Social Media Strategies
One of the best growth opportunities for your practice is active social media strategies – engaging patients and potential patients with current, creative, and shareable content. Social media proves to have a positive, measurable effect on new patient conversions. Researchers have found people spend up to an hour every day on Facebook (an average of 53 minutes on Instagram) – influencing everything from how they vote to what local businesses they support.
Encourage your patients to leave reviews and interact on social media. Just remember to respond to your patients, showing them you are a real person, and engage with them. However, make sure you respond carefully. Do not post or engage in patient relations topics – this can turn into a HIPAA violation quickly.
We recommend posting to your social media accounts 3-4 times a week. Do not overload your feeds – your Facebook wall posts could become “hidden” or people might unfollow you. Remember the 70/20/10 rule. 70% of your social media posts should be fun personal interactions, 20% should be educational, and the remaining 10% should be your own practice marketing strategies.
Personal Team Interaction Ideas (70%)
- Patients love to see your office having fun! Take a silly picture and post it. Don’t forget to include the Doctor.
- Fun and interactive information about the Doctor. Example: A photo of the Doctor holding a sign that says, “If I weren’t a Dentist, I would be a ______.” Provide a small prize for the first person who guesses correctly.
- Coloring contests for the kids – draw winners randomly. Post a live feed for the drawing.
- Costume contests around Halloween with a prize for the winner.
- Team introductions – what do they like to do in their spare time? Facts regarding their family?
- Having fun with the team (dress-up days, birthday celebrations, a team member getting married or having a baby).
- Patient success stories – show those “before & after” photos. Try to always include a team member or the Doctor. (Be sure to have a media release form before posting patient photos.)
- Hygiene patients with their hygienist – see if you can get them to write a testimonial. (Be sure to have a media release form before posting a photo of them.)
- Encourage your patients to take selfies and tag your office in a spotlight post.
- Kids “No Cavity” Clubs. (Be sure to have a media release form to post.)
- Community interactions
- Support local sports teams
- School activities
- Preschool/elementary school presentations
- Parades
- Support a local pet adoption organization and post about the “Pet of the Week.” People LOVE sharing pictures of their pets.
- Host a charity drive. (Consider a Food Drive, Coat, Hat or Mitten Drive, School Supply Drive, Christmas Toy Drive.)
- Holidays
- Healthy Choices Week
- Cancer Awareness Month
- Hygiene Appreciation Month
- Dental Assistant Appreciation Week
- Administrative Appreciation Week
- Orthodontic Open Houses – show off your scanner!
- Patient Appreciation Week
- New Patient Open House – offer a tour of your practice.
- Do you have new technology or a new gadget in the office? Show it off! Explain what it does, how it works, and the benefit it is providing for the patient in a short paragraph. (Keep your post to 500 words or less.)
Educational Post Ideas (20%)
- Fun Dental Facts (Post an image with your fact to make it colorful and draw the eye.)
- Share educational and encouraging information about dental health from the ADA or other reputable sites. Make sure your posts are congruent to your practice philosophy. (Example: Don’t post about the benefits of adult sealants if your office does not provide them.)
- Announce the team is attending a conference or CE event. Patients love to hear when your practice is continuing growth and keeping up with times, technology, and the latest dental resources.
Marketing Your Own Practice on Social Media Strategies (10%)
These are your sales pitch posts or special offers posts. Remember to keep these at a minimum, or patients and followers will begin to think you are all about “sales” when truly you want to market your amazing patient care.
- Treatment specials
- Whitening specials
- Electric Toothbrush offers
- Aligner or Orthodontic offers
- You can also “boost” your most popular posts on Facebook. You will reach a much wider audience, as you are not limited to people who already subscribe to your page by boosting select posts. You will also be able to set parameters for the types of people who will see your post. For example, you can narrow your boosted post to target one very specific demographic, like 30 to 35-year-old women or men within a 50-mile radius of your dental practice.