5 Reasons Why Your Dental Practice Needs to Engage in Social Media

by Shawn Byrne, My Digital Dentistry

Social media started as a platform for meeting and connecting people, but it has evolved to become so much more.

Nowadays, social media is a commercial force with enough influence to make or break a business — including dental practices.

Does my dental practice need social media?

Like brushing your teeth and flossing, the answer is a crisp and resounding YES! Social media marketing is one of the best dental marketing ideas there is.

Need a little more convincing? Here are five good reasons why:

1. Everybody’s on Social Media

Who’s not on social media these days?

Most of your potential patients are on social media. But guess what? Your competitors are too.

Think of all the dental practices that are operating in your city or community. The chances are that many of them are aggressively marketing their practice on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

If your practice has very poor or no social media presence at all, your competitors are going to end up with the lion’s share of patients looking for dentists on social media.

Social media has become the new commercial battleground because of its mind-blowing reach and influence. If you’re not using that to attract people to your practice, then you’re missing out on a huge business opportunity.

2. Boost Brand-Awareness and Credibility

Trust and credibility are essential to patient retention and winning over new patients. Social media is one of the best places to bring awareness to your practice, flex your expertise, and position yourself as an authority in the field.

When patients look for a dentist, one of the first things they do is check social media for comments and reviews. If they find your social media page helpful, informative, and with plenty of good patient reviews, they will be more likely to visit your dental office and avail of your services. They might even recommend you to family and friends who are looking for a dentist too!

What people say about you on social media holds more weight than you think. Building up your social media image by engaging with people on these platforms will make your practice stand out and expand your reach beyond your usual customer base.

3. Make Your Brand More Relatable

Your audiences may be aware of your expertise, but do they know you enough to trust you with their dental care?

A website is great for introducing your practice and the services that you offer to the general public, but it often fails to express what your brand is all about. Websites usually have a professional air to them, and they can only hold so much information to avoid looking crowded and chaotic.

On the other hand, social media is like a freedom wall that allows you to post whatever you want, so people can get to know you on a more candid level. Simple things like sharing photos and videos of your dental office and team members, replying to chats and comments, or holding live Q&A sessions can give your audiences a glimpse into your company culture and make them feel closer to you.

4. Excellent Platform for Educating People About Dental Health

Whether it’s dental care or cosmetic dentistry, people have become more curious and cautious about dental treatment options. So when they sense something wrong with their teeth or want a dental procedure done to improve their smile, they usually try to read up and learn as much as they can about it on the Internet first.

The immense reach and influence of social media platforms make them an ideal channel for dental professionals like yourself to impart knowledge and share professional insights about relevant dental topics. Even little things like this can go a long way in boosting your image and earning your audience’s trust and confidence.

5. More Affordable than Traditional Marketing

There was a time when businesses, including dental practices, only had word-of-mouth and traditional advertising options (TV, radio, print, and billboards) to rely on for marketing their brands. And while traditional advertisements do work to an extent, the ROI could be very low because there is no guarantee that your ads will reach the right market.

Social media offers dentists an opportunity to market their brand to various audience bases, often with zero-to-minimal costs involved. Should you decide to invest in social media advertisements, you can choose what age groups or demographics to target. This way, you’re sure your ads reach the right audiences.

Getting Started

Social media has grown to become an essential tool for the success of modern-day businesses, but it requires a lot of time and effort. As a dental professional, you may have too much on your plate to give it the time of day – and that’s okay. But this does not mean that you should just forego social media marketing and its benefits altogether.

You don’t have to take care of your dental practice’s social media marketing all on your own. You can always enlist the help of a reliable digital marketing company to do most of the work for you.


About the Author

Shawn Byrne, founder and CEO, started My Digital Dentistry after years of developing and executing successful marketing strategies for Venture Capitalists and business owners in and out of the medical field. He saw a growing need for quality digital marketing specifically in dentistry and had the foresight to create an agency specializing in understanding and solving the unique problems of dentists and their practices from General Dentists to Endodontists.


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