Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Guide for Dentists!
If you are reading this, you have decided that it is time to take this whole social media marketing thing seriously for your dental office. Glad to hear it! While we don’t know why exactly you have waited so long to learn more about creating a winning digital marketing strategy, but the past is the past! All that matters is that you are here now ready to rock n’ roll!
By the end of this blog, we want to show you that social media marketing strategies don’t need to be complicated to be successful. This guide gives you exactly how we approach social media marketing strategies for all of our clients in the dental care industry here at SocialSurge Marketing. This is the formula that we have found to be the most successful for not just dentists but all kinds of small businesses – from personal trainers and chiropractors to painters and junk removal companies – and it can work for your dental office!
We think of this strategy kind of like an ecosystem. Each part of this system is important on its own, but without the other pieces, you won’t be nearly as effective as you should be. We will be covering each part of the ecosystem in this post. Keep this image in mind as you read on.
Without further ado… Let’s get into it!
Social Media Content Ideas For Dentists
A successful social media strategy starts with a well thought out content strategy.
We often say that content is the fuel that social media runs on because the content you create is what moves you forward. If you create good, quality content, it can supercharge your success while bad content or no content at all can leave you stranded on the side of the road.
The problem starts with ideas. Most Dentists see their office and don’t see anything extraordinary going on. You might not see it, but there is plenty of content for you to be creating that can be incredibly impactful and provide value for new patients.
Still got nothing? Here are some ideas for you to get you started!
Dental Client Testimonials
There is nothing like a patient testimonial to get your message across. According to a survey done by BrightLocal, 92% of new patients read online reviews before choosing a dentist. It’s critical for you to start collecting the stories and reviews of your patients so that you can show just what your office is all about!
Client testimonials can come in a few different forms, each with their own pros and cons.
The first and most obvious is to simply ask patients for online reviews in places like Google, Facebook, and online dentist directories. You can then take the reviews that people leave for you and repurpose them into nice graphics to share on social media.
Another type of review that can be incredibly impactful is a video testimonial. Not many people are comfortable in front of a camera so it can be difficult to find someone willing to do this for you, but if you can, these videos always perform well and let people get a deeper understanding than just some random online review.
Explainer Videos
I don’t think many of you realize this… but your job, as a dentist, is incredibly interesting. From the tools that you use with your patients to how you read x-rays and identify cavities, it is all incredibly interesting to those of us that don’t really know what is going on in our mouths.
Start by thinking about the most common questions patients ask you. Why do you do this? What is that? How do you know I have a cavity?
Now, set up your smartphone and answer them! Record short 30 second videos showing off that cleaning tool that people often think is a drill or what it means to have receding gums. Give people the information that they are looking for. The idea is not to sell someone, but simply provide value, information, and to make you “THE” dental expert in the eyes of potential patients.
Before/After
Especially for those of you that offer cosmetic dentistry, this can be a great way to show the quality of your work to people considering a certain procedure, or even just a cleaning.
Showing these examples to a patient considering your office and that you know your stuff and are going to make a difference for them.
Photos of equipment and happy people
I’ll make this one really simple. Just take pictures. Whether it is that brand new piece of equipment you received or a child who just completed their very first cleaning, creating something is ALWAYS better than creating nothing. There are so many fun things going on around you all the time, you just have to develop an eye for it and hold yourself accountable for recording it.
Bonus Content Tips
- Create the content you enjoy creating – If you like writing, write! Like taking pictures? Take pictures!
- Don’t be a perfectionist – You’re your own toughest critic! That video you recorded looks great, trust me!
- You don’t need fancy equipment – Your phone is more than good enough!
- Force yourself to be a do’er – We get it, you’re busy seeing patients, but if you really want social media to work for you, you’ll find 5 minutes to create!
Creating A Social Media Strategy For Dentists
What Social Media Platform Should Dentists Use?
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn and the list goes on and on and on. There are so many different social media platforms out there, how do you choose the ones that are the best fit your office? Here are our recommendations for which social media platforms you should be using.
Facebook for Dentists
This shouldn’t be much of a surprise to any of you. While the attention of the social media world is focusing on flashy new platforms like TikTok, Facebook is still the largest social media platform in the United States.
Not only that, but this is the platform where the majority of your customers will be. Facebook gets a hard time nowadays as the platform for “old people” but the average user really isn’t all that old. In fact, the largest group of Facebook users fall between the ages of 25 and 44 years old. These are people that care about dental health and are making decisions on their own about their healthcare providers.
In addition to that, we see Facebook as the “do it all” platform. You can post photos, link to your website, create videos, and even go live! It is the perfect “home base” for your social media marketing strategy, especially now that it is directly linked to the next platform that we are going to talk about.
Instagram for Dentists
Another easy pick! Instagram is the 2nd largest social media platform and gives you a lot of the same tools and features that Facebook offers.
While Instagram’s demographics are slightly different from Facebook they still match up well with the target market of the average dentist office. The average Instagram user falls into the bucket of 18-28 years old and its user base tends to skew slightly female. While this group of people might be slightly less knowledgeable about dentistry, they are making decisions about their healthcare providers as they leave their parents’ plans and move to new locations for college and jobs in new cities. This is a group of people looking for new providers for them to use for the rest of their lives.
While you don’t have quite as many options on Instagram as you would with Facebook, you can still post pictures, videos, and utilize their IGTV feature for longer-form video. Not only that, but you can get creative with Instagram stories to get more engagement and post more “on the fly” types of content.
Every strategy starts with Consistency
Let’s start with how many days per week you should post. Of course, we would love for you to post as many days as humanly possible, but we also understand that you are likely a small business owner or have a lot of responsibility… and s*** happens. So, what should you aim for? One word. CONSISTENCY.
Being inconsistent is the number one reason why people fail at social media. Businesses will post one week and take the rest of the month off and wonder why their social media strategy didn’t go as planned. So, in the beginning, focus more on consistency and less on a specific number of posts per week.
When and how often should a dentist office post on social media?
Once you have outgrown the “just be consistent” phase, it is time to move into it and really strategize the best times and days to post for your audience.
As you can see below, both Facebook and Instagram have free analytics to show you exactly when your followers and people who would be interested in your business are online. In these examples, you see that these pages Facebook followers are typically online around 9 AM and 7 PM and on Instagram between 12 PM and 6 PM. Facebook even shows that Sunday, Monday, and Friday might be the best day. These are the times and days of the week that you should post. This data can update daily so make sure you are looking at it often!
This is going to look a little different for every business depending on what your market is, which is why it is so important to base your decisions on YOUR data and not someone else’s.
Facebook Ads For Dentists
One of the biggest ways that social media has changed over the last few years is how difficult it is to get organic reach on your posts. That is why we recommend all businesses, not just dental offices, utilize paid advertising to supplement their marketing efforts.
Boosting Strategy
A lot of us are familiar with that “boost” button at the bottom of Facebook and Instagram posts. Now, most people are going to tell you to avoid that button at all costs… we disagree. The boost button on Facebook and Instagram is an incredibly useful tool for small businesses when done correctly. While you might not get all the features of creating an ad from scratch, it’s quick and easy to understand, which a lot of the ad platform is not.
Check out our blog post “How to Boost a Facebook Post the Right Way” for more tips!
What types of posts are you looking for to boost?
There is a term we have in the industry called “social proof”. Social proof means that a post performs extremely well organically with your audience. This is so important because it gives you reassurance before you put money behind a post that your money is going to be well spent on a piece of content that you know for a fact will resonate well with your audience. Look for those posts that are outperforming the rest in terms of engagement and use those to send out to a broader audience of people that might also be interested in what your business has to offer.
So, looking at these posts below, which one would you boost? (the answer is the left one!)
One quick last note: Don’t just boost one post and call it quits. Boosting posts, while simple, still takes a little bit of finesse and experimentation to get just right. So, when you boost a post, look at the results and make adjustments. Try different audiences, objectives, and calls to actions and then make your judgment as to whether or not something is working.
Let’s wrap this social media guide up
Whew, we just went through a lot! How are you feeling? Ready to take on the world?
If you remember way back to the opening section, the goal of this blog was to help you build the foundation for a killer social media strategy for your dental office that will help your business grow and reach new people. We wanted to take social media marketing, something that people tend to overcomplicate, and give you simple methods to make it effective.
Social media marketing, done correctly, can and will bring you new patients. All you need to do is take what you learned today and execute it.
We believe in you. Go get’em!