We’re all aware how great of an effect social media has on the world – especially for businesses. More and more people are turning to social media to discover new businesses and products. The same rules apply to individuals in the healthcare industry like dermatologists, hospitals, and yes, dentists! In this article, we reveal a proven plan for your dental social media marketing. For years, the dental care industry has relied on word of mouth and print ads to market their practice. But times are changing! Therefore, it’s paramount you learn the nuances of dental social media marketing. To succeed in your dental social media marketing efforts you first need to start with a goal. Do you want more patients? How about increasing brand recognition? Defining your goals is very important and will affect your entire dental social media marketing plan. Once you have a goal, the next step becomes easier – planning! You know what they say, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Before we dive into our process to create an effective dental social media marketing plan, we have to cover the basics. Let’s start by discussing social media marketing. By definition, social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to communicate with your audience, build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This includes posting exceptional content on your social media accounts. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok are currently the trendiest social media sites. We’ve lightly touched on the subject of why social media marketing is important. However, there are more reasons we have yet to mention. Some other reasons are: Social networks are now a substantial part of any marketing campaign. The advantages of using social media are so amazing that anyone who isn’t using it is losing out on a phenomenal marketing opportunity. There are many benefits to social media marketing. Some of the benefits you can reap from social media marketing are: A social media marketing plan is a rundown of everything you intend to accomplish on social media. It guides your decisions and lets you know where you’re succeeding. The more detailed your plan is, the more effective it is going to be. Keep everything concise. Don’t make it so lofty and vague that it’s unattainable or difficult to quantify. An example of a simple social media marketing plan is: Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s create our own 5-step proven dental social media marketing plan! Setting your priorities and objectives is the first step to developing a winning plan. You have no means of assessing success and return on investment without objectives (ROI). When setting these goals, you can use the S.M.A.R.T acronym: “For Instagram we will post photos of successful dental clients and our clinic. We will do this by posting 2-3 photos a week. Our target is 100 likes and 10 comments.” It’s easy to track vanity metrics such as number of followers and likes, but it’s difficult to prove their real value. Instead, focus on meaningful metrics such as engagement, click-through, and conversion rates. If you plan on using multiple social media platforms, you’re going to have to track different goals for different networks. For example, you can track brand awareness on Facebook with your number of shares. You can also LinkedIn to track your website click-through rate. Start building your social media marketing plan by listing down at least three goals for social media. It’s crucial for any business to know who their audience is, and what they want to see from you. Knowing your audience will allow you to produce content that your followers will like, comment on and share. It’s also important If you want to turn social media followers into patients for your dental practice. Some useful demographics to remember are: Knowing your audience and acknowledging them as people with real needs and wants will help you target and engage them on social media. It’s important to decide which social media platform will work best for your dental practice. You can refer to this blog post to help you decide the best social media platform to use. After determining which platforms to concentrate on, it’s time to build your profiles. Once you’ve decided which social media platform to use, you will also need to identify your strategy for each one. Make sure to use high-quality images that meet the recommended dimensions. Remember, you don’t have to be present on all social media platforms. It’s better to choose ones that relate to your dental practice. Depending on the time of day, week or month, a social media calendar is used to plan posts/content that you will share through all social media channels. To keep you on track towards achieving your goal, your social media calendar should be maintained. An example of a calendar for social media might look something like this: There’s a section for the date, the type of post, statues of post, which platform to post on. There are also captions, tags, and the link to the published post. You can additionally adjust your schedule depending on your followers behavior, notice what day and time they’re most likely to see your post, what kind of content gets the most engagement, etc. Your social media marketing plan is incredibly important for your dental marketing campaign. You can’t expect you’ll get it exactly right on your first try. s you begin to execute your strategy and monitor your outcomes you will find that some methods do not work as well as you expected. Use analytic softwares to track the success of your social media marketing plan. You will also be able to find valuable information such as which social posts drive the most traffic to your website. When this information starts coming in, use it to reevaluate your plan periodically. You can also use this knowledge to test various posts, promotions, and tactics against one another. Additionally, constant testing helps you to understand what works and what doesn’t. This also allows you to improve your approach. Your social media marketing plan should be your go to document to keep you on track. Return to it regularly. However, don’t be afraid to make improvements so that new goals, resources, and also strategies are better represented. Effective dental social media marketing means reaching the customers where they are. But as you may have already discovered, it won’t bring you much success to merely build social profiles for your dental practice. In order to attract attention and get the most out of your dental social media activities, there are additional steps you need to take. A “brand” is what you want patients to imagine when they hear the name of your dental practice. It is important to brand a practice. A brand helps you differentiate yourself helps differentiate it from local competitors. It also gives the practice a personality, which in turn helps patients remember the practice. It’s important to improve the brand as much as possible. Remember, individuals may need to be introduced to a brand several times before they remember it. Additionally, you can show off your brand on your dental social media profiles by: You can checkout Tend as an example. It’s easy to differentiate them from other dental brands because they’re consistent through and through. There is a real opportunity for your dental practice to stand out by producing and sharing your own content. There are so many social media accounts that you can take inspiration from. Some examples of content you can create are: Dental Care Seattle posts original content using their own photos and videos to jazz up their feed. You can further expand your online presence and build greater brand recognition when you engage in social media. Following related profiles, commenting on the original content of other users, and mentioning or tagging other profiles when you post their content are a few ways to participate in expanding your scope. Research shows that social media is the the top option for customer service for most people. However, brands only answer to 11 percent of individuals. When they do finally respond, it takes them an average of 10 hours! Answering question in a timely manner will take your dental social media to the next level! In order to attract new dental patients, a positive, widespread reputation is important. With that being said, you need to engage when it’s appropriate. For instance, reward individuals who post your content or who write constructive reviews on your dental practice. Replying to negative reviews positively is also appropriate. You can also respond promptly and professionally in both cases. In compliance with HIPAA, never admit fault and do not disclose any confidential health information. Grand Street Dental does a great job engaging with her followers by replying to each and every comment. Need someone to help manage your social media accounts? Just Digital is a digital marketing agency that can help you with branding, social media strategy, and also building your online presence. Our broad marketing perspective comes from working with clients across many industries. We’ve worked with Healthcare brands, Tax Relief brands, and yes, even Dental brands. Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Give us a call, we’re ready to help your practice grow! 
Why is Social Media Important for Dentists
Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Dentists
How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan for Your Dental Practice
An example of a S.M.A.R.T can be:
Tracking Metrics
Conclusion
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