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social media marketing

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The Secret to Attracting More Baby Boomers to Your Dental Practice

by Naomi Cooper September 21, 2015

What's your online marketing strategy?Did you know that the fastest growing demographic on social media is adults ages 55-64? While you might believe that online marketing is just for the younger population, it turns out that online tactics can be an effective method for attracting patients at or near retirement.

The first step to using social media for reaching the baby boomer population is to determine what site(s) you wish to use. Facebook is an obvious place to start, with more than half of all online adults 65 and older using the social networking site, representing almost 1/3 of all seniors.

Next, keep your profile updated with interesting content and informative posts that cater to the baby boomer population. You could write a blog with tips on preserving their smile, or post an article from an industry expert on the oral-systemic link. And it doesn’t have to be all about dentistry. Including non-industry content will help keep patients engaged while providing a well-rounded social media profile.

For more additional tips on how to use social media to reach patients of all ages, check out my recent Dental Products Report article.

Even if traditional tactics like telephone book ads are still apart of your Baby Boomer marketing plan, don’t be short sighted. After all, as the population ages, your strategy will eventually need to shift online. Getting started now will keep you ahead of the game in the coming years.

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How to Create the Best Social Media Post for Your Dental Practice Profile

by Naomi Cooper March 4, 2015

How to Create the Best Social Media Post for Your Dental Practice ProfileJust 10 years ago, no one had ever heard of Facebook. Now it’s the leading social media site in the world, and a host of other sites compete for users’ attention. From Twitter to LinkedIn to Instagram and beyond, there is certainly a social networking site to suit every personality.

When using social media as a marketing tool for your dental practice, it can be hard to determine what sites to engage on, and even harder to figure out what exactly to post on your practice’s profile each day. Not to mention the fact that a post that might be really engaging to Facebook users may not resonate on Twitter.

What to do? Check out this helpful infographic to learn what types of posts work best across various social media platforms.

Ultimately, your audience is the most important factor to consider when creating social media posts. Know what your patients like, their interests and even what social networking sites they use most often. Having a firm grasp on the types of content your patients like to see will help to make the best of your social media campaign.

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Dental Practice Marketing: 9 Content Ideas for Social Media

by Naomi Cooper September 24, 2014

Dental Practice Marketing: 9 Content Ideas for Social MediaAre you thinking about getting started on a social media plan for your practice? Or maybe you’ve been posting for a while now but feel like your updates are getting a bit stale? Whether you are a beginner or you’ve been participating for years, it can be difficult to keep coming up with ideas of what to post.

Here are 9 types of content that work well on social media:

  1. Links to Articles: Posts about the practice, the doctor, the team, the community, or oral health in general always work well.
  2. Photos: Pictures of the practice, of the doctor and/or team, patient “before and after” shots, team events, or continuing education opportunities. Note: photos require a signed release, so be sure you have written permission from everyone in the picture before posting.
  3. Videos: Shoot videos on a smartphone of an office tour, a welcome greeting from the doctor and staff, patient testimonials, or even the doctor answering patient FAQs. Similar to photos, videos also require a signed release, so again, be sure to have written permission before posting.
  4. Facts & Figures: Consider relevant quotes, statistics, news headlines that you think would be of interest to your community.
  5. Seasonal: The various holidays and seasons are perfect opportunities to share holiday wishes, fun factoids about the holiday/season, or give a piece of dental advice to fit a specific time of year.
  6. Contests and Polls: Great for increasing engagement with your social media audience, you can set up polls just for fun, or offer a prize.
  7. Giving Back: If you happen to be a part of a local group, you can post messages about the cause or link to the cause’s website. Or, if you know of a patient who is very involved, you could ask them about posting their story.
  8. Lifestyle: Social media posts don’t only have to be about dentistry. Varying your posts with healthy recipes, useful technology tips, dental jokes, or info about local community events can keep everyone interested.
  9. Promotional: Social media is a terrific way of spreading news updates about the practice, special offers, info on new procedures, and referral rewards promotions.

No matter what you post, the most important thing to consider is your patients’ perspective! Avoid using overly technical language or posting articles only of interest to fellow dentists. Find out what gets your patients excited about dentistry – personal updates about team members, photos and videos are always a hit. At the end of the day, a clear focus on engagement with your audience – your patients and prospective patients – is the way to go with social media.

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Facebook for Dentists: Boosting Engagement through Contests

by Naomi Cooper June 4, 2014

Facebook for Dentists: Boosting Engagement through ContestsIf you are looking to spice up your Facebook dental practice page, think about running a contest. Facebook promotions are a fun way to increase your engagement with your followers and keep your dental practice in the minds of your patients.

Running a Facebook promotion isn’t difficult, but it does require planning ahead. A recent article from the experts at MarketingProfs, 6 Newbie Tips for Running a Successful Facebook Timeline Promotion, outlines exactly what you need to do to set up contest for your dental practice Facebook page.

If you aren’t sure this DIY approach to Facebook promotions is the right option for you, Sesame Communications could be the solution. They offer a Sweepstakes package for dentists which is a full-service management of Facebook promotions including design and execution of a campaign, marketing the campaign both online and providing marketing emails, newsletters for patient outreach as well as ensuring the contest/promotion is compliant within all Facebook, state and local regulations.

Whether you do it yourself, or you take advantage of Sesame Sweepstakes, a Facebook promotion will increase your online engagement, yielding positive results for your dental practice, including increased patient loyalty, patient referrals and even treatment acceptance.

Have you run a Facebook promotion for your dental practice? What advice would you have for a beginner? Share your experiences below!

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Twitter for Dentists: Update Your Profile Now!

by Naomi Cooper April 30, 2014

Twitter for Dentists: Update Your Profile Now!If you regularly use Twitter for your dental practice, you may have noticed the remarkable changes to your profile page. Twitter has been rolling out an update to user profiles, with an emphasis made on visual content. They’ve made images a huge focus of the new profile page, reflecting the current trend of visual content across the Internet. If you haven’t yet signed up for Twitter, now is as good of a time as any to jump in! Keep your profile looking its best by updating the following:

Profile & Header Photos: They have made the profile photo larger. This is the image that appears in the feed next to your tweet. The header photo is also now more prominent, spanning across the width of the page.

For dentists, the Profile & Header photos are terrific branding opportunities. If you have an icon feature within your logo, that works great for the profile photo. Twitter has made it easier than ever to upload an image for the profile by automatically resizing any image to fit within the parameters. As far as the header photo, the practice name often works best but whatever you choose, make sure to keep it consistent with your existing branding. They recommend keeping the size to 1500×500 and a maximum size of 5MB. If you are unable to resize on your own, your graphic designer (who designed your logo) should be able to assist you.

Practice Info: The changes also include a shift in the placement of the location, website address and bio. This information used to be at the top, within the old header, which often made it hard to read. It has now been moved to the left side of the page, under the profile photo. Be sure to completely fill out this information, including the brief bio section where you can describe your practice in 160 characters or less.

Pinning Your Tweets: Users can now “pin” their favorite tweets to the top of the page. So if you have a previous tweet that garnered multiple retweets, or maybe a patient tweeted a positive comment about your practice, you can now highlight these individual tweets so that they appear at the top of your page, making it easy for users to see when viewing your profile.

Overall the information is more organized, with the ability to pin top tweets as well as having all photos and images easily accessible. Some users like the new layout; others aren’t as criticizing it for its strong similarities to Facebook pages.

What do you think? Have you updated your dental practice profile to the new layout?

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Social Media Marketing: Why the 80/20 Rule is Your Key to Success

by Naomi Cooper March 26, 2014

Social Media Marketing: Why the 80/20 Rule is Your Key to SuccessSocial media has taken the dental marketing industry by storm. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ give dentists countless opportunities to stay connected with patients like never before.

Check out these stats:

  • 72% of online adults were using social networking sites
  • 8 in 10 social media users in the US would rather connect with companies via social media than via corporate websites

Engagement is the name of the game when it comes to social media marketing for dentists and in order to build your followers and keep them connected long-term, a good rule of thumb is to abide by the 80/20 rule.

What is the 80/20 rule? 80% of the content you share should be of interest and value to your audience; 20% of your content can be about your practice.

Think of it in terms of a face-to-face conversation. Ever been in a conversation where the other person only talks about themselves the entire time? It’s annoying. It’s rude. And it’s extremely off-putting. I bet you couldn’t get out of the conversation fast enough.

The same idea can be applied to social media engagement. Think about your audience, and what interests them, and tailor your social media posts accordingly. Your patients will be much more likely to engage with you when you share content they find appealing, and you’ll be on your way to building a powerful social media presence.

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