In today’s fast-paced digital world, the dental industry stands at a crucial juncture where embracing social media marketing can be a game-changer. Social media platforms offer dental practices an unmatched avenue for connecting with existing and potential patients, showcasing services, sharing oral health tips, and highlighting patient success stories. This direct line of communication fosters community and trust, essential elements in the patient-practitioner relationship. Also, social media’s ability to amplify word-of-mouth referrals through shares and likes can significantly enhance a dental practice’s visibility and reputation.
Implementing a robust social media marketing strategy enables dentists to demystify dental procedures and display their practice’s unique personality and values. This article explores the benefits of social media marketing in dentistry, why dentists need it, and how they can use it to its full potential.
Why Do Dentists Need Social Media Marketing?
In the modern age, does your business even exist if it’s not available online? With so many benefits associated with social media marketing, if you don’t have a business social media account, now is the time to set one up. Here are the many benefits of social media marketing for dentists:
Increased visibility
With over three billion monthly users on Facebook and over one billion monthly users on Instagram, having your dental practice on social media offers a vast audience. Exposure to such a broad audience on social media increases your visibility online, which can lead to an increase in new patients and bookings. Having a Facebook account with your clinic details and address also makes it easier for patients and potential patients to find your clinic.
Strengthens patient-dentist relationship
Having a social media account for your dental practice gives your patients another line of communication with your business. Some patients are anxious to ask oral health-related questions in person at the clinic, so being available online gives them another opportunity.
More affordable than traditional marketing
Social media marketing can be more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods and offer a higher return on investment. Through social media marketing, dental clinics can reach a large audience without the need for substantial advertising budgets.
Patient engagement
Social media provides an excellent platform for engaging with both existing and potential clients. You can share educational content, oral health tips and clinic updates, fostering a sense of community and encouraging loyalty among patients.
How Dentists Can Utilise Social Media Marketing
As two of the most popular social media platforms in the world, knowing how to use Facebook and Instagram marketing to your advantage can have a significant positive impact on your dental practice.
Facebook is often frequented by an older audience, which offers dental practices the chance to connect with a more mature demographic. Facebook is an ideal social media platform for creating targeted ads, sharing educational content, and various dental procedures your clinic offers. The platform’s analytics tool also allows for detailed tracking of your marketing campaigns, enabling data-driven strategy adjustments.
Unlike Facebook, Instagram is a more visually driven platform that allows dentists to showcase their work in a more creative and engaging way. Used by a younger audience than Facebook, Instagram can be used by dentists to post engaging videos and educational content in an aesthetically pleasing format. Features like Stories and Reels are great for sharing quick tips and office updates and engaging with followers through polls and questions.
What Content Should Dentists Post On Social Media?
Having your dental practice on both Facebook and Instagram has its benefits, but once you have created your profile, what engaging content should you post?
Awards, updates and celebrations
To build a sense of community with your followers on social media, keep them up to date with posts about awards, updates and celebrations. Whether your clinic has won an award, you’re celebrating a team member’s birthday, or you're sharing an important clinic update, it’s always a good idea to share updates and milestones with your followers on social media to show the faces behind the clinic.
Oral health and hygiene tips
With the number of oral health and hygiene tips out there, you’ll never run out of things to post. For Facebook, you could create an infographic with specific tips and repurpose that into a Reel or carousel on Instagram. Another way to engage your audience is to post a question box to your Instagram Stories and answer any oral health-related questions your followers have.
Dental services
When it comes to social media, the more information you provide about your dental clinic, the better. Whenever you add a new service to your clinic, be sure to let your followers know by posting an update.
What Dentists Need To Avoid Posting
According to Section 133 of National Law, there are a few things dentists must not do on social media, such as:
- Be false, misleading or deceptive, or likely to be misleading or deceptive
- Offer a gift, discount or other inducement to attract a person to use the service or business unless the terms and conditions of the offer are also stated
- Use testimonials or perpetuated testimonials about the service or business
- Create an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment
- Directly or indirectly encourage the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services
Experienced Social Media Marketing For Dentists With Anchor
Social media marketing offers dental practices a wealth of opportunities to connect with their audience, showcase their services, and establish themselves as leaders in the dental industry. From enhancing visibility to building patient trust and loyalty, the benefits of leveraging platforms like Facebook and Instagram are clear and impactful. However, navigating a dental clinic and social media platforms can be tiring, which is where Anchor comes in.
As experienced social media marketing experts for businesses in the healthcare industry, we know what it takes to succeed online while ensuring you remain compliant with Australian Laws. If you’d like to learn more about how we can drive traffic to your website and increase bookings through social media marketing, drop us a line today.
