Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 as it realized the growing influence of this photo-sharing social network. A ComScore study in August 2012 revealed that Instagram received 7.3 million visitors a day across mobile phones in the U.S. during August, compared to 6.9 million visitors on Twitter. Visitors also spent a lot more time on Instagram than they spent on Twitter.

Instagram is a social community designed to enable users share their images and videos with the world. From a medical or dental professional’s perspective, it can be a great idea to post some original, unique and informative images and videos on the network and improve their social interaction with their target audiences. Over the past nearly three years, Instagram has grown significantly in popularity. Its recent video feature is something that is bound to generate more excitement among the users in times to come.

15-second Videos on Instagram

While images provide static information, a video can be much more dynamic and engaging. In a fast-moving Internet world, Instagram’s 15-second videos can be a great way to grab the attention of a targeted visitor and create a strong impact. The site provides a movie camera icon, which goes into video mode when tapped once, and it allows the user to record 15-second videos through the Instagram camera.

Once a video has been created on Instagram, the user has the option to select the most important scene or image from the recording as the cover image. That can attract the target audiences to view the video and feel the impact in just fifteen seconds. It requires some thoughtfulness and imagination to come up with interesting and useful videos, but the creative effort can pay off significantly in terms of promoting a doctor or dentist’s practice.

The videos can be created simply by downloading the Instagram app on the mobile phone. Most phones can start recording videos immediately without the need to adjust the phone settings.