28 Brilliant Dental Marketing Social Media Ideas For 2023!

You don’t need to hire a new, dedicated marketing pro to be effective in your social media marketing, but you do need a designated “champion” to take charge and lead your team’s efforts. Choose a team member who is willing to learn, take initiative, and get everyone organized. Empower them with the training and the support by sending them to the Dental Digital Marketing Conference. Discuss and designate a budget for the in-office tools, online resources, and ad spend that they might need. 

Most of all, work with your social media director to set concrete goals and a content calendar. Social media is meant to be fun and easy, but success rarely comes without effort and clear objectives. 

One of your greatest assets on social media is user-generated content. This includes pictures, posts, and reviews that your patients share about you or that you share about them. However, in all social media marketing efforts that involve patients, their comfort and privacy come first. Train your team on HIPPA guidelines, and you can be sharing photos and videos worry-free. 

When you share photos, videos, and even share patient testimonials you’ll want to be in compliance with HIPAA. Download this social media consent form and use it to get patient authorization. 

Also, make sure that your website is HIPAA compliant. Most dental websites now-a-days have integrations with social media accounts and patient reviews. You’ll want to make sure that you have the proper signed patient authorization for any ePHI that is on your website. In addition you’ll want to make sure that your website is up to date on all HIPAA website compliance issues.

Engagement is crucial to growing your practice with social media. One of the most critical questions is, “How do we get our fans to interact with what we post?” The answer isn’t adding “Please Like and comment!” at the end of everything you post. Mostly, it comes down to regularly sharing useful things relevant to followers’ interests or something that makes them smile!

However, quality content alone doesn’t always guarantee engagement. So, occasionally you can take a more strategic approach: run a campaign or contest to give fans a clear reason to Like, share, or comment on a post.

For some inspiration, check out these dental office Facebook contest ideas.

One idea is to have a floss race. Give two team members identical floss boxes, and share a video of them seeing who can unravel it the fastest! Letting your patients and fans occasionally see your team having fun is a great way to strengthen their relationship with your practice. 

This social media marketing video will give you more ideas for fun team contests and activities.

Our client practices consistently report that one of the best ways to kickstart social media engagement is by sharing photos of team members. When patients become familiar with your team and are engaged on a personal level, you build the relationships that allow your practice to thrive. 

Are you looking for a new way to make pictures fun and unique? Order this free set of social media signs, or you can download this set of digital signs and print them in your office. The digital set of signs is great for capturing moments with your team.

Facebook Live and Youtube Live are simple, effective ways for anyone to create engaging video content. All you need is a phone! Don’t overthink the process. Facebook and Youtube Live broadcasts are meant to be informal and off-the-cuff. Pick a topic that will serve the format, like a contest winner announcement, a holiday greeting from your team, or a new team member highlight. Announce your broadcast ahead of time, invite your followers to participate, and have fun with it!

Charitable giving brings a host of unexpected benefits to your practice. It fosters a sense of team unity, impacts your patients’ perception of your brand and your values, enables new community connections, and increases feelings of gratitude in both you and your patients. 

There are plenty of ways to synthesize your dental office’s charitable giving campaign and your social media marketing. Sharing information about your goals and your passion for the project online raises visibility and money for the organization. At the same time, your followers’ willingness to be a part of something good will increase your posts’ visibility and reach. 

We’ve helped practices put this idea into practice with a turnkey campaign. Learn more about our free whiten for charity campaign.

One of the biggest challenges of marketing online is ensuring that your posts are seen by people who are geographically close enough to use your services. One way to appeal to potential new patients in your community is by working with other local businesses. Follow your favorite restaurant, local artists, and the business next door. Share their posts when it makes sense to do so and give them a shout out for a job well done.

As a good neighbor, they’ll probably do the same. You can even team up to do a giveaway, offering gift certificates for local services during your promotions in the office.

If you have not yet set up a TikTok account, get one now! Video is the most popular content format on social media, and TikTok is the king of engaging, viral video content. Its hyper-curated algorithm ensures that your content is served to those who will enjoy it, and the informal format will give your whole office a chance to cut loose. 

Not sure where to start? Check out these easy approaches to dentist marketing on TikTok. You may also want to take a look at our guide to TikTok and Instagram Reels eBook.

Doing frequent, small prize giveaways is an excellent way to show patient appreciation and keep people coming back to your page! Even the chance to win a $10 gift card is enough for fans to Like, comment, and share with friends — which helps new patients find you. Giveaways are also a great way to create dental marketing video content.

Influencers are persons who have created a trusted network of followers. Nano-influencers are extremely valuable to marketing local products and services. Their database of followers are usually local to their location and have a high sense of trust towards the influencer. And guess what? You probably have several nano-influencers in your current patient database.

The first step is to identify a nano-influencer. These would be influencers with less than 5000 followers on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. Once you’ve identified them reach out to see if they would be interested in working with your practice.

We’ve found that offering free whitening is a great way to kick off a successful relationship with influencers. You offer whitening for free and the influencer agrees to post to their stories a certain number of times. A whitening service that is valued between $300-$500 is worth arond 5-10 posts from an influencer.

It may be time to take an honest look at how your online presence compares to those of other dental practices in your city. The most likely place to be found online is on Google maps. Can local new patients find you on Google Maps? What most dentists aren’t familiar with is that you can optimize your Google Business Profile so that you rank higher on the map and at a wider radius, essentially outranking other dentists.

Request your free Google maps ranking analysis here.

Communication on social media is best when it’s instantaneous and of the moment. A Google alert on keywords like “dental news” “ADA,” and “dental health” can help you know about breaking stories and trending topics before others hear about them. These alerts can be a great way to generate fresh new ideas for your regular social media posts. You might even want to save an alert for your own practice name and any special services you offer. Just go to google.com/alerts, make sure you’re logged into the account you want to have notified, and enter your topics of interest.

My Social Practice is honored to work with so many thriving dental practices that truly understand how to use social media. Learn from them in our monthly spotlight blog posts.

Getting positive Google reviews is one of the best things you can do to grow your practice’s online reputation and visibility. It’s especially important for your local SEO, an area of digital marketing which will provide some of the best ROI for your location-based business. While most dentists are familiar with the harm bad reviews can do, they don’t fully understand the importance of positive reviews in creating a healthy online presence. Build a consistent flow of favorable patient reviews by downloading this Free Google review marketing kit.

Show patients and fans that you’re available and listening by responding to any reviews, comments, or posts they leave on any of your profiles. Even a simple “Thanks! We appreciate your feedback!” will let them know you care.

Use social media or send an email to occasionally ask patients and fans what they appreciate or would change about your practice and social media pages. You can even use surveys built into the functionality of reels and Facebook posts to get instant feedback.

Use Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok analytics tools to see which posts are your most popular. This information can help you learn more about your followers’ interests, the best times of day to post, and what content has gotten the most interaction over the last year. You can get more information on social media stats here.

Social media is all about “what’s new.” Follow a few tech and pop culture news sources like Mashable and Buzzfeed to help you stay current. Trending hashtags on Facebook and Twitter can also help you tap into popular topics.

Holidays are always a great way to shake things up and connect online. But don’t limit yourself to bank holidays… celebrate Tooth Fairy Day by sporting a tutu or take the team out for Taco Tuesday. Find a good calendar online and plan ahead so you don’t miss something that generates great interaction and conversations, like National Pet Day.

As a health provider, you have the responsibility and honor to inform your patients on topics that affect their wellbeing. Don’t let oral cancer awareness month go by without reminding your patients how important it is to get a screening. You may also chime in on topics like diabetes or heart disease to help patients know how it correlates with their dental health. You may even want to go the extra mile by fundraising for a cause. Remember to utilize hashtags to engage in the conversation with other healthcare organizations and representatives online.

If your practice hasn’t gotten started on Instagram, now is the time. Instagram makes it easy to share quick, fun, visual content. You can even link your Instagram account to your Facebook account and easily post to both platforms to save time. To make the most of your account, keep up on trending topics, use smart hashtags, and engage with your community.

You’ve demonstrated it for your patients a million times: how to brush in a circular motion, how to floss with a permanent retainer, how to recognize the signs of bruxism… So why not film a quick video for your patients and post it online? Video content is great for Facebook and Instagram reels, YouTube, and TikTok. Keep it short and sweet, and you just might surprise someone who’ll realize they’ve been doing it wrong this whole time!

The human connections between your team members and your patients are what keep your practice healthy and thriving. They also happen to make the best social content. Take a moment to share a pic of a team member and have all your followers join in on celebrating him or her. You might even share some fun facts or challenge your followers to guess some personal trivia to make it interesting.

Use the life events social sign pack to capture great team moments.

You don’t need to do any of this alone! The most effective and genuine social media marketing is a group effort. Help get everyone in your team on board with social media marketing using contests and incentives. Take time to celebrate small victories, and make sure that everyone knows their contributions are valued. If your team is feeling shy about speaking up, you might select a “Social Media Representative of the Month” to give everyone a turn to take charge and feel a sense of ownership over the success of your marketing efforts.

Regular, sustained growth online is usually best served by regular, sustained posting and engagement. However, every once in a while it’s worth putting some money behind your content and turbocharging your efforts in order to get more reach. Facebook has one of the most robust and targeted tools for finding promising new audiences for your content. To get the most out of your ad spend, be thoughtful about the content you promote. Utilize your best pictures and feature an introductory offer that will inspire action. As long as you have a Business page on Facebook, you already have the tools you need to get started with a Facebook paid ad campaign.

You can post updates to your Google Business Profile which helps it to rank better on Google maps.

Not everything you post has to be made from scratch. If you see an article online that is relevant to your patients and fans, create a post linking to it and write a few sentences about why you feel it’s important. This is a great way for a doctor who’s pressed for time to participate!

You’ll want to follow some of your favorite brands to find great content. You should also follow My Social Practice’s Facebook, Instagram and Youtube accounts so that you can be apprised of all the cool trending posts we create and find. Most of them you’ll be able to repost on your own social media channels.

While this suggestion may feel a little less exciting than others, it’s an important move that can have a big impact. Local SEO depends on consistent listings across the internet, which means that your name, address, and phone number should always be accurate and up to date. Check your contact information on every social media platform you own, along with your website, Google listing, and any referral site such as ZocDoc or HealthGrades.

Your SEO rankings will be improved through updating your data.

If you’re like most dental practices, even your most loyal patients don’t actually know all of your services. In fact, they may even be drawn away to another practice who offers same-day crowns or advanced oral-cancer-detecting technology… not knowing that you offer that very same thing in your office! Choose a special tool or service from your office and give your patients a brief introduction. You might make a brief video to share on your Facebook and Instagram reels, or share promotional materials provided by your supplier. 

Do you offer Invisalign as a service? Then you may enjoy using this complimentary set of social media signs to help promote Invisalign.

What about digital smile makeovers for those patients considering cosmetic or full arch reconstruction. There’s a great product out there by PreVu software.

Looking for more great ideas for your dental social media marketing? Follow us for a never-ending stream of creativity, or reach out to our team to schedule a consultation and learn how we can help you thrive online.