While social networking platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat might be flashier marketing platforms these days, don’t underestimate Facebook. It’s a social media stalwart that continues to serve as the backbone of many dental digital marketing strategies.
If you’ve struggled to generate positive results with Facebook in the past, it’s probably because nobody has ever taught you the correct way to approach it. In this article, we’ll give you a handful of useful techniques that will instantly give you better results. Let’s dive in!
Nail Your Company Page
Start with your company page. If it looks boring and generic, nobody will be excited about following you or engaging with your posts. Your company page needs to have a compelling and consistent design that really speaks to your brand’s values (and the desires of your target audience).
Your cover photo is one of the first things people will notice. It should be 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall. And rather than using generic stock photos that most dentists use, feature a picture of your office or your smiling staff. This instantly puts people at ease and creates a human connection.
Your profile image can either be your logo or a picture of the dentist. Just remember to make it consistent with the branding on the rest of the page.
As far as your profile details go, be thorough. Add a description, including contact information, and link to your website and other online profiles.
Finally, change your Facebook page’s default URL (which looks something like this: Facebook.com/8420384950) to a vanity URL like Facebook.com/yourpracticename.
Be Consistent
You can’t post once a week and expect to get great results. Facebook marketing is all about consistency. This means posting at least once per day as a way of letting the Facebook algorithm know you’re serious. This also increases your visibility in the newsfeed, which makes it more likely that people will click and engage with your posts.
Focus on the Patient
Most dentists make all of their content and posts about themselves. But do you want to know the truth? People don’t care. There’s only one thing people care about – themselves!
While it’s okay to occasionally post something about an award your practice won or some milestone that you’ve achieved in your career, 90 percent of the content should be patient-centric. This means posting helpful content that shows patients how to brush and floss, which toothbrush to buy, how to prevent dental anxiety, etc.
Use Video
The problem with most dentist Facebook posts is that people have no reason to share them. And if they have no reason to share, you’re extremely limited in the number of people you can reach. Thus the question becomes, how do you publish content that people actually want to share?
One of the best options is to use video in your posts. And here are some tips for doing it well:
- Be sure your videos are understandable, whether the audio is on or off. (Most people will begin watching videos with the sound off.)
- Shareable videos are short and straight to the point. Aim for 30 to 60 seconds if possible.
- People make a decision very quickly as to whether or not to watch the entire video. For this reason, make sure the first three to five seconds are compelling.
- If you want to motivate people to share your content, give them a specific reason. Strong calls-to-action will give you a better chance of having video-based posts go viral.
It can take some time to master video marketing. Don’t give up if you aren’t successful right away. Learn from each post and continue to iterate. A commitment to video will eventually yield positive results.
Proactively Drive Engagement
Don’t sit back and hope that engagement will happen. Be proactive about driving people to like, reply, and share. There are hundreds of ways to do this, but let’s check out an example.
Let’s say you have a 20-page PDF on how to achieve whiter teeth. Rather than just sharing a link to the document, you could create a post where you tease several of the best tips from the guide. Then you ask people to comment “white teeth” in order to get the guide. Once someone comments, you send them a direct message with the link.
Create a Group
The final tip is to create a group. A Facebook group is separate from your company page. This is a group that brings people together around a shared interest. You can use it to create an audience of potential leads and patients. For example, you could create a group called “Million Dollar Smiles” that’s geared toward people who want to learn how to improve their smiles for the purpose of taking better pictures.
Win With Facebook Marketing
Just because you’ve never gotten any results with Facebook in the past, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. Plenty of dentists and other healthcare professionals use it effectively to build their brand and get new patients in the door. It’s simply a matter of executing the right techniques. And if you use the ones discussed above, you’ll have a much greater chance of being successful!