Have you seen the power of TikTok trends and wish you could incorporate them into your practice? Dentists everywhere are making waves and having fun with TikTok, and you can too! In fact, embracing the casual, personable vibe of TikTok as part of your dental marketing strategy can be the key to unlocking more growth, views, followers, and ultimately, new patients.
Whether you’re sharing a new oral health tip or mind-blowing before-and-after photos of dental procedures, TikTok trends are a great way to get your content out there. You might even hear people saying, “Oh, I saw that on TikTok!” about your practice.
Why hopping on TikTok trends matters
A good content marketing strategy includes creating original, creative content, while paying attention to what’s working for others. Regularly posting valuable content builds trust, attracts new followers, and improves your brand image. A great content marketing strategy leverages the power of trends. Trends are easy to replicate, fun for your audience to see, and can garner thousands of views that an average post might miss.
Social media algorithms favor content created with the latest trending audio, dance, or effect, so taking advantage of this increased visibility should be a no brainer for any dental practice looking to strengthen their social media strategy. Should all your content be trend-related? No. Even on TikTok, too much of a good thing can backfire. Be sure to balance your trends with original content that appeals to your growing audience. But when it suits you and you’d like an extra lift in views, dive into these steps to discover trends for better dental TikTok marketing. Also, this free e-book is a great starting point when learning how to create social media videos that are fun, easy, and HIPAA-compliant.
More great dental marketing tips
Not just for teenagers: TikTok for dentists
The future of video marketing for dentists
Step 1: Find trending content
You don’t have to put on your loupes to find what’s popular on TikTok, you just have to know where to look. The great thing about viral TikTok ideas is that they aren’t difficult to find, but you should try to jump on a trend early before TikTok is saturated. A good rule of thumb for identifying a trend is if the video has hundreds of thousands of plays or likes. If it’s well into the millions, it might be best to choose something else. Try one of these three techniques to track down the best trends.
Hashtag hunt: Hashtags work in two ways—they can help you find content that is relevant to dentistry that can inspire your next great idea, and they also help your own videos get the visibility you want to grow your following. Using the right hashtags gets your content in front of the right people. Using a trending hashtag can get you there even faster. A quick visit to TikTok’s Creative Center can help you find out what’s trending, and you can sort hashtags by industry. You’ll often find #dental, #dentalhygienist, and #dentistry in the top spots in the “health” category. However, don’t restrict yourself to just dental hashtags. If you can tie a trending hashtag from another category into your content, you will get the best of both worlds (i.e., #dentistry #tiktokchallenge #learnontiktok)
The “Scroll and Search”: The easiest way to find trends on TikTok is to spend 15 minutes scrolling through the platform. When you open TikTok, it goes to the “For You” page. The content you see there is dependent on whatever content you’ve interacted with, so follow accounts that will inspire and motivate you to get creative with your videos (more on that later). As you scroll through TikTok, save any posts that stand out to you, save any effects you want to try, or save audio sound bites you hear on repeat. Once you finish scrolling, you should have a little bank of ideas for your next video.
Get inspired by other dental pros: If you’re looking for inspiration, there are some hilarious and educational TikTok dentist accounts to follow. Many of them have fallen into a niche they’ve made all their own. Some focus on humor or education, while others suck you into video after video of amazing before-and-after photos. Consider your unique specialties and skills to figure out what to focus on as part of your dental TikTok marketing strategy. To hear one practice’s story about going viral on TikTok, check out this great interview on TikTok orthodontic marketing.
Step Two: Choose your trend
Trending audio: This is one of the easiest ways to jump on a trend because how you use it is totally up to you. It’s also the common denominator of TikTok’s biggest hits with 80% of top TikTok videos, including upbeat, trending music. Here are six sound strategies for finding trending audio on TikTok:
- Search “viral sounds” in the TikTok search bar.
- Scroll your For You page for ideas.
- Check inside the TikTok Creative Center.
- Use an outside app such as TrendTok.
- Inside TikTok, tap the (+) to create a video. Then tap “Add Sound.” You’ll have instant access to popular sounds curated for you.
- Hop over to your preferred music player and search “TikTok” in the search bar. You’ll be given both user and curated playlists with trending audios.
Trending dances: If you and/or your staff are up for showing off your dance moves, TikTok has plenty of beginner routines for you to try. Trending dances are an easy way to have fun at work with your team while accomplishing some of your marketing goals. Use a trending dance to introduce a team member, announce a promotion, educate about dental health, or just have a good time being silly.
According to the latest TikTok data, 77% of users enjoy seeing brands play with current trends. This can go a long way in creating a friendly atmosphere at your practice and improving doctor-patient relationships. The path to finding trending TikTok dances is similar to finding trending audio. In fact, you’ll likely find one while looking for the other. Simply search “TikTok dance trends” to see trending dances.
Trending effects: Trending effects seem slightly less common than trending audio and dances, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less effective when you jump on one that’s popular. Trending effects are usually filters that are built into the TikTok platform. Just like how you click and save on trending audio files, you can also click and save filters you find during your “scroll and search.” Find the effect/filter that people are using at the bottom left of the video clip. Just give it a tap and you can save or use that filter immediately.
Respond to a trend or viral video: Not all trends are good. Unfortunately, some influencers (intentionally or not) spread misinformation that ends up going viral, like the myth that lemon juice and baking soda will whiten teeth. You can use your professional know-how and respond to these types of videos using TikTok’s stitch and duet functions. You’ll find the option to do these when you tap the “Share” arrow at the bottom right of your TikTok screen. If a creator has not enabled these functions, you can screen-record their video or use a third-party app such as CapCut.
Step Three: Posting trending content
Once you decide on some relevant hashtags, head to the search bar on TikTok. Drop them in and look at the results. Do you see a pattern or trend? Is there something you can replicate or add to? Is there an opportunity for you to create something fun and unique but also on trend? Here are some top suggested hashtags to identify trends: #trendalert, #tiktokviral, #tiktokchallenge, #tiktokdance, #dancechallenge, #trendingsong, #tipsandtricks.
Trends come and go, so be prepared to react to whatever’s trending within a day or two. One week it can be a clever lip sync, the next it’s a 15-second dance number, only to be followed by a funky filter or effect. Have fun experimenting with a variety of trends. Here’s how to find and use trends in each of these categories:
Our previous advice stands—don’t choose a sound or trend that has tens of millions of uses. When a trend reaches this stage, it is saturated, and you won’t get the impact you want. Once you’ve chosen your favorite sound, start brainstorming some exciting ideas for dental marketing on TikTok.
Pro Tip: Record and save the bloopers of you and your team while learning the dance. You’re guaranteed to get a clip or two of usable and hilarious footage to share.
A TikTok stitch lets you add your own video after five seconds of another creator’s video. An effective response can be as simple as talking directly to the camera. A TikTok duet lets you record your video while another creator’s video plays simultaneously. This is great for side-by-side reactions or commentary. You can also stitch/duet videos to show your attempt at a trend. (Whether you perform the trend well or poorly is entirely up to you!)
In some cases, the original creator did it best. Occasionally, you can simply repost a trending video to your TikTok, but you’ll have a better time trying the trend yourself. It’s best to jump on trends early, so don’t put a pin in it for next week. One of the advantages of creating content for TikTok is that it does not need to look super professional. Keep things authentic and relatable. All you need is good lighting (for example, near a window during daylight hours), a little creativity, and possibly some lip-syncing skills.
Navigating social media for your dental practice without a plan can feel like a fruitless endeavor. Instead of mindlessly scrolling, check out this helpful guide to social media stories and video content. Before long, you’ll be comfortable and confident showing up on social media. Don’t forget that your TikToks can also be repurposed to your Instagram page as reels. To learn more about creating content for both platforms, download this free TikTok and Instagram reels e-book.
