Social Media for My Dental Practice: Which Platforms Do I Need?

There’s no question that social media can feel overwhelming — especially for busy dentists and orthodontists, whose main focus is providing the best care for their patients — but it’s an important part of marketing your practice, creating brand awareness, and bringing in new business. To relieve some of the overwhelm at the sheer amount of social media platforms, let’s explore the question of just how many social media channels your dental or orthodontic practice really needs.

How Many Social Media Sites Does My Dental Practice Need?

What makes you buy a service? Have you ever wondered what makes you aware of the existence of a brand?

An ad? Or maybe you’ve found the company website on Google? Or a Facebook page? What other social media channels have you used when finding a business? Instagram? Twitter? Tumblr?

The reality is, all of these these channels can be used as part of company’s marketing plan to promote its products or services, raise brand awareness, bring in new business, and increase revenue. And all these social channels can be important for your dental practice, too.

But before you open up 20 different social media accounts, let’s see which social media sites you should focus on, how many your dental practice needs, and how to use them effectively.

Which Social Media Sites Are Best for My Dental Practice?

Choosing the right social media sites is essential if you want to use their power effectively for your dental practice. But what are the best social networks for a dental practice to use to increase the brand awareness and subsequently attract more patients?

The choice of a dental practice is typically based on an ancient communication system of word of mouth. But the word of mouth evolved and adapted to the technological world we live in, therefore it would be a true pity to ignore the platforms on which people talk, share ideas and create relations.

Many marketing experts advise choosing the social media sites based on the target audience, considering the age, gender, and social habits of your ideal patients. And while you should consider these aspects, all good social media marketing for dentists begins with Facebook. From there, we recommend branching out to 2 or perhaps 3 other social platforms, depending on the goals of your business.

In other words, your dental practice will only need to be present on 3 social media sites to reach a wide range of patients with different lifestyles and backgrounds.

And when it comes to marketing your practice, Facebook and other important social media sites have some vital things in common:

• They’re free to use.
• They help you build a relationship with your patients.
• They’re effective communication channels.

Which Social Media Sites Will Bring My Dental Practice the Most Business?

Although we believe that just 3 social media sites are all any dental practice really needs, that certainly doesn’t apply to every dentist or orthodontist — it all comes down to your needs and goals. Generally, however, we recommend Facebook and Google+ (followed by a few others) to build your brands and bring in the most business. As we’ve said before, we believe it’s essential for dentists and orthodontists to focus on one social platform first — usually Facebook — and gradually span out from there.

Facebook is one of the best social media sites for maintaining close contact with your patients: not only does it help you build and maintain the loyalty of your existing patients by keeping you in constant contact with them, but Facebook also helps bring in new patients. Plus, with the right strategies, you’ll even be able to advertise your dental practice to your ideal patients.

The secret to a successful social media marketing lies in the added value your social profiles can offer to your patients.

Use your social media channels to share useful materials such as tables and illustrations for teeth cleaning, advice on teeth whitening, solutions to prevent tooth decay and more. Listen to your fans, dialogue with them and you will soon see the benefits of the social media presence.

At ClearEdge, we provide targeted social media and online marketing strategies to help dentists and orthodontists increase their brand awareness help bring in new patients. Contact us to today to find out more about what our social media strategies can do for your dental practice.