Get In Touch
Scroll Back to Top
Dental Focus Dental Focus

020 7183 8388

Social Media for Dentists – 7 Steps to Success

Thursday 29th November 2018

 

Personalising your social media channels and ensuring the content reflects your practice will guarantee that you stand out as a cut above the competition. The 7P’s coined by Coach Chris Barrow will give you the tools to engage and connect with patients. This addresses Profile, People, Premises, Prices, Promises, Proof and Products.

 

Social Media for Dentists

Profile – The look & feel of your brand and all need to be conveyed on your social media. This persuades audiences your practice is right for them.

 

People – This involves individuals that work in the practice. Team photos and videos should be professional, happy and demonstrate good customer service. These are fantastic ways to showcase different personalities and characters. In turn, it forms a trusting connection with your patients and eases concerns.

 

Premises – Take advantage of social media by using photo’s & videos to reveal the level of quality your practice has by flaunting patient rooms, technology and more. This helps by offering a safe and familiar environment for patients when they visit.

 

Price – Transparency with fees is extremely crucial as it ensures you attract the right demographic for your practice.

 

Promises – There is no better alternative than Social Media when it comes to showing the patient journey. Present the quality and standards of the practice using video’s and/or photo’s to set the expectations of current and future patients.

 

Social Media

Proof – An excellent way to show quality is to display before & after photo’s on your social media, as long as you have obtained explicit written consent from your patients. This helps to engage with more patients in your local community and helps to raise the profile of your practice to attract more patients.

 

Products – It is important to post about personalised treatments and special offers, which will differentiate your practice from the competition. You can engage with patients and build relationships through exclusive offers, running competitions, promoting new treatments and highlighting events.

 

Social media for dentists makes it easier to increase the visibility of your practice, connect directly with your patients and provide them with 24/7 unfiltered access to you.

If you want to increase engagement, build relationships and grow the visibility of your dental practice through Social Media, it is vital that you follow the framework of the 7P’s.

Would you like to talk to us about Social Media for Dentists?

Book a FREE chat with Dom – our Social Media Guru

CALL: 020 7183 8388

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Social Media for Dentists

The importance of hashtags – Social Media for Dentists

Friday 9th November 2018

A hashtag is a hash symbol that is used within a message to recognise a subject or keyword which many others may be talking about. They are mainly used to search for other posts which are using the same hashtag. Hashtags on Instagram work by collating photo and video content.

When talking about hashtags on Instagram, there are usually two sides of the situation. Some people that use Instagram dislike them and steer away from using them, however, the other half absolutely love them, some people even going crazy when using them!

You may be wondering why you should be using hashtags on Instagram? Posts with at least one hashtag have roughly 13% more engagement on Instagram compared to posts that have not used a hashtag. 7 out of 10 hashtags that are used on Instagram are branded which means they are unique to a specific business or marketing campaign. A lot of the time, they use the company name, the product being advertised or company tagline.

There are many places you can use hashtags, including posts, comments, bios and stories. You are allowed to use up to 30 hashtags in a single post, however, this is considering overdoing it. A recent study on the subject suggests that the optimal number of hashtags to use is 11, however, the rules on Instagram are always changing.

Recently, Instagram rolled out a new function where you are able to follow hashtags which allow users to look at posts using certain hashtags in a different way. Rather than searching for a hashtag, users are able to follow them where they can scroll through their own feed and see some of the posts using the same hashtag. Saying this, Instagram’s algorithm has always preferred certain hashtags over others and some are more relevant than others.

If you are interested in social media for dentists, there are many hashtags that you could use which are dentistry related, however we have found that the top 10 hashtags to use are #Dentistry, #Dental, #Teeth, #DentalImplant, #Invisalign, #Braces, #Smile, #TeethWhitening, #PearlyWhites and #Veneers. These hashtags can be topped off with a branded hashtag that is related to your dental practice.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Social Media for Dentists

Social Media for Dentists – How to make the most of Instagrams 2018 updates

Wednesday 7th November 2018

Instagram has experienced phenomenal growth during 2018 with more than a billion active users worldwide and a ton of consistent updates, Social Media for Dentists on Instagram has never been more important.

We have compiled a list of 2018’s most important Instagram updates and how they could be of benefit to your practice.

IGTV

With research indicating the growing use of long-form videos on smartphones, Instagram has given users a chance to share longer vertical videos on Instagram.

How can this benefit your practice?

IGTV can be used to build the brand of your practice, connect with your patients and grow your audience. Content could range from elaborate videos in your practice to extended versions of previous popular videos.

Engagement tools

Until recently likes, comments and Story views were only available measurements of Instagram engagement. Until the introduction of interactive stickers for stories such as emoji sliders, polls and questions.

How can this benefit your practice?

These new tools have opened up new insights on how Social Media for dentists can adopt a new way of connecting with their patients, increase engagement levels and gather feedback which can help a practice redefine their customer service approach.

Instagram Verification

It is now possible for regular users on Instagram to apply for the blue tick verification, previously reserved for big-name celebrities.

How can this benefit your practice?

The benefits of this for a dental practice can include increased credibility, while also helping to stop copycat accounts.

Hashtags on profiles

Instagram provided the option to add functioning, clickable hashtags and mentions to bios.

How can this benefit your practice?

Your practice can now promote specific campaign hashtags in the bio of your profile such as an open day or treatment discount, allowing your followers to click on it and see all of the content other patients have posted.

@mentions

Instagram introduced the ability to add to your own story if another user @mention your account.

How can this benefit your practice?

It may not seem like a big deal but it provides you with a cleaner way of reposting mentions from your patients when they have (hopefully) had a fantastic treatment from your practice.

 

Looking for help managing your dental social media?

Get in touch with our Social Media Guru Dominic Haslam by calling – 020 7183 8388 – for a friendly chat.

For more information on our social media for dentists options contact our Social Media Guru Dom.

Book a FREE chat with Dom – our Social Media Guru

CALL: 020 7183 8388

 

Tags: , ,
Posted in Social Media for Dentists

Social Media for Dentists – Common Myths

Friday 2nd November 2018

 

 

Social Media has huge benefits for your practice and brand, from growing your community to keeping your patients in the loop of the latest news and events in the practice. At Dental Focus we provide affordable social media plans and would like to highlight some of the common myths we often hear about social media.

Myth #1 : Social Media is free.

Social media is not free. Using the Facebook or Instagram platforms are free in the sense there are no subscription or initial cost to join them, but think of all the internal cost spent on the labour you’ll need to setup, optimise, run and manage the platforms from content generation to regular activity.

 

Within the practice it is often all hands on deck and managing the social media account either becomes an afterthought, sporadically adding posts from time to time or left completely neglected. Our social media for dentists plan helps free up your staff and leave the posting to the experts. We have proven strategies in place, that we know will help grow your community and portray your business in the best light.

 

Myth #2 : More Likes = More Success.

 

Social media platforms encourage page likes and follows, and are often a vanity number for dentists who feel that if their local competition have more likes and follows they are falling behind. At Dental Focus our social media plan focuses on growing and creating a community of real local followers and existing patients. It’s better to have a smaller number of raving fans than a large number of likes/follows that are bots and people overseas who will never become a patient.

 

Myth #3 : Social media will generate leads for your business.

 

Many dentists think the no.1 reason to run social media is return on investment, and increasing enquiries from a marketplace of potential patients. The truth is that people on social media are often not in the mindset of ‘looking for a dentist’ they are browsing through, keeping up with friends and family and sharing opinions.

 

What’s the bottom line? Social media is a great way to build awareness for your practices brand, and an excellent way to build relationship with your existing patients. By creating content your existing patients like and share creates an online word of mouth endorsement of your services.

Why is this a benefit? When these friends and family of your patients are at a stage where they are ‘looking for a dentist’ or a specific treatment your regular engaging activity has left its mark with them and increases the change of them getting in touch and to start sharing and liking your content.

 

Would you like to talk to us about Social Media for Dentists?

Book a FREE chat with Dom – our Social Media Guru

CALL: 020 7183 8388

 

Posted in Social Media for Dentists

New Website Launch – Moonlight Dental

Wednesday 31st October 2018

 

We recently launched a brand new website for the wonderful Moonlight Dental based in Slough.

 

https://www.moonlightdental.co.uk/

Find out more about our dental websites, SEO services, and social media for dentists.

 

Posted in Dental Websites, Social Media for Dentists

How to increase your follows and likes on Instagram – build your brand!

Friday 26th October 2018

 

Social Media for Dentists is the same as Social Media for everyone else, in the sense that when you need to increase your follows and likes, they both require dedication. Here are a few pointers to help you build your brand effectively and to help you gain followers along the way.

 

Social Media for DentistsParticipate in trends – be current

While it is important to use specialised hashtags to Dentistry such as: #Dentaltreatments #PearlyWhites #Smile, it is also important to use universally trending hashtags like #photooftheday or #instagood to extend the reach of your audience.

If possible, you can link your practice or treatments to current affairs or entertainment trends to boost your engagement. Ask questions where possible to increase interactivity. For example:

 

“Remain or Leave? That is the question among the teeth of Britain. If you are in the remain camp, visit our practice to keep your teeth IN! If you are in the leave camp, we offer Dental Implant Treatments for those whose teeth are OUT” #DentalImplants #Hygiene #Brexit”

 

“I bet Venom would use our Invisalign treatments to get his teeth looking straighter! Do you think the film would have been better if he had straighter teeth? #Venom #TeethStraightening #Invisalign”

 

The more controversial and entertaining your post is, the more engaging it will be. Always look out for how you can be engaging when using Social Media for Dentists.

 

Offer giveaways and competitions

If you are able to get your followers to tag a friend in the comments, not only does this help with your engagement but there is also a new potential follower who has been notified to look at your post.

A giveaway for a certain toothbrush could be held or perhaps a free consultation, and the only way to win would be by tagging a friend, following the page, and liking the post. With each new tag, they will want to follow and like and possibly even tag someone else! This is the best way to increase followers.

Use Videos and Live Streaming

Your potential patients need a reason to feel compelled to invest in your practice. The best way to do this is by building trust, and to build trust on Instagram, you need to show personable faces, voices and messages. According to Dan Zarella, you are likely to have 35% more likes from posts with faces in them.

The advantage of using live streaming is that it shows the authenticity of your practice and how effective the treatments are in real-time.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Social Media for Dentists

Social Media for Dentists – Engagement: What Does it Mean?

Thursday 18th October 2018

 

Social Media Engagement: What Does it Mean?

 

Engagement is a measure of the impact that your posts and brands make on social media, each platform has its own way of measuring this.

 

Social Media for dentists

Facebook: Shares, likes and followers

 

Instagram: Likes and followers

 

Twitter: Re-tweets and followers

 

Likes (and reactions on Facebook) and shares will tell you how popular your individual posts are with your online community, on the other hand, followers show a greater level of social investment from people as this indicates that they want to see more of your content regularly. Follows are a type of conversion, similar to when patients fill out an enquiry form on your website or make a phone call after viewing your website.

 

How do we maximise engagement using social media for dentists?

 

Competitions and Contests

  • Competitions are a great way to get lots of engagement and increase the profile of your brand with a wide audience as everybody likes free things and everybody likes to win.

 

Many of our clients have had fantastic results with competitions and so if you’re not doing them already you should start now! If you would like us to help you run your competitions get in touch with our Social Media Guru Dom.

 

Book a FREE chat with Dom – our Social Media Guru

CALL: 020 7183 8388

 

Be Consistent

  • It is important to appear active and responsive on social media, failing to do so can make your business appear to be inactive and may cause people to make incorrect assumptions about your practice. We have seen thriving practices with social media accounts that make them appear to be the opposite, don’t get caught out with this one and be consistent!

 

Use Images and Videos

  • We are living in a fast-paced visual age, people are more likely to engage with visual content as they can absorb the information more quickly than reading a wall of text.

 

Monitor the Data

  • Using insights on Facebook and Instagram can be a great way to see information about; how your posts are performing, the demographics of your followers and your follower growth over time. Some Social Media Management Tools will also have advanced reporting that can go as far as recommending the best times of the week and day to schedule your posts for.

 

Create and Maintain Local Alliances

  • Tying in your posts with other local businesses can be a great way to create mutually beneficial relationships. By tagging and sharing each other’s posts two business can expand their reach to each party’s respective followers.

 

For more information on our social media for dentists options contact our Social Media Guru Dom.

 

Book a FREE chat with Dom – our Social Media Guru

CALL: 020 7183 8388

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Social Media for Dentists

How are dentists using social media to address the 8 Patient Concerns?

Friday 21st September 2018

 

Do you know what patients are concerned about when they visit your website? You probably have a few ideas about the most common ones, such as price and pain. However, at Dental Focus, we have found that there are 8 Patient Concerns that cover the majority of their worries when choosing a dentist or treatment.

 

These are:

Form – Look & Feel
Function – Life-changing benefits
Longevity – How long it lasts and the aftercare
Value – The expert
Journey – The consultation and treatment experience
Character – Listens, cares, no judgement has “seen it all before and worse”
Fears – Nervous or phobic patients, relaxed/comforted, painless dentistry
Why Now? – Stories of sacrifice, stories or regret

Clients are now asking us about social media for dentists and how Dental Focus can help them grow their brand in their online communities and connect with existing and new patients.

Whilst the majority of content that most practices put out on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is largely dentistry based, they are often reluctant to put up patient-based content for fear of breaking confidentiality. And rightly so!

BUT…There is a way.

How to get dental patient stories onto social media

 

Depending on your patient base, you may already have plenty of social media champions for your brand that you don’t even know about! Many patients will be social-media-savvy and happy to spread the good word about the service they receive at your practice. If they have had great journeys with you and spread word-of-mouth to their friends and family already, it’s not a great leap for them to do that on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Once you know that a patient is happy to recommend you, simply ask them – “Do you use Facebook?”.

If the answer is yes, then you can ask them – “Would you mind doing a post about your visit? We really appreciate spreading word-of-mouth about our practice in the local area and would love to help your friends and family.”

Then you can guide them on the type of post if they need help. They could do any of the following:

  • Check-in to your practice
  • Share your Facebook page
  • Write a status update and tag your page
  • Put up a “Story” and tag your page
  • Post a video of them in the practice
  • “GO Live” in the practice

For more information about social media for dentists remember to book in a call with our Guru Dominic Haslam – 0207 183 8388.”

Posted in Social Media for Dentists

Social Media for Dentists in the UK

Friday 31st August 2018

 

Dental Focus have been taking care of social media for dentists in the UK for over two years! That’s not taking into account creating social media channels for dentists and dental practices for more longer than that. During which time our team has learnt a lot about how to grow online communities and increase your brand awareness.

 

How to go from 0 to 100+ Facebook Page Likes as a dentist

 

A blank canvas is the hardest when it comes to starting your journey on social media. If your Facebook page is brand new then it can be a bigger struggle to get that initial buzz about your practice/brand than if you want to jump from 500 to 600-page likes.

With no initial community to speak of, we have a proven method to get your page noticed. Watch the video below for more.

 

 

Should my Facebook followers only be dentists?

 

The beauty of social media is that everyone can get connected, however, this can also be detrimental to your business plans. Cultivating your community is essential to growing your brand in the right direction, otherwise, you can spend a lot of time and resources with on the wrong people.

If you are a referral practice, then you largely want to be addressing other practices and dentists, as these are the people you most want to be in front of. However, for the majority, you are most likely a dentist using social media or a dental practice. In which case, catering for patients is going to be your aim in which case they make up the “general public”. You should still, however, be selective in what you post and how you present your brand, ensuring that you take into account your demographics.

 

Piggybacking

 

Fun as a kid, essential as a business looking for massive growth on social media. And no, we don’t mean go and jump on anyone, rather look for other profiles that have a bigger following than yours and look to create a mutually beneficial relationship. Again, the profiles you decide to associate with should reflect your brand well (no use associating your Facebook page with Coca-Cola – synonymous with sugary drinks).

One fabulous way to piggyback is to promote the services of someone else. For example, a local restaurant might share your post if you gave away a dinner for two of your patients.

Come back soon for more info about social media for dentists or give our team a call to discuss more – 020 7183 8388

Tags: , ,
Posted in Social Media for Dentists

Social Media for Dentists: Don’t be Afraid

Thursday 30th August 2018

Social Media for Dentists: Don’t Be Afraid

 

Having become a central player in the cultural and social makeup of billions of people’s lives, it is no wonder that many businesses (dental practices included) have flocked to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more to promote their services to the masses.

Whilst many other industries have approached social media with a carefree attitude, highly regulated areas like healthcare and dentistry must approach the platforms in a less reckless manner.

Watch this video from the Dental Focus team about why dentists are afraid of Facebook:

 

 

How can dentists be compliant on social media?

 

One of the factors that prevent dentists from using social media is compliance. With so many regulatory bodies such as the GDC, CQC, ICO and ASA overlooking dental practices in England (with similar bodies globally) it can be hard to know what the rules and regulations are.

Social media is a massively public arena and this seems at odds with dentistry given that the relationship between dentist and patient is confidential.

The good news is that almost all the governing bodies have printed material that sets out the Do’s and Don’ts of using social media.

 

What can a dentist post on social media?

 

Staying away from anything that could be considered to bring the dental profession into disrepute is essential. Any content from a patient is a no-go unless you have explicit written consent to use it on the specific platforms. The other factor to consider is the nature of the platform. Ensuring your posts are relevant and suited to the type of social media can be hard to understand, especially as these platforms development at an alarming rate.

The good news is that Dental Focus can help you with this.

 

What are the benefits of using social media for dentists?

 

Unlike other forms of digital marketing, social media for dentists is all about the long game. It is unlikely to generate instant return on investment (ROI) if you haven’t put in the hours cultivating your online community and ensuring they feel nurtured by your brand.

The benefits include having more loyalty amongst your patient base, who will appreciate your engagement with them socially rather than just charging them for treatments, as well as being able to communicate with them on a more regular basis – because the majority of adults who use Facebook use it daily. This allows you to:

  • Notify them about your latest treatments and services
  • Keep them up-to-date with the goings on at the practice
  • Promote your team members and their skills

 

What should a dentist post on social media?

 

As mentioned, it is essential to post content that is tailored to the platform. It is also important to not spam all of your followers with dull posts about why they should buy the most expensive treatment with you every day. That’s not going to appeal to online communities and it’s a sales tactic that is not very welcome on most platforms.

Instead, you need to decide on a plan of how you want to present your brand on social media and do it consistently, with the goal in mind of getting the most engagement possible. Social media friendly content would include things like:

  • Competitions
  • Video tutorials on oral health
  • Charity work by your team
  • Promotion of local businesses
  • Local events relevant to your followers

 

Looking for help managing your dental social media?

 

Get in touch with our Social Media Guru Dominic Haslam by calling – 020 7183 8388 – for a friendly chat.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Social Media for Dentists

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »