Have you ever spent hours putting together a post only to have it get virtually no reaction from your followers?

We get it, that's super frustrating. In the world of social media, "engagement" basically means interactions with a piece of content: so think likes, shares, and comments. Engagement is very important and something that we social media strategists are always striving to improve.

As a plastic surgeon, your goals on social media look probably something like this:

to build trust with potential patients
to educate and become a voice of authority within the plastic surgery niche
and ultimately, to drive client consultations

With this in mind, having a smaller but active community that engages with your account is much better than having thousands of followers that don't react to anything you post (known as "ghost followers"). Remember that gaining followers should never be your primary focus, as they do not necessarily correlate to more revenue!

In order to improve your engagement, we have compiled an Instagram checklist for you to reference!

☑Post Consistently

Having a solid schedule not only keeps you on track, but also makes it so that your content is top-of-mind for your followers. We recommend that you use a scheduling app such as Planoly or Later to help you plan out your posts ahead of time!

Bonus tip: Use a call-to-action (or a "CTA") on every post you make! This is what urges your audience to do something in response. For example, it could be "Comment your thoughts below!" or "Tag a friend who needs to see this!"

☑Develop a Hashtag Strategy

Using hashtags that relate to your niche is a great tool to help with both reach and engagement! Be sure to follow those hashtags and interact with posts that use them.

☑React to Stories

Liking stories, giving a response, or answering polls is a great way to foster a sense of community with your followers and mutuals (people who you follow and they follow you back).

☑Interact with Your Followers

Social media is just that — social! Engagement works both ways. The more time that you spend on Instagram interacting with others, the more likely people will be to engage with you!

Make sure that you answer all your DM's in a timely manner and to reply to any comments that you get.

Bonus tip: Ask questions to those who leave comments, as this will prompt a response and help boost your post!

☑Leave Genuine Comments

While emojis are better than nothing, commenting thoughtfully-written responses are much better! What's more, if you leave the same, dry comments on a bunch of posts, Instagram might think that you're a bot.

The Brisa Social Way

At Brisa Social, we dedicate time every day to work on improving our clients' engagement. Our specialty is creating data-driven, organic social strategies for plastic surgeons that both educate and inspire our clients' audiences. The focus is always to create a community in your following, so that when an individual decides on a doctor, there is no second thought about it: they are choosing you.

If you are struggling with Instagram engagement, we're here to help. Send us an email today at hello@brisasocial.ca to get started!