When it comes to social media advertising, many dentists struggle with how to do it correctly. They choose to use it as a bulletin board rather than an interactive experience between themselves and their audiences. This approach to social media is effective, however it is limiting your reach. Social media is designed to be a dynamic, ever moving platform where people from all walks of life and businesses can engage in conversations, share experiences and information as well as provide a broad platform for marketing. In order to maximize your reach as a dentist, you need to broaden your focus with regard to what platforms you are using and then how you are using them.
To start, dentists should choose several social media platforms. You can choose from Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and so many more. Ideally, you will choose three to four platforms to set up profiles on. If you aren’t sure as to what platforms would be most relevant to the dental health industry, take a look at what your competition is using.
Tips to Expand Your Social Reach
Improve your profiles. One of the worst offenses you can commit in your social media advertising campaign is to leave your profile scant. Your profile, no matter what platform you choose to use, is the face of your business. You want your patients and potentially new patients to get a good impression of your dental practice. Leaving your profile incomplete sends a message that says you don’t care about your practice. Include all of the information you think your audience would need to know about your practice including where you are, what hours you operate, testimonials, what services you provide and more. Good cover art is essential as well. You can never provide too much information.
• Post Daily. There is nothing more important to your social media profile than keeping your content fresh. Post daily. Your posts should be geared towards giving your audience good information: about your practice, about the industry as a whole, about things they can do at home to improve dental health. Do post promotional material, but don’t focus all your efforts on promotion. Experts agree that only 10% of your content should be dedicated to promotional material. The rest should be on interesting things that are happening in and around the dental industry and educational information. You can also post interesting things and goings on about your community in order to connect with your audience.
• Join Groups, Share, Respond to Comments, etc. Social media is designed to be interactive. This means that in order to be effective, you need to meet new people, sharing things that others have posted and respond to comments and questions that have been sent your way. This is essential to the success of your social media presence. The more that you can interact with people, the more popular you will become and the larger your audience will grow. Don’t limit your comments and shares to posts that are directly related to you or dental health.
