Dental Practice’s Social Media Playbook: Winning Patients Online

In today’s world, promoting your dental practice on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram isn’t just optional – it’s a necessary strategy for reaching potential patients and connecting with your existing ones. Pew Research reported in 2022 that 72% of the U.S population uses Facebook, and 40% uses Instagram. With average users spending over 50 minutes each day on these platforms, any dental practice that isn’t making use of social media is missing a significant opportunity.

Embarking on the journey of promoting your dental practice on social media can seem like a daunting task, especially with your primary focus on providing top-tier care for your patients. That’s why we’ve put our heads together to create this guide as a starting point for you. Why pay attention to our suggestions? We’ve got decades of collective experience with marketing on social media. Rita Zamora, the founder of Connect90 and Rita Zamora Connections, with over 20 years in the dental field and extensive experience in social media marketing. Meanwhile, Andrew Bernstein, the Product Marketing Manager at Archy, has 7+ years of experience in digital marketing. Together, we’ve developed this blog post to offer you a jumping-off point for using social media to attract new patients and nurture relationships with existing patients.

Why Embracing Social Media is Crucial for Dental Practices

Embracing social media has become increasingly crucial for dental practices in our tech-savvy society. With a staggering amount of the population dedicating close to an hour each day to platforms like Facebook and Instagram, social media has emerged as a great space for dentists to connect with both current and potential patients.

A common misconception is that promoting your business on social media automatically labels you as an “influencer.” However, that’s not necessarily the case, nor should it be your objective. An influencer, typically a public figure or personality, that maintains a large following and often partners with brands for promotion. This is not the objective for you; rather than striving for influencer status, your focus should be centered on engaging existing patients and attracting new ones with valuable, relatable content.

There are three major benefits that dental practices can get from consistent and intentional social media usage:

Visibility: Instagram and Facebook give you the platform to showcase your treatments and team. By increasing your visibility to current and potential patients on their social feeds, you remain top of mind. So, when it’s time for their next cleaning or they contemplate teeth whitening, you’re their first thought.

Building Comfort: Social media lets potential and existing patients get to know your practice before they visit. Sharing insights into your office and staff helps to create familiarity. This turns the usually stressful ‘first appointment’ into a more relaxed experience, as it feels like a continuation of a connection already established online.

Promoting Specific Treatments: If there are certain procedures or treatments that you would like to perform more, such as Invisalign, social media is an excellent way to spotlight them. Regularly featuring these treatments on your social media channels can educate your patients about the possibilities, and it may spark interest and increase demand for those services.

Deciding What to Post – Dental Social Media Tips

Once you’ve committed to posting on social media, a common obstacle that practices need to overcome is determining the right kind of content to post. The answer to “what to post” starts with identifying your objectives. Are you looking to boost the number of Invisalign procedures performed at your practice? Perhaps your aim is to boost recall appointment rates? Or are you mainly focused on attracting new patients to your practice? Your specific goals will steer the course for your content creation.

To illustrate this concept, let’s dive into a few tangible examples. If your primary goal is to get more smile transformation patients, your content could consist of before-and-after images of patients who have undergone the procedure, informative pieces debunking myths about the procedure, or even an engaging series of short videos showcasing the journey of an actual patient from start to finish. This type of content not only promotes the service but also educates and reassures prospective patients about the process.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to boost recall appointments, content can be centered around the importance of regular dental check-ups and the various health issues that they can prevent.

If your goal is to attract new patients, consider sharing content that showcases your practice’s atmosphere, the friendly staff, the advanced technologies you use, and most importantly, the patient experience at your practice. Highlighting these aspects helps potential patients understand what they can expect at your practice, reducing any anxiety or reservations they might have.

Remember, determining your goals before you begin posting can help direct your content strategy and make it more effective. The examples provided are just a starting point. The key is to create content that is both relevant to your goals and engaging to your audience. It’s about striking a balance between being informational, personal, and appealing.

That’s where Connect90 comes in, we’re your social media sidekick. We assist you in pinpointing your goals and mapping out a robust social media strategy to match. To make your start with social media a breeze, we offer a curated content framework with creative ideas directly tied to your goals. These help you streamline content creation, saving you time while ensuring high-quality, relevant posts.

How to Post

Once you’ve determined what to post, the next step is to create and share the content. This section will equip you with a practical example of how to create an Instagram Reel, to kick-start your social media journey. This is another area that Connect90 comes in, helping to guide you through the creation of your planned content, and ensuring your initial strategy is effectively executed.

Let’s walk through creating an Instagram Reel. Instagram Reels are brief, short form videos on Instagram, useful for broadening reach and enhancing audience engagement with creative and informative content. Here’s how to make one:

Creating an Instagram Reel:

1. Storyboard Concept:

Before you start recording, it’s a good idea to have a rough concept of what your reel is going to be about. This could be a before and after of a dental procedure, a quick tour of your practice, or even a fun team introduction. Storyboarding helps you visualize the sequence of shots, so you know exactly what you need to capture.

2. Shoot Instagram Reel:

Once you have your concept, it’s time to start shooting. Here’s how:

• Open Instagram and navigate to the home screen.
• Click the “+” button at the bottom of the screen.
• At the bottom of the screen, you will see options like ‘Live’, ‘Story’, and ‘Reels’. Select ‘Reels’.
• You will see several icons on the left side of the screen. These are your editing tools. You can adjust the speed of your video, apply effects, set a timer, and select music.
• To start recording, press and hold the capture button at the bottom of the screen. You can pause at any time to change the scene, then press the capture button again to continue recording. This can help you achieve a seamless transition between clips without any additional editing.

3. Preview and Add Effects:

After you’ve recorded your clips, you can preview your reel.

• Press the back arrow on the screen to see your clips.
• If you want to add any effects like filters, text, or stickers, now’s the time to do it. Use the icons at the top of the screen to browse through the available options and apply them to your reel.

4. Share Instagram Reel:

Now that you’ve created your reel and are happy with it, it’s time to share it with your followers.

• Click on the right arrow at the bottom of the screen to go to the share page.
• Here, you can write a caption, tag people, and even add a few relevant hashtags to increase the visibility of your reel.
• Once you’re done, hit the ‘Share’ button, and your reel will be posted to your Instagram feed and the Reels tab on your profile.

Supercharging Your Social Media Strategy With Archy’s

In the era of convenience, people have the tendency to prefer online interactions over phone calls, especially among younger generations. According to a recent survey, around 70% of people prefer booking appointments online as opposed to over the phone. Highlighting the significance of online booking, 40% appointments booked through an online scheduler are scheduled after office hours. This preference is crucial to consider when promoting your dental practice online. Reducing friction in the booking process, by eliminating the need for a phone call, is not only convenient for your patients, it’s smart for your business. Leveraging online booking also allows for easy tracking of appointment sources through tools like Google Analytics, helping you measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts.

That’s where Archy’s practice management software (PMS) comes in. Our PMS features built-in online scheduling, streamlining the booking process for your patients. But that’s just one piece of the puzzle – ensuring patients show up for their appointments is equally important. Archy’s automated appointment reminders are designed to combat no-shows, which can reduce missed appointments by a significant percentage.

Archy’s features aim to optimize patient engagement, helping your practice grow in a digital age. Our focus on automated reminders and seamless online scheduling places Archy as a leading PMS for dental practices, poised to help you benefit from your social media strategy.