What to Post on TikTok for an Aesthetics Clinic

Post the doctor talking, not the treatment. That is the clearest pattern we see across the clinic accounts we work on: the TikTok videos that hold attention are a practitioner speaking to camera about one thing, filmed simply and barely edited. Treatment footage does less for clinics, and some of it gets accounts restricted.

This guide covers TikTok for aesthetics clinics in practice: the format, ideas under each of the four content pillars, replying to comments on camera, what to leave out and the UK rules that still apply. It is written for clinic owners and for the doctors who will be the ones on screen.

In our experience, the best-performing clinic content on TikTok is the doctor talking on camera with very little editing. A practitioner explaining something clearly, in their own room, comes across as more credible than a polished advert. It is also far quicker to make, which is what keeps an account going past the first month.

• —Film on an iPhone. The phone you already own is enough. Put it on a small tripod at eye level so you are looking straight into the lens.
• —Use natural light. Face a window rather than sitting with it behind you. Soft daylight is kinder than overhead clinic lighting.
• —Hook in the first couple of seconds. Open with the point or the question. Skip the greeting and the introduction.
• —Make one clear point per video. If you have three things to say, that is three videos.
• —Add captions. They let people follow along with the sound off and make clinical terms easier to catch. TikTok's auto captions are a good start, but read them back and correct anything they get wrong.
• —Keep it unpolished. Trim the start and the end and leave it there. Skip transitions and stock footage.

Example hooks

• —"The skincare myth I hear most often in clinic."
• —"I turn this request down more often than you'd think."
• —"Before you try that viral skin hack, hear this."
• —"What actually happens in a first consultation with me."
• —"How to check your practitioner is registered, in thirty seconds."

These ideas follow the four content pillars from our guide to social media content ideas for aesthetics clinics, adapted so each one works as a single talking-to-camera video. Rotate between them so the account never becomes all opinion or all education.

TikTok's reply to comments with video feature lets you answer a comment with a new video. The original comment sits on screen as a sticker, and the reply is posted to your profile like any other video.

For clinics, it is the easiest source of ideas there is. Every question in your comments is a video someone has already asked for, and answering it on camera starts a conversation with the person who asked and shows everyone else that a real practitioner is reading.

Keep the answer general. A comment is not a consultation, so explain the principle and say that anything specific to them needs an assessment in person.

Needles and blood

In our experience, clinic accounts get restricted almost every time needles or blood appear, even briefly or in small amounts. This is what we have seen on the accounts we manage, not a rule TikTok publishes, but it happens often enough that we keep both off clinic accounts entirely.

Prescription-only treatments

Prescription-only medicines, such as botulinum toxin, cannot be advertised to the public in the UK. On TikTok that means no brand names, no indirect references such as "wrinkle-relaxing injections", no hashtags and no offers. Our guide to UK social media rules for aesthetics clinics explains what you can say instead.

The ASA's remit covers marketing on a business's own social media accounts, TikTok included, and content related to the treatments you offer can fall within it. Doctors are also bound by GMC guidance, which says the information you publish must be factual and must not mislead about the results patients are likely to get.

So an opinion video still has to be honest and balanced, without overstating results or playing down risks. The detail is in our guide to the UK rules.

Put the doctor in front of the camera and keep each video to one simple point. Build your ideas from the four pillars, use comment replies to keep them coming, and keep needles, blood and prescription-only treatments off the account.

For the rules behind all of this, read our guide to what UK aesthetics clinics can post on social media. For ideas that work across every platform, see social media content ideas for aesthetics clinics.