needs and interests of current patients. Not to mention, it creates brand loyalty and encourages patients to return to your practice.

By keeping your ad targeting up to date, this ensures that your message gets delivered to the correct audience. In doing so, you can create personalized content geared toward what your patients want so you can deliver a more meaningful experience. This is a great way to retain patients for years to come.

Final Thoughts

Overall, social media ads can contribute to your practice’s success and growth. Whether it’s using ads to promote new services, communicate updates, highlight in-office promotions or anything else, your practice will benefit. We encourage all practices to utilize social media ads for not only new potential patients, but existing patients as well.

Are you interested in social ads but don’t know where to start? Sesame Communications can help. We offer a Social Advertising service and are happy to get you started. Contact us now to learn more and get started.

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 3 Ways Social Media Ads Can Benefit Existing Patients appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

PPC or pay-per-click is a form of online marketing where a practice or advertisers pay a fee each time a consumer clicks on their ad. The most common form of PPC advertising is through search engines, such as Google Ads. This is where advertisers bid on keywords and their ads appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) when consumers search for those keywords.

PPC advertising can also be done through social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, and through display advertising on websites. For advertisers, having one or more forms of PPC ads is best. PPC advertising works by allowing advertisers to bid on specific keywords or phrases that they want their ads to appear for in search engine results. When a user searches for one of those keywords or phrases, the advertiser’s ad will appear among the top results. The advertiser is then charged a fee each time a user clicks their ad.

Advertisers create campaigns that target specific demographics, interests, locations, etc. They will set a maximum bid for the keywords they want to target.

When planning a PPC campaign, you should take these key steps:

• Define your target audience: Identify the demographics of the people you want to reach with your ads, including their age, gender and location.
• Set clear goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your PPC campaign, such as increasing website traffic, driving online sales or generating leads/calls.
• Research keywords: Use keyword research tools to identify the terms and phrases your target audience is searching for, and include them in your ad copy and website content.
• Create compelling ad copy: Write attention-grabbing headlines and descriptions for your ads that will entice people to click through to your website.
• Choose the right ad platforms: Decide which platforms you want to advertise on, such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Social Media Ads(for Facebook and Instagram) and so on. Amazon is also looking to advertise using PPC ads.
• Monitor and optimize your campaign: Track the performance of your ads and make adjustments as needed to optimize your campaign and achieve your goals.
• Test different ad formats and targeting options: Try different ad formats (like text, image and video), and experiment with different targeting options to see what works best for your campaign.
• Set a budget: Decide how much you want to spend on your campaign, and make sure you stick to your budget. If you are not meeting your budget at the end of the month, make adjustments to ensure you are spending money in the proper areas.

When it comes to online marketing, PPC is a great option to increase your online website traffic. While SEO can sometimes take time to see growth in results, PPC ads can drive website clicks and calls immediately.

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist II, Sesame Communications

The post What is PPC in Digital Marketing? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Calls to action (CTAs) play a vital role in social media advertisements. CTAs are a way to prompt the audience to take specific action, such as clicking a link, calling in to schedule an appointment or learning more about a special. They are a valuable tool for any practices looking to drive conversions and increase engagement, making them a must-have element in any social media ad campaign.

Benefits of Using CTAs

One of the primary benefits of CTAs is their ability to drive clicks. A well-crafted CTA can encourage potential customers to act by making it clear what they need to do next. For example, a CTA like “Call Now” or “Learn More” can be highly effective in driving clicks to a website or landing page. By providing a clear and concise message, the CTA can entice the audience to act, which is the goal of any social media ad campaign.

Another benefit of using calls to action in social media ads is that they can improve conversion rates. By driving users to take a specific action, such as clicking through to a landing page, you can increase the likelihood that they will convert. Converting could look like scheduling appointments, taking advantage of specials your practice may be offering, and buying products that are recommended and sold by your practice. This can help improve the ROI of your social media ad campaign and make it more effective overall.

Align Your CTA With Your Ad’s Goals

One important factor to keep in mind when using CTAs in social media ads is to make sure they align with the ad’s overall objective. For example, if the goal of the ad is to promote a new product, the CTA should focus on encouraging people to purchase the product. On the other hand, if the goal is to build brand awareness, the CTA should focus on encouraging people to follow the brand’s social media page.

Make Your CTA Stand Out

It’s also important to make sure the CTA is visible and easily accessible. Placing the CTA at the end of the ad or in a prominent location on the page can help ensure that people see it and are prompted to act. There are a few places that you can include the CTA, however we suggest at least putting it in the copy portion of the ad.

If you plain on adding the CTA to the graphic ad or video ad using bright colors or bold text can help the CTA stand out from the rest of the ad content. Thankfully with Facebook ads, which is what Sesame uses for your ads service, your CTA will not only be prominent in the copy, but there will also be a CTA button that people can press.

Don’t Overdo It

One potential downside of CTAs is that they can come across as pushy or aggressive if not used correctly. This can lead to a negative perception of the brand and ultimately harm the ad’s effectiveness. To avoid this, it’s important to strike a balance between being persuasive and respectful. Using language that is friendly and conversational can help make the CTA more approachable and less aggressive.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, CTAs are a crucial element in any social media ad campaign. They can drive clicks, increase engagement, and ultimately lead to more conversions and sales. By crafting well-written, visually appealing CTAs that align with the overall objective of the ad, businesses can create effective social media ads that deliver results.

If you are looking to get more information about our social ads service, please reach out to our team at 866.263.1639.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Should You Be Using Calls to Action in Your Social Media Ads? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In today’s digital age, social media has become an essential part of our lives. As part of a business that uses social media platforms to bring in new patients, you’ve probably wondered about the ideal frequency of posting on social media. Is there a magic number?

The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. By analyzing your data and understanding your audience’s engagement patterns, you can create a posting strategy that boosts your social media presence and maximizes engagement. This will enable you to determine the appropriate content frequency per week. In this article, we will explore the optimal posting frequency for each season and provide content ideas to boost engagement.

Summer: Embrace the Sun and Spontaneity

As temperatures rise, people are spending more time outdoors, and their social media habits may change. Since people are often busy with outdoor activities and vacations during the summer, it’s best to keep your social media posts brief and engaging. During the summer, aim for 2-3 posts per week to account for the reduced screen time.

If you’re stuck on what kind of content to be posting, no worries, here are some content ideas for summer:

• Summer-Themed Contests: Host giveaways or photo challenges related to summer activities, like beach trips, barbecues or vacations.
• Travel Inspiration: Share stunning travel photos or videos
• Seasonal Recipes: Share recipes that are refreshing and promote good oral health.
• Holiday Celebrations: Engage with your audience by creating content around holidays like Independence Day or National Toothbrush Day.

Fall: Harvesting Engagement and Preparing for Winter

As leaves change colors and fall arrives, social media users tend to become more active. This is a time when people are getting back into their routines, so it’s a good idea to post content that is informative and helpful. Increase your posting frequency to 4-5 times per week during the fall.

Content ideas for autumn include:

• Seasonal Specials: Capitalize on the excitement of the changing seasons by introducing limited time offers. Back-to-school season starts at the beginning of fall, so create some content about back-to-school specials you may be running.
• Holiday Preparations: Share recommendations on what foods to avoid and what to eat instead during Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays.
• Seasonal Reflections: Encourage your audience to share their favorite fall moments or memories, fostering a sense of community.

Winter: Sparkling Content and Festive Spirit

As the holiday spirit fills the air, winter presents ample opportunities to connect with your audience. With the holidays and colder weather, people are often focused on spending time with loved ones and staying cozy, so it’s a good idea to post content that is warm and festive. Maintain a consistent posting schedule of 3-4 times per week.

Content ideas for winter include:

• Holiday Gift Guides: Curate oral health gift ideas and share them with your followers, catering to different budgets.
• Seasonal Giveaways: Run contests and giveaways to spread joy and appreciation during the holiday season.
• Winter-Inspired Recipes: Share comforting recipes like hot cocoa, soups or cookies, invoking a cozy and nostalgic atmosphere.
• Reflections and Resolutions: Encourage your audience to reflect on the past year and set goals for the upcoming one, promoting self-improvement and positivity.

Spring: Fresh Beginnings and Engagement Opportunities

As nature blooms, so do engagement opportunities on social media. This is a time when people are excited for the warmer weather and new beginnings, so it’s a good idea to post content that is relevant to the season. During the spring season, aim to post 3-4 times per week. Your audience is likely to be more active and receptive to fresh content.

Some content ideas for spring include:

• Seasonal Promotions: Offer exclusive deals or discounts tied to spring themes such as Easter, Mother’s Day or Earth Day.
• Behind-the-Scenes: Showcasing your preparation for upcoming events or products builds anticipation and generates buzz.
• Outdoor Activities: Encourage your audience to get outside and share photos or stories of their outdoor adventures, tying them back to your brand if possible.
• Spring Cleaning: Share tips, tricks or product recommendations for decluttering and organizing, inspiring your followers to do the same.

Final Thoughts

Determining how often you should post on social media requires understanding your audience, observing their engagement patterns and adapting to seasonal trends. By aligning your posting frequency with the changing seasons, you can seize opportunities, increase engagement and foster a stronger connection with your followers.

Remember to experiment, review your analytics and refine your strategy over time to achieve optimal results. Embrace the art of timing and watch your social media presence flourish.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post The Art of Timing: How Often Should I Be Posting on My Social Media? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

“Does social media help with SEO?” The overall answer is yes, it does! It does not directly affect your SEO (search engine optimization) ranking, but the factors will affect your SEO ranking. Let’s take a look at how your social media can help impact your SEO ranking.

Increase Website Traffic

When posting content on your Instagram page with an article linked back to your website, you’ll help bring in traffic. This happens because your followers will click through to that story thus increasing website visitation.

Increase Brand Visibility

Social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest can increase brand visibility by attracting new followers to your social pages and new visitors to your website. Higher unique content reach through shares, likes and engagement increases how much your content is seen, which all plays a key role in driving traffic to your website.

This will, in turn, increase your ranking, placing your business higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and boosting visibility. As a result, content reach increases along with the chance that more people will see and continue engaging with your company and website.

Social Media on Search Engines

Google also crawls and indexes social media platforms in the SERPs. When crawling, the search engine will not take the number of followers into account. Even if your social channels are start-ups, if relevant, engaging, and authoritative content is being shared, Google will use these signals to rank your profiles higher.

In fact, social media profiles can often be among the top results in branded searches. For example, when conducting a google search for Invisalign, the company’s Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts appear as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th results.

Target the Right Audience

When you are using your social media platforms to help with your SEO, remember the target audience you are trying to reach with your business.

One of the newest forms of social media platforms that businesses are using to get traffic to their products and websites is TikTok. Businesses can allow their content to show up on users’ “For You” page (FYP) to bring potential new customers to the business. TikTok is a great platform to utilize if you are looking to promote certain content to target a certain audience. You can use keywords as well as the algorithm to push content that people are looking for.

Final Thoughts

The best advice I would give to any practice that is considering adding social media accounts to their portfolio to advertise and connect with patients and customers, is start by analyzing what platforms would reach your demographic the most.

When wanting to connect with families or the older generations, I would consider Facebook, as most consumers have that platform. If you are wanting to reach the teenage demographic to early adults, I would consider using Instagram and TikTok to connect as it will continue to show up on the customers’ stories, feed or FYP.

Feel free to reach out to our SEO team if you have any other questions about utilizing your social media to help increase your SEO rankings.

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist II, Sesame Communications

The post Does Social Media Help SEO? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

The patient journey, otherwise known as the user journey in SEO, is the path that a patient takes in order to accomplish a goal. A goal can be an objective of the practice, like a call, a form submission or an appointment booking. To accomplish one of these tasks, a patient must go through a series of steps.

Why Track the Patient/User Journey?

By mapping out and taking a closer look at these steps, business owners can recognize potential pitfalls and enhance user-friendliness and engagement, creating an optimal scenario for patients to complete that goal.

4 Steps in the Patient Journey

1. Organic Search

When a patient is in need of a service or a new practice to call home, their first step is often research. Search engines like Google provide results and reviews, and they play a big part in a patient’s overall decision of which practice or doctor to seek care with. Here are examples of questions to consider during this phase of the patient journey:

• Can a patient find my website if they type in my business name, my name or phrases that are important to my business like “dentist near me” or “dental implants”?
• Does my practice have a Google Business Profile, and is it optimized to offer clear information and give a good interpretation of my business?
• Do I have enough Google reviews to entice new patients, and if not, what are the best practices for obtaining more reviews?

2. Website

Your website can be a patient’s first impression of you and your practice. Maintaining a well-optimized website is vital for winning over potential patients and showcasing what makes your practice unique. Questions you may want to ask yourself at this stage of the patient journey include:

• Is my website fast and accessible?
• Is my website visually appealing and user-friendly (user-friendly features may include clearly visible contact information, an option to request an appointment via a form or an online billing setup)?
• Is there information on my website that patients could read to educate themselves on the services and procedures we provide?

3. Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for bolstering and engaging a patient base. Users frequently use social media to get an impression of a business. During this portion of the patient journey, these are factors you want to consider:

• Do I have the right social media platforms set up for my region and target audience?
• Is my content relevant and engaging, and how often should I be posting?

4. Conversion + Ongoing Communication

The last step of a patient or user journey is the conversion — a.k.a., the goal completion. Whether the goal is to receive a phone call or book an appointment, it’s important to understand what a patient wants out of an experience. Here are topics to think about during the final stages of your patients’ journeys:

• Do my patients have an easily accessible way of contacting my business?
• Am I giving my patients ways to get in touch with my office after booking an appointment or receiving treatment?
• Do my patients have clear instructions on how to review my business after treatment?

Final Thoughts

By tracking the patient journey, including the organic search, website, social media and conversion, businesses can ensure they are making every step of the process easy for their patients. This is not only valuable from a marketing standpoint, but also for building positive relationships with your patients.

—Team Member, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Following the Patient Journey appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Website or social media? If your practice is trying to decide which one to choose, you may want to consider the third option, both.

When it comes to your business, it’s important to create a strong online presence. Your practice can do this by setting up an easy-to-use website to provide patients with important information regarding your practice and the services you offer. Additionally, you’ll want to solidify a consistent social media presence to keep your patients engaged and provide a steady stream of updates.

But don’t just take our word for it, follow along below to see why having both a website and social media presence is crucial for your practice.

The Importance of a Website for Your Practice

The internet is a vast place with all the information you could ever need at the touch of a button. How many times have you found yourself looking up something on the internet only to be directed to a webpage that has all the answers? This is exactly the reason why having a website is essential.

Having a website is a great way to provide detailed information that is unique and specific to your practice. Your website will typically include sections like About Us, Services and Contact Us. This breakdown of information makes it easy for anyone to learn more about your practice. Not to mention websites are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, which means if someone has a question after hours, they can easily visit your website to gain access to this information.

SEO on Your Website

Additionally, if you’re on top of your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), anyone should be able to enter your practice name into a search engine and see your website appear as the top result. In the instance where someone is looking for something specific at your practice, like a service you offer, they can enter “[Practice Name] [Service]” into a search engine. Anything that matches these keywords will populate in the search results. This allows your patients to easily find the information they need, when they need it, which strengthens your online presence and accessibility for patients.

The Importance of Social Media for Your Practice

Similar to your website, having a strong social media presence is important. Social media has steadily integrated itself into most people’s daily routine. In fact, it’s estimated that there are over 4.8 billion total social media users worldwide as of 2023. For this reason, it’s crucial for your practice to be on social media to connect with current patients and reach potential future patients.

Post Consistency

Social media provides an easy, streamlined way to relay information and engage with patients online. To build a social media presence, it’s important that you maintain a consistent posting schedule. Not only will this provide a steady stream of updates to your followers, but it will also allow you to build your brand.

Consistency is key when it comes to social media. By having regularly scheduled content that relates to your practice, people will be more likely to see your content. Plus, you can build a stronger connection with your audience by responding to comments and questions. Interacting with your followers is a great way to humanize your brand and appear authentic, so make sure you stay true to your practice and have fun with it.

Use Content to Promote Your Practice

Not only is having an active social media presence a good look for prospective patients, but it can be informative for current patients. Posting to social media is a great way to highlight services you offer in a way that’s fun and engaging. You can do this by creating a reel, posting to your feed and sharing content on your story. This helps keep your social media informative and unique to your practice.

Grow Your Following

Another key thing to remember about social media is that not only is it inexpensive, but it can potentially help you reach hundreds if not thousands of people daily. For this reason, it’s important that you include any and all hashtags that are relevant to your content when posting. By doing so, you may be able to reach a wider audience as your post could be seen by more people, not just your followers.

Final Thoughts

So, why is it beneficial to have both a website and social media presence? It cultivates a strong online presence for your practice. Not only does this allow current or prospective patients to access important information about your practice at any time, but it can also help you widen your reach and grow your audience. While your website is great for general information about your practices, you can utilize social media in a fun way that highlights services, provides timely updates and allows you to share current promotions.

Your website in combination with social media can be a powerhouse of content and information that makes it easier for anyone looking to learn more. By having a strong online presence, your practice can appear more credible and authentic, which could potentially lead to a bigger following. If your practice doesn’t currently have a website, social media presence or both, we highly recommend setting these up as soon as possible.

Need help getting started? Sesame Communications offers premium website services and social media services. Let us help you reach your full potential. Contact us today to learn more about our services and get started.

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Website and Social Media: Why They Both Matter for Your Practice appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram have become a fundamental part of any marketing plan. They help businesses stay connected and engaged with their current customers while offering a massive potential audience to expand customer reach online. Below you’ll find 3 ways in which you can use social media to drive traffic to your website and increase your online presence!

Use Social Media Advertising

Creating social ads on Facebook or Instagram and sending traffic directly to a landing page on your website is one of the most effective ways to increase your online presence. Furthermore, with social ads you can leverage Meta’s audience targeting and different ad placement options to ensure your content reaches the right people at the right time! By creating compelling ad content and including a clear call to action , you can drive more traffic to your website and increase conversions.

Share Your Content Regularly

Whether it’s a blog post, a product page or a landing page, social media is a great way to share your website content! By regularly sharing your content on social media, you can attract potential visitors to your website.

Because of the relatively short attention span users have on social media, you need to make sure that the content you’re sharing is compelling and informative so as to capture your target audience immediately. Visual posts also tend to grab more attention than those with text only so make sure to use graphics whenever possible to receive more engagement.

Engage With Your Audience

Engaging with your audience on social media can help you build trust and loyalty with your followers. By responding to comments, messages and reviews, you can show your audience that you value their opinions and are committed to providing excellent customer service.

Engagement can also help you drive more traffic to your website. By answering questions or offering helpful advice, you can position yourself as an expert in your niche and encourage your followers to visit your website for more information.

You can also use engagement as an opportunity to promote your website. For example, you can share links to relevant blog posts or product pages in response to a follower’s question or comment.

Final Thoughts

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are vital for any marketing plan. By using social media advertising, regularly sharing compelling content and engaging with your followers, you can drive traffic to your website and increase your online presence. It’s crucial to stay up to date with the latest social media trends and strategies to achieve your business goals.

—Jonathan Giraldo, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 3 Ways To Increase Website Traffic Using Your Social Media appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

As a dental practice owner, you know that having a website is essential for reaching new patients and growing your business. But simply having a website isn’t enough — you need to promote it so that people know it exists. One of the best ways to do this is through social media.

In today’s blog, we go over a few different ways that your practice can begin promoting your website on different social media platforms. And don’t worry, we’ll also be going over how your website can promote your social media accounts in a later blog post.

Let’s get started!

Share Your Blog Posts

With the Sesame Social Service, you get access to weekly blog posts. These should absolutely be shared to your social media platforms to bring your social traffic over to your website. Thankfully, we already share your blog posts to your Facebook page, but it is just as important to share them to all of your other social media accounts.

To enhance the visibility of your post, be sure to add a hyperlink to the article and incorporate captivating visuals. If the platform you’re posting on doesn’t allow for hyperlinks, consider sharing it on your stories and adding the link to your bio. Additionally, social media can be used to generate interest in upcoming content, such as by announcing the release of a new blog post in the following week.

Post Photos and Videos of Your Practice

Sharing behind-the-scenes content of your dental practice on social media can help humanize your brand and make it more relatable to potential patients. Consider sharing photos and videos of your staff and practice, including a video walkthrough of your office. Before and after photos of treatments can also be particularly impactful.

To connect this content back to your website, include a call to action in your post that encourages people to book an appointment or visit your website for more information. Whenever possible, link to specific pages on your website to drive traffic to relevant information.

Run Social Ads

While organic social media posts are great for reaching your existing followers and driving traffic to your website, running social media ads can help you reach a wider audience.

Social advertisements are great because you can create ads that target specific demographics or interests, such as people in your area who are interested in dental health. This can not only help widen your audience and help you discover new patients, but with social ads, you have the opportunity to drive traffic directly to your website.

Including a call to action on your advertisement is a great way to do this. Another way is linking the ad to your website so when a prospective patient clicks on it, they will be directed back to your appointment form.

Although before you get ahead of yourself, it’s important to understand how social ads work instead of just wasting money trying to drive traffic to your website. Sesame offers a Social Ads Service that allows your practice to run monthly advertisements promoting specials, services and the practice. If you are interested, reach out to us at 866.263.1639.

Final Thoughts

Promoting your dental practice’s website on social media is an excellent way to connect with potential patients and expand your business. By leveraging social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, you can engage with your audience on a more personal level; share valuable content such as blog posts, articles and videos; and build trust and credibility with your brand.

In addition, running social media ads can help you target specific demographics and reach a wider audience, ultimately leading to increased traffic to your website and more new patients for your practice.

By taking advantage of these powerful marketing tools, you can strengthen your online presence and boost your chances of success in the competitive dental industry.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 3 Ways to Promote Your Website on Social Media appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

As the weather gets warmer and we start to do our spring cleaning, it’s important to not forget about our digital lives too. While cleaning up your social media pages may not be the first thing that comes to your mind, when it comes to staying relevant and updating all your information, it’s important to take steps to give your social media a spring cleaning too.

In today’s blog, we will be discussing tips and tricks for decluttering your social media pages and creating a more polished and professional online presence. And don’t forget, the Sesame Social Team is also here to help with any additional social media spring cleaning as well!

Tip #1. Delete any old or irrelevant posts, photos, or comments that no longer represent your practice.

This is by far one of the most important tips to consider. Clogging your feed with a ton of irrelevant content will hurt your social media presence more than it will help.

Review your posts and determine if they still align with your practice. If you have any photos of employees who are no longer with the practice, delete them. If you are no longer running certain promotions but still have them up on your feed, delete them. Everything that can no longer benefit how you show your practice on social media should be removed.

The same goes with comments. If you see any comments on posts that may be spam or unnecessary, you can feel free to remove them.

Tip #2. Check for broken links and outdated information — and update as necessary.

This is more important for your “About” sections and bios on each of your accounts. It’s important for potential patients to be able to reach you and book an appointment with your practice. If links are outdated or no longer work, it will be very hard for them to reach out to you.

Take some time to review that all the links on your social media pages are working and don’t lead to any dead ends. If they are no longer in service, delete them from your feed to avoid any confusion.

Also update your contact information. While this should be done as soon as anything changes, sometimes it slips our minds, and we forget. Making sure you take some time every few months to review your contact information on your socials will be extremely helpful for both you and your patients.

Another important part to update is your profile and header photos. Both are the visual elements to your branding on social media. Your profile photo should be your logo so that your profile is easily recognizable. Your header photo should be a photo from your website so you can carry over the branding from your website to create a more cohesive online presence.

Tip #3. Unfollow or unfriend any accounts that no longer align with your interests or values.

This may not be the biggest issue, but social media can get very overwhelming if you are following a ton of accounts, especially some that you may not even care to see content from.

With Meta updating the algorithm so frequently, you may never see the content you actually want to see without unfollowing or unfriending pages that post irrelevant content. We’ve seen the addition of “Close Friends Stories” and a “Following Feed” as a way to combat all the unnecessary content and ads. However, these are not geared toward businesses and thus not the best option for your practice’s social accounts.

Taking a bit of time to remove all these accounts will help free space on your feed, and it will also help make things less overwhelming.

Tip #4. Use high-quality images and videos to showcase your practice and services.

This may go without saying, however, using high-quality images and videos is necessary to improve the overall aesthetic of your page. It will also provide your audience with a better idea as to who you are and what your practice can provide them with.

And quality content demonstrates your commitment to your work and practice. All the images and video content that you put on your website, social media pages, ads and so on are a representation of your brand. Good design and imagery will show you’re professional and care about how your practice is perceived.

Purchasing a professional camera may help a lot with creating this type of content, but it is not necessary. A smart phone with a good camera will work just fine. And if you need help learning to take photos on your smartphone, check out our blog post for a few tips.

Tip #5. Consider creating separate personal and professional social media accounts.

We see many people like to essentially merge their doctor and practice’s online presence into one. And while it’s good to have photos of the doctor and the practice on your social media, it is important to remember that these are two different brands.

If you are a doctor and you’re looking to build your brand, you should do this separately from your practice. And the biggest reason for this is, if you decide to leave your practice, you don’t want to have to give up your online presence or take the practice’s.

With that being said, you can still post very similar if not the exact same content on both of the accounts. We just recommend having two separate accounts if you are trying to grow two separate brands.

Tip #6. Engaging in social media challenges and tagging friends

Engaging in social media challenges and tagging friends can be a great boost of engagement for your account. Yes, it’s not technically spring cleaning by any means but it’s a great way to start the season off right.

You can either put on your own contests and giveaways or participate in local businesses. If you are wanting to get a bigger community involved, try reaching out to some of your favorite local businesses to see if they are interested in cocreating a challenge for both of your social media accounts.

Tip #7. Share positive content that resonates with your patients.

Positive content such as reviews, success stories, testimonials and before-and-after photos are a great way to help clean up your content strategy.

If you are finding yourself wanting to post more but unsure where to start and what content to create, add more positivity to your socials. This helps a lot if you already have an established platform where patients can share reviews, success stories and testimonials. And for before-and-after photos, you can assign this task to one person in the office and make it a habit to get these photos.

From there, you’ll have a ton of positive content to choose from and incorporate into your strategy.

Tip #8. Use social media analytics to track engagement and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Analytics can really help clean things up for future strategies. Instead of wasting your time on content that has shown time and time again to underperform, you can readjust your strategy to allocate more time on content that performs much better.

This can also help you determine what posts to keep on your feed and what posts to remove. If something didn’t perform as well as another post, you should consider removing it, unless it is still relevant to your practice.

Final Thoughts

That wraps up this week’s blog post! We hope that these tips gave you some inspiration to help get the digital spring cleaning started.

If you dedicate yourself to going through each of these steps, you’ll be sure to get it done in no time. And of course, if you are struggling with any of these steps, reach out to the Sesame Social Team so we can help troubleshoot any issues.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 8 Tips to Clean Up Your Social Media Pages This Spring appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Summer is right around the corner! With longer days and warmer weather, people are more active on their phones. Making sure your followers are engaged with your content is just as important as ever because people are looking for new and exciting content to enjoy.

In fact, more than half of all American’s spend more money in the summer than they do during cooler seasons. What better time to pump out as much social content then summer? Making sure your services are in front of your audience at all times will be a significant difference in how your content is being engaged with and how many new patients you’re bringing in.

With that being said, there are many ways to create engaging summer content that will keep your followers coming back for more. In this blog post, we’ll share some tips and ideas for keeping your social media presence fresh and exciting all summer long while making sure that your audience doesn’t miss out on anything you have to offer!

Tip #1. Post Relevant Content

You’ve heard this before, but posting relevant content on your socials makes a huge impact. And now with all the fun summer activities, you’ll have more opportunities to post content that is geared towards dental health during the warmer weather.

Another big part of posting relevant content is making sure that your audience knows about all your promotions happening. Of course it’s crucial to your strategy to post fun and engaging content that can humanize your practice however the other part to a strong social strategy is ensuring that you post promotional content as well. Get your audience hyped for the warmer weather by sharing all the deals you have going on!

And it goes without saying that your content is timely. This means being consistent and posting when your audience is the most active.

Tip #2. Make Your Visuals Stand Out

Summer is all about being bright and vibrant, so make sure your content is fun and vivid too! We suggest using eye-catching visuals and including bright colors and fun graphics. This is super easy to do with the help of the Sesame Social Tool.

Did you know that with your Sesame Social Service you have access to Canva, an awesome design platform that is included in the Social Tool? Well, you do! With the help of Canva, you can add graphics, text, backgrounds, and colors throughout your content. This will ensure that your content pops and grabs your followers’ attention.

We suggest trying to add in visuals only when needed. If you are posting a photo that has a lot going on in the background or may already include your branding, there isn’t a need to add in extra visuals to make it standout. If you are unsure, reach out to the social team and we can help with the decision.

Tip #3. Use User-Generated Content

One of the easiest ways to increase the amount of content is by utilizing user-generated content (UGC), or content created by your followers. There are so many opportunities through social media when it comes to UGC.

If you aren’t sure where to begin with UGC, we suggest going through your tagged photos on your social media and pulling content from there. You can also search your location on Instagram and see content pops up that way. The final way to look for UGC content on social media is to search the hashtags. We suggest typing in “#your practice name” and “#doctor’s name” to see if there are any photos with those tags.

However if you are still unable to find any relevant content, simply ask your patients to post on their socials with a hashtag you create for your practice or make sure they tag your social media pages so you are notified when someone posts. Even incentivizing the photos would be a great way to bring in more content.

Since we’re talking about summer, asking patients to submit photos of them enjoying their favorite summer activities could be a great way to incorporate more summer content while keeping your followers engaged.

Tip #4. Host Giveaways and Contests

A great way to host a giveaway or contest is to also incorporate UGC! Not only will you incentivize engagement by hosting one of these, but you’ll also be able to gather a ton of content you can use all summer long.

We suggest finding a prize that may be intriguing to your patients to setup the contest. There are many ways you could go about creating a contest or giveaway however to gather more user-generated content, ask your audience to enter the contest by submitting a photo of them and their favorite summer activity either with a hashtag or tagging the profiles. This is one of the easiest ways to host a UGC-geared contest. Just be very specific in the rules to enter to ensure that your engagement doesn’t fall behind the contest. With any contest, you’ll want to ask your audience to like, comment, and share your post.

If you need more help running a contest on your social media, make sure to check out our blog all about running contests on social media!

Tip #5. Use Stories to Bring in More Engagement

One of the easiest ways you can increase engagement on your social media is by using your Stories! Both Facebook and Instagram have Stories that you can update at any point, and it’s essentially a live look at what’s going on. Normally, these get a ton of engagement because of how easy it is to consume stories, but paired with some awesome summer content, you’ll be sure to get even more attention and engagement.

Doing things such as Q&As and polls will encourage your followers to interact with your content. Keep the topics relatable to you and your practice, but we also encourage you to have some fun with it and see what kinds of engaging Stories you can come up with!

Final Thoughts

Summer is a great opportunity for you and your practice to work towards better engagement on your posts. By incorporating seasonal themes, sharing user-generated content, and utilizing various multimedia formats, you can keep your followers interested and excited about your brand. Remember to be authentic, have fun, and experiment with new ideas to keep your followers engaged and coming back for more. Happy summer posting!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Keeping Your Followers Engaged With New Summer Content appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Short-form video is growing faster than ever and if you want to keep up with competitors, it is the best way to make you stand out on social media. 

Check out our top 7 types of short-form video ideas that you can start creating today! 

Tools Needed to Create Short-Form Video Content 

There are a few things that you need to do before you begin creating content for your socials. Number one, we suggest making sure you have a Facebook/Instagram, Tik Tok, and/or a YouTube account. Each of these platforms will allow you to post short-form video content. And if you’re on all three platforms you’ll have a bigger reach. 

The next thing we suggest doing is getting something to record your videos. A smartphone is all that is necessary, however if you have access to a quality camera, that is also a great option. 

And finally, you’ll need somewhere to edit the photos. There are plenty of free tools that you can utilize when editing your video content. We like to use Canva or edit the content directly on the platform. 

Service Demonstrations 

Service demonstrations are a great way to keep your followers engaged in your content. Many people don’t know what to expect when it comes to certain services or procedures that are offered at their dental office. 

By providing your audience with this type of content you can educate them on when they will need these services and procedures done as well as help take some of the anxieties away. 

Ideas: 

Product Tutorials 

Product tutorials are similar to service demonstrations, however, with this type of content you’ll be talking about different products that you trust. Trust is a keyword here because you don’t want to advertise products you wouldn’t use yourself. 

If you are working with a brand, this is also a great opportunity for you to suggest making content for them in exchange for visibility on their platform. Not only can this help bring in new patients but it will solidify your expertise in your field as well. 

Ideas: 

• See how your Dentist Recommends Brushing your Teeth 
• The Proper Way to Use Different Flossing Tools 

Behind the Scenes 

People love behind-the-scenes content, why do you think everyone waits until the end of a movie in the theater to watch the bloopers? 

Your office can be doing the same! All you need to do is film the things you are already doing. If you have an appointment, talk to the patient and see if they are comfortable being on camera. If they are, film a video of you doing a dental checkup. 

You can also choose to take the less serious route to this type of content. For example, if you guys do a staff lunch every Monday, you can document that and get your audience to see what they are missing out on. It’ll get them to come back for more content every week. 

Ideas: 

Educational Videos 

People love educational videos, especially if they know they have been missing this information. If you want to trend in this category, we just sharing tips and tricks that may not already be on the internet, or if they are make sure not everyone is talking about them. 

Educational content is another way to show your audience that you know what you’re talking about. This can help you bring in new patients as well. 

Ideas: 

Brand Challenge 

Short-form video content has evolved since it first gained popularity. Today brands can create their trendy audios, filters, and challenges. 

You can use brand challenges to your advantage by creating something for your audience to engage with. This can be a contest, a sound, a concept, and many other options. This will help bring us to the next topic of User-Generated Content. 

Ideas: 

• #ShowOffyourSmileSaturday 
• Contests that get your patients to acknowledge your brand 

User-Generated Content 

The idea of User-Generated Content (UGC) is getting content that is already created by someone else but relates to your practice. In this case, this could be your patients coming in and creating content about your practice, the services you offer, and your team members. 

If you are having trouble finding any UGC for your practice, there are a few ways that you can encourage your patients to participate. You can start by putting up a QR code in your lobby that takes your patients directly to your Google My Business and Facebook pages where they can leave reviews about your practice. 

If you are looking for more visual content, try incentivizing UGC. This could be putting on a contest, where everyone needs to submit a video review about you (or anything else relating to your practice). Or setting up a hashtag for your patients to tag their posts with. 

Ideas: 

Company Culture 

People love company culture. Really in any industry, this content is the content that tends to perform the best because you are humanizing your brand. 

Company culture videos can be a great way to create fun and goofy content. You’ll see that many creators on social media tend to use trending sounds and skits and incorporate different team members to create this type of content. 

Ideas: 

3 Creators Who have Mastered Short Form Video Content 

If you’re still unsure about how to start your short-form video content journey, we suggest looking at these dental professionals who have an established audience and have worked hard to come up with relatable and engaging content. 

• @dentologie 
• @dr.humie 
• @bristlehealth 

We like that they have a mix of different types of content, and this is something you should aim for. Yes, creating educational videos is important for your brand but you also want to show your fun and humorous side too! 

If you try out any of our ideas, make sure to tag @sesamecommunications on Instagram and Facebook so we can share your posts! 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 7 Types of Short Form Video Content You Can Begin Leveraging Now  appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

If you have been on a website or social media lately, it’s a good bet that you have seen video content everywhere. Video has become the preferred medium over the last few years, and it is everywhere. But does it help with SEO? To answer that, we need to look at how search engines rank sites.

Videos Provide Informative Information

Google, the world’s most used search engine, values two things when generating results – the quality of your content and its relevance to a potential customers original search terms.

Google doesn’t just look at the text on a particular page. It also scans for other types of media to see precisely what a website may have to offer. If the websites have a mixture text and quality visuals like videos, that means your pages are considered informative – giving a boost to your SEO rankings.

Videos bring Traffic to your Website

Another one of the qualities that Google looks at when determining search rankings is the amount of incoming traffic your website has. If the domain has a massive amount of regular visitors, they’re most likely coming for a reason.

People are more likely to visit your website by watching a video on YouTube or other social media channels than they are any other type of content. The more video content you create, the more quality traffic you can draw to your pages, which will, in turn, help your overall SEO in the long run.

Videos help your Traffic Stay Longer

Another important aspect to remember is that search engines like Google look at how long people are staying on your site once they finally arrive. If you have a large amount of incoming organic traffic, but those people all leave after just a few seconds, it may cause Google to view that your content isn’t very good and the customers may be going elsewhere for to find better search results.

Final Thoughts

A video will more consistently keep people on your website landing page for longer periods of time. People are more likely to watch a video than they are to read something like a blog post, even if those two things are trying to get across the same core pieces of information. Relying heavily on video to increase the amount of time someone spends on your page, you significantly improve your bounce rate, which helps search engines like Google and Bing boost your article to the top of their rankings!

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist II, Sesame Communications

The post How does Video Content Impact your Rankings? appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Over the last few years, video content has become increasingly more popular on social media due to its ability to convey a message or idea quickly and effectively. Video content is often more engaging and entertaining than text or image content, which can help capture a user’s attention.  

Creating video content can seem like a daunting task, but with the help of many of the internet’s free tools, this process is much more straightforward than one might expect. Utilizing these tools will help you elevate your social media and can even result in increased engagement on your content.  

Below are a few free video editors that we recommend for getting started with creating videos with some pros and cons of each! 

iMovie 

Download Here

If you are working on an Apple Mac computer, this is a great free tool to utilize. It offers an intuitive interface with drag-and-drop editing capabilities, as well as a range of effects and filters.  

With iMovie, you can easily trim, cut, split, merge, rotate and duplicate clips, as well as add music, voice-overs, and text animations. This app has multi-device functionality, meaning you can work on your project on both your iPhone and Mac computer. 

Clipchamp

Download Here

Similar to iMovie, Clipchamp is another popular video editor that is popularly used on most Microsoft operating systems. It is easy to use and has a lot of features you would expect and want from a video editor.  

This video maker is beginner-friendly that has a drag-and-drop interface but you can also utilize more advanced video editing features such as cutting, cropping and resizing video footage, as well as recording your screen and through your webcam.

Vimeo Create 

Download Here

Another great, free video editor is Vimeo Create. This tool is simple to use and makes creating videos a breeze. Vimeo’s library of over 10 million videos provides a great resource for video editors to find clips, music, and sound effects. It also has thousands of premade templates for easy implementation.   

Vimeo Create has a simple timeline-based interface that makes it easy to arrange and preview your video. It also offers a range of professional editing tools, such as color correction, video stabilization, and audio mixing. 

Canva Video Editor 

Download Here

The Canva Video Editor is a great tool for creating professional-looking videos quickly and easily. It has a wide range of features that allow you to customize and create stunning visuals for your videos.  

Canva has a vast library of free music and sound effects you can utilize as well. Canva also connects directly to our Sesame Social Posting Suite, making it easy to add your video content to your scheduler! 

Adobe Premiere Rush 

Download Here

Adobe has a tool that tis more specifically geared towards social media content creators. The export settings make it easy to export clips directly to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.  

The program provides tools for cutting and joining video fragments, color correction, and other settings. It has enough features for most basic video edits, from transitions to color adjustments and basic text overlays. 

In-app Video Editors 

Most social media networks (Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube) have their own built in video editors that we also recommend taking advantage of. These editors are more basic compared to others, but they get the job done effectively and efficiently. One of the biggest pros of editing videos on social networks directly is the ability to share the edited videos quickly and easily with friends and family. 

Final Thoughts

Video editing is an invaluable tool for creating stunning, professional videos. It allows you to take raw footage and turn it into something special. Utilizing these video editing tools will help you create polished, high-quality videos that are sure to impress viewers.

And if you are new to editing video footage we suggest you start off with the free versions of these tools to learn. When you are ready to make the commitment and really start to improve your video content, upgrade to the paid version to unlock even more features.

As always, do not be afraid to have fun with your videos. Show your office’s personality and be creative — this will make your video more memorable and engaging! 

—Tyler Harris, Lead Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Free Tools to get You Started on Making Video Content appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

With the ever-evolving world of social media, it can be hard to know what content is performing the best at any given moment. In the past few years, video content has begun to take ranking priority as it has become a popular form of media. By including videos in your social strategy, you may find that not only will your content rank higher, but it may perform better. 

If your practice isn’t already utilizing video content, now is the best time to start. But what kind of video content should you create? In this blog we have outlined 5 guaranteed video trends that will help take your social media game to the next level. 

So, let’s get started. 

Brand Building 

If your practice hasn’t created a video before, brand building videos are a great place to start. When it comes to brand building, it’s best to keep things real and stick with what you know. 

Think of brand building videos as a way for your audience to get familiar with your practice. These videos can outline a specific service, provide a behind the scenes look, or include stories about how your practice came to be. Keep it simple and upbeat by focusing on one topic during each video. This will keep your audience’s attention, help build authenticity, and make your practice appear more approachable. 

Short Form Videos 

Video content doesn’t have to be a whole production, it can be something quick and easy. As social media continues to grow, the human attention span is becoming shorter. The purpose of short form video is to keep your audience completely engaged with your content for a shorter period of time. This is why you’ll see TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts becoming increasingly popular. 

Your short form videos can be whatever you want. Consider using one of those trending audio clips you keep hearing when you scroll through your feed, which will help boost your ranking. You could even talk your practice into learning the newest viral TikTok dance. Since these videos are shorter, try to create content that’s engaging, educating and/or inspiring for your followers. Whatever you decide, keep it quick and fun. 

Silent Videos & Captions 

We know how it sounds. Silent videos? Isn’t the point of a video to have audio? But stay with us. Silent videos are on the rise due to their accessibility. How many times have you taken public transportation or been in a quiet environment, scrolling through your phone, and then click on a video only to discover your volume was at full blast? You’re not alone. 

Because of accessibility, more and more people are watching videos silently. In a study done by Verizon Media and Publicis Media, 69% of consumers are viewing videos with the sound off in public places and 80% are more likely to watch an entire video when captions are available. For this reason, it’s important to include captions in your videos. Not only will your content cater to those who prefer silent videos, but you’ll be able to expand your audience to reach those that are Deaf or hard-of-hearing. 

Educational and Informational Videos 

Since the internet is an easy resource to access all sorts of topics, educational and informational videos are on the rise. How many times have you scrolled through your feed and found a video for cleaning hacks, food recipes, or a how-to video? These videos are a fun and easy way to interact with your audience. 

Your practice can utilize this same type of video format to create an educational video. A few examples include an information video on a service you offer, at home best practices, or anything that aligns best with your practice. When preparing for these videos, create a script and do your best to stick to one topic at a time – this will keep your audience’s attention. 

User Generated Content 

These days more people are relying on user generated content (UGC) to assist with their social media strategy.  According to Marketing Insider Group, 60% of consumers believe that UGC is more authentic and trustworthy than other brand content. For this reason, we suggest that your practice begin incorporating UGC if you haven’t already. 

When integrating UGC into your social strategy, consider using a testimonial or a demonstration of a service your practice offers. For example, you can ask a patient to track their journey with Invisalign or share a review from a patient about their experience getting dental implants. Either way, this content will appear more authentic since it’s coming directly from your patients and speaks to your audience. 

Final Thoughts

Is your practice ready to take your social media to the next level? There’s no time like the present. Simply choose your video topic and hit that record button. If you need help editing your clips, we recommend using platforms such as Canva or Adobe’s After Effects/Premiere Pro. Once you create your first video, be sure to share it with us! We can’t wait to see what you come up with. 

Interested in learning more about how Sesame Social can boost your social media presence? Contact us today! 

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 5 Video Trends Your Practice Should Utilize in 2023  appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Online reviews are a local ranking factor that can help boost your website traffic and offer free content. They’re also an easy opportunity to showcase customer engagement. Reviews benefit your practice’s SEO strategy and have become more important over the years as customers frequently use reviews to weigh their decisions.

While the reviews from more industry-specific websites like TripAdvisor and Yelp prove beneficial to some businesses, Google reviews make up the majority of all online reviews and they are relevant to practices across the board.

Trust with Customers

Perhaps the most obvious benefit to receiving reviews on Google is that positive reviews indicate to customers that your business is legitimate and trustworthy, earning you more clicks, calls, and interactions naturally. More and more over time, people have relied on reviews to help them make decisions.

Local Ranking Factor 

Along with the benefit of earning the trust of users, Google rewards practices that receive reviews. The more reviews, especially with a positive average, the better chance your practice will have at showing up in the Google local pack. The local pack is the top 3 results that show up on the map. Reviews that are keyword-rich or mention specific services and products act as free content to help boost rankings. 

Receiving reviews is only the first step, however. In order to maximize your SEO benefit for your reviews. It is always recommended that businesses respond to reviews. Not only do customers appreciate seeing responses, but Google will also take responsiveness into consideration. Check out this guide provided from Google on how to respond to reviews. 

What About Negative Reviews? 

Even negative reviews, so long as they aren’t too abundant, can benefit your business. Negative reviews offer:

• Authenticity: Customers are more likely to trust a slightly below 5-star average than a perfect 5-star average on Google Business Profiles
• Insight into Customers’ Reactions: Negative reviews can give you a chance to see something from a customer’s point of view and can offer new ways to improve your business
• Be a Part of the Conversation: Showing sympathy and a genuine desire to make a situation right will show your potential customers that you will be there for them whether their experience is good or not. 

Final Thoughts

Online reviews matter more to SEO than one might think. Both in the way they can make an impression on users, and in the way that Google judges authority and rankings.

Next time you are looking at your Google reviews, make sure to consider each of these points!

—Team Member, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Why your Online Reviews will matter for your SEO Strategy appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Instagram recently announced that they are putting more of a priority on photo content and carousels at the start of this year. Because of that, video content, such as Reels will no longer be pushed through the algorithm. 

With this change, a lot of creators will need to learn how to optimize their Reels to ensure their content is still being seen. In today’s blog, we’re going to go over the best things you can do to optimize your video content. 

Video Format  

There are a few important things to do when formatting your video content. First of all, you’ll want to make sure that the videos you are posting are optimized for mobile viewing. There are very few people who use Instagram and Facebook on their desktop computers. Because of this, you want to make sure that the video is easy to watch on a mobile device. 

But what does this mean? Since both Instagram and Facebook have a vertical feed, your videos will need to match that. This is called the aspect ratio. We suggest recording in a vertical format to ensure that your videos fit the aesthetic of Instagram and Facebook mobile. This will also make sure that your video is viewable. Instagram and Facebook have an aspect ratio of 1:1 in their feeds and Reels can be enlarged to fit a 9:16 aspect ratio. 

The thumbnail is another important component of the format. Instagram will allow you to either select part of the Reel to use as the thumbnail or you can import one from your camera role. While the thumbnail isn’t as important for the Reel itself, the thumbnail is what will show up on your feed. If you are posting content that may be educational, we suggest adding a title on the thumbnail so your followers can easily find what they are looking for. 

Content in the Video  

Now that you know vertical content tends to perform better than horizontal content, it’s time to start filming the content. 

One thing that many creators overlook when filming and editing their content is the use of captions. Did you know that many people scroll through their phones without any sound? In fact, 85% of video views happen without the viewer even listening to the Reel. This is important because if your viewer doesn’t know what you are saying because their sound is off, you’ll miss out on that engagement. 

Thankfully captions are pretty easy to add within the Instagram editing tool or in 3rd party editing apps. 

With that being said, Facebook and Instagram autoplay their video content with the sound muted. If you are putting most of the important information in the first few seconds of your Reel, the viewer may miss this information. 

Even though you may not want to share the most important information in the first few seconds, it’s important to take that time to capture the audience’s attention. With all the online content, making yours stand out will make a tremendous difference in your content’s performance.  

You can grab their attention by presenting problems, using powerful visuals, or providing them with key takeaways. But remember whatever you decide to do, USE CAPTIONS!  

Understanding your Analytics  

The last part of optimizing your video content on your socials is learning to understand how your content is performing. Why would you waste your time and energy on something that your followers don’t want to see? This is why going through your insights within Facebook and Instagram is crucial.  

Final Thoughts  

As soon as we all got used to creating Reels, Instagram is switching things up and chose to make photo content a priority. Will it be hard to navigate this new type of content while trying to make your video content still relevant, yes? But is it impossible? Absolutely not! 

If you take the time to cater to Instagram’s algorithm and what we already know about it, while still making your content something your viewers want to watch, you shouldn’t see a drastic change in your engagement. 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Why Should you be Optimizing your Video Content on Social Media?  appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In the past, we’ve talked about engagement and how important it is to your social media presence. What we haven’t touched on is how to encourage people to engage with your posts on social media.

You’re putting a considerable amount of time and effort into creating content that you are proud of for your platforms, so it is only fair that your effort doesn’t go unnoticed. Today, we’re breaking down our top 6 tips to help optimize your content and get you better engagement on your posts.

Incorporate Visuals to Your Content

Many platforms require you to have visuals such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat but there are others where visual content is optional such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Don’t make visual content optional. In fact, try to incorporate it whenever possible.

If you were scrolling through your Facebook feed and were seeing post after post only containing text, until you came across an engaging photo of your dentist’s office offering free whitening for this week, whose post would you stop to for? If you answered the post with the photo, you are absolutely correct!

Adding any sort of visual such as images, infographics, and videos can help boost your engagement and make your content more appealing. As social media continues grow, visualizing information for efficient consumption has become more common place. People are now shifting from telling a story to showing the story.

They don’t say a picture is worth a thousand words for nothing.

Ask Your Followers Questions 

When you’re asked a question, how often are you responding? We would hope that it’s every time, if not most of the time. It’s the same on your social media platforms, you ask your followers a question with the hopes of receiving an answer.

However before you go asking away on your Instagram stories, put yourself in your follower’s shoes and ask yourself two things: 1) Does this question pertain to their situation and 2) Will they know how to answer this question? If either of those answers are no, consider some different options

There are many ways you can ask questions. If you are looking for immediate feedback on an issue, ask on your Facebook and Instagram stories. If you are looking for a way to start a conversation relating to a certain topic, ask it in a post as a visual or in the captions. This is a great way to build up your engagement because as your followers start commenting and answering your questions, you’re also adding to the conversation by responding to your comments.

Keep Your Content Short and Sweet

Save the long-form content for your website’s blog. That is where the SEO keywords are really going to matter. Social media was built on the idea of consuming as much information and content as fast as possible. This is typically why many platforms have character limits.

Make sure your content is concise and to the point to help maintain the reader’s engagement. No one is going to log onto Instagram to see a whole documentary about your practice’s team members. They can go to YouTube or read about it on your blog.

Give the audience their answers quickly. Use the short-form content to be mysterious, and offer only a piece of the puzzle. This will get your audience to interact more with your content.

Encourage the Sharing of Your Content

The only way to boost the shareability of your content is by creating something that people want to link back to. Whether they are sharing it with all of their followers or sending a link via private message, you are the one benefiting from the movement of your content.

Storytelling is a great way to make your content more likely to be shared. Make sure your content is relatable to your followers. Typically when someone is following their dental office on social media they are hoping to learn more about the doctors, facility, or staff. Make sure that you are able to offer some sort of knowledge that they didn’t have before.

Another way to grow your engagement through the power of sharing is through contests. You could start a custom sound through Instagram Reels and tell your patients that they can be entered in a contest by using your sound and sharing your content. Interactive content will outperform non-interactive content.

Learn Your Follower’s Behavior

This one may be a bit trickier than others because it requires you to understand your insights. Thankfully many social platforms have made it easy to find this data.

One of the quickest things you can do to encourage engagement is by posting at the time that your followers are the most active. It only makes sense that if you want someone to see your post, like, comment, and share it, you’ll need to do so when they are online. So why not post when most of your audience is online?

Final Thoughts

One thing to consider when implementing the steps we just highlighted is platform where you are posting. Instagram engagement will look very different from engagement on Facebook and other platforms.

You will need to understand how each of the different social platforms operate before committing to implanting our tips. 

Engagement can be tricky because it’s not something that you can always control, but there are steps that you can take to ensure that you are encouraging a response to your content. By focusing on our tips and tricks you’ll be sure to increase your engagement in no time!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Tips to Optimize Engagement on Your Posts in 2023 appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.