Let’s Be Social

In a typical workday, a doctor or office manager can become overloaded with patients or projects that devour their time. Carving out some space to plunge into the fast-moving current of social media can seem overwhelming. There are several areas you can use to not only promote your practice to the world but also to be viewed as an informational resource.

For the contemporary dental practice, social media is a complement to other forms of marketing such as local advertising, direct mail and patient education brochures. Social media allows you to develop an online relationship with your existing patient and attract new patients. You can use social media tools to inform existing patients about new services or procedures, communicate what your office culture is about and make it easier for new patients to find you.

As some of these more traditional forms of marketing wane in influence, more dentists and other healthcare professionals are turning to digital means of marketing. And in 2018, digital includes social media.

Why social? Most surveys of healthcare and dental patients show that they search for a healthcare provider before they make an appointment. And in search, social media plays a prominent role because pages like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram come up high on searches by patients.

Being social is more than just putting up a picture, logo and your practice address on a webpage. There are so many ways you can reach out and interact. Being social is not an “ad” or roadside sign on the information highway (dated reference but it works), it's about getting yourself, your practice and people-centric information out there.

What can you do

Maximize your expertise. Share your knowledge and the experience you've obtained from your practice and “pass it forward.” It's not all success and riches, share some missteps and how you fixed them. This can go a long way toward building your brand and being viewed as a trusted resource. Be sure to include complementary features, procedural videos etc.

Patient Testimonials

Facebook, for instance, has a section that encourages patients to leave testimonials. You can further encourage this by posting messages directing them to this space – the more positive testimonials – the more likely you are to land that new patient.

Show what your practice does

Because multimedia is so integral to social media, getting connected allows you to express your company's value proposition beyond words. Put your website's content to work or get some on it. Want to draw more traffic to your website—social media helps drive traffic to your website. Help spread the word by encouraging visitors to share content they enjoy. Post pictures and video of you and your staff talking about the practice and updating visitors on new services.

Monitor - interact - reply

Make sure you’re interacting with visitors/commenters. Just putting up a blog or a Facebook fan page won't help your practice if visitors/commenters don’t get any feedback or response. So, be sure to respond promptly to both positive and negative comments.

Also, it’s natural that you will receive a negative comment or two if you are on social media long enough. Resist the temptation to delete the comment. Instead, respond publicly to the comment and try to shift the conversation to a phone call or private email or direct message to try to address the complaint.

This blog itself is a testament to the value of having a social media presence, and you can also follow PlanmecaUSA on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.