It’s an exciting time for dentists in private practice. In addition to many innovative products and technologies being introduced into the industry that dramatically improve the ability to diagnose and prevent dental, and, in some cases, systemic diseases, dentists now have the ability to market and promote their practices efficiently, and cost effectively, online with the incredible amount of activity occurring on social and new media sites and programs. There are literally tens of thousands of dental professionals, companies, organizations, and groups out there actively communicating with one another and with current patients and potential new patients.
There are many advantages in putting together a strategy of social and new media sites and programs, particularly the fact that it is either free or very inexpensive to do so, and it allows for a dynamic you can’t find in traditional marketing—the ability to interact and communicate easily with colleagues and patients, plus revise content and information instantaneously. And, we aren’t just talking about posting a YouTube video of the practice or just having a Facebook account. We are talking about a practice Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel, and LinkedIn practice profile for starters, and then using sites like FourSquare, YP.com, GroupOn, and LivingSocial to promote the practice. For example, a dentist can make an offer on GroupOn for a potential new patient to come in for a tooth whitening consultation, or a price special on an exam and cleaning. Offices have seen many new patients come in with GroupOn offers. Another example is that dental offices can have an iPad or laptop readily accessible in their operatories or waiting areas so their patients can “like” their Facebook page. As we know, once someone likes a page, all of their Facebook friends see that they’ve liked the page and may check out the practice. Similarly, offices can ask patients that use FourSquare to “announce that they have checked in” when they go to the office for their appointments, telling online friends where they now are, and again, providing another method of promoting the practice easily and basically free of charge. Then there are QR (Quick Response) codes (those square boxes you are seeing popping up everywhere that have a specific design or code for that person or company) that can be put in many places which allow potential and current patients with smartphones to simply “read” the code and go right to their website, promotional page/offer, etc. An example of using a QR code would be to have it in the window of an office that is on a ground floor and has “traffic” going by. Even if the office is closed, a potential patient can read the QR code and go read about the office.
Going back to Facebook and Twitter, there are so many ways for a dental professional to benefit from being active on these social media sites. Here is a list of 10 things practices can do with these social media sites:
1. Promote products or services the office offers
2. Provide oral health information and links to current and potential new patients (you can simply “re-tweet” these from other Twitter dental people they follow)
3. Thank patients and provide excellent customer service support
4. Read about breaking industry news and new products by following dental companies and publications
5. Conduct surveys
6. Create trivia contests
7. Find new employees to join the office team
8. Share cases with colleagues to learn from each other
9. Ask for advice from colleagues when presented with a challenge
10. Link each other to new research and articles
We’ve just scratched the surface here. It will be very exciting to see what happens in the next year or two, but using social and new media to help grow practices and learn about new dental developments is not going away. Many practices are now investing in continuing education courses on social media to learn how to put their game plans together and also better understand how they measure their results.
