The most common social media mistake by Australian practices is also the most natural one: sharing a happy patient's words. Under the National Law that is a testimonial in advertising, and Ahpra acts on it. The second most common is a story with an injectable brand name and a price. Neither is necessary. Practices that show their team, answer real questions and post consistently grow on social media without a single testimonial. This is how our Australian team runs social media management for dentists, allied health and cosmetic clinics.
The rules that apply to every post
- No testimonials — not in captions, not in re-shared reviews, not in comments you reply to with thanks. Reviews live on Google; your feed does not repeat them.
- Consented, unaltered images only for any identifiable patient, and for cosmetic work follow Ahpra's 2023 cosmetic advertising guidance on before-and-afters (consistent lighting and angle, no filters, no idealised outcomes).
- No prescription-only therapeutic goods by name — promote a "cosmetic injectables consultation", never the product or its price.
- No unreasonable expectations: "pain-free", "guaranteed", "permanent", "best in Sydney".
- Offers state their terms in the same post.
- Clinical questions move to the phone. A DM asking "should I get this looked at?" gets "please call us on … and we'll book you in", not an opinion.
What works instead
- The team, on camera, often. The hygienist explaining what a scale and clean involves; the dentist showing the digital scanner; reception explaining HICAPS. Familiar faces are the single biggest lever for first-visit bookings in the practices we manage.
- One question per post. "Does a root canal hurt?", "How much does a check-up cost without health cover?", "What does an emergency appointment involve?" Plain, filmed at the practice, and reused on the treatment page.
- Education instead of praise. Why night guards matter, what a health-fund gap actually is, how to use your "use it or lose it" extras before 31 December — that last one is the most-shared dental post in Australia every year.
- Local life. The footy club you sponsor, the school visit, the new clinic dog. It builds the familiarity that reviews used to.
Channels and cadence
Instagram and Facebook three to four posts a week plus stories, one Reel a week, TikTok when the team is comfortable on camera, LinkedIn for specialists receiving referrals. Post the same content to the Google Business Profile — it appears in the map listing where Australian patients actually decide.
Paid social
Meta ads work for a tight-radius awareness campaign and for promoting a treatment page, subject to the same Ahpra rules and to Meta's post-2025 restrictions on health-related targeting. Keep pixels off booking flows and off health data, as covered in our Australian healthcare marketing guide. Google captures intent; Meta builds familiarity — split the budget accordingly.
What a managed service should include
A monthly content calendar checked against the rules above, a filming session at the practice, design and captions, scheduling, community management in practice hours with clinical questions routed to reception, and a monthly report on reach, profile visits and website clicks. Every post is approved by the practice in the same portal that holds the performance reports, so nothing goes out that a compliance-minded principal has not seen. See the tone we write in with the caption generator, and the Australian team can scope a monthly plan for your practice.