Acquiring new patients for your dental practice is a challenge and in the previous post, I suggested ways to address this challenge, including enhancing your presence online. Since social media is the majority of your online presence, in this post, we are going to focus on five social media strategies that are guaranteed to enhance that presence and therefore generate more interest in your practice. Please remember that all dental practices are different, so when considering how to move forward, first develop a solid plan that will suit you and your team.
1 Utilize Pokémon Go
The phenomenon grows bigger with every passing day, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just take a glance outside your office to observe all the people—young and old—clutching their phones in one hand and looking so determined those digital creatures called Pokémon. With these creatures, they will be able to collect them and battle with them at all the Pokémon gyms available all over the world. I’ll be honest, I too jumped on this bandwagon as soon as the game became available here in Canada, and I’m hooked. You can’t not become hooked on a game that motivates a healthy amount of walking, and in the case of the first person to collect them all, walking a total of eight hours a day as he neared his goal.
Let’s face it, this is a phenomenon that will not be going away any time soon, and now might be the perfect time to take full advantage of it and help enhance your online presence even more. With so many people getting caught up in this Pokémon craze, how can you not use this to engage with more prospective patients? People with more marketable skills than me suggest trying the following:
– Submitting a request to make your office a Pokéstop
– Offering free Wi-Fi and charging stations
– Asking players to tag their photos of the Pokémon they caught in your office.
The craze is huge and even just seeing a Pokémon milling about your office can elicit a ton of Facebook likes and Twitter retweets, generating interest with prospective patients of all ages.
2 Hire a social media expert
Seeing as keeping up with your social media sites can be time consuming, and you have a lot more important work to focus on, an alternative would be to hire a social media expert to take care of these tasks for you. Because of the sudden boom of social media and its prominent role in our society, there will be many experts to choose from. Keep in mind that the expert you choose must be trustworthy and professional; it is the reputation of your dental practice on the line after all.
As noted by Nellie Akalp, CEO of CorpNet and an expert in getting small businesses off the ground, it is important not to completely abandon the role but rather only to lessen it. Be a part of the conversation and continue to make your presence known to your prospective patients. Akalp suggests “working closely alongside (the) social media expert to learn about the various social platforms, communities, and protocol.” Doing this a little bit every day will allow you to familiarize yourself with “how to use the platforms and interact with communities.”
3 Appreciate quality over quantity
Try not to get so hung up on the numbers. They are, after all, just that—numbers. It is the quality of your followers more than the quantity that you want to focus on. Your followers need to be engaged, talking, sharing, and developing a community in which they can be comfortable and relaxed with their opinions, comments and questions. You do want to grow your community, but exercise patience. The people who are enthusiastic about the conversation are the ones you want following you. More activity on your social media platform promises to generate more interest for you and your dental practice.
4 Take time for cleaning and fixing
Just as you take time to clean up your workspace and your computer in order to work more efficiently and effectively, so too should you take time to clean up and fix any issues on your social media sites. Klempner suggests a cleanup of your site in the form of clearing any duplicate pages and fixing any information errors. It is also important to update information that may now be outdated, check for grammar issues, and fix links that are broken or no longer available. All too often I have come across a website that hasn’t updated in years or has and just hasn’t changed the date. It’s a real problem, especially for those genuinely interested in your dental practice only to find that the site they are consulting is riddled with errors and links that don’t work or have expired.
5 Reassess your goals
Developing your presence on social media cannot be haphazard, either with posts going up that are irrelevant to your goals or only going up when the mood strikes. Have a plan. Time your social media posts—whether on your blog or Facebook—so that they remain consistent. You also want to be aware of what you’re posting and why you’re posting it. There needs to be a purpose for what you post and a passion in what you’re saying. Business 2 Community suggests holding monthly goal reassessment sessions “even if they are only five minutes long” to plan what you’re going to say and why you’re saying it.
The key to all of this is planning. If you plan your social media strategy from the content right down to the time the content will be posted, you will reap the benefits of your efforts.
Below are the sources I consulted to help me with this post. Feel free to browse their contents at your leisure for more ideas and advice to help you move forward with your social media strategy.
Sources:
- Klempner, Leon. “Want to Compete with Big Business? Tap into Your Relationships.” Dental Town. Jan 2016: 74-77.
- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-setup-a-social-media-business-strategy/
- http://www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2016/07/Pokémon-go-and-your-dental-practice-is-the-new-craze-for-you.html
- https://www.storyblock.media/blog/generate-revenue-and-leads-using-Pokémon-go
- http://mashable.com/2011/04/14/small-business-social-media-tips/#6hKmBDYVvqqz
- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/8-ways-to-use-Pokémon-go-for-business/
Suggested Page:
