RSS Feed for Social Media MarketingCategory: Social Media Marketing

Tips on Using Facebook in Your Dental Office

This is a special guest post from Patrick Toms, DMD, a Gainesville, Georgia dentist.

Nearly everyone these days is on Facebook and currently businesses are utilizing the ubiquitous social network site as a marketing tool. And as a business, a dentist’s office also has the potential to exploit the free advertising opportunities available through Facebook. By utilizing social marketing, you can effectively drive business to your office, increase your return on investment, and expand your brand awareness. Here are some tips on using Facebook in your dental practice.

1. Include the Facebook URL on business cards – When leaving the dentist, most people receive a reminder card for their next appointment. A good way to get the word out about your Facebook page is to place the Facebook URL on the card so patients will be reminded of your social site whenever they look at the card. Similarly, place the URL on standard business cards. Facebook URLs are becoming just as, if not more, important than phone numbers, and a well-placed URL on a card will work wonders for expanding your awareness. You can even customize these URLs to contain your practice name.

2. Promote new blog articles on Facebook – Have you ever considered hiring a communications employee who is primarily responsible for blogging, updating the Facebook page and contributing content? Social media technology moves quickly, so expanding the staff to include a ‘professional Facebooker’ is an effective way to stay ahead of the curve and promote your brand exclusively and consistently.

3. Introduce current and prospective clients to the team – When people move to a new city, they need a dentist. A great way to introduce your staff is through pictures, profiles, and short biographies on Facebook. You can even upload video tours of the facility or of the staff, and customer testimonials to increase your practice’s awareness in the community.

4. Use Facebook as a promotional tool – After you begin to acquire followers on your Facebook page, consider doing something promotional. Have a contest highlighting great smiles and give away things like toothbrushes and floss. One office that currently uses Facebook has previously held a drawing for an iPad. When patients donated winter coats for the homeless, they were entered into the drawing and a winner was chosen. Also, Facebook is a great tool for advertising specials. Consider offering deals like 15% off teeth whitening or other cosmetic procedures.
Communication is the key to solid marketing and currently Facebook is the premier way to communicate. It makes sense that any business, even a dentist’s office, would benefit from using Facebook as a marketing tool. Above I have outlined a few simple ways in which to get the ball rolling on promoting your brand via Facebook.

————————————————————————————————————————

Patrick Toms DMD is a dentist in Gainesville, Georgia, who offers a wide range of services within North Georgia. Dr. Toms is proud to be a leading sedation dentist in Georgia who also offers routine services like teeth whitening and dental checkups in Gainesville.

Dec 06, 2011 | 8 comments | View Post

Social Media Trends in Dentistry

Wow, the social media world has been busy this month!  It’s hard to keep up with all of the changes being made by Facebook and Google.

 

 

 

I just wanted to take a minute to share the above video from Google regarding their current position on business profiles on Google+, as well as a great article from Social Media Examiner which outlines how the recent changes to Facebook may effect business pages.  Please comment below regarding your experience with the recent changes to Google+ and/or Facebook.

Sep 28, 2011 | 1 comment | View Post

Let’s Connect on Facebook and Twitter

Dentistry’s Business Secrets is active on Facebook and Twitter. We have found these social media venues to be a great source of information for growing and marketing our dental practice. We would love to connect with you there as well.

We are on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dentistrysbusinesssecrets and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ofallondentist.

Sep 15, 2011 | 1 comment | View Post

Facebook Apps for Business Pages

I am looking into using several popular Facebook applications on my dental office and Dentistry’s Business Secrets’ Facebook pages.  Of particular interest are apps that would allow me to run contest promotions since Facebook’s promotion guidelines are so stringent.  If you have experience using a third party app or running a promotion on Facebook, please comment as to how it worked for you.  Also, please comment if you know of other Facebook apps that are useful for Facebook Business Pages.

 

While researching this idea, I came across two great resource articles that can be found below.

Social Media Examiner: “Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page”

Mashable: “5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page“

Apr 25, 2011 | 1 comment | View Post

Social Media Must Be Social

Social media is becoming a bigger player in dental practice marketing, but many dentists don’t understand the need to utilize it differently than other forms of marketing.  While most marketing revolves solely on getting your marketing message out, social media demands engagement and interaction.  It is not enough for dentists to simply set up Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts, follow local users and post updates or tweets that only focus on sharing a marketing message.  Social media requires social interaction to be effective.

 

On Facebook, this involves making sure to comment whenever someone leaves a note on your wall, seeking local businesses to “like” and commenting on their pages and seeking opportunities to share about local events that would benefit your followers.  Facebook provides applications that can be used to help your followers engage more, including contest and opinion poll apps.  Facebook’s recent revamp of the Facebook Page business profile makes it easier for businesses to be interactive.

 

On Twitter, a dentist cannot simply post tweets with a marketing message seeking new patients.  Some time must be taken each week to interact with tweets from other local users.  The reply and retweet features make this possible.  Social media offers a great opportunity for dentists to decrease the fear factor many new patients face by demonstrating their compassion and personality through these interactions.

 

While social media is “free,” there is certainly a time commitment that must be made and your time is not free.  Some dentists seek to involve their staff members in helping to expand their social media presence.  It is certainly a good idea to have all staff members participate in brainstorming information that would be good to share through social media avenues.  For instance,  a dental hygienist or dental front office manager may have a great idea for a local event to share about which was discussed with a patient in the waiting room.  One should proceed with caution before turning over the entire administration of social media to a staff member however as the final reflection is on the dentist.

Mar 29, 2011 | 3 comments | View Post

Facebook Page Changes for Dentists

If you are unfamiliar with Facebook Pages, this is a function created to allow businesses to have a Facebook presence. A Facebook Page is different than a Facebook personal profile. With a personal profile, users “friend” other users. With a Facebook Page, those who wish to follow a business’ Facebook updates must choose to “like” the Facebook Page of the business. My Facebook Page is located at www.facebook.com/ofallondentist if you want to see an example of a Facebook Page for a dental office.

Facebook has recently revamped their Facebook Pages layout. Page owners were able to test the new features in the past month and all Facebook Pages will be converted to this new format on March 11th. The new features make using Facebook Pages much more user friendly and provide a better layout.

Facebook Page users are now able to switch from their Facebook personal profile to their Facebook Page with ease through the Account tab in the upper right hand corner. Simply click on “Account” and choose “Use Facebook as Page,” then click “Switch.” This will allow you to post straight to your Facebook Page with your business identity rather than your personal profile. You can set a default to always post to your Facebook page as your business page, rather than your personal profile. To do this, choose “Edit Page” in the upper right hand corner and then choose “Your Settings.” From there, check the box that indicates you will always post on your Facebook page as your business page even when you are using Facebook through your personal profile.

Facebook now allows Pages to “like” other Pages. This feature provides the user the ability to follow what local businesses and other dentists are promoting on their Facebook Pages. Updates from businesses that you “like” will appear in a stream of updates on your news feed. Facebook Pages are now able to comment on other Facebook Pages as well. In the past, there was no ability for a Facebook Page to comment anywhere. However, you still cannot comment on an individual user’s Facebook personal profile wall.

With this update, Facebook now provides email notifications to Facebook Page users whenever someone interacts with your page by leaving a comment. This feature is helpful in alerting Facebook Page users to check their page for interactions. The layout of Facebook Pages has also been adjusted slightly. Facebook Pages now have the ability to display a photo area at the top of the page similar to those found on personal profiles.

These improvements are a great step in the right direction of making Facebook Pages more useful to businesses. There are still some limitations that I would like to see adjusted, but this is a good start to making Facebook more user friendly to businesses.

Mar 03, 2011 | 5 comments | View Post

How to Attract New Patients to Your Dental Blog

As a practicing dentist who tries to keep up with writing original content for two blogs, this one and my dental practice blog, I am always on the lookout for new topics.  Readers of this blog come here specifically for information about dental practice management and marketing.  After practicing dentistry for nearly 18 years and starting three dental practices from scratch, it is not that difficult to brainstorm topics that may be of interest here.

I have a harder time coming up with topics of interest for the general population on my practice blog.  Obviously, the general population isn’t longing to read about teeth every day!  I have found it beneficial to write blog articles about local events and activities.  My current patients appreciate this information and potential new patients find my blog while searching for local events.

Promoting Local Events

My dental office is currently brainstorming ideas for how to share information about local charities and events that our patients may be involved in.  We are creating a short form for patients to fill out giving the basic details about their charity or event for us to post on Facebook and our blog.  One goal of this effort is to encourage these patients to share our articles on their own Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Another goal is to be indexed highly in search engines when local residents are searching for information about local charities and events.

Sharing Office Happenings

Blog entries do not have to be lengthy.  My office is beginning to pay closer attention to daily happenings at the office to be able to share glimpses into the care our dental office gives.  For example, we are looking to share short stories of how a trip to our office benefited our patients, as well as compliments that patients paid us that day.  Sharing these kinds of experiences can help cut down on the fear many potential new patients have while avoiding the dentist.

If your office maintains a dental blog or any social media accounts, what efforts do you take to attract potential new patients to these sources, and more importantly to your dental chair?

Feb 04, 2011 | 8 comments | View Post

The Madow Brothers

The Madow Brothers
“The Madow Brothers (Dr. David Madow and Dr. Richard Madow) are innovative dentists offering practice management and marketing services to dentists nationwide for over two decades.  The Madow Brothers offer coaching services, as well as informative and interesting seminars and webinars throughout the year.   I have found many of the Madows’ services to be highly beneficial to the success of all three of my scratch practices.

 

The Madow Brothers’ blog offers frequent tips that you can incorporate into your dental practice immediately.  Last week, they shared a particularly relevant and timely idea for encouraging your dental patients to use their smartphones to promote your practice.  Check out their article called “Ten Things Your Patients Can Do While Sitting in the Dental Chair That Will Help You Grow Your Practice.“  My business manager is currently modifying this for use in our office.
Jan 27, 2011 | 5 comments | View Post

Groupon Marketing for Dentists

My sister-in-law recently selected a new dentist based upon a Groupon she discovered. I was initially skeptical about this, but she expressed having a positive experience at this office. A few weeks later, my sister invited me and my wife to a restaurant she had chosen as the result of a Groupon offer.  Just this week, my wife received a Groupon massage gift certificate that was a birthday gift.  While using Groupon to receive a discount at a restaurant or on a massage seems like a no brainer, I wondered how many people would choose a dentist based upon this kind of advertising.  Obviously, as a dentist who works hard to provide the highest quality of care, my desire would be for patients to find new dentists based upon glowing referrals and reviews from current patients, not from a discount program.  However, I am always open to examining new marketing ideas to determine whether they are a good fit for my office.

What is Groupon?  Groupon is a web-based advertising company that works with local businesses to provide daily deals in cities throughout the United States.  Businesses design a “deal” to share for one day on Groupon, typically offering discounts of 30 – 60%.  From what I have heard, businesses receive half of the sales from this deal, while Groupon keeps the remainder.  Consumers sign up to receive emailed daily deal announcements and can buy a Groupon which is like a discounted gift certificate to local businesses, including restaurants, spas, clothing stores and dentists.

So, how well would Groupon work for a dentist?  A recent discussion on www.DentalTown.com showed several dentists experiencing great success with their Groupon deals.  However, other dentists pointed out problems with the types of patients these deals typically attract.  When I began my first practice in California, I offered discounted deals to new patients through direct mailings (Internet advertising was not yet an option).  Due to my location, the overall population I treated had a higher transiency rate than most areas.  The patients who responded to new patient deals were the most likely to come in one time for their discounted checkup and then refuse much needed treatment.  Would Groupon advertising produce the same result…an influx of patients who only appoint for their dirt cheap checkups?

If you are a dentist who has used Groupon or a patient who has found a new dentist through the use of Groupon, I would love to learn about your experiences.  Please feel free to comment on how you think Groupon would work for a dental office.

Jan 10, 2011 | 6 comments | View Post

What Should a Dentist Tweet About?

My dental office has been participating on Twitter for a few months now.  It has become easier to think of tweet ideas, but we are always working to keep a good mix of dental health tips, local events, office news, helpful resources and personal highlights.  I just came across a great article on Rizzo Tee’s blog entitled “The Top 50 Tweets That Businesses Should Be Doing.”  It was a good reminder that people soon tire of hearing about your dental office or their teeth.  While tweets about these subjects must be included, it’s important to engage with your followers. The entire experience will be more enjoyable for you and for those following you.

Oct 25, 2010 | 6 comments | View Post
Next Page »