Growing Your Dental Practice Through Social Media

The world of marketing has been seeing a pretty decided shift in the last decade, and dental marketing is hardly any different. 

The changing trends in dental marketing are a direct result of general changes in the field of dentistry: namely, younger dentists are growing more likely to join a group practice or a dental service organization than open up their own private practice. With a growing number of dentists, the pool of options for consumers looking for dental services is getting more and more extensive. 

What this means is that it’s time for private dental practices to seize their own marketing potential or risk being overwhelmed by larger, more corporate practices. One of the easiest and most overlooked methods of dental marketing is through social media.  

Why Market Your Dental Office Through Social Media?

First of all, social media as a method of connecting and interacting with the world at large is not going away, so why not take advantage? 

Second of all, no matter who you are marketing to, it is very likely that they spend a chunk of their day browsing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or some combination thereof.

Not only do the majority of social media sites have robust advertising capabilities, but they also award unique opportunities to grow your dental practice’s brand within your community.  

Your customers expect you to have some sort of social media presence, but simply having a page isn’t enough. In order to reach a larger audience, there are certain things you need to do in order to establish yourself as a trustworthy and approachable expert in your field. 

Fill Out Your Profile

This is the first and most basic step to making your social media page more legitimate to potential patients. 

Filling out all your information and making sure it matches the information you have listed on other platforms is crucial. Any routine Google search for your business will pull up your social media pages as well as your website. If these social media pages are blank or only partially filled-out, it could lead consumers to lose trust in your dental practice. 

Link to Your Social Media From Your Website

If you have a significant social media presence, linking to your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages from your dental practice’s website may encourage potential patients to look at these pages, encouraging them to become an actual patient rather than simply browsing your website.

Create Sharable Content 

Creating relevant, informational, and enjoyable content for potential patients is a great way to reach your intended audience. Some things you could share on your dental practice’s social media pages are:

• Blog posts from your website

• Special client offers like Free teeth whitening

• Infographics regarding your field

• Reminders about dental benefits 

• Human interest pieces that involve dental work

Reply To Comments and Messages

While posting content regularly on your social media is a great start, one of the main benefits of social media is the chance to interact with your potential clients, or keep up with former clients. Liking, or better yet, replying to a comment on one of your posts create a tangible positive interaction between you and a potential client.

Facebook’s messaging service a chatbot, an automated AI program that helps provide service 24/7, create new leads and create personalized experiences. Utilizing Facebook’s chatbot is a great way to help drive and direct traffic. 

Utilize Video Marketing 

Consumers love video, and social media sites are especially accommodating for video content. With today’s technology, creating and posting a video is easier than ever; you can record high-quality video on any smartphone, and very likely post it from there as well. 

Some ideas for dental practice video content are:

• A welcome video introducing your practice. This humanizes and establishes your brand.

• Physician introduction video. This could help establish trust for your potential patients.

• Patient review videos. Testimonials from actual patients are powerful, and doubly so in video form.

• Educational videos for frequently asked questions. This continues to establish you and your staff as authorities and can help grow the patient-dentist relationship. 

• Live video. People will spend far longer watching live videos than they will watch pre-recorded versions. This is a fun way to take potential patients behind the scenes at your dental practice, enables you to field and answer questions in real-time, and continue to foster a trusting relationship with your community. 

Claim Your Listings 

Social media sites like Yelp and Foursquare exist in order to post and share experiences with businesses in the area. 

This can be an excellent tool to allow satisfied patients to recommend you to other potential patients, but it can also get out of control quickly if you allow your dental practice’s listings to be created by someone other than you. For this reason, it is prudent to create your practice’s listings before anyone else can.