“Likes”—in and of themselves—are not the goal… BUT they’re an important means to an end.
THE PRINCIPLE:
Now that your practice is using Facebook marketing as part of your social media dental strategy, the goal is to connect and interact with your patient base and prospective new patients. Although Likes are not the goal, they DO play a critical, foundational role in your social media marketing strategy as we move ahead together. LEARN MORE ABOUT VIDEO MARKETING
There are many ways to build Likes. If your practice has been on Facebook for awhile, you may have already found your own effective tactics. But if your practice is relatively new to Facebook (even if your team members have a lot of personal experience) here is the first of several great tactics to get you started. So whether you currently have 25 Likes, 250 Likes, or 1000 Likes… you can continue to build your base (and extend your reach) through promotions and offers. We’ll show you how.
THE OBJECTIVE:
How many Likes should you be working toward? How many is “enough”? Of course there’s no simple answer to that question. There are many, many variables.
However, here’s a great place to start. Make a goal to acquire a number of Likes equal to 30% of your current, active patient base. Think of it this way… Let’s pretend you have 1200 active patients. According to recent stats, 70% of them are active on Facebook (840 patients). Typically you see these active patients at least twice a year (for hygiene appointments). So, if you were successful over the next year in getting half of them to visit and Like your Facebook page, that would be over 400 Likes. It’s a “doable” number to shoot for.
By the way, did you know that a recent study by a top-tier, health services PR firm reports that nearly 80% of all dental practices on Facebook have less than 100 Likes. Here at My Social Practice, our average practice has hundreds more. Only 2% of all dental practices on Facebook have 500 or more. Again… The number is not the goal—but the number IS an important component of the broader strategy.
THE TACTIC:
This is a no brainer. We make it so easy for you—and, not every promotion or offer has to be epic in terms of the item(s) you give away. If you haven’t reviewed the ideas we suggest lately, click >HERE to look them over again.
Remember that promotions and offers contribute to the “share-ability” of your social media dental efforts. Promotions aren’t there ONLY for current Likes. They help generate new Likes as people share them.
But keep in mind (important)… Simply having a promotion or offer isn’t enough. You need to help drive eyes to it by learning how to post it correctly and by posting it often:
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Remember, each of the tactics you use compliment and build upon each other. Focus on this one right now, then add another. The nice thing about promotions is that once you get the hang of them, they can pretty much run themselves… As long as you keep talking about them in your practice. Over time the rewards are huge. You CAN do this.
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 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 consultant page. Interested in learning more about the benefits of SEO for dentists, and our incredible dental website offering? Learn More!
