Last updated on February 24th, 2023 at 01:46 pm
A recent survey by The Journal of Contemporary Dental Practice showed that 52% of U.S. dental practices actively use social media to increase referrals, attract new patients, and drive more website traffic. Despite this, many practices don’t plan on using social media. Others that currently make nominal use of social media don’t plan on increasing their social media presence. In both cases, practices ask an understandable question about social media use: Why?
The answer to this question is best framed from a patient perspective.
According to a recent survey by the market research company Dentavox:
- Dentists who use social media are perceived as innovative and caring, and 97% of respondents were in favor of dentists using social media.
- Nearly half of respondents viewed dentists who don’t use social media as traditionalists.
In other words, simply using social media on a regular basis gives prospective patients a favorable overall impression of your dental practice, which naturally attracts them to your practice to become a patient. For people not quite ready or requiring an immediate appointment, regular use of social media keeps your practice favorably in mind for when they are ready to make an appointment.
The effectiveness of regular social media use is why researchers in a 2020 Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research survey concluded, “It is now essential for dentists to be marketing their practice at these platforms.”
Social Media Content Dental Patients Prefer
For those who are using social media regularly, three types of content are preferred by patients:
Videos
There’s a reason why dental practices use ProSites video marketing solution to attract new dental patients. The Dentavox survey found 58% of patients preferred video content, which aligns with overall video preferences:
- 85% of U.S. internet users watch videos (1)
- One third of all global internet traffic is video (3)
- 58% of people watch videos every day (4)
Educational Content
The popularity of dental education material (52% of patients) shows that dental educational content is useful and beneficial to patients for their well-being. One of the simplest ways to provide this is to link to educational content on your practice website with a few short lines of content to encourage patients to click through.
Patient Testimonials
Staying on top of positive online patient reviews, managing them, and making them known on social is a key part of overall dental practice reputation marketing. Almost half of patients (47%) want testimonials by others. Social proof is a key element of social media to attract prospective patients.
Overall, staying consistently active on social media with a variety of content is the guiding rule, and one of the hardest parts of this for busy practices is naturally finding the time to create thoughtful, relevant content.
Jumpstart Your Social Media Strategy
To help you with this, we’ve compiled 30 free social media post ideas that you can use and share to save time creating content.
>> Download 30 Social Media Posts for Your Dental Practice
The posts are taken directly from our dental practice social media management solution. Let us help you grow your business through social media and check out our social media management solution for dentists today.
Enjoy, and here’s to your practice success.
