Thinking about selling your dental practice? Brush up on your social media. Read the tips below to see how you can maximize your social media impact.
courtesy of DDSmatch SW
Avoid Generic Content
For social media channels to be effective, you need to engage your audience. This means you need to provide content that is interesting and compelling. If you want them to pay attention to your posts (as opposed to scrolling past with only a glance, at best), you must provide them something that they want to pay attention to. This can be a problem especially if you’ve outsourced your social media accounts or are getting free content as part of a bundle with other services. Much of the generic, free content is stuff that might sound interesting at first glance, but, because it lacks personality, it can easily grow stale. Accounts that simply repost content from other sources will quickly become looked over in a feed that is full of more compelling content. (This is not to say you can’t ever repost anything, just be judicious about whether it is really something compelling you think your patients would be interested in.) Remember that social media is meant to be social. This requires interaction between two real people—the poster and the reader. If your content is outsourced or generic, the reader will feel like they are being marketed to instead of being interacted with. But also remember that your goal is to parlay that interaction into paying patients accepting treatment. So, as you plan your content, be sure to include information about dental products and procedures that will be of interest to them. These things don’t have to appeal to all, or even most of your patient base. But those who are interested will be glad to see what you are promoting, if they feel like your dental office’s social media channels are ones they can trust (that is, that it’s a real extension of your office).
Include Clinically Relevant Topics
In addition to keeping your current patient base engaged, social media offers opportunities to bring in new patients. First, consider the goals you have for your practice. If you are considering a dental practice sale in the next five or so years, this might be goals about expanding your patient base or increasing the amount of production you are generating from specific areas (e.g., implants, whitening, aligners, etc.). If you are looking to add patients, consider who you want to add, what they are looking for, and post content related to them and their dental interests. If you are looking to grow in more specific areas, such as dental implants, then post about dental implants. However you approach it, be sure that you are coming at it in a patient-friendly way. Your followers aren’t necessarily going to understand the technical aspects of treatment. Instead focus on results, the ease or cost-effectiveness of treatment, promotions, and so on. Remember that your content has to be interesting to your audience.
Make it Personal
As stated above, social media is meant to be social and people want to feel that they are interacting with real people. This is something that can be hard to accomplish if you are outsourcing management of your social media channels. As we wrote about in our previous article, it’s probably not as difficult or time consuming as you might think. This is because you don’t necessarily have to do it yourself. First, if you have a marketing agency that manages your online presence, work with them to personalize the content. Review it before it gets posted. Provide them with pictures, events, or content ideas that they can use. You know what’s happening in your office and in your community better than they do. Second, if you don’t have a marketing agency, you probably have someone in your office that is active on social media, meaning they already have an innate understanding of how the platforms can be leveraged. Once you identify that person, have them set aside some little time a couple of days a week to take pictures and schedule posts to your accounts, and some time each day to respond to any questions or comments. Finally, what do you post about? Anything good that happens related to your practice: new staff members, patient success stories, doctor profiles, doctor or staff achievements (whether related to dentistry or not), holiday costume contents, sponsored contests, community outreach. Literally anything that reflects well on you, your staff, your patients, or your community.
Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference
You may be surprised what a difference these changes can make. The algorithms that govern social media platforms reward the popular and penalize accounts that don’t get interaction. The more clicks or likes or reposts you get, the more your accounts will be recognized by Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This means they’ll appear higher up in your followers’ feeds, making your posts more visible. The fewer clicks and likes you get, the more you’ll slide to the bottom. Also, be sure that all of your social media accounts are linked to each other and to your website. You want potential patients (and existing ones!) to be able to easily find your accounts and website, to click through to your other channels. This also builds credibility in the eyes of the algorithms. If you are considering putting your dental practice for sale, a strong social media presence can be a good selling point. It bolsters your claims about the value of the goodwill of your practice—that it really is worth what you are asking for it. It shows how you are a integrated part of your local community with a strong relationship to the patients your treat. Finally, people are drawn to dental offices whose online presence is full of smiling patients and friendly staff. Show them they can find that in your office. It can be done with only the cost of a few hours each week but can be surprisingly effective.
