Emma Wilks shares her ideas about how to bring your practice’s personality to life and engage more on social media…
With social media, the clue is in the title – it’s meant to be a social activity. This applies to business pages as much as it does to personal ones. If your practice’s page on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter is just full of sales posts, promotions and business information, then your audience will switch off and disengage.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t be doing these types of posts at all…but it’s worthwhile mixing them up with more light-hearted, fun, ‘human’ ones that encourage more interaction and engagement with followers.
These kinds of posts help to show off your brand and your practice’s unique personality, which will help to separate you from the rest of the competition. Given that the people following your pages are likely to be existing patients and potential new ones, sharing this kind of content is a great way to cement long-standing/build new relationships that help to retain and attract patients.
Below are some ideas about the kinds of sociable posts that can boost your engagement with followers:
Milestone celebrations – these can be for staff, the business or patients. If one of your staff has a special birthday or work anniversary, or the practice reaches a decade in business, this would make a great social post. You can even involve patients – if you know they are celebrating a special birthday around the time they are due in for an appointment, why not take a photo of them in practice with a cake, balloon or flowers (with their consent of course!).
Charity fundraising/volunteering – if members of the team raise money for charity or are involved with volunteering, whether on a personal basis or as part of the business’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), these kinds of feel-good posts are a great way to generate online conversations that will resonate with your audience.
Join in with viral crazes – over the years there has been the mannequin challenge, ice bucket challenge and the Harlem shake, all of which have been hugely popular across social media. By taking part in these crazes you can show that you don’t take yourself too seriously and potentially reach a wider audience – an American dentist’s video of the Kiki challenge went viral and amassed over 56 million views.
Ad-hoc spontaneous posts – capturing a fun or nice moment and sharing it on your page is perfect for showing off your team’s personality and the culture at your practice. For example, receiving a thank you card from the patient would be ideal, as it also highlights the kind of service you provide and the types of relationships you build with your patients.
How you create these posts is also important. Wherever possible use images and videos rather than lots of text, and don’t be afraid to play around with filters and effects like boomerang – it will be much more visually appealing.
These kinds of updates are the perfect complement to the more business-focused ones, and will allow you to strike the right balance between fun and professionalism. It will also help your patients (new and existing) to see you as more than just the dentist, dental nurse or receptionist, which can go a long way when it comes to building strong relationships.
