In terms of Insta – years, I am an absolute dinosaur! And I have found myself roaring endlessly about how ‘I wouldn’t buy teeth whitening or Invisalign or cosmetic bonding off Instagram, and I certainly wouldn’t find a local dentist in Fulham through it!’. I wasn’t even sure what an ‘influencer’ was; just sounded like a virtual form of peer pressure on steroids to my old, crusty ears.
‘In my (not so ancient) day’, a local dentist would be recommended by a friend/family and you saw the same dentist until they retired or passed, your sense of loyalty would put a Labrador to shame. If you were feeling adventurous, you may sift through the yellow pages (that could prop up your life it was so mammoth), or for the super techno savvy amongst us, you would dial in to the world-wide web if you had a spare 5 hours on your hands.
In a bid to understand more, I have recently taken on professional Insta- stalking, mainly of other dentists and obviously, all in the name of market research.
I now know all the ‘hottest’ dentists in town, as decided through their sum of followers. I am amazed members of the humble profession have up to 237 THOUSAND avid minion like entities awaiting dental updates daily (dr_rubinshtein of New York has the highest number as far as my research dictates – follow him, he is just dreamy!).
And people really can’t seem to get enough. They want to see more of the before and after cases, more amazing teeth whitening results, more Invisalign journeys and life changing smile makeovers.
Following multiple binge sessions of daily Insta Story updates, IGTV videos and feeds, I have learnt a few things. I am now Insta wise my friends.
Firstly, wow is Instagram and Facebook stalking a great way to pass a lot of time. An anticipated 10 minute sneaky peek can easily turn into 3 hours and you may forget your child is in the same room and needs some form of supervision. Taking supervised neglect to digital heights.
Secondly, there are a lot of companies promoting questionable dental products and services. BEWARE.
However, there are a number of very knowledgeable dentists doing an amazing job of educating the public and demystifying dentistry. Social media provides an amazing platform for this. Unfortunately, it is hard to decipher the good, the bad and the downright outrageous.
I have now come to realise, when potential patients have taken to social media to find clinicians, what they really searching for are the people behind the masks, behind the smiles.
For many, dental treatment is literally like pulling teeth! So, they want to know the puller is someone they can relate to – so why not view endless streams of their work, their lives and understand their principles before deciding they get the honour of treating you.
I am now not so anti-social media. I have discussed this with Imran and we have pledged to put ourselves on digital show for the benefit of potential and existing clients. We think our team, work and ethos is brilliant, so we should definitely showcase more!
If you would like to Insta stalk us and find out if we are living up to our pledge, please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. If you would like to book an appointment, you can DM us on there (see how savvy I am). Or you can call our team on 02030801000 and email on mail@cfdentist.co.uk
