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Promote Your Orthodontic Practice with Holiday Hashtags

Social media is a powerful driver of business in the modern world of marketing. It presents a unique opportunity to add a personal and approachable feel to your business while also presenting new platforms for creativity. Social medial also provides new ways to use the viral nature of trending topics to build traffic to your business through the use of hashtags. Holiday hashtags are an especially valuable tool since they are essentially trends you can predict based on the time of year, and they allow you to show your festive spirit.

Using Hashtags

Hashtags are a function within social media platforms that link you to other users who have posted about the same topic. Clicking on the link takes you to a stream of other posts with the same hashtag, which is where a lot of the value of using hashtags comes from. They make it easier for social media users to find your content due to your page’s exposure within the hashtag stream. You’ll benefit from using hashtags on any social media platform that has them, with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter being the most valuable.

While this idea may seem incredibly straightforward, there are right and wrong ways to use hashtags. The key is to use trending topics people are searching for while also making the hashtags relevant to your business. Using a combination of really broad hashtags, such as #Happyholidays, and more specific trending or local hashtags will give you a good balance of exposure in topics that have a high volume and topics that target your market area.

How Many Hashtags Is Too Many?

While it may seem to make sense to “hashtag bomb” a post to get as much exposure as possible, this method is likely to come off as tacky to your current users and may drive some of them away. A good rule of thumb is to never exceed four hashtags. This number gives you opportunities to tap into different levels of exposure while still keeping your social media posts looking uncluttered. Also, capitalizing each individual word has no effect on how it shows up in the hashtag stream, but it does make the hashtag more readable. A good-looking post would look something like this:

“Looking for a New Year’s resolution idea? Get started on orthodontic treatment at our Portland orthodontic office. Wishing everyone a happy and safe New Years! #NewYears #NewYearsResolution #HappyHolidays #PortlandOrthodontists”

This works well because it maintains the clean look of the social media post while tapping into hashtag streams that provide lots of exposure, relate to their specific business, and reach out to the local market.

Getting Creative for Different Holidays

Social media is one of the best mediums to exercise your creativity, so take advantage of different holidays to post entertaining content for your followers. This can be as simple as posting funny group photos from a Halloween costume party or posting a photo of a creatively decorated Christmas tree. You can also run fun promotions, such as offering a prize to people who post a photo of their ugly Christmas sweater, use your creative hashtag, and share your page.

Don’t forget about those obscure holidays that offer a unique opportunity simply celebrate things people love. For instance, National Taco Day, which rolls around every October 4th. You could give away gift cards to a Mexican restaurant to the first 10 people to book an appointment, or to people who share photos of themselves celebrating National Taco Day with your hashtag. And of course, certainly don’t forget about National Orthodontic Health Month. Pay attention to the sorts of holidays that are getting attention online and use your creativity to ride the wave of web traffic.

Not sure how to make hashtags work for your practice? Let the experts at Ortho Sales Engine help! Contact our team to schedule a free consultation.

Ortho Sales Engine specializes in marketing solutions for orthodontists, combines more than 20 in-house services to create customized, repeatable marketing systems, and serves as a trusted partner to doctors and their teams. To learn more or schedule a free consultation, visit orthosalesengine.com.