This article originally appeared in the April/2016 issue of the Academy of General Dentistry’s AGD Impact magazine.
How to Engage with Patients Online Using Facebook and Twitter
No longer is it a matter of should, but must. The need to leverage social media to retain and gain patients is indisputable. With communication having undergone such a transformation in recent years, the only way to remain relevant, and therefore successful, as a dental practice is to join the conversation via social media.
By nurturing a relationship with your target audience, you can cultivate patient growth within your practice. If you provide useful information to patients and potential patients, you can become approachable, which is so central to creating a positive patient experience online using popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
A Social Media Strategy That Works
Despite the array of social media platforms, your best strategy is to conscientiously maintain a couple well. In other words, “kill it” on Facebook and Twitter.
This goes in particular for Facebook. In September 2014, 71 percent of the U.S. online population had a Facebook account, according to a Pew Research Center social networking fact sheet. Facebook also provides access to a storehouse of invaluable demographic data, such as potential patients living within a 3- to 5-mile radius from your dental practice.
“‘Liking’ your page is not authorization for your patient to receive an around-the-clock infomercial. It means someone is showing an interest — so provide information of value to the patient or potential patient. Social media is not all about you.”
5 Facebook Best Practices to Know
- Build your following. Don’t spin your wheels posting to a Facebook page with only a few followers. Develop that fan base first. Here’s how:
- Ask patients in an email campaign to “like” your Facebook page.
- Grab current patients’ attention about your Facebook page with compelling office signage.
- Motivate your team to share posts from your practice’s page and even request a few patients per day to “like” the page or review a recent visit.
- Purchase a Facebook ad. Unlike traditional forms of advertising with a blind reach, Facebook ads are precise. Set an ad budget at $1 or $2 per day to build your following. Cost-effective and super-targeted, you can start by creating a customized audience of existing patients by using their email or phone numbers and then devising an ad requesting a page “like.”
- The 80/20 rule: Eighty percent of the posts should present fun, relevant, engaging content, while 20 percent should focus on your services and practice. No one wants to be sold to all of the time.
As part of the content comprising 80 percent of your statuses, post pictures of your staff, actual patient photos (with the patient’s written consent), photos from charity events and holiday parties, and short, fun “Did You Know?” tips and facts. Audiences also respond better to images that you’ve taken instead of stock photos. The goal is to showcase what humanizes your practice and make your practice relatable.
When you are posting the service-related content making up the other 20 percent of your statuses, then you can direct people to your website to request appointments and learn more about your services, show them before and after photos, and talk about new patient or service specials. “Liking” your page is not authorization for your patient to receive an around-the-clock infomercial. It means someone is showing an interest — so provide information of value to the patient or potential patient. Social media is not all about you.
- Dig deeper.
Facebook offers its own analytics. Use Facebook’s “Audience Insights” feature to see who is engaging with your posts for demographic detail such as gender, age, and location. You can also discern which day(s) and time of day in general are best for posting. This will provide an understanding of who is engaging on your page, when they are engaging, and what they are finding interesting. Informed with that level of detail, you can customize future posts.
- Although it is helping your business, Facebook is a business, too.
Facebook wants you to post content that it thinks your friends and followers want to see. It is also very much a pay-to-play platform. It doesn’t cost much, but boosting a post here and there helps you reach your audience and beyond. You can spend $2 or $3 per post and reach a much broader audience.
- Social media is no “set it and forget it” business-building strategy.
If someone comments on a post, reply to them within 24 hours. Not only does replying show the patient you care, but it also shows potential patients who may be looking at your page that you take the time to engage. Social media etiquette also dictates that if someone posts a review, extend gratitude.
Top 3 Twitter Tips
Although a great channel to impact a broad audience, Twitter is a veritable firehose of information. Still, it is a viable forum to tweet relevant events or news and links to your practice’s website and blogs, to follow local people and companies, and to engage with the community. With this baseline of 140 characters, you should:
- Tweet multiple times a day.
- Make use of hashtags that give your tweets keywords so your information can be easily found.
- Use shortened URLs such as goo.gl, ow.ly, or bit.ly. These are not lengthy, and as a result are more readable, as well as allow for tracking of how many people clicked your link.
Some of the same principles of Facebook apply to Twitter, such as this important one: No one wants to be sold to all of the time.
Today’s patients need to feel a sense of comfortability. They are not selecting a dentist based on sheer geography; rather, they are choosing ones they believe they can trust because they feel they know them. Maintain a robust, genuine presence on key social media platforms, and both your practice and your patients can reap generous rewards.