Impact of Social Media on Dental Practices

A decade ago, the concept of social media was completely foreign to people. Nowadays, it has become a common and integral part of people’s lives, whether it is for personal reasons or for business reasons. This means that the various social networks of the world such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ are not just being used by people for connecting with their friends and family, but are also being used by business for connecting with their customers and clients. In the same way, several dental practices have taken the leap for expanding their dental marketing, dental SEO and promoting efforts into the arena of social media. It is essential to understand the impact of social media marketing on dental practices and the importance of these efforts.

Initially, it was believed by many people that dental SEO and social media was just another passing trend that would fade over time. However, these networks simply seemed to grow in terms of influence and nowadays they are a force to be reckoned with. While websites are a great way of establishing online presence, social media enables dentists to add a personal touch in such a way that cannot be replicated by websites. Firstly, dentists can use social media networks such as Facebook for reinforcing their brand image.

Facebook is regarded as the king of social media and it has over 1 billion users spread all around the globe. Ari Vinograd, the owner of a San Diego SEO & Dental Marketing company, says “Having a business page on Facebook simply means that a dentist can have access to a huge customer base, which also means having greater opportunities of dental marketing. No financial investment is required on the behalf of the dentists, but they will have to give some time. They have to publish posts on their business page, which consist of useful and interesting content. This will ensure that the name of the brand is remembered by not just existing patients, but also new ones”.

When updates are posted from the account, they will show up in the newsfeeds of existing patients and will be visible to their friends. In this way, other people will also learn about the dental practice. Furthermore, when existing patients will like and comment on the posts of the business page, they will, in a way give their approval and encourage others to opt for the same dentist as well. Moreover, using social networks makes a practice more visible in the eye of clients and they will instantly remember their name when they are thinking about oral health.

In addition to helping with dental SEO and dental marketing, Social media is also an ideal platform to help dentists in interacting with their patients. When questions arise, patients can use the Facebook page of the dentist to consult them and the dentist can interact with patients in this way. It allows them to gain feedback about the services they provide and they can make improvements accordingly. This improves the reputation of the dentist and they will come off as friendly and communicative. These interactions can be seen by the public and they will have a huge advertising value for potential customers. With feedbacks and interactions, services can also be improved.