Instagram is still one of the most popular growing social media platforms. The video and photo sharing channel reached 1 billion monthly active users in 2018. And over 500 million of these people still use the platform daily. Since 2013, the app’s user base has grown ten times.

It continues to expand mainly among teens and young millennials. Of all its users, 71% are under the age of 35. These people look for trending content from those that they follow or share by other accounts.

The app provides so many tools to help boost and spread content to reach more audiences.

Believe it or not, its features and content trends make it an easy platform for doctors to use to boost engagement with patients.

They can chat privately, post health tips or other patient success stories, and share interviews with other experts. The content possibilities that a physician on Instagram can use are endless. But let’s look at some of the tools, how to use them and popular content ideas for doctors.

Anatomy of Instagram

The first step to succeeding on Instagram as a doctor is understanding the app’s core features. As I mentioned earlier, there are so many capabilities within the app.

So, let’s go through some of the most popular tools for getting started.

Stories and Direct Messaging

Taking a look at just the home screen, you’ll see a variety of buttons. At the top of the page are the direct messages and Stories. Direct messaging is exactly what it sounds like: users send you a private message that only goes to you. Or you can create groups.

Stories are a quick and easy way to share moments with others. Users can use basic options by just posting images. But they can also get more creative with polls, Q&As, countdowns, GIFs, and more.

There’s a “close friends” capability for users to select which friends they want to view their Stories.

While these only last on someone’s newsfeed for 24 hours, users can create their own story highlights which show up on their profile page. It keeps past stories archived into categories so others can easily access them later.

Shopping

Some images on the homepage will have tags that display prices. Businesses use this feature for e-commerce purposes. Clicking on these takes the user to the product’s landing page on the company website. This makes business accounts more active for followers. People can quickly access products they see and want more information about rather than needing to seek them out.

Hashtags

Of course, no successful social media platform is successful without hashtags. On Instagram, users apply hashtags within captions of their posts.

Users can also search for a hashtag or access them by clicking them within the post. This leads to a page of images that used the same tag so people can see related content.

Hashtags are key in helping businesses reach a wider audience outside of only their followers.

Live Videos and IGTV

Live videos are exactly what they sound like: videos in real-time. These are accessible on Stories - when an account is live, it will display at the front of the story bar.

Viewers can send “likes” and comments that the host will see during the video. These capabilities make live videos more interactive and engaging between the host and viewers. The host can even enable a group live video, allowing authorized users to join as co-hosts.

Live videos aren’t automatically accessible forever. That’s where IGTV comes in.

This makes it possible for the host to save their videos to their account. Viewers can then access the IGTV button which will show past live sessions.

It’s also good for videos that are too long for the home page’s news feed. A preview of the video will display within the newsfeed, and then viewers can click the IGTV icon to keep watching.

Profile Bios

Someone’s profile biography is where they can briefly share who they are. It displays the type of business to help attract those who are most interested in the service.

Including location and website in the bio also makes it easier for prospective customers to narrow their search.

Contact

Business pages feature a “contact” option when visiting the profile. Sure, users could send a direct message. But those aren’t as easy to keep organized.

Businesses can set up email, call, or text options with this feature. That way making contact is easier for potential customers since they wouldn’t need to leave the app to find these details.

Instagram Content for Doctors

So now that you know some of the basic tools for using Instagram, it’s time to make the content and get your name out there.

You might be wondering where you should start. But this doesn’t need to be a guessing game.

There’s already popular content that you can apply to your practice on Instagram. Let’s look at how you can use some popular trends to boost your healthcare organizations brand awareness and increase your patient volume.

Q&A's

Question-and-answers are popular on Instagram because the story tool makes them so easy. It keeps questions organized rather than having direct messages or post replies flooded with questions.

Patients already look to the internet for answers to health concerns. Younger generations even prefer to talk to health professionals on social media since they feel that they’re too busy to visit the doctor.

Since so many people look to the internet to self-diagnose, it helps to have your health practice on Instagram. Users actively look for health answers online but false information spreads faster than the truth.

Over 40% of consumers say that the information they find on social media affects the way they deal with their health. So if doctors provide credible information on Instagram, consumers will be more likely to better take care of their health.

Q&As answer patients’ concerns so they know if they need to make an appointment or not. That way, they don’t need to feel like they’re wasting time by scheduling a visit.

If they have a professional’s opinion, they’ll feel more inclined to see one or they’ll know how they can take care of the problem on their own.

Before-and-After

People also love seeing before-and-afters. It gives a comparison of the situation people might be in, and the desired state that they could get to. These are common with things like home projects or fitness journeys.

Believe it or not, your practice can use these, too.

Value-based care is an increasing trend in the healthcare industry. In short, this model means doctors get paid based on patient outcomes.

Healthcare is expensive, so people want to know they’re going to receive quality care before treatment. Before-and-afters are a visual way for consumers to know that a healthcare practice has positive outcomes.

Some doctors on the platform will have better luck with this than others. Here are just a few that we’ve seen:

Physical therapy rehabilitation
Plastic surgery
Dermatology
Orthodontist and dental work
Broken-to-healed bones

One of the most important things to keep in mind for this is to get a patient’s consent before posting any of their health transformations. The last thing you’ll want is a lawsuit from violating HIPAA from a social media post. Always get the required consent before sharing anything about a patient’s health.

Success Stories and Testimonials

There are more ways than before-and-afters to show off the success of your practice.

With Instagram Stories and IGTV, it’s easy to feature patient testimonials.

The doctor can facilitate a live discussion or feature a pre-recording of the patient talking about the experience. It could also be as simple as a video or image of the progress.

Nearly half of the people who view health information on the social web look at health-related consumer reviews.

Those who land on a health practice’s Instagram page want to know about others’ experiences before deciding to use that service. Again, make sure you receive patient consent before posting any of their progress.

Health and Holistic Tips

Some healthcare professionals are so popular on platforms like Instagram that they’re now considered an influencer.

As I already mentioned, younger generations prefer to handle their health on their own before they need to visit a doctor. They’re taking preventative care into their own hands by focusing on holistic wellness to keep themselves healthy.

There are already so many IG accounts that post tips for improving health such as through diet, exercise, sleep, and mindfulness. While some of these might be people trained in a specific area, a lot are just people who approach health as a hobby.

In other words, they don’t have formal training in it, but they’re constantly trying to learn and share that information with others.

As a physician, you can have success by targeting this type of content since you’re a licensed professional health expert. This is engaging content that people seek out, and it can increase the engagement of your account by tenfold.

Dr. Mark Hyman is one professional who does this. He’s a family physician and well-known educator in the field of Functional Medicine. This is a form of alternative medicine, focusing on holistic health. He’s the Head of Strategy and Innovation of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.

Dr. Hyman focuses on real food, nutrition, and wellness to help change the food system on a global scale. His Instagram is full of food tips and advice from other medical experts with different health focuses. He uses so many of the app’s tools to engage users. His IGTV is full of interviews, and he also adds snippets of these to stories and newsfeeds. He takes advantage of the story highlights to organize helpful posts.

He’s also a good example of a physician who takes his content and posts it across multiple different channels. Although it’s out of the scope of this blog post, he has a great podcast as well.

Demonstrations and How-To's

We know that Instagram is a visual platform, duh.

Its visual capabilities makes it a great place to succeed with demonstrations and how-tos. These help visual learners. Thinking about some simple, informative health how-tos, your mind might go to recipes or exercises.

Dr. Hyman includes this kind of content on his page. He posts images of food with their health tips, then includes recipes within his story highlights.

Another doctor who uses the app for health tips is Dr. Zach Long, an internationally-known physical therapist. He also approaches holistic health with demonstrations to increase sports performance. He uses how-to videos and images that teach how to target certain muscle groups to avoid injury and improve strength.

Product Postings

The shopping tool helps people find products that they want.

If they see an item in a photo, they can easily access it if the poster enables this feature. This is another aspect that your healthcare company can take advantage of with your content. If you’re posting health tips, you can link products that people can use to achieve these benefits.

For example, a dentist could feature mouthwash or toothpaste. Or a pediatrician could post and link to vitamins that kids like.

It doesn’t directly benefit your practice to post another company’s products. But it shows that you care about your clients and want to help them achieve the best health, even beyond what your practice offers. It supports preventive care to keep them healthy, and it builds trust so they’ll visit you when they need to.

Conclusion

It might seem daunting to take on yet another social media platform, especially if you already use others like Facebook or TikTok. But different channels have different benefits and audiences.

Social media in general is primarily used by younger generations that tend to avoid going to the doctor. Meaning, medical professionals can reach this audience through this social media platform.

By taking popular content ideas and applying towards your practice, you'll boost your engagement. Even if they aren’t searching for you specifically, users can still find your content that pertains to them.

This helps them get credible and valuable information that they can apply to their own life while increasing the awareness of your practice.