Hello? Hello? Is Echo Part Of Your Dentist Social Media Post Strategy?

Is Echo Part Of Your Dentist Social Media Post Strategy?

IN CHRIS BROGAN’S AND JULIEN SMITH’S BOOK, The Impact Equation, the authors introduce a term they call “Echo”. For a dental social media marketer, Echo means finding and sharing common experiences with your patients and prospective patients that help them realize you have some understanding of their lives (The Impact Equation, p. 228).

This idea can easily be applied to your dental social media post campaigns. Brogan and Smith use the widely popular British singer, Adele, as an example of someone who uses Echo to turn her overwhelming success into something even more.

“Adele sings songs about love and heartbreak that resonate with people of any age. By ‘resonate,’ realize that we mean she’s built songs that Echo (echo, echo) the emotions you feel, which helps her grow her platform… She talks to people, not as a celebrity but as if they were friends…” (pp. 225–226)

We Were Inspired Today By Angie Patterson’s Dentist Social Media Post About Parenting

One of our client practices, Patterson Orthodontics, has come up with a really smart idea. Angie Patterson (Dr. Rob Patterson’s wife) just published her first post in a new segment she’s developing for their dental website blog. Her fresh new strategy is a great example of Echo. Here’s a screen capture of that post:

Angie’s idea is laid out very simply in the first paragraph of her post:

“So I’ve decided to start a monthly segment about, well, parenting—more closely associated with the mothering side of parenting. This idea popped into my head as a great way for us to connect with the parents, and more specifically, the mothers of our patients and the many mothers in our community…”

Thanks Angie. Great social media for dentists idea.

Dentist Social Media Post Action Item:

Delegation can be a good thing. Is there a practice “stakeholder” (someone with a vested interest in the success of your practice) who could become a regular guest blogger on your practice blog? This could be someone who works inside the practice, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be.

The idea of asking someone to write an article or blog for your dental website is called ‘guest posting’. Guest posting helps in several ways. More blog posting will improve your SEO rankings, helps to establish your authority, creates valuable content that your patient database, and saves you a ton of time because you’re not doing the writing. We know how difficult it is for a dentist to find time to write.

So, where do you find a guest post?

• Instagram influencers in your community (or among your patients)
• Mommy bloggers
• Local companies that share a similar client database
• Your team!
• A family member
• Local college student studying journalism

Let your imagination go when it comes to finding dentist social media post ideas.

Angie Patterson chose to write about parenting and mothering—but your segment could be about anything you’d like. The right content mix on your blog can include things both dentistry related and unrelated. Look at all the things you and your team are passionate about. Cooking? Marathons? Some ideas could even be more on the utilitarian side like a monthly review of a like-minded local business (cross promotion opportunities?), or your own version of a community calendar. The point is to let your patients and prospective patients know that you consider them friends, and to share common experiences that are engaging or useful.

If you’re one of our clients, you already have an awesome dental SEO blog and the integrated subscription functionality in place to take advantage of this strategy with very little effort on your part. We make it easy. If you’re not one of our clients we recommend using WordPress for your blog and a company like MailChimp for your subscription tool.

Adrian Lefler is the CEO and Co-Founder of My Social Practice and a recognized dental marketing expert with nearly two decades of experience. He is a trusted voice in dental marketing, AI in dentistry, and emerging technology, and he hosts BYTE SIZED, a podcast focused on dental AI, innovation, and technology.