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online engagement

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Social Media 101: Reaching Your Dental Patients via Pinterest

by Naomi Cooper February 26, 2013

Social Media 101: Reaching Your Dental Patients via PinterestNot only did Pinterest grow to 18.7 million users in March 2012 from its launch in March 2010, but it’s also a known hub for the dental practice’s ultimate target demographic: Moms. Moms love “pinning” stories, photos and articles to their Pinterest boards. For dentists who have a true general or family practice, and especially for pediatric dentists and orthodontists, Pinterest is the latest addition to the practice’s social media arsenal.

Think of Pinterest as an online pinboard or vision board. Users pin images to their own boards, and these boards are visible not only to the followers of the user, but also to the public so that other Pinterest users can also see the pins.

According to the Huffington Post, 80% of the pins on Pinterest are “repins”. When users repin images from one of your boards, it increases the opportunity to gain new followers, and, it creates a link back to your website, helping to improve your website’s SEO. The higher your website ranks in search results, the greater the chances of reaching new patients when they are searching online for a dentist.

Last November, Pinterest added business pages, enabling businesses to more easily connect with users. If you are interested in using Pinterest for your dental practice, but not sure what pictures or content to include, here are a few ideas to help you get started:

  • Pictures of the dentist(s), staff members and office photos
  • Celebrity Smiles
  • Before and After pictures of your satisfied patients
  • Personal interests – do you like to cook? Include images of your favorite dishes. Like to travel? Pin photos of your favorite destinations.
  • New equipment or technology in the practice

The best aspect of Pinterest is the freedom of creativity. In this social media site, you can truly customize your profile to reflect your personality as both a dentist, and an individual. And pinning material that you think is of interest to your patients is another way to grow your Pinterest following.

Pinterest can be addicting and fun to use, and when implemented in a strategic way, it can help foster connections between your dental practice and both active and new patients.

Have you considered using Pinterest on a professional level? Do you think it would help you reach your target patients? Why or why not?

Blog

Social Media 101: Tweet Your Way to New Patients

by Naomi Cooper February 19, 2013

Social Media 101: Tweet Your Way to New PatientsTwitter is a product of today’s fast-paced society, where much of our information is absorbed in small bits while we’re on the go. We live in an era where many people no longer have the time to sit down and read a full news article. In 2012, according to The Huffington Post, there were 175 million tweets sent every day.

Twitter enables information to be distributed, read, and absorbed within a matter of seconds, from a computer, laptop, smartphone, or even a standard cellphone via text messaging. Setting up a profile takes only a few minutes. The bigger challenge with Twitter is finding followers.

Unlike becoming “Friends” on Facebook, following someone on Twitter doesn’t mean that they also automatically follow you. Instead, here are a few ideas to gain followers:

  • Tweet and retweet (reposting other people’s tweets) regularly.
  • Mix up the informative with the fun.
  • Tweet links to interesting oral health articles or post brief tips of the day.
  • Make sure all of your patients know that you’re on Twitter and encourage them to follow you.
  • Consider running informal contests with prizes for all of your Twitter followers, such as giving away an electric toothbrush to one of your patients who retweets a particular message about your practice.

What’s unique about Twitter is that every single word you’ve ever tweeted is public and searchable unless it was specifically marked private. That means anyone who happens to be searching for any of the keywords you’re tweeting about will find your tweets. This is an incredible way to build a loyal base of followers, regardless of whether they actually know you or not. And because about half of Americans don’t have a dentist, if your Twitter followers are in your local area, they certainly have the potential to become your patients when they’re ready.

Even if you never plan to consistently tweet yourself, it’s still worth having a profile on Twitter. You can use Twitter to follow industry leaders and stay up to the minute on breaking news, or just to keep tabs on your friends, patients, and personal heroes.

Do you use Twitter for professional purposes? What do you like most about this social media platform?

Be sure to check in here next week for information on one of the fastest growing social media sites – Pinterest.