In today’s fast-paced world where information is accessed in just a few clicks, social media has become essential when marketing your dental practice. Knowing which platform to use, what to post and when, and how to do it efficiently can be a challenge for any dental practice. Here are 5 tips to help you get your practice started with social media marketing.
#1. Know Your Audience – Utilize Your Patient Statistics
Knowing your dental patient audience is key to what content you will post, and what platform you choose to focus on. This is a perfect opportunity to take a glance at your patient statistics. With Dental Practice Pro’s patient statistics, you can see what age and gender primarily make up your practice. Also, by utilizing the procedures analytics, you can gauge future promotions to boost on your social media platforms that will be most appealing to your audience. Remember, your audience is not just new patients. Many of your current patients will be following your pages.
#2. Use Your Audience to Choose Your Social Media Platforms
With all of the different social media platforms out there, it can be enticing to create an account for your practice on each one. The initial thought is, “The more platforms I’m on, the more traffic I’ll get.” This is unfortunately, not necessarily the case. Going back to the patient statistics you took not on, you may notice that maybe you have an audience that might be more familiar with Facebook and Twitter, judging by their age. Knowing that your audience is made up primarily of patients, you can determine that a platform such as LinkedIn, which focuses on business to business relationships and networking, is not a good fit for your audience.
#3. Post Content Relevant to Your Audience
Now that you have your platforms set up, it’s time to think about your content. Let’s say you chose to have visibility on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Again, looking back at your patient data, you can tell by the age ranges and procedures what content about dentistry they might be interested in. If you have a pedodontic practice, your posts will be very family and kid friendly. These posts can include lots of healthy habits, brushing tips, etc. Don’t limit your content to just dental related posts. Is it International Cookie Day? Post about it with a reminder to brush after eating sweets.
#4. Keep Track of Social Posts on Your Marketing Calendar
It is wise to keep a schedule, or content calendar of what posts are going out when to eliminate the risk of re-posting the same content, and making sure that relevant content goes pout daily. Here is where utilizing Dental Practice Pro’s Marketing Calendar can really come in handy. You can add notes into your marketing calendar of what content you are posting on a daily basis. Take it to the next level by tagging your employees with reminders to log into the social channels to like and share the posts.
#5. Run Ads to Boost Practice Visibility
Social platforms, such as Facebook, allow business pages to run advertisements on their site to help increase a following to your page. This a great way to increase new patients within your practice. Looking back at your patient statistics and KPI Reports for your practice, determine a procedure that you would like to promote. Be sure to add your advertisement to your marketing calendar, and tag your employees so that they are aware of the current promotion. The last thing you need is for Susie Smith at your front desk to get a phone call regarding your promotion, and not have any knowledge of it.
Follow these 5 tips to get your practice started on social media, and you’ll be on your way to connecting with your patients.
