Joining the ranks of social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, both Pinterest and Instagram have announced that they will soon be unveiling ads. Users will begin to see promoted content in their feeds from brands they don’t follow, which can give you an opportunity to promote your practice to a new, social media-savvy audience. Let’s take a look at how Pinterest and Instagram will be using these ads to help you make the most of them.
For three years, Instagram has existed as a social network that is solely based on sharing images. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, and various other sites, posts are not predominantly text-based — in fact, there is only room for a short caption to accompany each image. With their recent rollout of video posts, they’ve broadened their already wide audience. However until recently, Instagram has existed without ads. While there were plenty of brands, medical practices, and more using this service, they had no way of expanding the reach of their posts to those who weren’t following them. This has all changed with the announcement that Instagram will soon begin to allow ads on their service.
However, don’t expect to be able to start promoting just yet. As stated on the Instagram blog, they are planning on starting slow, focusing on “delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community.” If you don’t already have a presence on this application, now’s a great time to start. Post pictures from around the office, of your staff, and more to start building up your presence on this application. While they haven’t gone into much detail on how their ad system will work, starting your account now can give you time to test the waters and get a feel for Instagram before they fully launch their promoted posts.
After nearly four years ad-free, Pinterest are beginning to unveil promoted posts. Unlike Instagram, Pinterest’s ads, or “Promoted Pins,” have already begun to roll out this past week. For those unfamiliar with this growing social media platform, Pinterest allows you to create a virtual pinboard full of images either uploaded by you, or other users.  Users are able to browse the site and “pin” images they find interesting to their own board. According to Pinterest, Promoted Pins will show up in the search results and category feeds, as opposed to directly appearing on a user’s board. Still, appearing in searches can afford your practice a great deal of visibility.
An important thing to know about Pinterest’s ads is that they are based on relevance — meaning that users will only be able to see your posts if they are searching for something similar. Much like Instagram, however, this is a new feature and is only available in a limited capacity at the moment. Stay tuned as more information about Pinterest’s ads will likely be available in the coming months. Until then, create an account to find out how this site can help your business.
Medical Social Media Management
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