Twitter For Dentists

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Twitter for Dentists: Update Your Profile Now!

by Naomi Cooper April 30, 2014

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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Cultivating Online Synergy for Your Dental Practice

by Naomi Cooper July 16, 2013

With dental patients becoming increasingly reliant upon the Internet for healthcare information, a dentist’s online reputation is more important than ever. Just a few years ago, it was enough for dentists to have a static website that was nothing more than an online version of their practice brochure. These days, the website is a powerful marketing tool, functioning best when supplemented by online efforts such as social media and online patient reviews.

According to recent whitepaper on social media marketing by Dr. Lou Shuman, DMD, CAGS and Diana P. Friedman, MA, MBA, respondents to a national survey of 88 dental and orthodontic practices administered by Sesame Communications confirmed that social media continues to provide a strong driver for practice website traffic. In fact, more than 91% of dentists surveyed agreed that social media helps drive traffic to the practice website.

And one of the most crucial things a dental practice website needs is third-party validation from around the web to give it additional credibility. When patients “Google” their prospective new dentist’s name, they will not only find that dentist’s website, but also all the other websites in those search results that feature information about that dentist. This is what constitutes “social proof”.

Content on social media and online patient review sites plays an important role in building social proof and driving traffic to a dentist’s website. Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter give dentists multiple opportunities to stay connected with patients on an ongoing basis. And patient reviews on Yelp! and Google+ Local carry at least as much, if not more, weight than the information on the dentist’s own site because it’s ostensibly from a neutral source. These types of social proof from other places around the web serve to corroborate the information provided on the practice’s own website, giving prospective patients a well-rounded picture of the dentist and the practice.

It is essential for dentists to have a strong online presence in order for patients find them when searching online. A dentist’s website, social media profiles, and online patient reviews work cohesively to create online synergy. They provide more ways for patients to connect with the practice—and learn about the services available that might help them achieve their ideal smile.

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Social Media 101: Tweet Your Way to New Patients

by Naomi Cooper February 19, 2013

Twitter 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.