S5 E02: Build Your Dental Brand: Social Media Strategies

A social media crash course! How to build your personal and professional brand online.

Dental Sound Bites Season 5 Episode 2 with Dr. Britany Baker & Dr. Sara Ehsani

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Episode notes

Build Your Dental Brand: Social Media Strategies

A social media crash course! Learn how dental influencers get it done, and how you can get started building your personal and professional brand on social media.

Special Guest: Dr. Britany Baker and Dr. Sara Ehsani

“As a dental influencer, I believe that we like have a lot of responsibility. You know, we represent dentistry as a whole whenever we're on there talking about, I'm a dentist and this is what I think.”

Dental Sound Bites Season 5 Episode 2 with Dr. Britany Baker
Dr. Britany Baker

"At the end of the day, we're first human beings and then professionals. So that's important that you post like who you are yourself and be honest to yourself too.”

Dental Sound Bites Season 5 Episode 2 with Dr. Sara Ehsani
Dr. Sara Ehsani

 

Show Notes

  1. In this episode, we’re diving into strategies and tips to help you start building your personal and professional social media brand online.
  2. These days having an online presence can really help dental professionals connect with patients and grow their professional reputation. Our guests today are two dental influencers who will share their strategies for building a compelling personal and professional brand on social media.
  3. Dr. Brittany Baker is a general dentist in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her passions in life include helping people, fixing teeth, and sharing her life on social media. She enjoys creating educational content while also sharing her experiences as a new dentist out in the world.
  4. Dr. Sara Ehsani has been practicing in Dallas, Texas, and is credentialed at Children’s Hospital in Dallas and Plano. A board-certified Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, she finds joy in all aspects of dentistry, especially in educating, leading, and building lasting relationships with her patients and their families.
  5. Dr. Baker and Dr. Ehsani share how they started building their personal brands on social media.
  6. They share their personal guidelines for dentists looking to get started on social media, how to engage with your audience, and the important things to always consider.
  7. Dr. Baker and Dr. Ehsani share some of the common mistakes they made, and see new dental influencers making, and share the stories of what they would’ve done differently at the beginning of their social media journey.
  8. Our guests share their top strategies for building a social presence and building an engaged audience.

Resources


View episode transcript

Ioannidou: [00:00:00]Social media. I mean, it's a big thing, right?  

Wright:Yeah, it is.  

Ioannidou:So it's a powerful tool for everybody, for the entire society, including dental professionals.  

Wright:Yes, ma'am. 

Ioannidou: We cannot stay out of this game. So, but how do we start how to get engaged with this? It's not that, it seems like it's easy, but it's not that easy.  

Wright: [00:00:23] This is true 

Ioannidou: [00:00:24]So It's a very crowded digital space, and I think it's Important for us to navigate it and learn more tips. So hello everybody. I'm Dr. Effie Ioannidou, I'm a, I'm a philosopher.  

Wright: [00:00:39]ArNelle Wright I'm so excited to be having this chat today. Today, we're going to be diving into strategies for you to build your online brand, both professionally and personally. 

Announcer: [00:00:52] From the American Dental Association, this is Dental Sound Bites. Created for dentists by dentists. 

Ready? Let's dive right into real talk on dentistry's daily wins and sticky situations. 

Ioannidou: [00:01:08] We are very excited to be here at SmileCon. We are connecting with our community. We are learning from our community and we are learning from our colleagues.  

Wright: [00:01:17] Yes, we are. It's so good to be back. And I'm so glad that we have some guests that are here with us today. Have y'all been enjoying SmileCon? 

Baker: [00:01:25] Absolutely.  

Wright: [00:01:26] Good, good, good.  

Ehsani: [00:01:27] Very much.  

Wright: [00:01:28] Yes. Yes. I'm enjoying SmileCon too. We want to remind everybody before we jump into the episode today that if you want to be a part of our growing Dental Sound Bites family, please take a moment to subscribe to the show wherever you listen so that you can stay updated with all of our latest episodes. 

And don't forget you can now watch every episode on YouTube.  

I know! I love it. 

Wright:So exciting. 

Ioannidou: [00:01:51] So let's go and, uh, move into the episode, right?  

Wright: [00:01:54] Let's do it.  

Ioannidou: [00:01:55] Let's do it. So, ArNelle.  

Wright: [00:01:57] Yes, ma'am.  

Ioannidou: [00:01:58] As you know, these days, having an online presence, you know more than anybody. Or maybe equally as, as our guests, but it's very important having an online presence and, and you can really help dental professionals, students, the entire dental community and the public. Right? And connect with patients, grow your, your practice grow as a professional. So it's, it's really a very dynamic relationship, right?  

Wright:For sure. So I'm all about my social media. Y'all know that. And I'm so excited today. It's not going to be about me. I'm excited that we're going to have a conversation centered around social media, about how our amazing guests have built their online brands. 

We want you to share your personal stories. So today we're excited to welcome Dr. Britany Baker and Dr. Sara Ehsani to the show. Welcome ladies. So can you guys just tell us a little bit about yourselves? Just tell us more you know, introduce yourselves to our Dental Sound Bites family.  

Baker: [00:03:03] So my name is Brittany Baker, Dr. Baker. I have an Instagram called @peaceful.toothdoc that I started posting on in about 2021. I have been a dentist for about four years now. On my social media, I love to post about patient education and also just my experience as a dentist to connect with other dental professionals. And yeah. 

Wright: [00:03:26] There we go. And Dr. Ehsani.  

Ehsani: [00:03:29] I'm Sara Ehsani. So I'm a pediatric dentist. My social media, my Instagram and TikTok are both @SaraeDDS. So, I started my, I mean, so, when did Instagram come out? 2010? So, I started mine, like, 2013 or 14, but it was like at that time, like, you know, like one post a year or something like that. 

So it wasn't as popular as it is right now. And TikTok. I think I started my TikTok during COVID time. So when I was out of work, so that's what I did. And well, my goal is, or has always been to inspire and to educate. So that's why I have my social media platforms.  

Ioannidou: [00:04:15] Okay, I mean, it's interesting because you have been in on social media for what? 10 years, right? Wow. It seems you said that you started with one post.  

Wright: [00:04:28] A year at that.  

Ioannidou: [00:04:29] Yeah. Like the frequency was like very low. Right. And obviously I'm sure it's high now. Yeah. But what made you change your behavior and get more, being more engaged and what kind of strategies did you use at the beginning? 

Ehsani: [00:04:46] So I feel like when I started, Being more engaged in social media, especially I would say first with Instagram. I saw a lot of people message me and send me directs. They told me that we love this about you or this inspires us or they wanted to know more because I'm from Iran. So I'm an immigrant. I moved to the States in 20... 

Ioannidou: [00:05:07] I can tell from your accent. I knew you were Iranian. 

Wright: I love that. 

Ehsani: [00:05:12] No, I live in Dallas, but I don't have any Texas accent here.  

Ioannidou: [00:05:17] Absolutely not.  

Ehsani: [00:05:18] So I moved here in 2013 to, to the States and then I was in LA first and went to UCLA, did my advanced standing program, got a license there and then I went to UConn for my pediatric dentistry residency.  

Ioannidou: You did? 

Ehsani:Yes.  

Ioannidou: [00:05:35] How come I don't know you? When did you graduate?  

Ehsani: [00:05:37] I'm sorry. I graduated, I graduated in 2018 from my pediatric dentistry residency.  

Ioannidou: [00:05:46] Interesting. So with Mina Mina?  

Ehsani: [00:05:47] Yes. Yeah,  

Ioannidou: [00:05:48] That's nice. Okay, keep going.  

Ehsani: [00:05:50] So, and then after that I moved to Dallas and I started working as a pediatric dentist. 

But what happened is that a lot of like dentist, especially I feel like in my home country in Iran, they wanted to come to America and then do the path that I take. So they like, they asked me on Instagram, like how to do that or ask me questions and then I felt like, okay, I can educate people and I can do podcasts and I can do like, I can find other methods. 

Methods to educate also like being involved with organized dentistry. So that helped a lot. So that's it. And then for my TikTok, so I got mostly engaged when I started like taking, doing videos with my dental assistant. So some of them like took off and they got a lot of views, that helped a lot. 

Ioannidou: [00:06:39] That's a nice story.  

Wright: [00:06:41] And Dr. Baker.  

Baker: [00:06:42] Yeah. So I've been posting on social media. Pretty much my entire life. It started in middle school. In dental school, though, I started sharing a lot on my personal Instagram. Just of like things I was going through. Just, I would post like, I don't know, like if we had like a really hard test or something, I'd post a picture of me like crying studying for the test. 

Be like, anyone else? Like, and I guess for me, like I was just always really like unfiltered on there. And I think that that's what a lot of people like about my content is it's kind of relatable. It's like, I don't really care to throw myself under the bus sometimes and just talk about the hard things that we go through. 

And I think it's good to just have someone that you can look at and be like, “oh, they're going through that too”. So that's something that helps me. That's something that I wanted to give other people as well.  

Ehsani: [00:07:27] I totally feel that because one of my, one of your posts, I was like, Oh, yes, we've been through that, all of us, but nobody talks about that. So that's really good. And that's how actually I started following you. Because of all of your videos.  

Wright: [00:07:42] Did y'all know each other before SmileCon and before this? Just sidebar.  

Baker: [00:07:46] No, just follow, not online, but social media.  

Ehsani: [00:07:48] Instagram friends.  

Baker: [00:07:49] Yeah. 

Wright: [00:07:50] So like Instagram and social media is just so powerful. 

And like when you meet in real life, isn't it just like, it's just life changing, right? Like you instantly have a friend because you've been following each other. Like you kind of resonate with the content a little bit.  

Baker: [00:08:01] You feel like you know them.  

Wright: [00:08:02] Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.  

Ioannidou: [00:08:04] I want to learn from you people. 

 So tell me, how many followers do you have?  

Baker: [00:08:08] Right now I have like 22.7K on Instagram and then TikTok I'm very new.  

Ioannidou: [00:08:13] 22,700?  

Baker: [00:08:15] Yeah.  

Ioannidou: And on TikTok?  

Baker:On TikTok it's not that much. It's like about 3,800 but I just started my TikTok pretty recently.   

Wright: [00:08:23] Which one is your, your platform of choice? 

Baker: [00:08:27] The big one is instagram. 

Ioannidou: [00:08:28] What about you, Sara?  

Ehsani: [00:08:30] So, I mean, not nearly there.  

Wright: [00:08:33] It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.  

Ehsani: [00:08:34] She's an influencer to me.  

Ioannidou: [00:08:35] I will give you my followers and then you will have a heart attack.  

Ehsani: [00:08:38] So, I feel like, I feel like I'm more like a, I'm a dentist with influence than being an influencer. 

Wright: [00:08:44] Oh, I love that. We should get into that a little bit in the show.  

Ehsani: [00:08:48] Yeah, so that's it. And then, you know, my goal is like, yes, to inspire and influence and lead. So that's been helping. But hopefully I can get there. I need to be more engaged. And she started early. So I didn't start that early.  

Ioannidou: [00:08:59] I think I have 450 followers. 

Baker: [00:09:03] Hey, that's a start. We all start somewhere.  

Wright: [00:09:05] You gotta start somewhere.  

Ioannidou: [00:09:06] No, but this has been going on for 10 years.  

Baker: [00:09:09] It's okay. It's never too late. 

Ioannidou: [00:09:13] I'm being severely criticized by my kids. But anyway, we are now with this, with this interaction, I think I will learn a lot of tips and maybe I can improve my social media behavior. 

But you mentioned how relatable you are, which is a great benefit of this for you learning more about yourself, but also for the people that follow you. So what other benefits do you think that you have experienced through this interaction?  

Baker: [00:09:38] I think that there's been a lot of benefits. You know, I think one just for myself, just connecting with other people, you know, I've had a lot of people just message me, like dental students, like other young dentists and just connecting with people. 

And then the other one that I think is really good is just educating the patients, like the fulfillment that I get from, from a message from someone who's just like, “I've been suffering with this and I've been afraid of going to the dentist and after watching your videos, like, I had the courage to schedule an appointment with my dentist” in you know? The first time in like 10 years or something. 

And for me, like, that's something that's really fulfilling that I really like about social media.  

Ioannidou: [00:10:16] That's great. Sara, what about you?  

Ehsani: [00:10:19] I would say the same, probably. So connecting with my peers and also with my patients, because some of my patients, when they come, they tell me that, oh, they know me from social media or from my TikToks and then they're like, “Oh, we feel like we know you and we feel like we can trust you”.  And so that is really good. And sometimes, like when I post stuff about procedures I do, some patients reach out and then they ask me about that, and they want to do that with me. So it definitely helps with that, helps with you know, connecting with your peers, like how I know Dr.Baker from social media platforms. So that always helps. And just being involved in your community and helping with advocacy, I think that too.  

Ioannidou: [00:11:03] But I think what you mentioned earlier, and I really liked it because as an immigrant, I have a soft spot on this. The fact that you have people from around the world, you know, Iran and other countries I'm sure, identifying with you and, and reaching out to learn more about pathways of how they can, you know, imitate, if you will, or follow you the path that you already walked through. 

I think this is also very important and I'm, I'm sure that this gives you. Fulfillment, equal fulfillment, right?  

Ehsani: [00:11:34] Yes, exactly. Yes. When they reach out to me and then they tell me that, you know, I've been inspiring to them and they want to learn and they want to see how I did it. And then I'm like, yes, you can do it. 

And they say, you can't do it all, but you can do it all. You just need to how to manage it all, but you can. Yes, you can.  

Baker: [00:11:54] And it's a really unique situation, you know, like being trained in another country and then moving to another one. It's like very unique. So, you know, sharing with other people is probably really helpful. 

Ehsani: [00:12:05] Yes, because immigration, I mean, immigrating to another country is very difficult by itself. And then, you know, like being a leader and being inspiring, I think that adds up to that and then everybody likes that and they want to hear that. So that's my goal to educate and lead.  

Wright: [00:12:22] There you go. So now we're going to take a little bit of a turn because we know that social media like posting can be very, very tricky as professionals as you know, individuals. 

One thing that you said earlier, Sara, was that you are a dentist with influence. So I would love for you both to take this first question on how does being a dental influencer differ from being other types of influencers and you can expound upon that. And then afterwards, I want you to talk about, or, you know, in your answer, can you share if there's any guidelines that you all have learned along the way, if you've created any guidelines or if there's anything that our listeners can take, from the Dental Sound Bites family. 

For those people that are starting their brands, they're on their brand journey. Anything that you can take from that would be great.  

Baker: [00:13:05] So as a dental influencer, I believe that we like have a lot of responsibility. You know, we represent dentistry as a whole, whenever we're on there talking about, you know, I'm a dentist and this is what I think, you know what I'm saying? 

Like we have a responsibility. to kind of shed a positive light on our profession, I think, because there are a lot of ways on social media that things can go south and that's no fun. So I think that also having a responsibility of what we're sharing online as far as like procedures and like clinical stuff, you know? I think that one mistake that you can make is kind of getting too into the nitty gritty of the dental stuff, you know what I'm saying? Because to be honest, patients just aren't on the same level that we are, so I think that there's kind of like a threshold of things that you should be able or things that you could talk about on there. 

Wright: [00:13:55] Okay. Is, is your platform mainly patient education or is it, is it a mixed bag?  

Baker: Yeah. That's a funny question. 

Wright: Okay, talk about that.  

Baker: [00:14:02] So, I think that as a dental influencer, you have to have a target audience and me personally, I feel like I have kind of two target audiences. I have the patients and then I also have the dental professionals. So, I'm kind of a mix of both. But I think that one way you could go really strong on social media is go for one of those.  

Wright: [00:14:23] Okay, to start.  

Baker: [00:14:24] Yeah, to start with.  

Wright: [00:14:25] Yeah, I think we all have a mixed bag too. There's no way around it. But Dr. Ehsani, what would you, what's your reaction to like being a dental influencer versus other influencers and in any guidelines? 

Ehsani: [00:14:37] So I feel like I'm the one that does it all, like try to do it all. So Dr. Baker does a lot of like dental posts. Like I need to be better on that, but I don't do as much dental. So a lot of times like my posts are like my, you know, just daily lifestyle, traveling and then having the balance between dentistry and... 

Wright: [00:14:57] Ah, it’s giving wellness. 

Ehsani: [00:14:58] Exactly. Because you're at the end of the day, you need to be like mentally and physically healthy dentists to treat your patients right. So it's very important. And then I feel like a lot of like my followers, they tell me that “I love that you share your lifestyle, that you travel, that you do it all. You're involved in organized dentistry and also you work”. I'm like, Yes, I do. I try to manage all of that. It's just the way that you manage that and you dedicate time to that. I like to work out. I like to travel. I like to, you know, eat at nice restaurants. And then, yes, I like to see my patients and you know, treat them well. So I feel like it's the balance of that and that you, if when you include your lifestyle in that also the patients are like, “oh, okay, that's nice”. 

You know? They kind of feel like more personal with you than, you know, just doing the profession. So that's my point of view and but, of course, it's harder when you're a dental professional because you need to be, you know, worry about like what you share sometimes and that's why you have to have your “close friends” there too. 

Sometimes some stuff just goes to “close friends”, you know? So it's important. And HIPAA is very important. Gotta make sure that you have, you know, what you share, you have consent from the parents if you're sharing any videos or images of the patient, of course. That makes it challenging. 

Ioannidou: [00:16:24] One thing in how regulated social media are, but on the other hand, each of us has their own personal standards, right? And obviously we all want to be ethical, respectful to the patients, as you said. So yeah, no, I mean, I think it's, you both have a different niche. You have a more, you know, social life, work life balance type of niche. 

You have a more relatable, let's bring patient closer to what we do kind of thing. I like this. I like, you see, you know, people think that it's a flat way of communication, but it's so multidimensional, right?  

Wright: [00:17:03] It is big time.  

Baker: [00:17:04] It definitely is. And not only like making the post is important, but also like how you engage on the platform is also important. 

So people who are watching your videos and commenting and everything, like you're going to want to comment back to them. You know what I'm saying? Because it's like, it's, you know, it's not just I post it and then people like it and I go away. It's like, okay, I post it and then people are telling me what they think and then I'm having a conversation in my DMs with someone, you know what I'm saying? 

That's where like the real good stuff is.  

Wright: [00:17:33] Yeah.  

We'll be right back.  

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Ioannidou: [00:18:35] Have you noticed any mistakes, common mistakes that people make in this you know, in the process of becoming dental influencers or in, in general influencers, I guess. And in, in, how, in the way that you develop your social media profile and your presence, like what do you think that are the most common mistakes?  

Baker: [00:18:58] I think the most common mistakes are. Really, like, two things. One, just not being original, just kind of posting, like, only trends and just what everyone else is doing. 

And second, is just not posting because you want everything that you're posting to be, like, really perfect, you know what I'm saying? Like, oh, that video is good, but, like, I, I bet I could say it in a little bit different way and it would sound better. So I'll re-record it tomorrow, and then you put it off, and you put it off, and you put it off. 

But, like, in all reality, social media is imperfect, and just posting your content, just post it. Like, that's my biggest advice.  

Ioannidou: [00:19:34] You know, you say that, but there are so many interesting comments many times for, you know, from the skeptical perspective, right? Especially my generation we, we tend to comment on the perfection that you mentioned. A lot of people do present themselves as perfect, the perfect life, the perfect...  

Baker: [00:19:56] And maybe that's their niche.  

Ioannidou: [00:19:58] Maybe that's their niche, but there are many I mean, there are short movies developed on this that show the perfection slash the reality, right? So I like the fact that you want to present a relatable profile, which is, you know, this is who I am, this is how I treat my patients and that's who I am in real life. So I think that's a, that's a great niche.  

Baker: [00:20:21] Thank you.  

Wright: What do you think?  

Ehsani: [00:20:23] I agree totally. So at the end of the day, we're first human beings and then professionals. So that's important that you post like who you are yourself and be honest and be honest to yourself too. 

But like common mistakes that I see that influencers make is like sometimes like focusing, focusing only on one thing. So that could be a mistake. So you want to kind of like make it more like diversified, more diversified, your page more to, to target different kind of audiences that always helps. 

And also using trendy songs helps. So if you don't use trendy songs or don't use proper hashtags, so that can lower your audience.  

Ioannidou: [00:21:08] Tell me more about this. Like, what do you mean proper hashtags? Like, for example, teach me.  

Ehsani: [00:21:15] Like, trendy hashtags or if you're like, just make sure you're using the appropriate hashtags with the posts and relevant hashtags. So that always gets you towards the audience.  

Ioannidou: [00:21:27] Oh, it's a science.  

Wright: [00:21:28] Yeah, it's a, it's a science. I think that we're all going to always be exploring, especially if you're after growth. Would you, would you all say the same thing? Like, if you want to continue to grow your platform that you have to continue learning the nuances? 

Baker: [00:21:41] The algorithm changes every single day. So like right now, hashtags are great. You know what I'm saying? But I feel that content also now is kind of leaning more towards like long form, like more like one minute long videos where you are making your own video. You're not, you know, talking over like a sound or something like that. 

You are speaking to the camera. Like it is your sound. I think that content is really trending towards that because for so long, it has been just about like. trending sounds and things and that's still very, very important to use the trending sounds. But it's kind of leaning more towards like unique content now. 

Wright: [00:22:17] Can I, I want to, I want to ask you all about something that I think everyone wants with their social media platforms and that's virality. So I want you all to tell us a story. If you've ever had a post that went viral, tell us about that story. Tell us like about that post. What it did for your audience. 

Speak to virality a little bit, whatever your reactions are about virality  

Baker: [00:22:40] For me, I have went viral a few times and some have been good and some have not been so good. You know I think that whenever a post goes viral, you know, I'm posting to my 22.7 thousand followers and they'll see it and I'll get mostly positive feedback. 

But if I have a video that goes viral, that's the video that I'm getting the most hate comments, the most, you know, because you're seeing, you're, you know, being exposed to just a wider variety of people. And it's like if most people that see my posts are dental professionals and patients who like the dentist, you know, that if my post goes viral, everybody's seeing it. 

And then I hear everybody's opinions.  

Wright: [00:23:20] Okay, so let's take that. Okay, wait, Dr. Ehsani, you go, you go. Have you ever had a post go viral?  

Ehsani: [00:23:26] Yes.  

Wright: [00:23:27] Okay, tell us a little bit about it. And I have a follow up question for you both.  

Ioannidou: [00:23:29] But if you're asking me, no, I haven't.  

Baker: [00:23:32] I'm shocked.  

Wright: [00:23:35] You will.  

Ehsani: [00:23:35] Yeah, I had it, so one of my posts, like on TikTok, like it went viral, like one of the but it, that was like something that we made in the office with the dental assistants and yes. 

So you get a lot of like, like, I mean it wasn't like a lot 'cause it was mostly like a funny video, but like some, some comments that are like, you know, they don't like it. And yes, they're not nice or... 

Wright: [00:24:00]  So I want to ask you both about from a viral perspective, when you were building your audience, did you notice a jump from in your audience count from the viral posts or did it negatively impact your, your audience growth? 

Baker: [00:24:18] For me? My first one that I think it didn't really go viral, viral where it got millions, but it went viral where it got like, you know a few thousand which was big for me, like 30 something thousand. So it was my post about, I posted about the Love Island people brushing their teeth wrong. 

Wright: [00:24:38] The who? 

Baker: [00:24:39] Love Island. Love Island, USA. Actually, I think it was the UK. Anyway, they weren't brushing their teeth well. They were using an electric toothbrush and just going to town on their gums.  

Wright: [00:24:50] That is so unique. Wow. Okay.  

Baker: [00:24:52] Yeah, but we were, I mean like we were sitting there watching the show one night, you know, at dinner after work, you know, I'm in my pajamas, but we're watching it. 

I'm just, Oh my gosh, do you see that? And so in that moment, I'm like, oh my gosh, like I have to get out my phone. Like I have to record this moment because like for me, content happens on the fly. Like I don't have a plan.  

Wright: [00:25:10] I do agree with that.  

Baker: [00:25:11] Yeah.  

So that was really the first one. Yeah, that was the first one. 

I think that kind of got me going and I think just having positive feedback from that, like, Oh, people like actually want to see that. Like, they think that's funny. Really? Yeah, so then I started posting more.  

Wright: [00:25:26] And then it jumped your audience? It increased or grew or?  

Baker: [00:25:29] I would say that I've probably grown pretty consistently. 

Like, I've jumped a few thousand followers before. Like, maybe like 5,000 before in like a few days.   

Wright:And what about you, Dr. Ehsani? 

Ehsani: [00:25:39] So, well, I don't think that helped that much. So it was a post on TikTok that got 270,000 views 

Wright: [00:25:50] 270,000 views. Oh my gosh.  

Ehsani: [00:25:54] Yes. That was a lot that got a lot of views. And but I mean, it didn't, I wouldn't say that it like jumped my followers that much because of that post, you know, some posts, like they get a lot of views and some, they don't. 

Baker: [00:26:09] And you never know which ones are going to get the views.  

Ehsani: [00:26:11] Exactly.  

Baker: [00:26:12] You never know. 

Wright: [00:26:12] It's always unexpected I believe. Yeah. Exactly.  

Ioannidou: [00:26:15] I mean, it's really interesting. Yeah. I, I, I, I never, I would never guess that dental related, dental health related posting will become viral. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. I, I, my observation is that of course you find haters in every audience, in  

Wright: [00:26:33] Haters make us greater. 

Ioannidou: [00:26:34] Yeah, exactly, getting into the end of our discussion, I would like to make sure that we really put down like. One or two strategies like for people that really want to start building their brand and have a social media presence. Like how would you prioritize? What are your tips? I mean, I know the both of you have a, again, as we said, a different niche, but I think you have a very clear vision. 

So give us give us your tips.  

Baker: [00:27:01] Here's what I would do. If I was starting off on Instagram brand new today, I would try to post three to five times per week. I would do one with a trending sound. I would do two that are just me talking and just like something that I made. And then every single person that comments on one of my posts, I'm going to comment back to them and I'm going to go and comment on one of their posts. 

Okay.  

Ioannidou: [00:27:25] Well done. So putting a heart on a comment, not enough.  

Baker: [00:27:29] That's not enough. And I comment back emoji, but I still think that's kind of lazy. I think the algorithm doesn't like that. And I think that commenting back with words is, is what's best.  

Ioannidou: [00:27:40] Yeah. And it's, it shows that you really you, you, you, you heard them, you acknowledge them and you put an effort. 

Yeah. Yeah. Sara.  

Ehsani: [00:27:49]Social media is a full time job, but  

yes, for sure.  

Ioannidou: [00:27:54] Podcasting also is a full time job.  

Ehsani: [00:27:56] Takes a lot of time, but definitely I agree. Engaging with your audience is very important and commenting back, responding to Your audience to the messages to the comments so that always can help you grow your social media  

Ioannidou: [00:28:13] Can I ask a question for, for me that I'm completely literate in this? 

So you said a post three to five times a week one with a trending sound. What does this mean? You mean music?  

Baker: [00:28:24] Yep, yep. So basically on, you know, social media, there will be trending sounds. I'm trying to think of a trending sound. What's a trending sound that everyone knows? Like right now.  

Ioannidou: [00:28:34] It's music, right? 

Wright: [00:28:35] We're gonna have a good day.  

Baker: [00:28:37] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there will be trending songs that like everyone knows. Everybody will post to like right to get on that bandwagon. You want to do that? Because when people click on the song, they'll see all the videos that people have used the song for.  

Wright: [00:28:52] Oh, my God. And you can be at the top. 

It's like gone viral, too. You can be at the top.  

Baker: [00:28:57] Baker: You can be at the top. Yeah, if your video has the most views, it will be at the top when they click on the on the phone.  

Ioannidou: [00:29:02] Wow. Interesting.  

[00:29:04] On the next Dental Sound Bites.  

Wright: [00:29:07] What will the future of dentistry look like?  

Ioannidou: [00:29:09] We are talking about the ADA Forsyth Institute, and we are going to learn more about the future of dentistry, innovation and technology, and what they are up to. 

Wright: [00:29:22] I think this has been a really good conversation.  

Baker: [00:29:24] Yeah.  

Ioannidou: [00:29:25] Did you have another question Duncan? It's great. No, no, no, no. I'm just I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about all these things that we learn. I know. They are, they are amazing. Yeah. And I never knew that it's so complicated.  

Wright: [00:29:35] Oh, it gets deeper. Right. Like the more you learn, the more you have to relearn and then you have to unlearn. 

Baker: [00:29:42] Yeah. Yeah. We're only scratching the surface here.  

Ioannidou: [00:29:45] I know. I mean... 

Wright: [00:29:46] I guess we're going to have to do a part two.  

Ioannidou: [00:29:48] We should. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Anything else that you would like to share with us that, I mean, I know that you have a lot of things to say, but like concluding this, any, anything else that you would like to bring up? 

I, I like that. You said both of you brought up the fact how authentic we have to be, right. I really like this message. So just, You know, share more wisdom.  

Baker: [00:30:11] Yeah. I think that, you know, just posting yourself, every single person has a niche. Like you just post what you're interested in and other people are going to be interested in that as well. 

Like there's so many people on social media now. I think there's a niche for everything and just post, it doesn't have to be perfect. Just get you out there and it'll all work out.  

Ehsani: [00:30:32] Yes. Do your best. So you don't need to, you know, like be better than. The other person. We just here as women dentists, we just wanna empower each other. 

So that's very important. So.. 

Ioannidou: [00:30:43] oh, here you are. Mm-Hmm, Empower, empower. 

Ehsani: [00:30:47] So empowering each other is very important. I know like you can be in competition with others, but competition makes you grow and you're always in competition with yourself. So that's how you need to see that. And I would say just do your best and you know that's what you're doing. 

That's your best. And be proud of yourself.  

Ioannidou: [00:31:05] Yeah. Yes. That's great.  

Wright: [00:31:07] Well, Dr. Baker and Dr. Ehsani, we are so glad to have had you all on the show today. Can you tell our listeners before we wrap, can you tell them where they can find out more about you your work and where they can follow you online?  

Baker: [00:31:19] Yeah. 

So on Instagram, I am @peaceful.toothdoc. And on TikTok, I am @dr.bortny.  

Ehsani: [00:31:33] Mine is easy, both the same, @saraedds on Instagram and TikTok. And if you have any questions, yeah, show me a message.  

Ioannidou: [00:31:47] Oh, that's great. I love it.  

Wright: [00:31:49] Well, for our listeners if you know an aspiring dental influencer that needs to hear this episode, please be sure to share it with them. 

You know, share it with your friends, anybody that's aspiring to start their social media channels as well.  

Ioannidou: [00:32:02] And also following all these algorithms. Right. I know right. Don't forget to rate our episode and write a review and follow, follow us obviously on social media. She's really good on this. And I feel like any time that you post for Dental Sound Bites and you tag me or, or you do this thing that's the add to your story and it's like, I feel like you knock at my door and you're like, wake up, I have to post it. 

Wright: [00:32:25] Well, no, no, no. I always want to make sure that people know that like, it's, we're co hosting and so I always make sure.  

Ioannidou: [00:32:31] I love it. Yeah.  

Wright: [00:32:32] I'm like, I always include my co host.  

Always. And I think it's real.  

Ioannidou: [00:32:35] I love this. I think, and you, you always remind me like, Hey, let's do it. Oh good. Move it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah. So don't forget you can also watch us on the ADA YouTube channel, which is a great thing. And I think you can, you know, people can, can not only listen, but see these live interaction. Yeah.  

Yeah. All right. Well, guys.  

Baker: [00:32:59] Thanks so much.  

Ehsani: [00:33:02] It's a pleasure. Excited to be here. Thank you.  

Announcer: [00:33:07] Thank you for joining us. 

Dental Sound Bites is an American Dental Association podcast. You can also find this show resources and more on the ADA member app and online at ada. org slash podcast.