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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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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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Quality, Not Quantity, Is the Key To Success in Social Media

by Naomi Cooper May 27, 2013

Quality, Not Quantity, Is the Key To Success in Social MediaThere are endless ways to participate in social media: various sites, videos, comments, sharing, blogging…the list goes on and on. For dentists, and business owners in general, who are looking to get started in social media, the sheer volume of the opportunities to engage can be overwhelming.

There is no need to get frustrated before even starting. Participating in social media is all about connecting with your patients, friends and colleagues. For example, it is better to regularly engage on Facebook (for instance) a few times every week, than to sporadically post random information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube. Find one or two sites that are most comfortable for you, and that you know your patients are also engaged in, and start there. As your comfort level increases, you can start to branch out to more sites.

Varying your content will also help to increase the quality of your activity. This will help to keep your content fresh and engaging. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Sharing links to trade-related articles
  • Posting a thoughtful comment on others’ posts
  • Uploading a video to YouTube – the brief video could offer a tour around your office, or an update on the latest technology in the office
  • Commenting every blog that you read
  • Posting photos
  • Responding to patients’ feedback when shared online

And one more aspect of Quality as it relates to social media would be Consistency. Posting one article every few weeks is not going to build your audience. Create a social media calendar for your office, and continually engage on a regular basis. Your audience will start to know when to expect to see your information, and you will be building credibility along the way.

Getting started in social media can seem daunting at first. By putting a little thought into your strategy, and creating a plan of action, you will be on your way in no time at all.

Have you integrated a social media marketing plan for your practice? What were some of your initial successes? Do you have any advice for those looking to get started? Please share your ideas below.

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Twitter for Dentists: Using Social Media to Grow Your Practice

by Naomi Cooper April 23, 2013

Twitter for Dentists: Using Social Media to Grow Your PracticeHere on the blog, we often talk about social media, with many posts have been geared toward Facebook.  We haven’t, however, talked much about Twitter. While not as universally used as Facebook, Twitter still boasts 500 million users. This social media site remains a successful method for dentists to reach new patients and connect with both the local and online communities.

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.

I recently came across this informative blog highlighting Twitter from the social media guru Jeff Bullas. Click here to read the blog and discover his 40 ways to increase your Twitter followers.

Facebook is not the only option when it comes to connecting with your patients online. Twitter is a simple and quick way for dentists to distribute information and engage with followers within a matter of seconds.

Do you use Twitter in your dental practice? What has made it successful for you?

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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.

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Utilize Your Audience and Enhance Your Online Presence

by Naomi Cooper November 30, 2012

Utilize Your Audience and Enhance Your Online PresenceSocial media and online marketing are big topics here on our blog. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or promoting your dental practice blog, we often talk about getting your message out there in the online world. Social media is about engaging, and let’s face it, being SOCIAL!

For dental practices (and other businesses), there is a fine line between engaging online and being too pushy. The goal is to interact with your patients and colleagues, to be authentic and honest, while keeping your dental practice on the tops of their minds. It’s important to remember that it is sometimes okay to leverage your contacts and friends and ask for their support. Here are just a few situations where it’s a good idea to ask for help:

  • Launching a new website: spread the word to your contacts through an email encouraging them to check out the new site
  • Asking patients, friends, and colleagues to like your Facebook business page, follow you on Twitter, or subscribe to your YouTube Channel
  • Implementing a practice e-newsletter and requesting your patients opt-in to automatically receive it

Recently, Facebook announced a new feature where they’re allowing users to sign up to automatically receive all updates from the users favorite business pages. For more information on this new development, and how you can make it work for your dental practice business page, check out this great blog on the topic from My Social Practice.

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