Social Media Marketing: An Engaging Way to Attract Patients for Dental Industry
Social media marketing is a captivating way to drive more patients to dental practices. If you are a dentist looking to build a strong online platform then social media apps allow you to interact with more patients with apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
Here are some of the tips to use some of the social media marketing techniques that more patients would like to see:
Engaging in online conversations and interactions with the comments, likes and reactions section in social media. Responding to queries makes you a friendly and approachable dental practitioner.
Familiar faces make the patients comfortable to come to the dental clinic and that also builds the trust factor. Posting images and videos of the dental staff makes the patients feel less intimidated when they come to the clinic for the first time.
Posting interesting content about dentistry treatments and also some oral hygiene tips that are commonly beneficial brings more readers to the website to know many facts that they are unaware of.
Posting the icons link of the social media apps in which you are active can let more people know that you are available on those platforms too.
Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing for Dental Practices Did you know that atleast 65% of dental practitioners promote their business with social media marketing? Social media is no longer just a connecting bridge for people; it has become one of the most powerful tools for business. The cost-effective factor of social media makes it easily affordable for dental business that needs more inflow of patients.
Every coin has two sides. Similarly, social media marketing has its own set of successes and risks attached to it. Let us know the pros and cons of social media marketing to be aware of different outcomes to prepare ourselves to handle it.
PROS
It Is Affordable – Social media apps can be used for free and becomes an effective space for marketing dental business with the help of tools such as webinars, live podcasts, articles and even video ads.
Capable of Reaching More People – Traditional media reaches a limited number of people but social media extensively reaches a larger crowd. More than 60% of people have their own social media profiles which make it a massive number for online marketing that cannot fail until there is some issue with the marketing content or format.
Gaining Loyalty from Customers – Responding to the queries, feedback, comments and questions that are raised by the patients creates a bridge of trust between dentists and the patients and the patients exhibit this trust by staying loyal to your dental services and recommending it to many.
CONS
Negativity Factor – The other side of social media consists of anonymous people who just spread hatred, and negativity in the form of scams and spam. Unfortunately, the world of the internet is filled with such people and getting negative comments or feedback can be harmful to your dental practices since more than 70% of people check online reviews before visiting the dental clinic.
Time-Consuming – Social media is a huge world that has many apps under them that allows you to stay connected with the patients. But the other side of this is, it is highly time-consuming to update on various social media platforms. Different people comment and ask queries in different apps and it is strenuous to reply to all of them, one of the studies reveals that most businessmen spend atleast 6 hours online for social networking purposes.
Unpredictable – Once a post has been uploaded online there is no control over the responses it may receive. It can generate both positive and negative responses. There have been incidences where a simple harmless marketing campaign has turned negative towards the brand itself and has incurred huge losses along with the loss of trust. Some online malpractices will portray your dental practices negatively by spreading false and baseless information that may put your entire dental business at risk.
There is no doubt that social media marketing is highly beneficial and brings along with it a huge opportunity to connect with the world and promote your dental business to bring more conversions and serve people more at a very reasonable cost. But it also has the other side to it that has malicious people who may spread negativity too. Though it is unavoidable, the wiser way to tackle it is you equip yourself with different strategies and solutions to face the ordeals of the virtual world.