How To Set Up An Instagram Page For Your Dental Practice

Select a Username and Password – When you sign up, be sure to use a business email address, and choose your Username and Password. By using your Dental Practice’s name as your username, you can make it easy for patients to locate you as well as create consistency across all your social media platforms.

Upload a Profile Photo – Choose a professional image, company logo, or photo of your facility. Remember, these photos will be quite small, so making sure that it’s high quality is important! Since the photo will be cropped into a circle, square photos work best.

Add your Website – This will be the only clickable link on your profile. Many users link to their website or to their latest promotional or event information.

Update your Bio – Similar to Facebook’s Description, use this section as your elevator pitch, keep it short and sweet with information about services offered or your Center’s slogan or tagline.

Switch from a Personal Account to a Business Account – click the three lines in the top right corner of your profile and select “Settings” from the menu. From here, select “Account” and “Switch to Professional Account.” Finally, select “Business” and get ready to go! It’s important that you make this switch to take advantage of call, text, and email buttons available for business accounts.

Add your Business Category – when setting up your account, you’ll need to select the category that best describes your business. With nearly 1200 Instagram business categories to choose from, take a few minutes to decide the best description for your Center. Whereas Facebook allows for 3 categories, Instagram only allows you to choose one, although you can change this at any time.

Link your Facebook Page – by linking your Facebook and Instagram pages, you’ll be able to cross-post between the two platforms and take advantage of the advertising options available through Ads Manager. The User account and email address associated with your Instagram Page must also be listed as an Admin on your Facebook page (another plus for using consistency across all platforms). Click on Edit Profile and select Page under Public Business Information. Select Connect and Existing Page and click Done after you have selected your Business Facebook page.

Add Buttons – Instagram makes it easy for users to communicate with businesses by allowing buttons to be added to business profiles to call, text, or email the business. Tap ‘Edit Profile’ and navigate to ‘Business Information”, then ‘Contact Options.’ Double check that you have properly added your practice phone number, email & address entered. Under ‘How would you like to be reached?’ select the appropriate button for the option you would like on your profile. Click save!

Expand your Links – Yes, we’ve said that your Bio contains the only clickable link on your Instagram page, but behold the power of the internet. There’s a workaround. Tools like linkein.bio or linktr.ee allow you to set up a page and customize a layout to provide several links to your followers when they click on your Bio link. This lets you create an online database of links from former posts, encouraging users to do a deep dive in your content.