Social Media Tips For A Brand New Dental Practice

Regular Posting

It’s essential to maintain an active presence on social media. Try to make 2-3 posts per week. You can post more, but remember that the quality of your posts is more important than quantity. Regularly posting and interacting on social media helps ensure you keep showing up on followers’ feeds. 

Quality Posts

Post useful, engaging, and visually pleasing content to make the most out of your social media strategy. It’s a good idea to find other dental professionals online and look at what types of content they are posting. You won’t want to copy their post ideas exactly, but you can put your own spin on them. Examples of useful social media content for dentists include:

• Educational posts such as dental tips
• Explain the services you offer
• Post about any specials or offers 
• Showcase new technology
• Get-to-know-you posts
• Highlight new staff members
• Reviews
• Show off anything that makes your practice unique!
  

It’s essential to post consistent, branded content across each platform. Using your logo and brand colors makes your posts easily recognizable.

Engagement 

Always encourage engagement! Engagement tells the algorithm that your profile is active and that people want to see your posts. People are far more likely to like, comment, or click on a link if you tell them to. Here are some examples:

• “Happy Friday! Comment below and tell us what you’re up to this weekend.”
• “Dental sealants are a great way to protect your teeth from cavities. Click the link to learn more about sealants!”
• “We’re proud to offer digital impressions to provide our patients with a more comfortable experience. Like this post if you’re ready to say goodbye to the goop!”

The engagement has to go both ways. It’s not enough to just have people comment on your posts. You need to respond and interact with them! The Facebook Business Page especially pays attention to how responsive you are to people, whether through comments or messages. It’s essential to respond promptly, especially when there is a question. 

Insights

Insights are your best friend on social media. They can give you an accurate look into what posts did well and why. Sometimes, a post doesn’t perform well just because it wasn’t posted at the right time of day. Over time, you’ll see what the best times of day to post are, and you can tailor your posting schedule. Other insights to watch out for are:

• Link Clicks: this indicates that people were interested in your post and wanted to learn more or even schedule an appointment!
• Shares: when a person shares your post, they are organically creating a wider audience for your post. This also means they found the information interesting or enticing enough to share it with other people. 

Facebook Ads

Beyond organic engagement, Facebook Ads are another opportunity to reach members of your community outside of the people who already know you. A benefit to Facebook Ads is that you can utilize them with any budget. For as little as $1-2 a day, you can increase your impression share (how many people see your posts) by thousands per month. There are many different strategies for using Facebook Advertising. You can even set them up to be used as a medium for scheduling appointments or lead generation! 

Although this tool is a valuable form of marketing, it does take time and patience to learn how to set it up correctly and use it in a way that works best for your budget. It also requires consistent monitoring, and it is a best practice to update and change your ads frequently for optimal delivery. 

How Do I Get More Organic Engagement on Social Media?

At the beginning of cultivating your social media presence, you might feel stumped by having low engagement or only a few followers. It might be tempting to purchase followers or likes to make your account appear more legitimate or appealing, but this will only hurt your campaign in the future. Social media algorithms can detect illegitimate interactions and will take action on your account. Repercussions can be anything from showing your account to fewer people to taking down your profile in extreme cases. 

The best way to build your initial following is to continuously ask local friends and family to interact and share your posts. Pay close attention to your profiles and engage with comments and messages as soon as possible.