Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Social Media
Marketing
Success
The 5 Must-Have
Components
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you can start using today!
4 Easy-to-Implement
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Introduction
Congratulations! The fact that youve started reading this white Start With The Why
paper says that youre progressive and visionary. You understand
the value of thoughtful dental practice marketing, storytelling, When youre in a plane the world looks very different from 35,000
reaching out to your valued patients, being accessible, sharing, feet. Have you ever considered the 35,000 foot view of your
discovery, humility, and service. And although you may not yet be dental practice?
sure how social media can help market your practice, youre
likely the kind of person who trusts your instincts. We admire
that. Doing new things often takes courage and a leap of faith.
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Yes, you spend a lot of micro time inside peoples mouths. But The engagement you achieve through social media will set you
when you step back and think about it, what are you really apart, strengthen powerful one-to-one connections, and create
selling? What kind of business would you have if you removed greater perceived value for your practice.
dentistry altogether? Sound crazy? Relationship marketing
What type of new patients do you want to bring through your
through social media helps your practice stop focusing on what
door? What type of patients do you want to retain? Keepers?
you make (dentistry), and focus on the things you make possible.
Those who love and appreciate what you do? Social media
What youre really selling is comfort, health, appearance,
marketing allows you to talkwith these kinds of patients and
confidence, and trust. Social media provides the stage for telling
prospective patients, not at them.
that story. Youre treating people, not teeth.
Were often asked, Can the ROI of social media marketing in a
dental practice be measured? In a word, absolutely. Start today
by making a commitment to the future of dental practice
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Have Components outlined in this white paper.
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You can do this. Onward!
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The Social Practice Manifesto
A business manifesto is a public declaration of intentions, objectives, or motives. The five mantras in The Social Practice Manifesto
correspond directly to the Five Must-Have Components detailed in this white paper.
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MUST-HAVE COMPONENT 1
In-Practice Support
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continue them) is in your practice, with support? Dont be. Time and time again
your team. we see remarkable transformations take
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memberssparked by tiny social media
handout materials, posters, buttons, etc.
tactics and successes. The energy that
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comes from heightened friendships and
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engagement with your patients is
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FREE DOWNLOAD: Social Signs
LINKS TO A
WEBSITE
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MUST-HAVE COMPONENT 2
Participation
Would you walk into a cocktail party, climb up on the bar with a relationships begin face to faceand, thats exactly how
megaphone, start telling everyone how awesome you are, and relationship marketing begins and grows using social media.
then try to sell stuff? Of course notunless youre a clueless
Dentistry is a relationship-based business. Thats one of the big
jerk. Unfortunately, when it comes to social media marketing,
reasons why social media marketing in your practice can be so
thats exactly what some businesses do.
effective. Youve heard the adage, People dont care how much
you know until they know how much you care. Its true.
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been posted by patients sitting in dental practices! What are they opportunity to raise top-of-mind awareness for your practice on
sharing? Watch this short video and see: highly trusted, permission-based social networks.
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Are you and your team participating in these kinds of
conversations? Why not take a photo of you and your patient
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together using your patients smartphone or your in-practice
camera and post it on Instagram? Its a golden, no-cost
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Theres no better example of
participation than our client and friend,
Dr. Robert D. Herron Jr. in Columbus,
Kansas. Dr. Herron actually records a
short, casual, personal video directed to
his patients each business day,
effectively integrating personal content
with dental-related content to participate
online and strengthen his relationships
with patients.
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Step 3
ACTION ITEM: Patient of the Month Program How are you going to spread the word? Use one or more of your
social media tools. Start with a short Facebook wall post that
3 Simple Steps To A Patient Of The Month Program includes a photo or 15-second video of you and your winner.
Its super easy to start a Patient Of The Month (or week) Program. You did it! Youre participating! Congrats! Its all in the baby steps.
Grab a pencil and piece of paper and follow these three steps:
Step 1
What little perk are you willing to give your Patient Of The Month?
It can be as simple as a gift card to a restaurant and two movie
tickets. If youre not the practices financial decision maker, come
up with three suggestions and ask the financial decision maker to
make the decision.
Step 2
What criteria are you going to use to pick the winner? Dont make
this complicated! In fact, if you dont want to come up with
criteria first, just pick someone you really like, then retrofit the
criteria to the winner. Look at todays or tomorrows schedule of
patients coming in and pick someone!
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MUST-HAVE COMPONENT 3
Content
One of the biggest concerns we hear from practices about social Heres a good way to think about your content mix... Pretend that
media marketing is, Im afraid of being boring! I just dont know theres a TV network called The Dr. Jones Dentistry Network. The
what to talk about! Programming Director for the network insists on running
commercials 24/7. Examples of those commercials are, 25% Off
We understand. Dont worry. This is easier than you think.
Any Dental Service!, Come On Down For A Smile Makeover!,
First rule of thumb when it comes to content? Dont try to sell and FREE Whitening For Life!.
dental services every time you blog, update, or tweet!
Network ratings plummet because nobody wants to watch self-
absorbed programming that only runs commercials trying to sell
stuff all day. The Programming Director is fired.
topics must be interesting and relevant, first. service-related topic, see if you can come up with at least three
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non-dental topics that your patients and to that viewer. The more your patients comment. Moving patients toward
prospective patients will enjoy and find and prospective patients engage with greater retention and increased referrals,
useful. your posts, the more often theyll start first requires that you nurture the
seeing more of your content. platforms where your content is
Great content engages, provides value,
distributed.
shares practice culture, boosts clout, You must make your posts interesting so
demonstrates passion, and connects. As that people will Like, share and
you begin brainstorming topics youd like
to post and talk about, draw inspiration
from each of these six content
categories:
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Engaging posts...
For the most part, your fans and followers are happy to help you. Dont be afraid to
Elevate Top-Of-Mind Awareness (occasionally) ask them! Doing so can often spark lots of participation.
Boost Share-Ability
Educate
Highlight Practice Culture
Strengthen One-To-One Connections
Differentiate Your Practice
Help Your Practice Listen
Are Sometimes, Just Fun!
Help Others
Keep People Up To Date
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Great Content Provides Value
Modern dentistry topics are interesting to readers when theyre relevant. Personalize them. Provide information, tell stories, and show
examples of the many ways great oral health affects peoples comfort, overall health, and appearance.
People are more likely to comment on, and share topics they value and find interesting.
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Great Content Shares Practice Culture buyback program after Halloween? Make simple cause. Run a 5k together.
a list of the things that differentiate your Sponsor a car wash and then take the
Not sure if you have practice culture? practice. Look at the things youre money you earn and buy a piece of
Sure you do. Youve just never thought already doing and share them. If youre playground equipment for your local
about it this way. And, youve never had not doing anything, start with one tiny YMCA. Shoot photos and video along
an easy, systematic way to share your thing, then share it. the way, then share your experiences
culture online. and feelings.
Be giving. Nothing creates camaraderie
For example, do you have a pirates in a practice faster than uniting in a
treasure chest in your childrens
treatment room where cavity-free kids
pick a prize? Are three of your team
members training together for their first
marathon? Are you planning a candy
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As youre becoming a social practice, Leverage team members passions too! dont necessarily have to be unusual or
continue being a giving practice. Social Every person who works in your practice quirky. Everyday things can work well
media marketing isnt just about has quirks. Quirks can be great things too! Team members simple interests,
marketing. Your practices social media when you lay them out there in hobbies, challenges, and victories are all
platform provides a systematic, thoughtful ways. People do business storytelling opportunities.
purposeful, easy way to not only better with people they know and like. Quirks
connect with your patients, but to also
enlist others in doing good.
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Great Content Boosts Clout
Have you recently attended a clinical CE course to improve your skill set or learn a new treatment procedure? Talk about it! Dont be
technical... Talk about the benefits your patients will enjoy as a result of what youve learned.
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Great Content Demonstrates Passion
Dr. Hardin enjoyed an outpouring of love and support from patients when he experienced some
Information that you can simply Google health problems. However, you can decide what level of sharing youre comfortable with.
rarely interests people. Thats because
theres no emotion or personal
connections tied to it. Its not human. In
your social media marketing efforts, are
you connecting with your patients and
prospective patients on an emotional,
personal level?
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Great Content Connects
At Serene Oaks Dental, when a team member was expecting, guessing the babys arrival
date turned into a fun little contest with huge participation.
Social media marketing in your practice
is primarily internal marketing. Its based
on one-to-one relationships and
communications. Unlike traditional
marketing, success is typically realized
through connections with small numbers
of patients and prospective patients,
combined with great strategy, interesting
content, and passion. Focus first on
these meaningful connections and build
from there.
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ACTION ITEM: 10 Facebook Wall Post Ideas
SUBSCRIBE
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MUST-HAVE COMPONENT 4
Online Tools
Various social media apps and tools will always come and go. point or Social Sitetypically an opt-in-subscribe, blog-centric
Your practices complete social media marketing strategy site that becomes the foundation for email marketing,
shouldnt be dependent on any one account or network over promotions, event announcements, blogging, etc.
which you have little control.
Having said that, networks and tools like Facebook are very
important. We spend a lot of time helping our clients be more
effective using them. In the beginning, its fine to simply have a
Facebook page for your practice. In fact, today its the very best
place to start. But an important objective over the long run is to
begin building your own platform as suggested in the graphic.
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As you create various accounts, organize them into a platform, 1) Make a goal to ask 3 patients a day if theyd be willing to
and participate in conversations over time, you begin to build a Like your page. If they already Like your page, invite them to
framework a system a structure a foundation... a stage... check-in for a prize. Prizes may include a $5 gift card, a water
and a mindset and habits that support bigger marketing bottle, a tube of toothpaste, lip balm, etc.
opportunities.If you wait until you need a social media platform to
2) Hold a friendly competition between team members. Have
start creating one, youre too late.
each team member share your practices page on their own
personal Facebook pages. See who can get the most friends
to Like your page!
ACTION ITEM:
Create Your Practice Facebook Page OR Add A New Outpost 3) Run a promotion. Choose a fun prize you would like to give
away. Set up an entry form online where the first step to enter
is to Like your page on Facebook. Also incentivize people to
share your promotion on their own Facebook page for
additional entries.
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MUST-HAVE COMPONENT 5
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3) Never purchase fans, followers, or tactics are of no value for a dental
Likes. For example, never use any practice and they compromise your
ACTION ITEM: strategy. Just embrace your fans and
type of auto responder service or
application. Never buy a bunch of prospective fansone person at a
Take Just A Little Time This Week
Twitter followers. Never outsource time.
1) If youve already been using social your voice on Facebook. These
media for awhile, spend a few
focused minutes this week going back
through your blog comments,
@tweets, and Facebook Likes,
comments, and shares. Make sure
that youve responded and shown
gratitude to every person who has
paid attention to youagain, no
matter how small.
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Social Media ROI For Dental Practices
Having worked with hundreds of practices weve found that the return on investment of time, money and energy manifests itself in four
specific areas. Of course the level of tracking and measurement varies greatly between practices depending on the in-practice systems
they have in place and the goals theyve set for their social efforts. If youre interested in a more thorough discussion, consider listening to
our webinar on this topic.
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Conclusion
If youre not yet benefitting from social media marketing in About The Author:
your practice, today is the best day to get startedand it
doesnt need to be difficult. In fact, you already have a loyal
tribe of friends, team members and satisfied patients who are
willing and able to help spread your practice story through
social media.