The Explorer Winter 2018 Explorer_Fall_2018 | Page 4

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
FOR SMALL DENTAL
PRACTICES
EDITOR’S CORNER
By Sonia Molina, DMD
Owners of small dental practices may
not know that social media marketing
could help their small dental practices
grow. Social media marketing can help
businesses generate revenue and build
long-term relationships with new and
existing patients. As with any branch of
your practice, customer service should
be at the center of your social media
marketing and engagement.
Social listening, or analyzing the
language and frequency of patient
engagement through social media,
can help you refine your social media
marketing strategy. Sprout Social has a
great post on what social listening is, in
addition to other pages that explain the
ins-and-outs of social media marketing.
Effective advertising copy is direct,
concise, and pairs with attractive
graphics. Twitter has expanded its
character limit to 280 characters and
allows users to hyperlink blog posts and
embed images into tweets.
The PEW Research Center has
published a survey called “Social Media
Use in 2018” which finds that nearly
80% of all adult users of the internet use
Facebook and YouTube, but most users
of social media have accounts with
approximately three different platforms.
Social media marketing can extend the
reach of traditional marketing tactics for
dental practices (ad space in print and
broadcast media) by engaging patients
on their favorite platforms: Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and others can all
relay information about the services
your practice provides. Marketing through social media
platforms may be free, depending on
how a dental practice’s overall
marketing strategy uses it. For example,
Facebook allows people to tailor their
budgets for ad space to fit their specific
needs.
You do not need to master the
complexities of social media marketing
overnight or replace traditional
marketing strategy with social media
platforms completely. Many social
media marketing experts would advise
against that. Instead, you might
consider slowly incorporating one social
media platform at a time to gauge the
impact it might have on your practice. Although you may not have to pay to
market your practice on social media,
managing multiple platforms and
growing your customer base requires
planning, analysis, creativity, and, above
all, time. Some practices hire a
dedicated staff member to execute
online communications, while others
outsource their marketing needs to
small business consultants.
Terms of service and algorithms are
changing constantly, but Google and
other companies offer tutorials to learn
how to track and interpret their built-in
analytics. As with any other skill, you
can master social media tools with
commitment and consistency.
At the center of effective social media
marketing is excellent patient service.
As long as your practice continues to
take care of your patients, you will have
countless reasons to share information
about the services you provide to a
whole network of potential patients in
need of dental care. Should you seek
more guidance on developing your
marketing strategy, make sure to contact
LADS to inquire more about the
marketing services that are available
with your membership. 䡲
Los Angeles Dental Society Explorer