As patients and fans come to recognize your practice’s social media presence as a dependable way to get useful information, have some fun, and connect with your team personally, you’ll see returns in the form of better patient relationships, greater case acceptance, and more referrals.
We all know it isn’t easy doing the right things day to day. We get tired, right? So whether we’re talking about regular exercise, sound eating habits, great oral hygiene (or in this case, dental social media marketing activity) success often hinges on consistency.
First off, what do we mean by “consistency” on social media? Primarily, it’s making a daily attempt to connect authentically with your audience by posting high-quality content regularly and responding to their interaction.
Why Reliability and Consistency Will Increase Your Patients’ Trust and Loyalty
There’s a degree of transference that takes place in patients’ minds with practices that are consistent with their dental social media efforts. The assumption is that if you’re consistent and reliable in providing relevant, educational, honest human content through your social media platform, then you also likely provide the same consistency and leading-edge standards in everything you do — including the dental materials and procedures you use, the patient benefit-driven technologies you ascribe to, the way you respond and treat people, the CE you attend, etc.
It’s this type of positive top-of-mind awareness that leads patients to introduce your practice to family and friends who trust their recommendations.
Also, consistently creating high-quality posts shows social media platforms that your content is worthy of a larger audience. In fact, a study showed that the most popular brands on Facebook average one post every day. And on other platforms where frequent posting is more expected, they do even more — it’s not uncommon for high-profile brands to share something on Twitter every few hours!
On the other hand, if you post infrequently and inconsistently you risk losing that connection to your audience. Without recent and relevant content, you miss opportunities to get fan interaction and turn patients into advocates for your practice.
What Should You Post?
Your Facebook page needs fresh new content on a consistent basis to appear welcoming, relevant, and able to give prospective patients a sense of your practice culture.
Your daily posts don’t have to be anything elaborate. Posting a quick team member spotlight, dental care tip, or even a joke is a great way to keep you at the top of your patients’ and fans’ minds — making them more likely to recommend you to family and friends. Facebook also has features that allow you to add engaging media content like GIFs and live video at the click of a button.
About the Author
Jackson Hadley is a marketing strategist with My Social Practice, which provides a complete social media marketing solution for dental, orthodontic and optometric practices. A public relations specialist, Jackson combines the advertising and trust-building aspects of social media to help businesses connect authentically with their communities.