Social Media Content Strategies for your Dental Practice (and a couple that work right now during COVID)
My mom is a dentist, and that’s all she wants to be. She wants to work on teeth and help patients. She has very little interest in running the business side of her dental practice. That stuff is left for my dad and me to handle.
So, a few months ago, I was like Mom, I am gonna handle your marketing and see if it will help you get more patients (this was all Pre-Covid times)...Anyway I redid her website, started doing Google and Facebook ads and started handling her Organic Social Media Accounts (Facebook and Instagram)
The thing with Dentists and social media is well it’s kinda boring...and it’s kinda tricky to figure out what to “post” about on a consistent basis. When you scroll through different dental practices social media accounts there are lots of posts about faux holidays like National Hamburger Day, occasional office staff photos, and lots of stock imagery.
So look I am not going to say doing Organic Social Media for a Dental Practice is going to have customers banging on your door asking for root canals or give you thousands of Instagram followers, but it can give potential new patients a better idea of your personality before they book an appointment and keep you more top of mind for the people and businesses that follow you back.
First I want to set some ground rules that you need to make sure you follow regardless of what you do on social media...and these are all pretty basic stuff.
Be REAL - People can smell fake on social media. Don’t use stock images...stock images are not real and look fake, because they are. Being on social media is about being REAL.
Don’t SELL Me All the Time - Look I know the initial reaction is to “sell” customers on stuff like teeth whitening all the time, but people don’t like being sold especially on social media.
You Can’t Be Camera Shy - If you are like my mother who doesn’t like being on camera...it’s not going to work well...(and right now her social media needs work) You need to be in front of the camera and have a staff that is also NOT camera shy.
Social Media is a Two Way Street - You have to follow other businesses in your area like local restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, cycle studios, PTA’s, humans, vets, other doctors in the area, and actively engage with their posts too - basically all the local businesses in your trade area. That also means you need to like their posts and comment sometimes.
Alright, now down to the eight content areas to fuel your Dental Social Media Account...to help you get started.
You are all about Supporting Local
You support your community including all the small businesses like restaurants and coffee shops. So instead of grabbing a cup of coffee at Starbucks hit the local coffee shop and post a picture of you supporting a local business and tag that coffee shop. Below is a good example of that execution. This content strategy works really well right now with COVID as small mom and pop businesses are struggling.
2. You are Human
People want to like people….and you want to make sure you are likable on social media. Some people look at dentists as kinda faceless people that they only see when they are in serious pain...you need to be kinda likable - Do you have a dog, kids or a husband? Share those pics from time to time.
Also, with COVID going on right now, there is totally an opportunity to let people see the more personal side of you with pics of your kids and dog as you are adjusting to the social distancing lifestyle.
If you have a hobby like riding a bicycle or playing golf include that content too. Some patients gravitate to people with similar hobbies...it can give your patients and you something to talk about outside of just teeth.
Have some old pictures of yourself in dental school or with dental-related clothing on, save those, and use them on social. They are great to help build your story about how you became a dentist.
3. You showcase what Life in the Office is Like
It’s good to showcase what life looks like in the office. What your team looks like, if you guys fool around some. How you celebrate birthdays in the office, what you look like when you are wearing a mask or holding a dental impression.
4. Patients Like Your Work
This is a super easy one to do as long as you have good reviews coming into your practice. Basically you are posting your good reviews but making them look pretty before posting.
All you do is cut and paste the review from the source (let's say google) and stick it in a Canva template. I will go through Canva at the end of this but consider these simple approaches to get content. Take a look at the example below.
5. Showcase your Patients Teeth
This one can get kinda tricky as you have to find patients that are cool with you using their image. I think it works better with kids and teenagers with braces. If you are able to get consent, try it and see if the effort is worth it. Here is a good example of a practice that has pretty much built their entire content around patients and their smiling faces.
6. Put together before and after photos of teeth
If you take photos of patients' teeth, you should totally do before and after photos and post them to social media. People can see the difference between a patient with terrible teeth and how you treated them and got their teeth looking great. The key with these before and after photos is to get good clean shots and brand them. Here is an example of how to do it right.
7. Uplifting quotes can work too
I really don’t like these much, but hey sometimes you just need content to fill the bucket. You can search the internet for inspiring quotes or quotes specific about dentistry and then lay them out in your brand template using Canva. Here are a few sites you can check out to get some quotes like Quotery and Good Reads
8. Educational Content
Again this one is what I like to call “Filler” content on social media. It could be basic stuff about dentistry, like how long you should be brushing your teeth for, how often to floss, etc. etc. Again the key is to keep it in your brand template it’s more just a reminder that you are alive and active on social media.
Ok, there you are, eight different content strategies to help grow your Organic Social Media presence. All these are doable and if you post 2-3 times per week (which is sufficient for a dentist) you have enough content for a few weeks.
Also, here are a couple of cheap tools that will make your life easier for Social Media Content curation:
Canva - Super easy for the design templates because you don’t have to be a designer and it’s only $10/month
Buffer - If you want to schedule your post weekly instead of posting content as you develop it….Buffer is only $15/month and can help you keep tabs of everything your posting by day/week/month.
If you have any questions or suggestions please hit me up. There are totally always other social media content buckets to explore, but this should give you a good start...and are pretty easy to execute even for dentists like my mom...