How to Use Instagram Stories to Turn Followers into Patients - Picture of a woman with green overlay and white text.

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Hi there, acupuncture friend!

Today I’m sharing my favorite ways to use Instagram stories to change followers into patients.

Because there’s no sense spending a ton of time on social media if your audience never becomes a patient in real life, right?

This is something that I teach ALL of my Instagram Coaching clients. It’s that effective!

My Instagram Coaching clients are a varied group – from acupuncturists who are already seasoned Instagram users, to those who are brand new. And these ideas are easy enough and effective enough that I encourage all of them to use Instagram stories to get more patients.

How to Use Instagram Stories to Get More Acupuncture Patients:

ENGAGEMENT:

Use Instagram stories to get your followers to engage with you – to answer a poll, submit a question, or send you a comment.

The benefits of this are two-fold.

First, followers are more likely to become patients when they start interacting with you and communicating with you.

And second, the Instagram algorithm likes when people engage with your account in any way possible. The more engagement you get, the more Instagram shows your content. Win-win.

EDUCATION:

Use Stories to educate potential patients to help them realize that:

A) Acupuncture can help them

B) Your office is conveniently located in their community

C) You’re the ideal acupuncturist for them

And one other thing I have to mention before we dive into the specifics of what to say and do on Instagram Stories. And that is – you guessed it!

CONSISTENCY.

Just like all forms of social media, you do need to use Stories consistently if you want your audience to engage with you.

Sometimes getting the “lurkers” to come out of the social media shadows and ask you a question takes time!

Why? Marketing is all about building up enough trust in potential patients that they feel comfortable making an appointment. It’s an incremental thing – it builds over time. You’ve got to build up enough trust that people feel comfortable and like it’s worth their time to submit a question or send your a direct message.

Basically, ENGAGEMENT, EDUCATION and CONSISTENCY all build trust!

The more often you show up and deliver helpful information, the more people will trust you and be willing to show up for you.

So how do you use stories for engagement and education?

A few ideas, with examples below:

  • “Wellness Wednesday”
  • “Conditions Treated So Far This Week”
  • “Appointment Open, Schedule Before It Disappears!”
  • Screenshots of articles you find about acupuncture and your specialties
  • Office announcements
  • Share your face

“Wellness Wednesday” Using the “Questions” Sticker:

For Wellness Wednesday, you create an Instagram Story inviting your audience to ask you any questions they have about acupuncture.

They can submit their questions through the “Questions” sticker. You can see who has submitted each question, but when you answer the question publicly in your story, it’s anonymous. No one else knows who asked the question, just you.

IMPORTANT – You might find that no one submits any questions at first.This is normal. Again, it takes time. Just keep doing Wellness Wednesday every week, and people will catch on!

The trick in the meantime? If no one is submitting questions for your Wellness Wednesday, you can submit your own questions, through the Questions sticker, and then answer them.

This is totally fine! Ask the questions that you wish your followers would ask, so you can educate them about things that are important to you – like FAQs about your specialty, for example.

 

Where to Find the Questions Sticker:

First, open up stories from your Instagram home screen:


Next, click the little sticker icon in the upper right:

Then, select the “Questions” sticker:

You can edit the text in the sticker:

This is my favorite way to use Instagram stories for my clinic! Why?

  1. It increases engagement with your audience, which allows them to feel like they “know you” and builds trust – making them much more likely to make an appointment
  2. It’s an excellent way to educate your audience about how much acupuncture can help them. Everyone gets to read the questions and answers – so even if they didn’t feel bold enough to submit a question, they still learn more about acupuncture just by reading your answers in stories.

So Wellness Wednesday is all about connection and education.

“Appointment Open, Schedule Before It Disappears!”

These last three Stories are from Kacie @silkandpalm, an acupuncturist in Toronto, Canada. Her account is wonderful! I interviewed her all about how to get more patients from Instagram right here. And I recommend that all my Instagram coaching clients follow Kacie @silkandpalm for ideas and inspiration!

“Conditions Treated So Far This Week”

Example of Clinic Announcements:

Screenshots of Acupuncture Articles:

(You can find this article from the Wall Street Journal here, by the way.)

Share Your Face:

It doesn’t have to be fancy. No preparation or fancy photo shoots required. Just let potential patients see you, so they can imagine who would be treating them. This builds trust in a big way!

A few more things to know about Instagram stories:

  • Stories only last for 24 hours
  • They don’t have to be “branded” like your Instagram feed (i.e., because they disappear, it’s not AS important that they match your brand)
  • So they’re a low-pressure way to share on Instagram

I’m always encouraging my Instagram coaching clients to focus on creating a cohesive, branded look overall for their Instagram account.

BUT in Instagram stories, this is less important, because the images or videos you publish only exist for 24 hours and then disappear. So there’s less need to “curate” your Instagram story (unless you really want to!).

I hope you put these Stories ideas into action!

If you need more help getting patients from your Instagram efforts, check out my Instagram Coaching for Acupuncturists.

I’ll take an in-depth look at your Instagram account. Then we hop on a 60-minute Zoom video call to talk about changes I’d recommend so you can start changing your followers into patients.

Plus, this week only, I’m offering $100 off Instagram Coaching for Acupuncturists – Use code INSTA100 at checkout.

Take a look at the Instagram coaching here.

And as always, feel free to send me your questions! My email is michelle@michellegrasek.com