Page 92 - The Dental Entrepreneur

The Dental Entrepreneur

Facebook

Facebook has continued to morph and develop over the last couple of years and I consider it a
major major strategic asset in dental marketing. Early on, dentists were very unsure of how
facebook fit into their overall marketing strategy and the number of pages I have seen with one
or two posts and then abandoned are countless on the internet. it seemed a little silly for
dentists to post some random thought on a “wall” with very a miniscule audience with no

strategy as to what it meant or what the overall objectives were. There was also very little
knowledge of the power of facebook “advertising” by early adopters. That has changed
dramatically and I will outline the specific components.

Business Page

Many early adopters of Facebook were confused as to the segregation of personal pages from
business pages. There is a much more clear distinction now. You begin by starting a business
page for your practice. Have an attractive timeline cover banner made for you that includes
your practice logo and phone number. You can share and ask your personal network to “like”.
It would also be advisable to setup a Facebook ads manager account at this time. It will be
associated with your Facebook business page.

Social Signs

What to post on Facebook has really been a dilemma from the start. Dental officers are mega
boring by nature and people are really not that interested in what is going on in your office
enough to “follow you”. Enter, social signs. Social signs began about a year ago and the first
time I saw one, I instantly loved them. It captured on of the most important elements of the
Internet. The visual. They are an innovative, playful way to interact with patients and diffuse an
environment that many people consider frightening. I think they work. By having a staff
member and patient holding up a cute quotation catches the eye immediately and gives you
audience the desire to pause for a second, and see what is going on. That the very essence of
marketing, getting someone to pause and recognize your name, brand or message. Happy,
laughing, smiling people in a dental office. That is a nice concept. These are the two players
that have developed this space from scratch. You can glean a multitude of ideas from their
Facebook page. One caveat, I am not a fan of their ratings compliers services. I think those
are bad strategies.

Banyan

Mysocialpractice

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