So, you want to run a social media contest? You’ve come to the right place!

This blog post is intended to provide your practice with a step-by-step process for creating a social media contest. Let’s start with the basics.

Before you build your contest, you must determine what kind of contest you plan to run. This will help you determine what your practice can get out of the contest and how someone can enter to win. If you need a refresh on the various types of contests, feel free to reference this blog post which goes over this in a bit more detail.

What should your contest post include?

Once you have determined the type of contest you want to run, it’s time to create your contest post. In the caption of your contest post, it’s important that you incorporate a detailed description that includes the contest guidelines, how to enter, when the contest ends, and how the winner will be chosen and contacted.

From what we know about social media algorithms, posts that have visuals tend to perform better and gain more visibility. For this reason, we encourage sharing a picture with your contest post. Ideally, you’ll want to share an image that will grab the attention of your followers. You may consider creating a graphic that says “Contest!” or sharing a photo of the service that your practice is giving away.

To widen the reach of the contest beyond your direct followers, include hashtags like #giveaway and #contest in your caption. These are common hashtags that are used frequently, which could increase the exposure of your post.

Below you will find a few sample templates we suggest using for your next contest. Feel free to utilize these templates and make any changes your practice finds appropriate for your contest.

Template 1: Increase Engagement

We’re giving away a free teeth whitening session! The contest ends on December 1, 2022, at 11:59 PM Pacific! Follow the rules below to enter!

• Make sure you are following our practice
• Like this post
• Tag a friend in the comments (each tag = one entry!)

*Restrictions: You must be 18 years or older to win.

Template 2: User Generated Content

Calling all current and previous patients! We’re giving away two $100 gift cards to patients who share pictures of their beautiful smiles with us. The winners will be selected randomly. To enter, follow the directions below.

• Make sure you are following us
• Share a picture of your beautiful smile and tag us in the post
• Make sure to use the hashtag #SesameSmileContest

The last day to make your post and enter the contest is November 1, 2022. Winners will be selected and announced on November 2, 2022. The winner will be contacted by DM from our account. Be sure to verify our account is contacting you to avoid scams.

*Guidelines: You must be a current or previous patient of ours.

How often should you post about your contest?

Since content is continuously being shared on social media, it’s important to keep your contest relevant and remind your followers the contest is running so that it doesn’t get lost in their timeline. For this reason, we encourage sharing your contest a few times prior to the deadline to ensure you get optimal views and entries.

Other than your initial contest post, we suggest either sharing your contest post to your story and/or creating new posts. Regardless, if you create a story or a new post, it is important to reference your original contest post so that followers know that they need to interact with it to be entered.

What happens once the contest is over?

Once the contest is over, it is time to pick your winner. Depending on the type of contest you chose and how many entries you received, there are a few different ways you can select a winner. This can be done either manually or automatically.

Manually Selecting a Winner

If you have a manageable number of entries, you may want to manually confirm that they have completed all of steps needed to enter. From there you can jot down their name on a piece of paper and put it into a container to pull from. If they have multiple entries, don’t forget to add their name multiple times to account for that. Once the contest is over, shuffle around the papers and draw a winner. You can also generate additional engagement to your contest by posting a video of you drawing the winning name!

Another way to manually pick a winner is to confirm the contest entries and add the names of the participants to a document, assigning each one a number. If someone has duplicate entries make sure you assign them to multiple numbers. At the end of the contest, you can use a random number generator to draw a number for your winner. These can be found online with a quick search.

Similar to the random number picker tool, there are also random name picker tools that can be found online. In this case, you would add various names to the tool, and it would randomly select one of the names you have listed.

Automatically Selecting a Winner

If you received a lot of entries, you may want to consider selecting a winner automatically. You can do this by creating an online contest using websites such as RafflePress, Osortoo, and Woobox to name a few.

When using one of these websites, you will be asked to provide a few details regarding your contest and how you want the winner to be selected. After you have filled everything out, you can run your contest. Once the contest is over, select the “Pick a Winner” option and these websites will automatically generate a winner for you.

Announcing the Contest Winner

Once a winner has been selected, it’s time to let them know. Since scams are known to happen on social media, it’s important that you reach out to the winner directly from your practice page to avoid any confusion regarding the legitimacy of the winner. For suggestions on the best ways to notify a winner, follow along below.

The first way to notify the contest winner is to update the caption on the original post. At the beginning of the caption, we suggest highlighting that the contest has ended and tagging the winner in the post. By doing so, the winner will receive a notification that they were tagged in your post and can easily access it to see the updated caption stating they won.

Another way to notify the winner is to reshare the original contest post to your story and tag the winner. Not only does this send a notification to the winner of the contest, but it also informs your followers that the contest is over and a winner has been selected.

Lastly, you can reach out to the winner via direct message on the platform where the contest was held. This is the most direct way to notify the winner. If the winner is skeptical at first and worried that it may be a scam, you can encourage them to contact your practice directly to confirm they are the winner.

We also recommend asking the winner if they are comfortable sharing a picture of themselves on social media. Not only does it highlight the winner, but it also can generate more of a following for your practice and get patients excited about future contests or events you may host!

Now that you have all the tools, it’s time to get started! If this blog was helpful for you, be sure to tag us in your next social media contest post. We can’t wait to see what you do!

Looking for some personalized support with setting up your contest post? Need some help boosting your social media presence? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, reach out to us today to learn more about our Sesame Social service.

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Creating a Social Media Contest appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Is your practice looking to gain more followers? Maybe you’re trying to increase your social media engagement? Maybe your practice wants content from your patients? 

If one or all of these apply to you, your practice may benefit from hosting a contest on social media. What do you need to know before posting a contest? What type of contest should your practice use? Don’t worry, we are here to help. 

This post will cover the various types of contests you can create and how they can help increase your following, engagement, and give you access to user-generated content.

I will reference specific contest types for Facebook and Instagram. However, you are more than welcome to utilize these on other platforms. Before we jump in, let’s take a moment to review the rules for posting contests on these platforms. 

Rules for Facebook 

If you plan to post a contest on Facebook, there are a few things that you must include for everything to run smoothly and be approved such as:

1. You must provide the full details of the promotion. This includes: Contest rules; Offer terms and eligibility requirements; and Compliance with rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered.
    
2. You must acknowledge that this promotion is not sponsored or affiliated with Facebook by any means.
3. Contests can be published on Pages, Groups, Events, or within apps on Facebook. However, you are not permitted to use personal timelines or friend connections to administer promotions.

To review the full guidelines for promotions and contests, please visit Facebook’s Terms and Policies page. 

Rules for Instagram 

Although Instagram is owned by Facebook, its rules vary. Before posting your contest to Instagram, be sure to review the following guidelines.

1. You must provide the full details of the promotion. Like with Facebook, this includes: Contest rules; Offer terms and eligibility requirements; and Compliance with rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered.
2. You must accurately tag content. Do not inaccurately tag content or encourage users to do the same.
3. You must acknowledge that this contest is not sponsored or affiliated with Instagram by any means.

To review the full guidelines for promotions and contests, please visit Instagram’s Promotion Guidelines page. 

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about how contests can help you grow your business. Depending on the type of contest, you can gain more followers and increase engagement on your social media profiles, or you can gain access to user-generated content. 

Before you can get your contest up and running, you’ll need to decide what type of contest you want to run and what you want to get out of it. Follow along as I break down the different types of contests and the ways they can benefit your practice. 

Types of Contests 

Increase Your Following 

Below are the types of contests can help your practice increase its following.

• Follow-to-Win: This type of contest requests that participants follow your practice to be entered into the contest. Follow-to-Win is something that can be used in combination with other contest types, which can help increase engagement in addition to your following.
• Share-to-Enter: When using this type of contest, participants must share your contest post to their story or timeline. By making participants share your post, it increases your exposure as their followers will see their story or timeline and may be inclined to participate. This can result in increased visibility. You can also use this type of contest in combination with the follow-to-win contest type. By doing so, you can not only increase your exposure but increase your following as well. 

Increase Your Engagement 

The following types of contests will encourage more engagement with your content, such as likes and comments.

• Like the Contest Photo: In this type of contest post, you can ask participants to like your chosen contest photo to be entered into your contest. This helps increase your engagement via likes and can be used in combination with other contest types to help increase your following.
• Tag a Friend: With this type of contest, participants are asked to tag a friend, or more, in the comments to increase their number of entries into the contest. By using this contest type, it can create a ripple effect where one person can tag a friend, and then they tag a friend, and so on. This could even lead to an increased following if their friends decide to follow your page.
• Photo Caption Contest: When it comes to Photo Caption Contests, your practice shares a photo and asks its followers to create a caption for the photo and post it in the comments. The winner typically has their caption used for the photo. This increases engagement by encouraging followers to comment on the post and engage with your practice. 

Access to User Generated Content 

This type of contest will provide your practice with content that was created by your patients and  or followers.

• Post a Photo and Use the Hashtag: This type of contest requires asking your followers to post a photo and use your designated hashtag that aligns with the contest rules. Not only does this create user-generated content for the practice, but it can increase exposure.

Now that we’ve had the chance to cover the different types of contests, it’s time for your practice to decide which option works best for you and create your post. Don’t forget that you can incorporate different types of contests into one post.

For example, if you were creating a contest and wanted to increase your number of followers and engagement, you could tell participants to follow your page, like your contest post, and share the contest post to their story. Not only does this increase your following and engagement, but it also increases your exposure since anyone that follows the participant will see your post on their story.

What Happens After Your Contest Is Over? 

Once you have a contest that works best for your practice, let’s talk about what happens after it ends. During your contest, you may have experienced a bump in followers, and engagement, and have new user-generated content. After it’s over, it’s important to take steps to maintain the progress you have made. Depending on what works best for your practice, there are a few options you can consider. 

Ongoing Giveaways or Contests 

One way to maintain your growth and continue on an upwards trajectory is to consider the consistency of your contests. If your practice is open to maintaining ongoing contests, people may be more inclined to follow your page long-term to stay involved with contests so that they can participate.

This doesn’t mean you need to post contests all the time, instead consider what works best for your practice. You could opt for weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even bi-annual contests. It’s not necessary to post extravagant giveaways each time. For example, you could offer a contest asking your followers to share a picture of their smile using your hashtag. If they win, their photo could be featured in the office for that month and they could win a gift card. The possibilities are endless! 

Milestone Contests 

Another way to continue growing your followers and increase your engagement would be to hold milestone contests. This means that each time you hit a follower goal, you would host a giveaway or contest to celebrate reaching your goal.

For example, let’s say you were close to hitting 500 followers on Instagram and you wanted to celebrate by giving away a free session of teeth whitening to one of your followers. People may be more inclined to follow your practice so that they can try to win this giveaway once you reach your goal. Then, by maintaining this strategy and holding another giveaway at your next follower goal, people may be more inclined to follow and see what the giveaway is and enter to win.  

Create Your First Contest! 

Now that you have the tools, it’s time to get started. Take a moment to review the promotion rules for Instagram and/or Facebook before making your post, choose which type of contest you want to run, and get posting. Depending on what contest you decide on, the possibilities of growth are limitless because, after all, who doesn’t love a good contest? We look forward to seeing what your practice comes up with. 

Does your practice have our Sesame Social service? If yes, did you know our Social Tool has a feature that will let you run a contest on a post? If your practice has our services and is interested in running a contest, contact us today to learn how to utilize this part of our Social Tool. 

Need help drafting up these contest posts? Keep an eye out for our next blog post where we’ll provide you with templates for these different types of contests.

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Social Media Contests 101 appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

By now, you know the differences between Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and which platform is best for your practice. Your next question is probably, how much money should I be spending advertising on my social platforms?

In this post, we will cover three best practices to help you determine your social media advertising budget.

Evaluate All Past Campaigns

Any past data that you have available can be an extremely helpful starting point for allocating money toward your social advertising budget. Understanding how your organic posts are performing can be a useful information as well.

You should be paying close attention to your target audience, the type of content that was used, and your total budget.

Other Factors to Consider

When determining your budget, don’t focus solely on the total amount you will be spending on each platform. You will want to factor in other things such as the design costs, time spent managing the campaign, as well as time spent analyzing the campaign’s success.

If you are hiring someone to manage each of these then your budget may be reduced. Consider having one person handle the process from the start to the finish, as that can save you time and money.

Set Your Advertising Goals

When it comes to success on social media, it’s important to set goals whenever possible. If you aren’t sure where to begin check out our blog post on how to set goals for your social media.

Some goals you should consider include building brand awareness, acquiring new clients, introducing new services, and retaining current customers. Once you have identified your goals, you can start allocating your paid social budgets accordingly.

For example, if you are looking to build brand awareness or introduce new services a good portion of your budget will be best spent by hiring someone to create content.

If you are looking to expand your target audience or retain clients, you will want to allocate more of the budget to the actual campaign.

Social Advertising may seem very daunting. However, once you have the right set of tools and a well-established structure in place, your social ads will take care of the rest.

And if you are still having trouble seeing successful results from your campaigns, check out our Social Media Advertising Service!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 3 Tips for Allocating a Budget to Your Social Ads appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In our previous blog we briefly touched on the topic of what social media platforms are best for advertising your Practice. While advertising on as many platforms as possible will maximize visibility, it isn’t something that is in every practice’s budget.

In this post, I’ll be covering the differences and benefits of Facebook and Instagram’s advertising platforms in order to help you figure out which is best for your practice and why.

Define Your Goals

When it comes to marketing your practice, the first step is defining your goals. Defining your goals will allow you to choose the platform best fit your needs. It will also help you understand your target market and the best ad method for reaching that audience.

Facebook Advertising

As you may know from our other blog posts, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. With almost 2 billion active daily users, it has become one of the best platforms for advertising. What makes Facebook so appealing to so many users?

Facebook’s advertising suite has the most powerful tools for optimizing and targeting. Precise targeting allows marketers to establish a good foundation for campaigns while getting the most bang for their buck.

One of the most important things to consider when advertising on Facebook is your target audience. Facebook’s Ad Manager has many options when it comes to building your target audience. However, if you are unsure of your target audience or don’t really understand how to build one, Facebook may not be the best option for your practice.

Instagram Advertising

Instagram is also very popular. With 500 million daily active users, Instagram has become one of the largest platforms where young users make their purchasing decisions.

Instagram has successfully pushed the boundaries of the e-commerce world. By adding new shopping features that other platforms don’t offer, they continue to innovate and improve the buying experience.

Instagram has also become a major factor in the world of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing was ranked as the most popular and effective trend with the biggest ROI in 2021. If your patients already have some sort of a presence on social media, influencer marketing may be a great option for your practice to consider.

Still, if you are considering Instagram as a platform for advertising, I will caution you. Users expect high-quality content on the platform. This means if you are not ready to put in the time and effort to ensure quality visuals, your practice may be better off using a different platform.

While there are some pros and cons to each platform, it ultimately comes down to you and your practice. What makes more sense to you?

Maybe your practice is focused on a younger audience, in which case Instagram may be a better fit. Conversely, if have multiple locations and you want to advertise each one, Facebook can be a better fit.

Finally, if you’re still unsure about which route to take we encourage you to reach out to our Social Team for guidance on social media advertising.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Facebook vs. Instagram Ads – A Selection Guide appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Let’s talk about social ads. As many of you know, many social media platforms offer advertising as an option for their clients. And it’s no secret how advertising on these platforms can be profitable for your practice. But you probably have questions about where to begin, how to set up your ads, and which platform to use.

In this blog post, we’ll be talking about two of the biggest social media platforms to advertise on, Facebook and Instagram. We’ll break down what each platform can offer for your practice.

This is part one of a three-part series where we will be reviewing which platform is better for your practice and we will be sharing some data you should consider when setting up your social ads budget.  Make sure to stay tuned over the next two weeks for parts two and three.

Why should your practice be advertising on social media?

It’s simple, you can reach a bigger audience! A consistent social media presence paired with social media advertising will ensure that your practice is seen by all the right people.

With advertising, you can hyper-target specific users, meaning you will be able to target only those that match your target market. Say you are a pediatric dentist in Seattle, WA. You can target your location by setting it to match cities, states, and countries for where your patients live. If you prefer, select the local option that selects a radius around your practice’s location. You can then target specific interests such as parenting, kids, dentist, and anything else that may pertain to your practice. Lastly, you can target age groups and genders.

If you haven’t read our blog post on the benefits of Social Media Marketing, we highly encourage you to take a look to better understand how advertising on your social platforms can make a positive impact on your practice.

What Facebook Ads can offer your Practice

Facebook advertising was introduced in late 2007. Today, there are three million businesses that actively advertise on Facebook. Not only does Facebook have the biggest cliental for paid advertising but it should come as no surprise that they are also the most widely used social media platform with over 2.7 billion users. This plays a big part when deciding your audience. With more users on the platform, advertisers can reach a bigger audience.

Facebook gives you a lot of opportunities to increase brand awareness. Whether it be through your newsfeed by sharing an update, on Facebook stories, or through the Facebook Marketplace, there is something for every practice. 

Video advertising is very much underrated. Even with the fact that video ads have a 30% higher audience reach than image ads. Advertisers are still preferring image over video advertising. With Facebook, video advertising has never been easier. You can create video ads that last up to 120 minutes through Facebook.

Finally, advertising on Facebook means more ad placements! Ad placements are places where your ads can be seen. Since there are more opportunities on Facebook, this helps increase the chances of your advertisements being seen by the right people.

What Instagram Ads can offer your Practice

Instagram is the leader in engagement. In fact, because of its ability to be so alluring, it reaches a much younger audience, which makes it one of the best platforms to do online advertising.

One very important factor to consider when creating an Instagram campaign is the fact that Instagram is 100% visual. This means that the most important element in your ad will be your image or video. Ensuring that your visual is of the highest quality will help improve your brand positioning.

Organic reach is thriving on Instagram. This means that the content you are putting on your practice’s Instagram page is performing well on its own without adding in the paid element. However, paid will always out-preform organic.

And because of its visually appealing content, users tend to pick Instagram over other platforms to get a sense of who the company is. This comes into play with brand awareness and how your online presence can directly affect your new clients.

Which Platform Should I Be Advertising On?

The answer is both! While Facebook may be a better option to advertise in certain situations, Instagram covers other parts. Both platforms complement each other and the weakness of one is covered by the other so using both platforms for your social media advertising is the best option.

Our number one recommendation when choosing a platform to advertise on is to look at the audience. If you only have the budget to use towards one campaign, do your research, and figure out what platform hosts the most amount of your target audience. You can easily do this by looking at your posts through the insights dashboard on both platforms. This will give you an idea of who is seeing your posts and interacting with them. If you’re an orthodontist that specializes in helping young adults, you would be better off allocating your budget to Instagram.

Remember, start by setting goals for your advertising. What are you hoping to accomplish through paid advertising? From there build out a strategy that works for you and your practice. And of course, monitor the performance and adjust as needed.

Did you know we offer Social Ads, to all our practices (separate from our Social Media service)? If you are interested in learning more about how we can help your practice with online advertising, reach out to us at 866-263-1639.

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Facebook Ad vs Instagram Ads appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Creating content can be a bit daunting – especially if you don’t have professional equipment or don’t know how to use your equipment. Luckily, you don’t need a fancy camera to create engaging content for your social media profiles. It’s true, all you need is a smartphone!  

In this blog post, I’ll cover 5 tips to help you to take better photos and videos on your smartphone!  

1. Don’t Zoom 

You may be tempted to use the zoom feature out of convenience or maybe something is too far away to see. But did you know that as you zoom in closer to an object, specifically on a smartphone camera, it becomes more pixelated? This is because the zoom diminishes the quality of the picture.  

One alternative to zooming is moving closer to the subject. If you can, get within 6 feet of the subject to ensure that you capture the perfect shot. 

2. Use a Tripod  

You’ll see all sorts of creators capturing with their phones and cameras using a tripod, and the reason for this is it makes a difference.

A shaky hand will lead to a potentially terrible, blurry disaster. With the help of a tripod, the possibility of blurry results can be avoided. Not only will this tool help steady the camera, but it will also improve the quality of your photos.

And for the days that you don’t have a tripod available, grab your phone with both hands, rest your arms on your chest, point, and shoot. This should help steady the shot and give you a clean and clear picture.

3. Try Different Angles  

This tip has a few different parts that I’ll break down. 

Let’s start with composition. Don’t feel like you need to put the subject in the middle of the photo. Try to move the camera around so your subject is on either side as well as the middle. Remember the “Rule of Thirds” when taking shots.

Next, try shooting in both landscape and vertical modes. The orientation does matter especially when there are different subjects in place. Also, consider the distance of the subject. If you are taking a photo of your entire team, you probably don’t want to shoot from far away and vertically. For a team picture, get up closer and shoot horizontally.

Finally, move around. Get low to the ground and angle the camera up. Get some fun point-of-view video clips. Challenge yourself to try new things out as you never know what could come out looking good.  

4. Capture the Audio  

When recording a video, you should always consider the video itself but if your video has sound don’t forget to double-check that you are recording the audio as well. We suggest investing in a small microphone that you can attach to yourself if you’re talking in the video. 

Alternatively, you can place your video in an editing tool and record your voice-over afterward. 

Either way, we suggest investing in a microphone, so your voice is clear and crisp.

5. Find Good Lighting

Lighting is everything and can make or break your shot. If you have terrible lighting your content will not be appealing and will cause the Facebook and Instagram algorithms to not push your content.

Some tips we have when it comes to lighting are;

• Find natural light from the sun if possible (golden hour is great to take shots outside)
• Avoid using flash to provide better lighting (constant lighting is best)
• Purchase portable lights (they can be great additions to your equipment)

Now that you have read through our tips, it’s your turn to go out there and make some content! 

If you have any other questions about shooting either photos or videos feel free to reach out to our social team for help!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 5 Tips to Take Better Photos and Videos on Your Phone appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Have you scrolled through social media and noticed that posts from a particular user don’t appear as often as they once did or maybe they don’t appear at all?

It is a possibility that the account may have been shadow banned. Shadow banned accounts are put into a “shadow” mode meaning only the user posting can see their content and no one else.

While the practice of shadow banning is meant to improve the quality of interactions on social by moderating bots, spammers, and trolls occasionally your favorite user may be inadvertently shadow banned.

What is Shadow Banning?

A user is shadow banned when their visibility on a social media platform is reduced, without warning. Users may not know right away that they have been shadow banned. Many report still getting confirmation of their posts even though it was never seen by the public. 

Platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are believed to have tested or actively engaged in shadow banning select users. However, no platform admits to this. For example, in February of 2020, Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, said in a Q&A, “Shadow banning is not a thing.“

Other signs that you may have been shadow banned include being unable to post comments, content removed from hashtags and an inability  to accept friend requests.

In short, when you are shadow banned, your account and your posts receive less prominent placement leading to poorer performance than previous. 

What Causes a Shadow Ban?

There is no authoritative source on how or why a user’s account and content are banned. 

Because popular platforms frequently deny the existence of shadow bans, it can be challenging to prove that you have been the victim of one. 

However, there is some third-party evidence that platforms do indeed closely control the content that is and is not displayed to its users. 

How to Avoid a Shadow Ban

Despite its ambiguity, Shadow banning does serve a purpose. Its main purpose to help control spam. Spammers can keep spamming while not being visible to everyone else on the platform. 

So how do you avoid a shadow ban? Tips shared by influencers and those who have experienced a shadow ban include:

• Don’t repeatedly post the same content
• Don’t like too many posts in a short period of time
• Don’t comment on too many posts in a short period of time
• Avoid using banned hashtags

As a best practice, read each platform’s Terms of Service and avoid any activity that can be deemed as spam.

What do I do if I think I am Shadow Banned?

If you think you have been shadow banned your course of action will vary from platform to platform. For some, it will be removed after the passing of an undisclosed amount of time. For others, you will have to contact support. In a worst-case scenario, your account can be banned permanently.

The practice of shadow banning is frequently denied by social media platforms there is also 3rd-party evidence helping to prove its existence. Remember to always read and adhere to the Terms of Service wherever you post your social media content. Have fun posting on social media but do so in a polite and respectful manner to help avoid being shadow banned.

—Jason Martin, Practice Solutions Marketing Manager, Sesame Communications

The post What is Shadow Banning and How to Avoid It appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Are you struggling to come up with fresh and new content for your social media accounts?

If so, we’re going to give you five content ideas that your practice can use to level up your presence this summer!

Share Important News!

Have you moved locations? Have you added a new doctor to the practice? Have you introduced a new service?

Whenever your practice goes through an important change, make sure to share it on your social media profiles. Not only will it keep your patients updated but it’s a great way to put new content in front of your target audiences.

Use Instagram Reels

We’ve talked a lot about Instagram Reels and short-form videos here on our blog. And as we have said numerous times before, short-form video is a great way to create engaging content for your practice.  

If you are looking to start utilizing Reels in your content strategy but don’t know where to start, check out our post on Reels to get some new content ideas.

Highlight Your Employees

Give your employees a chance to shine on your social media profiles!

It has been shown that consumers love seeing the people behind their favorite businesses. This includes your practice as well! Not only will give your patients get to meet the team but your employees will also feel more noticed and appreciated.

Celebrate Your Favorite Holidays

While there are only a few major holidays during the summer, there is always a national holiday, awareness day, week, or month that can be fun to highlight on your social media profiles.

For example, National Ice Cream Month falls in July. Another example is National Dog Day on August 26th. 

Leverage Your User-Generated Content

As you may already know, user-generated content, or UGC, is a great way to fill your feed with content created by your patients. Not only will it help promote growth on your account, but it can also help convert your existing audience into patients.

If you are looking to get started with user-generated content, make sure to check out our blog post where we go more in-depth on how your practice can utilize it.

Did you know that Sesame Social Members get access to our extensive content library via the Social Tool? There you will find content to utilize throughout your social media strategy.

If you are not currently a Sesame Social Member, please feel free to reach out to our team to get an in-depth overview of our social tool!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 5 Content Ideas to Level Up Your Social Media this Summer appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In the past decade, influencer marketing has shifted from being strictly just celebrities to content creators of all kinds. This growth has caused the market to become over-saturated. 

However, your practice can still benefit from influencer marketing by using it on a smaller scale and leveraging influencers in your community. Keep reading to learn how!

What is Influencer Marketing?

When you think of marketing, influencer marketing may not be the first thought that comes to mind. In fact, it may not be the second or third either. That is what makes it a great opportunity. It allows you to differentiate yourself from other practices by having the endorsement of a trusted public figure.

Influencer marketing is one part of an overall social media marketing strategy. It utilizes endorsements and product mentions from public figures with large and or highly engaged followings. Think of it as digital word of mouth but on a larger scale.

These types of campaigns work due to the high level of trust that social media influencers have built with their followers.

How does Influencer Marketing Work?

An easy way to get started is by looking for influencers in your community. They could be business leaders, celebrities, or athletes. Do your due diligence and research the person you’ll be working with as well as their primary audience. 

For example, it wouldn’t make sense to work with a stand-up comedian if you are a pediatric dentist.  An influencer is only as valuable as their audience, so make sure they can attract your potential patients.

Once you have narrowed down your search to a single influencer, it is time to draft up your agreement. Some influencers may agree to spread your message as a favor while most will want to be compensated.  Make sure to outline every possible detail in your agreement so the expectations are clear. This is a business deal, regardless of the monetary exchange.

Also, make sure to check all your local and state laws regarding professional endorsements for medical practitioners as well as any professional codes of ethics you must follow.

Influencer Marketing for Your Practice

Think about your goals for your influencer campaign. Do you have a new piece of equipment that allows you to provide new services? Maybe you are hosting a summer sale for certain services?

If you’re looking to grow your audience, having them publish a testimonial about your practice could do the trick.

If you’re looking to highlight a service, ask if they would be interested in receiving the service and posting some before and after photos to their platform. Services such as teeth whitening, Invisalign, and veneers are all great to use in this scenario. These services can also be considered as compensation.

Take a Chance and Stand Out

There are an abundance of influencers all over the world and people of all age groups are consumed by social media. By utilizing influencer marketing, your practice can increase its exposure and stand out from the competition!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post What is Influencer Marketing and how can it help your practice appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

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.