Licence: flickr Lisa Padilla
It is difficult for a lot of dentists to find new patients. Most people are not exactly excited about visiting the dentist. Other people altogether avoid the dentist unless they have a serious problem. Traditional methods of gaining new patients are usually ineffective and expensive. Methods of dental marketing such as flyers, television ads, and coupons do not reach the desired market. One of the best practices to gain new patients is by using social media on outlets such as Facebook.
Social media is powerful for one basic reason, when one person follows or likes something, their friends see their action. When something is popular, and can quickly become viral, meaning, a lot of people become interested in a short period of time. A dental office is not exactly exciting, so they must create buzz for their services. The owner of a dental office needs to encourage his or her customers to follow the business on Facebook.
One way to get people to follow a business on Facebook is to offer incentives. One of the best incentives is to have monthly contests for all of the followers of the business. The prize can be something ordinary, such as a free cleaning or $25 off the next visit. By offering an incentive, a dental office will gain followers to his or her page quickly.
A dental office needs to be professional at all times. With social media, the business needs to be sure that they do not post too often, or come across as spam. Ideally, a dental office would post sparingly, about subjects related to dentistry. Of course, a dental office needs to respond to their customers on social media in a timely matter. Remember, with social media, the whole world can see the interactions.
A dental office can also use Twitter for their campaigns. Oftentimes, people have questions for a dental office, and Twitter is the perfect communication venue. Twitter is a fantastic way for short questions to be communicated between a patient, or potential patient, and the dentist. Dentist's offices are not usually open on the weekends or late at nights, and often, a customer will have a question during these times. This allows people to communicate directly with their dentist at their leisure.
There are multiple sites that people can review their dentist, and there are multiple social media sites. It is necessary for a dental office to be on top of all of their accounts. Because social media is a public forum, the whole world can view the communication. In some ways, this is good; on the other hand, a dental office must response to criticism in a timely and tactful matter. Though social media marketing is not a full time job, it is crucial for an employee or contractor to keep up to date on the dentist's social media accounts. Dental marketing is a tough sell, but with social media and a little bit of work, a dentist can gain a lot of business while retaining his or her current customer base.
About Author: This article was written by AIM Dental Marketing - aimdentalmarketing.com
Social media can be effective not only for building your reputation, but for helping new patients find you as well. You will be more visible on the internet when someone searches for something like good dentists in Fairfax VA or other related keywords.
As important as social media is a dental practice should also make sure that their website - whether it be a simple brochure website or a website that is more complex - be up to current industry and internet standards.