“What does a dental patient appreciation party have to do with social media marketing? The idea of throwing a party was around long before the internet and social media tools.”
Good Question. Here’s The Short Answer:
In days past, if you threw a party to say thanks to your patients, it was one moment in time. If you were really organized, you may have had the one-hour photo provider at your local drugstore make a few extra prints to snail mail to some of the attendees. Social media tools have changed the way you can leverage events like this! Dental marketing has changed, and here is one of the ways you can benefit from those changes.
Using social media, the time leading up to the event, and the time after the event, are as important as the event itself. Get more dental social media post ideas here!
Leading Up To The Event
Use your social media tools to get the word out. An upcoming event is a great conversation starter! Here’s one idea… Many of our clients now have an iPad in their practice and they’re very successfully using it to engage with their patients. Patients love them. One of your team members might say, as she is handing the iPad to a patient, “Fred, I hope you are planning on coming to our Dental Patient Appreciation Party! It’s going to be great! Take just a second to Like us on Facebook so that you can get all the details about the party!”
A second idea is to create a Facebook event through your business page. Event pages are very useful because they allow people to RSVP. The dentist and all team members can then select guests to invite from their Facebook friends! People can comment on the event page’s wall or add links, photos, and videos. As an administrator, you can also send dental patient appreciation party event updates to your page’s followers!
During The Event
Here are other details about Dynamic Smile Design’s Dental Patient Appreciation Party:
- This was actually the first time they had done it. But it was such a success that they’re planning to make it annual event!
- They gave out awards like “Best Flossing Patient”, “Most Dazzling Patient”, “Patient With The Most Original Cookie Recipe”, “Family With The Most Beautiful Smiles”, etc.
- As guests arrived they filled out name tags with their name and “A Passion” written on the tag—a great conversation starter!
- There was mingling, wine, food, and hand wax treatments.
Take lots of photos! It’s so easy! Assign the task to one team member and rotate responsibility during the entire event. Take both digital photos and video clips.
After The Event
Create buzz by distributing the photos and video everywhere you can, like dental social media! Also, “tagging” the photos with people’s names help them spread a lot further. (Facebook Technical Note: In order to tag someone in a photo on Facebook post, somebody needs to be their personal friend. This cannot be done through your practice page.)
Getting Started with Social Media Marketing for Dentists
Social media marketing is important for any business, and social media video can be a great way to promote your practice. If you’re ready to start using dental social media but don’t know where to begin, we are here to help! Our team of dental marketing experts has helped hundreds of dental practices like yours with their digital social media strategy, dental website SEO, dental reputation management and dental website design. Contact us today if you want more information on how social media can help grow your dental practice or other type of business!
About the Author: Blake Hadley is the president of My Social Practice located in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is passionate about helping dental practices grow their patient base exponentially by using digital dental marketing strategies. If you’d like to book Blake to speak at your next event you can do that on our dental marketing expert page.
