Ten Ways to Improve Your Social Media Presence, Without Actually Having to Do Anything: a blog outlining some amazing strategies on how to interact with your patients and create social media exposure for your dental practice.
Introduction
Social media is a huge part of our world today. We use it to connect with friends and family, and we also use it to find restaurants, hotels, activities and more. But what about your dental practice? If you’re not on social media or don’t interact with your patients there, then you’re missing out on an important marketing tool. After all, the internet is where many new patients find their dentist! Here are some ways you can improve your social media presence so that people will connect with you:
Define Your Target Audience
You should start by defining your target audience. It’s important to define the following:
- Demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)
- Interests and needs
- Pain points that the patient may have. Does your demographic struggle with something specific? Do they have any questions or concerns about their dental care? What’s on their mind when they think about going to the dentist?
Once you know who you are targeting, it will be easier for you to create content that speaks directly to them and answers these questions.
Ask Your Target Audience what they want from you.
When it comes to social media, your audience can be your best resource.
Ask them what they want from you, and then make it happen!
This is a great way to get some much-needed feedback on your posts. If there’s something that your followers are always asking for and you’re not providing it yet, that’s the perfect opportunity for growth!
You might also consider asking them for feedback on future posts so that you can ensure that everyone gets exactly what they’re looking for when interacting with your page.
Finally, ask them to share their stories with you—and more importantly with everyone else who follows along! It’s always better when people share their experiences instead of just listening passively (or worse: ignoring).
Tell your story.
- Tell your story, but tell it in a way that is relevant to your target audience.
- Don’t forget to tell your story in a way that is consistent with your brand.
- Don’t ever forget to tell your story in an authentic manner.
- Make sure you’re telling the right stories at the right times, so they’re relevant to the topic at hand!
Make sure the content is consistent with your brand.
Consistency is key to gaining trust and building loyalty with your patients. If you post too much of one kind of content or if you’re constantly changing what you post, the people who visit your social media sites will feel like they have no idea what to expect when they arrive. They might even start to wonder if there are multiple people posting on behalf of the practice!
Consistency is important for branding as well. If all of a sudden, every other week there’s a new person posting about your dental office, it can make it seem like something has changed in the business. That could be a good thing (new doctor!) or a bad thing (sadly closed!). It could also lead people to think that maybe not much goes on at all—which isn’t exactly ideal for attracting new patients either!
Have a partner or employee dedicated to running your social media.
Even if you have a great social media presence and are doing everything right, it’s important to have someone dedicated to running your social media.
You can’t be everywhere at once! And trust me, even if you wanted to, no one would want to read your posts on Facebook and Twitter every hour of every day for weeks on end. You need someone who is passionate about your brand (i.e., an actual employee) and also has the time available in their schedule to dedicate themselves completely to being connected with your patients through social media platforms. If this sounds like something that might interest you or where you could see yourself having fun with it, then consider hiring an intern or part-time employee just for this purpose alone!
Take Advantage of the Tools Around You.
- Make use of the tools that are available to you.
Whether you have a budget for paid tools or not, there are plenty of free options for managing your social media presence. If you’re not sure where to start, check out Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social (my personal favorite). These platforms will allow you to schedule posts in advance so that they go out at optimal times as well as track interaction with followers on each channel. You won’t have to spend hours monitoring each account individually.
- Track your progress and learn from it!
Each month or quarter, take some time to step back and review how things have been going with social media—what worked? What didn’t work? What did people like seeing most often? What could be improved upon?
Create a social media calendar to stay relevant and organized.
A social media calendar will help you stay relevant and organized. It’s important to make sure your calendar is consistent with your brand, but also consider the competition, so that you can differentiate yourself from them.
A good place to start is with visuals that capture attention, but also connect emotionally with your audience. You can use photos of people smiling at their pearly whites or a close-up shot of someone’s face after they left their appointment with Dr. Smith, for example.
Use Visuals that capture attention, but also connect with your audience emotionally.
Your visuals should be relevant to your audience.
It’s easier than ever to create visual content that will attract attention, but it’s important to keep in mind that images should also connect emotionally with the viewer. Your visuals should be relevant and appropriate for the platform you are using, as well as the content you are sharing on social media. Some examples include:
- Visuals of your practice (if they’re easy to take)
- Any photos you take at events or other activities related to your practice (e.g., volunteering at a local charity)
- Photos taken by patients at their appointment(s), if allowed by patient consent forms
Ensure accuracy at all times, by being consistent and thorough with all posts.
Your posts should be accurate, consistent with your brand, thorough and complete, relevant to your target audience, engaging to your target audience.
If you want to know more about how to ensure that your posts are all of these things (and more), explore our blog post on How To Create Great Social Media Content For Your Dental Practice.
Keep an eye on competition and use that awareness to differentiate yourself and set yourself apart from competition.
The more you know about your competition, the better equipped you are to market your dental practice. The reality is that people use social media as a way to find new dentists and dental practices. If they see what other patients have said about a particular dentist or practice, they’re going to want their experience at your competitor’s office to be just as good or even better..
So, it’s important that you take advantage of this knowledge by using it in ways that will help improve your own practice’s profile on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can do so by being aware of what other dentists are doing right now – this includes things like posting photos/videos with captions showing off their latest work (for example: “just finished shaping up these teeth today!”), scheduling special events (like free consultations) during certain days/times when there is typically less competition for attention from potential patients looking for new care providers such as yourself – allowing them an opportunity where otherwise wouldn’t exist if everyone were doing these same things simultaneously!
Social media is an excellent tool for dental practices looking to gain exposure, but it’s necessary to be smart about how this is done, in order to make it valuable for the practice
Social media is an excellent tool for dental practices looking to gain exposure, but it’s necessary to be smart about how this is done, in order to make it valuable for the practice.
To do this, you’ll need to think long and hard about the types of posts that will resonate with your audience. In general, try not to post too many promotional pieces (unless they are very well-written), but instead focus on creating interesting content that people will want to engage with and share. Here are a few examples:
- Posting photos of team members giving back in some way (volunteering at a local soup kitchen or animal shelter)
- Sharing quotes from famous thinkers related to dentistry
- Creating polls asking important questions related to dentistry
Conclusion
We hope this article has given you some ideas on how to improve your social media presence, without actually having to do anything. If not, then maybe we’re just not doing it right! Let us know in the comments below if there are any other ways you think dental practices can use social media to their advantage.