What you should be posting on social media in 2024

It’s a new year and there are undoubtedly lots of new marketing opportunities on the horizon but one thing hasn’t changed: social media. Social is still a key channel for reaching new patients and building brand awareness. Trends in social media move quickly and it can be hard to know what to focus on and what type of content to post. So to help with you with your content planning, here are three key trends to be aware of for 2024:

Long Form Content

With the explosion of TikTok and short-form content, it’s easy to think that concentration spans are now so short that there’s little point in creating content that lasts any longer than 60 seconds. However, there’s a growing appetite by consumers (that’s your potential patients) for content that is more engaging and in-depth. Think of the boom in podcasts or the increasing popularity of YouTube for interviews, product reviews and giving insight into experiences. Although it may take a little more time in planning and editing, there is value in longer form content. And when we say ‘longer’, that can mean anything more than you would normally post on social. So it could be anything from a 5 minute demo video showing the composite bonding treatment process, to a 30-minute interview with an implantologist which gives potential patients lots of detail on the process, showing expertise and providing reassurance. Here at Hive Marketing, we’ve worked with many of our dental clients on video days, filming patient testimonials, clinician interviews and other footage that can be edited for a variety of formats. If this is something you’re interested in for your dental practice, contact us to see how we can help.

Shallow Content

At the other end of the scale, is what we’re calling ‘shallow content’. This is where you can relax, have fun, and experiment on TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts. Use these short videos to try joining in with trends and memes, with no expectation of creating engagement or conversions. Obviously they still take a little time to make, this is an opportunity to try new ideas and flex your creative skills by using quick cuts, and overlaying text or sounds. You can also treat these short videos as a testing ground, see which posts generate the most engagement, and then use these insights to inform and guide any future posts. Get your phone out and give it a go.

Social as a Search Engine

Google is still the world’s dominant search engine, being used for around 85% of all online searches. Although this number is slowly declining as other search engines like Bing gain popularity, the importance of your position on the Google search engine results page should still be a priority in your marketing strategy.

However, there are more and more studies being released that show social media is now where people are going to search for answers to their questions, in particular for the younger generation. Around 40% of ‘Gen Z’ say they prefer using TikTok or YouTube to search, and a recent study by Rise at Seven found that for many industries, search volumes for specific key phrases on TikTok and YouTube outrank those on Google. As these are video platforms, this also shows how important visual content, not just well written copy, now is. While dentistry wasn’t included in this study, what is clear is that it’s time to adopt a “search everywhere approach” and make sure that any content you’re publishing, on any platform, is fully optimised for search. That includes using keywords, hashtags and relevant captions for each post, tagging locations, practitioners and suppliers, and really making the most of every piece of content.

A reassuring point that Rise at Seven’s study found was that “users are still going to Google for health queries more than any other platform”. That means for dentistry, a strong SEO strategy focussing on on and off-site tactics is more valuable than ever. At Hive Marketing we tailor our SEO packages to each dental practice we work with, depending on your specific priorities, making sure you’re appearing high up in the search engine results page. If you’re interested to see what we can do for your dental practice, get in touch with us for a free website audit and SEO proposal.

Now is the time to get a marketing plan in place for 2024 and social media needs to be a part of it, in one form or another. If you’d like some help formulating a marketing plan or a wider business improvement strategy then get in touch with us today.