Social media is enduring turbulent times, however, marketing your practice on the right platforms is crucial - it is a very impactful digital medium for reaching current and prospective new patients.
Linda provides dental professionals actionable marketing knowledge they can use to grow their dental practice.
Linda Mettler: If you want to use it and you want to get a piece of that $36 billion industry and build your brand awareness and help with, you know, existing patient retention, and new patient
acquisition, you've got to be on social media. Welcome to the Mettler Marketing Podcast where we will talk about marketing strategies and tactics to grow your practice. I am your host, Linda Mettler
and I have worked with dental practices for several years now. And I want to share my knowledge and experience with you so that you can gain valuable and actionable steps on how to grow your practice.
We will talk about the latest and greatest and marketing features some guest speakers so that you can hear firsthand what is and is not working and help you unravel the complexities of the digital
marketing world. I work really closely with my clients. So we will also delve into some other issues that affect your practice from time to time, such as staffing problems, COVID protocols and similar
issues. Good morning, everybody. How are you I hope everyone is having a great day so far. So today, I want to chat with you a little more about social media, which we have talked a lot about in the
past on previous podcast episodes. And social media is definitely Gosh, so turbulent these days. So volatile, it seems like, which is why I want to chat a little bit about it more this morning. I
recently had a client who her business page is absolutely 100% intact. But she one of her hobbies is genealogy. So she does a lot of research into her family. She and her family has a lot of history.
And she recently put up a page that involved was was meant to increase awareness of one of her family's homes that was a historical site in the East Coast. And she put up a social media page meant to
increase awareness to just to friends and family and local people to preserve this historical site. But she used the word militia. While guess what Facebook immediately banned, her site took her page
down and banned her personally. So her business page is intact, but her personal page is gone. She never intended to use the word militia in a negative way or to incite any issues or problems. It was
completely related to her genealogy hobby, and preserving a historical site. And she was merely referencing something from the past way path, like in the 1800s. And Facebook took down her page and her
profile. So social media is very volatile, very tricky to use these days. And a lot of the social has gone out of social media. So a lot of and I actually have another personal friend who his posts
are being censored like crazy these days. And all he does is post Positive Motivational things every day. But maybe he uses the wrong meme or image and it gets taken down. So social media is a very
tough space these days. But that doesn't mean you should shy away from it, and you shouldn't use it. You know, the dental industry is worth about $36 billion these days, which is crazy. So there's
there's a lot of profit to be had out there. And social media marketing can really help your dental office if you use it in the right way. And it does matter. All businesses need to be on social
media. Nobody really loves to be if they're being 100% honest.
And I don't I don't blame them. And I'm on it less and less on a personal level too. So I feel your pain with social media. But if you want to use it and you want to get a piece of that $36 billion
industry and build your brand awareness and help with, you know, existing patient retention and new patient acquisition, you've got to be on social media. So 15% of the population dreads going to the
dentist, so social media is a good way for you to show them that there's nothing to fear to coming to your office that they can come in and see you and they you can help them. The advantage that you
have in social media marketing is that you do not need to convince people that they need to come and see you. So in other industries they have to use social media marketing to Vince people to buy
their product, or to convince people that they need their service, you don't have to convince anybody that they need to go to the dentist, everybody knows they need to go to the dentist, at least
once, if not, two or three times per year, everybody knows that. The challenge for you is getting people to remember to schedule their appointment, and to help them overcome any fear and anxiety that
they have. So what it comes down to for your office, or social media is building trust, and earning that patients confidence that they can come to your office. So that's what you need to use social
media for, is to let them know, you know that, that your office is where they want to come to that it's safe, that you have their their wealth, best health and welfare in mind, that they can trust you
that they can have a relationship with you that you're going to take care of them, and you're going to be a great place for them to go. That's what you need to use social media for. You don't have to
convince them that they need a dentist, you just have to convince them that your office is the right office for them to come to. So social media is great for that. It's really, it's it's the place to
establish great relationships. You know, they don't need to avoid coming to their appointments, they they can you know, that you can use social media to let them know that coming to your office is a
breeze, you know, the processes easy, you're friendly, you're welcoming, you have a very, you know, clean and sterile environment, which is important. You know, in the pandemic, and post pandemic
world, everyone wants to know that you've got the latest on infection control, social media is a great way to let them know that great in as far as attracting new patients, you know, half of the
people use search engines to find a dentist. You know, so social media marketing is going to definitely increase your awareness on search engine marketing, and help people find you. So another thing
you can do on social media marketing, that I think is really important that a lot of you don't do is showcase your leadership. You guys are out there, you know, you're becoming fellows with the ag D,
doing Mastership programs with ag D, you know, kois, you're going to the kois Academy, you're you know, taking CS at at the Dawson Academy. You're a member of the International College of Dentists
showcase all of those things on your social media, let people know how accomplished you are, and how hard you worked to achieve that. That's going to that's going to really showcase your expertise.
And let people know, Wow, my dentist is an expert in what he does. And I really do need to go see that, that office. It's also a great place to showcase all the charity work you do. I know so many of
you work with your local mission of mercy once or twice a year, you know, performing free dental services for people in need. I know quite a few dentists who go on missions to South America, Mexico,
many international destinations for a week or two weeks. Some offices take their staff, that's social media is a great place to showcase all of that people want to see that people really admire that.
And trust offices that are willing to help other people and you know, give back to the community. So showcase that leadership, showcase that charity work that you do use social media to do that.
There's so many social media platforms out there. So let's spend a few minutes a few minutes talking about those platforms. You know, the number one platform for dental offices right now for all
businesses is anything that's image and video related. So get a YouTube channel, get an Instagram page, you definitely need to be you know, video savvy or video heavy, an image heavy when it comes to
social media and I know that's the number one thing. All my clients hate. They hate video, and they hate or I shouldn't use the word hate that's a little strong. they dislike video and they dislike
having to remember to take images but it's so easy now that you can do it. All you have to do is pull out your phone, pull out your iPhone or your Android. Click that video button and take videos of
things going on in your office. Take pictures. If you guys have have a fun I'm sure you're celebrating somebodies work, birthday or anniversary, throw that on your social media, it's super easy, just
turn it on, hit record, or take that photo and post it on your social media and stop worrying about if your hair is perfect. Or if you have the right lighting, it doesn't matter, just throw it on
there, your content, your digital rankings are going to skyrocket. If you do that, I promise. You can always get fancy and hire a videographer to come in and do an office tour. And that kind of thing
can always get super fancy. But just start with your social media, just doing some short video clips and some short images or quick images of things going on in the office and with your patients and
and share that on social media. And when you're on social media making that post, ask your patients to share things to so like when it's national, take your dog to Work Day, ask your parent your
patients to share pictures of that on social media, there's so many great things you can use social media for, you know that we can turn around some of this volatile, turbulent negative stuff, and
really promote the positive things going on. And again, the reason you're doing that is to build the relationship with your existing patients and your potential new patients, you know, so that people
really see that your office is where they want to go for their dreaded dental visit, because maybe it won't be quite so bad. So get on YouTube, get on Instagram, I love those platforms, and get on
Facebook, of course, you know, and the great thing about those platforms. You know, Facebook owns Instagram, so they're connected. So you can post on Instagram and Facebook at the same time. That
makes it even easier. YouTube connected to Google. So if you're on YouTube, what's Google going to favor? They're gonna favor you because you're on Google, or you're on YouTube. So absolutely get on
those platforms. Twitter, Twitter is is where I probably disagree with some of the leading marketing experts, they will all tell you to get on Twitter for that it's a great social channel for
dentists. I think, you know, if you're using something like buffer or Hootsuite, or you know something to where you can post all your digital marketing channels at one time and make it easy, then yes,
certainly get a Twitter channel and jump on. But Twitter is not, in my mind really made or great for dental offices, you're trying to to build a long term relationship with these prospective new
patients. And Twitter is a really quick, short, social media channel.
Not super visual. You might if you want to put links to articles or content on there. That's great for Twitter. I like Twitter for short, little bursts of information. If I want to know what's
happening in the world right now. I jump on Twitter. If I want to catch up on my news midday, I jump on Twitter for maybe three minutes, I see the latest breaking news stories around the world. And
I'm caught up. I don't have to watch a half hour of news at night. I can just jump on Twitter and see what's happening. In my mind, that's what Twitter's great for is something happening immediate
something happening right now. I don't necessarily go on Twitter to find my dentist or to find a health care provider. If I'm looking for somebody that you know, does whitening or you know, Botox, or
does any kind of medical procedures. Twitter's not my number one go to, but like I say I'm I dissent from the marketing experts. I consider myself a marketing expert. But I should say I dissent from
other marketing experts in that. I don't agree that Twitter is the best channel for a dental office to be on. But again, if you're using something to a platform that you can post all your marketing
channels at one time, then great or you can schedule all your content for the week, at one time, great jump on Twitter, why not? It's just more exposure more exposure is good. So so sure beyond there,
you know, tick tock Snapchat, you know, those are really young users that are on there, very young. But if you're an orthodontist, and your patient base is young, and you're trying to appeal to those
patients and their parents, your if you're an orthodontist, you're actually trying to appeal to the parents of these teenagers, and maybe some young 20 somethings who are looking into Invisalign and
braces. Then definitely you want to be on Snapchat and And maybe tic tocs. So, if you can't do that yourself, you definitely want to hire somebody that understands those platforms inside and out and
can create those videos for you. But just be careful on those on those platforms. And, you know, don't post any content that's questionable at all. Just make it fun, make it light hearted, you know,
maybe maybe recruit some of your young orthodontic patients to do those Tick Tock videos for you. And that can be a super fun way to market your office, if that's the space that you're in. So, so do
that.
You know, and remember, a lot of your social media content should be personal and not clinical, some of it should absolutely be clinical, and educational. You want to establish yourself as an expert
in dentistry, after all, but a lot of it should be what I call professional, personal or personal professional, to you know, highlight your patient stories, highlight what's happening, you know, do a
lot of before and after videos and photos of cases that you've been working on, highlight your employees, your staff, you know, give them Big shout outs on their birthday, or if they've, you know,
worked overtime this week, or, or, you know, gone out of their way to help a patient, highlight that on social media, you know, share really engaging great content on your social media. And that's
gonna go a long way. and engage with your audience, engage with your patients, or those prospective new patients on social media, don't just post information, but ask for their comments and their
feedback, you know, post content that they want to share. And absolutely ask them for content back. Again, when it's you know, bring your Bring Your Child to Work Day, ask your patients to send
pictures of them at work with their kids. Get pictures of their pets, people love to share pictures of their pets. Every time I watch my son's dog or bring him to my office, I post pictures of the
cute little guy on social media and I get tons of tons of comments and posts and, you know, engagement on those posts from people. So, so do that. And the last thing I'm going to tell you about social
media, I'm going to, you know, reinforce what I said in the beginning is video, make the most of video and live video is the biggest trend on social media. So use your live video on Facebook and your
live video on Instagram stories. And even if they're short a minute, just use them in your office, make those live videos, talk to your staff, talk to a patient and post them. And like I say it's
Don't worry about the lighting and the quality and all of that. And if your hair's perfect, just do a few live videos and post them and you will see that social media engagement skyrocket. And you'll
see your awareness skyrocket. And people it'll go viral. I promise you it will. It doesn't have to be perfect. You just have to do it like Nike said. So that's it for this morning on social media. As
always, if you need any help, feel free to reach out to me. You can message me find me on my website, email me call me I'm pretty easy to find. So feel free to reach out at any time. So go out there
be kind, do good. And remember that if you want to have a great day, you have to make it a great day.
Ed Bejarana: Are you committed to the growth of your practice that learn marketing can help at Mettler marketing. We help dental practices gain new patients increase referrals and maximize patient
retention with customized Marketing Solutions tailored to fit your needs. Visit www dot medtner marketing.com to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help grow your practice. Thank you
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