Social media has conclusively proven to be an all-pervasive aspect of contemporary living; it would be a daunting task indeed to identify even a small part of our world today that remains uninfluenced and untouched from the its reach. It has thoroughly permeated in to our lives and fundamentally altered the manner in which we communicate and interact: with people known and unknown. In addition to impacting the lives of individuals, social media has evolved into an expansive forum for businesses and independent professionals across sectors. Social media forums, more particularly, Facebook, have become an undeniably powerful and indispensable tool in the creation of an individual’s or business’s brand image.

Dental practices have started to relinquish traditional modes of advertising and marketing and are reaching out and generating awareness in the local community through social media forums. This could seem like an arduous task to the uninitiated; creating and maintaining a social media community reaps far too many benefits and is worth the investment. Allow me to guide you on how to market your dental Facebook page: here are some of our recommendations.

First Stop, Facebook: Dentists could reach out to their existing patients to seek their suggestions with respect to your newly set up page. One need not be shy while asking patients or friends and family to “Like” your page; a recent feature on Facebook, known as Graph Search, permits people to search pages liked by their friends, effectively magnifying their impact.

Interaction vis-a-vis Visibility: A fair number of people that “Like” your page surely enhances visibility; but it’s actual interaction with the community that builds brand affinity. It’s crucial to have a consistent presence, yet one should be careful of not posting content too frequently.

Selective Content: Content posted on the dental clinic’s page, should always be relevant to your brand as a person, a professional and your dental practice. Social media facilitates your personality to shine through and allows new, old and potential patients to have a holistic understanding of you and your dental practice and what makes it uniquely credible and trustworthy.

Clear Strategy: Identify and remain consistent with your marketing strategy; determine the kind of content (updates in the dental world or informative write ups or oral health tips) that should be posted, their respective frequency and the team member responsible who’s responsible.

Patients, tend to be vocal about their ailments over social media. Any negative feedback or opinion should be dealt with promptly and effectively instead of being ignored. You could encourage people to reach out to you for information or little guidance, if they so require: non-patients should also be welcomed. An approach such as this, lends credence to an image of reliability and genuine concern for patients.

Gaining positive Facebook reviews will bring you better credibility and more patients. Some useful advices you can find at How to Get More Facebook Reviews for Your Dental Clinic

Let’s take a look at some suggestions on how to market your dental Facebook page:

Go Offline: Ensure that your newly minted stationary has a mention of your social media dental page. Add a Facebook badge to your website leading them social media account. Other stationary such as business cards and appointment reminder cards should bear a mention of clinic’s presence on Facebook.

QR Codes: Quick Response codes are everywhere these days! They are rather easy to create and given their compact size, convenient to be placed on print advertisements or brochures you hand out to patients. QR codes can be scanned by smart phones/tablets and allow the user to directly access the respective website; in this case link to social media account.

Loyal patients can be requested to share a link of your dental page on their respective FB page; this would certainly be effective in expanding your visibility, but explore the option only if you’re comfortable with it.

Finally, try to keep in mind that any form of communication, such as emails or newsletters, are an opportunity to garner more visibility for your dental practice’s online presence and you should make the most of it, wherever appropriate and feasible.