OFTEN, WHEN A NEW CLIENT PRACTICE JOINS US, they ask us the question, “Do you guys take care of posting to our Facebook wall, and do you tweet for us on Twitter?” To truly understand and appreciate our answer to that question, here’s a little analogy…

Reason #1:  Only YOUR Voice Can Effectively Tell YOUR Story

In Chris Brogan’s recent post (visual below) he said, “There are so many situations where you don’t get a voice… Why would you give away your few chances to actually be heard and on your own terms and in your own words? ”

When Facebook wall posts and tweets on Twitter come from your practice it sends a powerful message about your practice and your brand. It says that in addition to using social media to put “derrières in chairs”, you really embrace the concept of BEING a social business—that these personal connections serve higher purposes.

Your Practice Is The “Lead Singer”

Gone are the days when your hob-nob ad agency could print a fancy brochure about your dental practice and people would believe it. Social media storytelling reinforces through text and visuals (photos and video), that what you’re doing matters. We can’t adequately capture that for you.

And while we don’t mean to oversell this benefit, we’ve seen these outward manifestations of in-practice cultures not only strengthen patient relationships and increase business, but also positively impact team dynamics as well.

An Outside Resource Can Be Your “Backup Singer” & “Band Members”

Great rock-and-roll vocalists usually have an awesome backup singer and supportive musicians behind them. They never upstage the primary vocalist, but sometimes it’s appropriate for the backup singer to join in, provide a riff, or even sing occasionally on his or her own.

Reason #2:  Blog Posting Can Be The Rare Exception

Part of our service includes posting to our clients’ blogs four times each month. However, we encourage our clients to learn how to blog themselves too (if they choose). After all, it’s THEIR blog, not ours. Those practices that do so find they really enjoy it once they get into it.

However, most of our valued client practices have trouble finding the time and in-practice resources for blog writing. That’s why we provide interesting, fun-to-read blog posts that help practices begin engaging with both patients and prospects as they start down the road to becoming a social practice.

Reason #3:  Your Practice Can Create A VERY Effective Mix With YOUR Lead Vocals And A Little Backup Vocal Assistance

An outside resource can help create and publish great blog posts that are also published to your Facebook wall. However, dentistry-related posts only help accomplish a portion of a practice’s Facebook objectives. And when it comes to Twitter, a competent outside resource can be your dental practice Twitter coach, but they shouldn’t be tweeting for you. Remember, people are people first—patients and prospects second. Treat them like you care and they’ll feel it.

“Types” of Facebook Wall Posts And Twitter Links Can Include:

• An Expression of Thanks
• An In-House Service Special
• Blog Posts
• Explanation of Dental Technologies
• Patient Appreciation Party
• Questions with Links & Small Gifts
• Birthday Wishes
• Promotions & New Patient Offers
• Fun Wall Photos
• Comments with Local Interest
• Pop Culture Comments & Questions

Take a look at the two great examples below of effective ways to use a dental practice’s Facebook wall (images click through to their walls):

And That’s Why An Outsider Shouldn’t Take Over Your Practice’s Social Media Voice

The idea here is “good, better, best”. In many ways, because of our integrated approach to a practice’s social media marketing tools, blog posts for our clients are more like appetizers and the main course is the day-to-day, personal, dynamic communications they put out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Chris Brogan refers to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as “outposts”. FIRST, you should be spending your precious time creating content for those outposts. Secondarily you can also write blog posts. A competent outside resource can write an easy-to-read, engaging blog post about “A Confident Smile” (for example), but only YOU can create specific content about the things happening in your practice—the insights into your practice culture. YOU’RE the ones interacting with your patients each day. YOU know them. YOU love them. An outside resource doesn’t have that advantage.

We thought you may enjoy reading Chris Brogan’s recent post related to this topic. You can click on the image below to read it.

Additional Benefits of Effective Internal Social Media Marketing for Dentists

One important and often not thought of benefit of dental social media is the improvement to dental SEO. SEO for dentists is positively effected by dental social media signals. The more interaction that you get with your patients on social media accounts the more improvement in your dental SEO. And don’t forget about your reputation. Social media engagement is a brilliant form of dental reputation management.

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Ready To Get Serious About Social Media Marketing In Your Practice?

Do you want to learn how to effectively use social media in your dental or orthodontic practice from people who specialize in social media—instead of from web development companies and SEO-centric consultants who seem to be jumping on the social media bandwagon? If so, call us or email us. It’s the right time to keep your practice on the leading edge and to take advantage of social media marketing. We look forward to visiting with you.

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 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 consulting page.

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