The next thing on TikTok that's really important is called duets and stitches. Dueting is where you can find a video from another creator, place it alongside your video, and film your reaction or comments to their content. Stitching a video means you play another creator's video first then record your video to play immediately afterward. Dueting or stitching the video is so popular that some creators will say within their content to "like this video, share this video, duet or stitch this video, and leave a comment." It's like watching a YouTube video where the creators end their videos with, "If you love this content, like the videos, subscribe to the channel, and ring the bell to be notified every time I make a new video!"
Creators do this because most people will do what they are asked or told to do when watching content. So, if you want users to like the video, ask them to like the video, consider following, share with your friends and comment. It can be overwhelming for businesses who don't understand how to use the platform to help build their audience or promote their practice.
No, we're not suggesting that you run out and create a TikTok account and start doing silly dances around the practice; however, I have seen informational content do amazingly well. For example, a weight loss surgeon who gives advice on TikTok and live streams, a whole different topic, can grow their audience and bring attention to their practice. I've seen an orthodontist talk about how braces work, how they move teeth, the importance of a retainer, and using your retainer nightly; those videos tend to do reasonably well and get a lot of comments and likes.
Regarding social media, you're bidding for users' attention. While TikTok may be the latest hotness (as of this writing), there are a couple of tried and true platforms that your practice should consider using for promotions.
That leads us to… drum roll, please!
Facebook was once the most popular social media platform; Facebook advertising is still relatively inexpensive compared to other outlets. No, you would think that that would make advertising on Facebook the way to go; however, that's far from the truth. Honestly, if you're using Facebook for advertising, you should run something like a brand awareness campaign instead of something that will "generate leads."
Social media advertising is the way to capture passive customers or patients. These are people who don't know about your practice who could need your services and could potentially do business with you. Don't get me wrong. Most people go to Facebook to scroll through and look at their college friends or their old high school sweetheart and think, wow… I look so much better than they do!
While we're on the topic of Facebook or "Meta," we can't forget about Instagram. Many years ago, Facebook acquired Instagram. Today all advertising on Instagram is done through the Facebook ads manager platform, which makes it extremely easy to advertise on both Facebook and Instagram but isn't the most intuitive dashboard I've ever seen.
Of course, there are so many social media platforms to choose from that it can be extremely daunting. There's Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, LinkedIn. The list goes on.
When they think of LinkedIn, most people think about looking for a job or finding their next employer. Still, it can be an incredible place to advertise, particularly if you offer services as a corporate perk, such as a chiropractor who discounts services by 10% for other healthcare professionals. We didn't talk a lot about targeting on Facebook because Facebook's targeting has become a little hit or miss over the last few years. That's not the case with LinkedIn, where you can target by job title or employer. This makes putting your ad in front of the right audience extraordinarily accurate and less complicated than any other social platform. The downside to LinkedIn is the ad cost which is significantly higher compared to Facebook and Instagram.
