Join us with Dr. Shaadi Manouchehri to see how her journey to TikTok fame as a dentist has truly helped inspire others to understand the profession through the eyes of social media.
It was the pandemic and Shaadi Manouchehri had a lot of free time. As an ambitious person who wanted to do something meaningful with her time, she used it to explore the educational side of social media. But how exciting could it be for a brave and daring person to go on Instagram and do the exact same thing that all the other professionals were doing? So she started exploring. But let's fast forward in time, just for a moment.
Shaadi Manouchehri wanted to make a brand for herself, she wanted to use social media to create a platform that would show the general public that dentistry is not as daunting as it seems and to break the stigma surrounding this profession. profession.
“I was very adamant. I wanted to be different and not be like every other dentist who posts before and after photos of their teeth on social media.”
She knew she had a chance to change the way people saw dentists and their work, wanting to put her own personality on it and make it so unique that people would remember her by it. “I was very adamant. I wanted to be different and not be like every other dentist who posts before and after photos of their teeth on their social media.”. He went and researched everything he could to document what people were interested in and what content was already out there. No one expected what came next… the world took a negative turn, Covid 19 took everyone home.
Pandemic-Tok
The lockdown was real, people were only allowed to go out for an hour a day and they were desperate to find something fun to do. Realising that as he couldn’t work as much in the office due to health and safety regulations due to Coronavirus, he had a lot of free time. People were turning to TikTok because it was a platform where they could escape their sadness and boredom, there was a lot of content spreading joy and funny videos to help lighten everyone’s mood.
And that's when he saw an opportunity opening up, so he started watching TikTok videos, knowing there could be a place for professionals on the app, even though TikTok was not what dental professionals considered a valuable source of information at the time.
“"“As a student, I turned to Google and books to educate myself. The kids weren't in school and everyone was going to social media to get information, so I started posting more educational content..".”
She knew there was a stigma around the platform, it was thought to be just for trendy dances and funny videos and never at a level that would be used by professionals: “As a student, I went to Google and books to get my information. During the lockdown, people weren’t in school and everyone was going to social media to get information, so I started posting more educational content.” She knew it wouldn’t be as simple as posting a video and all the hard work would be done… it would be about the right balance of information and entertainment to keep people engaged.
Everything is based on trial and error.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and she knew this wasn't going to be an overnight process. Slowly, she saw that she was starting to see an increase in likes, more followers, and more people wanting to connect with her page. Her educational and entertaining content was working.
Shaadi created her first video about dentistry. It was simple knowledge to her, but it was clearly content that people wanted to see, and soon after she posted the video… Eureka! 80 thousand views! Her follower count started to grow, people were engaging with the content, and she found her own unique formula that worked for her.
“"“There isn't that much content talking about the vulnerability of dentists.".”
Wanting to continue to gain more followers, she needed to be more specific about who she wanted to target with her content. She found that her content was appealing to aspiring dentists and young, newly qualified dentists. Dentistry can be daunting not only for patients, but also for young, newly qualified and aspiring dentists. “There isn't that much content talking about the vulnerability of dentists”.Because of this lack of information on social media, she found that if someone had questions they wanted to ask her, they would send her a message on her Instagram account, where she found that people were asking her similar questions. These were trending questions, which was the perfect way to know what to talk about. She set out to start making those videos with the content her fans wanted answers to.
Hello, trendsetter!
Her hard work was paying off, she had a basis for what content was needed. TikTok trends are videos that include a specific action, sound, hashtag, or challenge that is gaining traction among other users, which you can save to your “Like” folder to watch again later.
With a growing social media presence and realizing that her content was working, she knew it was important to stay consistent with her page. It was important to keep up with the latest trends, so she focused on what people were watching the most and, more importantly, what her followers were asking for: “Do your research, find out what’s trending, invest time in creating content, be consistent with your posts, and create quality videos.” Consistency is key, She knew that 1 video every other day wasn't going to keep her viewers engaged, so she started posting up to 3 dentistry-related videos a day, even if they were only 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or 1 minute long.
“Do your research, find out what’s trending, invest time in creating content, be consistent with your posts, and create high-quality videos.”
This all sounds well and good if you know how many videos to post and what kind of content is important, but behind it all was Shaadi's desire to not only help educate, but also to be a face that viewers recognize. As her social media presence grows, she's also garnering even more attention. Once you have a certain number of followers and likes on TikTok, you can start making money. Money wasn't what Shaadi had in mind when she set it all up.
Involvement over money any day!
As her page became more successful by the day, she found herself being contacted about being paid for some of her videos. TikTok's goal is to support aspiring content creators, which keeps the app full of new, funny, and entertaining videos, so yes… you can make money posting content!
Shaadi knew this, but it didn't matter to her, she wanted the commitment it brought her. “When I started, I thought I had to have millions of followers to make an impact. In reality, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have. It all depends on the level of engagement of your audience.”. Getting more followers bought her more recognition on TikTok, which was perfect for her professional career. Viewers were finding his page and wanting to book consultations, which led to more patients and business opportunities.
“When I started, I thought I had to have millions of followers to make an impact. In reality, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have. It all depends on the level of engagement of your audience.”
He never started this journey with money in mind, but simply wanted to make the most of a platform that, at the time, was mainly used for entertainment. She mixed trending videos and educational information and made something out of it… If that's not ingenuity in a pandemic, then what is? That's not to say her journey has been an easy one for viewers or other dentists.
If you can't stand the heat, get off TikTok!
Anyone who knows Shaadi would know that behind the confident, brave, and entertaining videos is a human being sensitive to negative comments.
She knew it would be a very daunting experience to expose herself online, which she found naturally opened her up to vulnerability, some people loved her content and others didn't, something she learned very quickly.
She found that some of her videos would receive negative comments, but she never let that stop her from creating more videos. Anyone who invests a lot of time in building something from scratch will be protective about this. She had to push through the negativity, otherwise her entire journey to help others could have been a waste of time.
“Initially, there was judgment from the profession, but now the same people are asking me for advice.”
Seeing all the viewers who loved his videos, it was worth it to keep going and not give in to the negativity. “"Initially there was judgment from the profession, but now the same people are asking me for advice.". He knew the whole process would be a learning curve from day one, and this is the most important thing to remember: “"As long as the benefits of this project outweigh the negatives, then it's all worth it.".
It takes courage to break stigmas, to expose yourself to the public, to teach a profession that wouldn't see a platform like TikTok as very professional. She took a chance when no one else in her profession did at that time and came out better.If you ever feel inspired to do something you thought wasn't possible due to professional obstacles, always believe that you can find a way to overcome this, here it is some of the best advice Shaadi's!
Top tips!
- Understand the reason behind the message. WHY Are you going to post that video?
- Trust yourself. yourself. It will be frustrating at times, but trust the process!
- Consistency is KEY. If it doesn't seem to be moving as quickly as you'd like, be patient and stay consistent.
- Your content must be – Educational, fun and inspirational (EDI).SAY IT WITH ME!
- Renew your old videos!Find a video that did well and reuse it, adding something new to it! Old content is good content.
Shaadi has come a long way since 2015. She is a dentist with a passion for teaching others and making a difference in her community. If you are inspired by this post or want to reach out and contact Shaadi directly, then click HERE and it will take you to her Instagram page. If you want to listen to her podcast “Teeth and Tales”, click HERE.
Source: enlightensmiles.com
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