Most professional practices grow slowly, one patient or client at a time, through referrals and reputation built over years of work. Dr. Jason Auerbach took a different path. By leaning into social media at a time when most professionals were skeptical of it, he built a dental practice from a single location into a 23-location business, and Instagram was central to how he did it.
On Episode 11 of Fingerprints on Success with Bill Barrett, Dr. Auerbach shared the specific thinking behind his approach, the mistakes he made along the way, and what other practice owners can take from his experience. The conversation covers territory that is useful for anyone building a professional service business in today’s environment.
Why Instagram Worked When Other Channels Didn’t
Dr. Auerbach’s insight was straightforward: Instagram is a visual platform, and dentistry is a visual profession. Before-and-after cases, the texture of the work, the environment of the practice, the faces of the team, these translate well to images and short video. He recognized early that Instagram allowed him to show potential patients what his practice actually looked like and what his results actually produced in a way that a website or a print ad simply could not.
The approach was also grounded in a real understanding of what social media does well and what it does not. Instagram builds familiarity. It allows people to feel like they know a practice and trust a provider before they ever walk through the door. For a service business where the relationship between client and provider matters, that familiarity has real conversion value. People who have spent time with a brand on social media arrive at the first appointment with a different level of comfort than people responding to a generic ad.
Building a Team Around Content
One of the practical challenges Dr. Auerbach addressed on the episode was how to build a content operation that does not collapse the moment the owner steps back from it. Creating content consistently across 23 locations is not something one person can sustain. He described building systems and team structures that allowed content creation to continue at scale without requiring him to be personally involved in every post.
This is a useful lesson for any practice owner who has tried to run a social media presence personally and found it unsustainable. The answer, as Dr. Auerbach found it, is treating content as an operational function rather than a personal project, with team members who are responsible for it, clear expectations for what goes out and what doesn’t, and quality standards that protect the brand.
What Practice Owners Can Take From Dr. Auerbach’s Story
The broader lesson from the conversation is not that every practice owner should build a 23-location business or should necessarily focus on Instagram. The lesson is that understanding your specific practice’s visual and emotional strengths, and finding the right channel to communicate them, is a meaningful competitive advantage. Dr. Auerbach succeeded not because Instagram is a magic tool but because he matched the right channel to what his practice genuinely had to offer.
Several actionable themes ran through the conversation:
- Start with the outcome you want patients to see and work backward to the content that shows it
- Authenticity outperforms polish at the early stages of building a social media presence
- Consistency over time matters more than any single post
- Systems and delegation are what allow content to scale beyond what an owner can personally produce
These principles apply across professional service businesses, not only dental practices.
Listen to Fingerprints on Success
Fingerprints on Success with Bill Barrett features conversations with entrepreneurs and business leaders who have built something meaningful and have specific, honest insights to share about how they did it. Each episode gives practice owners and business leaders frameworks they can apply to their own situations.
To learn more about Mandelbaum Barrett PC and the work the firm does with business owners and entrepreneurs, contact Mandelbaum Barrett PC today.