Stop all the procrastinating; the time has come for your dental practice to embrace social media as a patient communication tool, new patient recruitment avenue, and a significant contributor to your online practice visibility.

If used effectively, Facebook and social media as a whole, offers incredibly cost-effective ways for you to reach not only existing patients, but also potential new patients already in your target area, your surrounding community.

And guess what…many of them might be looking for a good dentist. And they might ask one of their digital connections for a referral, the patients are already there – get your practice connected and facilitate communication.

You’ve worked hard to build the word of mouth your dental practice relies on as what is most likely your number one new patient referral source. Social media combined with local search, takes that word of mouth, and digitally amplifies the message.

We know all of this seems insurmountable, or simply a waste of time. We also understand the dental practice provides dentistry, not digital marketing.

Hopefully the content that follows is beneficial to the DIY dental practice. If not, please let us know by leaving a comment!

Take Action

It’s time to make a move, and reinvest that audible equity into your practice. Social media and local search are your conduits, consider what you’re doing now due diligence.

Get started by developing a plan and goals for the next 12 months. Then put the plan into action and launch a practice presence on Facebook, Twitter, and get yourself a LinkedIn profile while you’re at it.

It’s easy to start a social media campaign, no more excuses – delegate, research, trial and error – whatever, just do something. You will make mistakes, no matter how much you research or prepare.

But it’s better to be an imperfect active participant, than an anonymous voice relegated to the sidelines.

*The number one problem dentists have with Facebook for example (at time of writing this blog post…in the opinion of the author entirely, but soley based on empiral evidence), is starting a personal profile instead of a Business Fan/Like Page.

Here’s a tip – don’t make that mistake.

5 minutes of research, :90 more of reading, or simply asking your staff should get you going in the right direction.

And don’t get distracted and delayed — social media marketing will rarely be a practice essential, like a dental chair, but it certainly will be a practice revenue generator if applied effectively.

Don’t shelf this in the never file, your competitors won’t. Get a plan, take action, and dive in.

Here’s a simple suggestions in developing your dental practice social media plan:

  • Take a step back and view the practice objectively, through your patient’s (and staff’s) eyes. If you don’t like what you see then you’ll need to correct those issues before catapulting your practice into the social stratosphere.
  • Delegate someone in the practice to be the point person responsible for handling the additional workload, preferably someone with some online marketing savvy.
  • Identify tangible and attainable goals for your first year – your social media presence will only grow from here, there is no giving up…unless of course you retire or sell your practice.
  • Clean up your contact list – you’ve probably been updating your patient records with email addresses and mobile phone numbers. Your contact list should consist of every single patient you’ve ever seen, and every single person that has contacted you for services, all professional connections, and even personal contacts. If you don’t have a list, start there.
  • Convert 10% of existing patients to active social media connections.
  • Remain consistent with information sharing and community involvement.
  • Develop a referral system and promotional calendar specific to your social media efforts, launch 3 social media promotions over 12 months.
  • Track your efforts, feedback, and response.
  • Initiate your practice social media exposure – we already gave them to you, Facebook (for business), Twitter, and LinkedIn. Your practice social media plan will evolve, those 3 outlets will do for now. Don’t spread yourself too thin, someone is going to have to manage these profiles, feed them with beneficial content, and track the response or feedback.
    1. Facebook Business Page (Most likely the ‘Local Business or Place’ option for single locations)
    2. Twitter
    3. LinkedIn
  • Join the Blogosphere. Sign up for a free blog account and start publishing beneficial dental health info to feed the foundation of your social media efforts. These are free, and probably the most popular (and user-friendly) blogging tools.
    1. WordPress
    2. Blogger

Talk about it at the next staff meeting, if you haven’t already. Construct a plan, and execute the aforementioned steps to launch your practice social media sojourn.

Check out this dental social media case study to see what sorts of things a dental practice using social media as part of patient communications and overall digital dental marketing plan might be interested in measuring.

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