Social media has become one of the most beneficial marketing strategies for companies in all industries, ours included. To help broaden your practice’s reach and engage your current patients, we put together our top tips.
Two-way communication between practices and patients is key to your practice’s social media success. According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. Use platforms like Twitter and Facebook to your benefit by searching for your practice constantly and responding to any mentions, whether they are positive or negative. This makes patients feel like they’re heard and their opinion is valued, in person and online.
Words can only take you so far. Visuals are what catch a patient’s immediate attention. NewsCred reports that articles with images get 94% more views than those without, and according to 3M Corporation and Zabisco, visual data is processed 60,000 times faster by the brain than text. Use photos as a way to document your success. Include before-and-after shots of real patients and ask them to speak to their positive experiences. These real-life testimonials give peace of mind to potential patients, as it familiarizes them with what they’d be walking into at your practice.
Manage a blog dedicated to patient experiences at your practice. Ideally this would include a blurb about the procedure and the patient’s experience. Link to these articles on your social sites and post a new success story on a regular basis - either every week or every month. According to HubSpot Blogs, companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website, as it increases organic search results.
Hone in on positive feedback that your practice receives and highlight it on your social sites, from retweeting on Twitter to reposting on your practice’s Facebook page.
Engage with your followers by posting about new products and ideas surrounding your practice. JeffBulas.com reports that 70% of marketers used Facebook to gain new customers in 2014.
Answer questions on your public page and not just directly to the patient who’s inquiring. This boosts exposure and the spread of useful information. When one person has a question, others will have the same.
Compare your practice's approach to other sites and make yours unique. Don’t just follow suit. See what the competition is doing successfully and improve upon your own version.
Search social media platforms to see what patients are saying about the competition and keep your own practice’s site current with frequent updates. Don’t let your social platforms fall flat.
We hope these tips are helpful, and you see them as an extension of the work most dentists are already doing to create a two-way street of communication with their patients. When your accounts are up and running, send us a tweet using our Twitter handle: @Solea!