4 Ways to Increase Your Dental Practice Visibility on Facebook

HAVE YOU HEARD OF EDGERANK in connection with Facebook? Most people haven’t (at least not yet), but it’s something important to understand as you’re marketing your dental or orthodontic practice on Facebook. We’re still learning a lot about it—and better determining each day how it affects our dental practice clients, and how we can best coach you on this topic. Here’s a basic explanation:

Everything published on Facebook receives a ranking. This includes status updates, links, photos, videos and everything else that is shared (referred to collectively as “objects”). The ranking is known as EdgeRank, which helps determine where the post will show up in your fans’ news feeds. The higher the ranking, the more visible that object becomes in the newsfeed.

The Ranking Is Determined By Four Factors

The EdgeRank ranking is determined using four factors:

1. The affinity between the viewer (as a person, or as a fan) and the object’s publisher.
2. The “weight” of the object (likes, comments, interaction etc.).
3. The timeliness (posting something once a week won’t cut it).
4. A super-sophisticated, top-secret algorithm (represented by the image in the big blue graphic above) that only the braintrust behind Facebook really understands.

If your practice’s Facebook page and the objects you publish have good EdgeRank, then it’s likely you’ll appear in the newsfeed as a “Recent Story”. If you have an even better EdgeRank on a post, photo, video, etc., it will more likely publish as a “Top Story”. And, at the recent Facebook F8 conference it was revealed that having a poor EdgeRank may result in your object not showing up in the feed at all.

So, How Can Your Practice Increase EdgeRank?

Here are four simple things you can do to increase the likelihood that your posts or content will appear in your fans’ Newsfeeds under “Top Stories” or “Recent Stories”:

1. Post With Interaction Intention

While quotes or statements are sometimes good to post, the best posts are those that encourage interaction! Before you post, ask yourself, “Would I want to react or comment to this post?” If the answer is no, you may want to reconsider your post or rewrite your post in a way that makes someone want to comment. Some examples are trivia questions or creative games. Another way is to post about a team member’s birthday, for example. Here is an example from Grin Dentistry:

2. Post Photos or Videos

People love to look at photos and watch videos. Also, people’s eyes are more quickly drawn to the (now larger) thumbnails that Facebook creates for photos and videos. Don’t just post an image or video, but make sure to add a comment that encourages others to add comments of their own.

3. Share Links

Provide valuable content from your website, blog, or any other source. Like everything we’ve talked about in the past, not everything you do has to be dental-related! Again, create objects that get people involved.

4. Ask Fans To Share And Like Your Posts

Sometimes we forget… Human beings are funny creatures. They actually kinda like to do things when they’re asked nicely by people they like! Don’t be pushy… But don’t be shy either.

Stay Tuned For More Posts About EdgeRank. But In The Meantime…

If there’s one lesson to take away from this post—one thing to remember—it’s the importance of spending a little time on your wall with your patients and prospective patients! Of course you don’t want to bombard people with your posts! However, keep in mind that Facebook is fluid. Things appear and disappear quickly. Some of the practices we find having the greatest success are posting at least a couple times each day to their wall. Using all the great tips and strategies we provide for you, you’ll never run out of ideas for connecting with your audience. Spend 10 minutes a day. With a little patience, you’ll be delighted with the results.

Is Your Practice Ready To Become A Social Media Marketing Practice?

It’s the right time to keep your dental or orthodontic practice on the leading edge and to take advantage of social media marketing. Contact us today.

About the Author: Jack Hadley is one of the founding members 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 Jack or one of the other members of My Social Practice’s speaking team, you can do that on our dental marketing consultant page.