Boost Engagement With Dental Campaigns and Contests

Social media engagement from patients and fans grows your dental practice’s audience and gives you top-of-mind awareness. But with so many posts flooding followers’ feeds, sometimes you need to give them a compelling reason to interact with your content.

An important measure of the effectiveness of a social media post is how much engagement it gets. Whether it’s Likes, shares, comments, or clicks, these types of engagement signal to other users and Facebook’s content algorithm that what you’re posting is worth people’s attention. Thus, engagement leads to MORE engagement as more people take notice of a post and Facebook displays it to a wider audience.

Getting consistent engagement on your posts helps ensure that your fans continue seeing your posts — keeping you at the top of their minds — and your practice’s name reaches more of the people most likely to become new patients.

Engagement is crucial to growing a business with social media, so one of the most important questions is “how do we get our fans to interact with what we post?” The answer certainly isn’t tacking “Please Like and comment!” to the end of everything you post. Mostly, it just comes down to regularly sharing things that are useful, relevant to followers’ interests, or just something that makes them smile!

However, quality content alone doesn’t always guarantee engagement. So, occasionally you can take a more strategic approach: run a campaign or contest to give fans a clear reason to Like, share, or comment on a post.

People love the opportunity to win a prize or support a good cause just by interacting with a social media post! Even the chance to win a $10 gift card or have your practice donate a can to a local food bank is enough to get patients and fans to Like, comment and share.

The reason we recommend doing this only occasionally is because you don’t want patients and fans to feel as though your social media pages only exist to “farm” Likes. Repeatedly asking for engagement can annoy fans and cause them to unfollow.

Done correctly, practice contests and campaigns can do wonders for increasing your audience and online visibility, especially if you’re just starting out on social media.

Small Giveaways Are Great Social Media Icebreakers

If there’s one thing none of us can resist, it’s an easy opportunity to win a cool prize. So, if you feel like your marketing efforts have fallen into a rut, mixing a few small giveaways into your social media routine is the perfect way to spark some engagement!

Plus, you don’t have to spend a lot on prizes. You’ll get much the same results with a $10 prize as with a $50 one. Taking note of this, many of our client practices give away a small prize every week — some call it “Win It Wednesday” — and only spend $40 per month on prizes, a small part of their marketing budget that offers great returns.

So get creative with your team and brainstorm some small prizes that fans would appreciate and fun ways to enter to win. Promotions give patients and fans a good reason to stay engaged with your social media pages and share your practice with family and friends. Also, check out these essential tips to running a giveaway that helps you accomplish your marketing goals.

Give Patients and Fans a Reason to Engage

Here’s what one of our recent Practice of the Month winners had to say about the success they’ve found with campaigns and contests:

“Call-to-action posts are the ones that are most successful for us, even if the content does not include a giveaway. People like commenting on our posts when there is an end goal that they can help accomplish through their interaction.”
—Kathy Graham, Treman & Treman Family Dental Care

So as you build your social media mix, make sure to include some posts that ask followers to Like, share or comment — and give them a good reason to participate. Earning consistent engagement will keep your practice’s name showing up in the news feeds of your patients, fans, and ideal potential patients.

Find out more about how smart digital marketing helps new patients find you by requesting a free demo of our social media services!

The post Boost Engagement With Dental Campaigns and Contests appeared first on My Social Practice - Social Media Marketing For Dentists, Orthodontists, & Optometrists.

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How to Prioritize Your Social Media Marketing Time

Yes! We totally understand. You have limited time and resources to devote to your practice’s social media efforts.

So between Facebook, Instagram, your Photo Booth, LinkedIn, using hashtags, Snapchat, getting reviews, YouTube and other platforms and apps, how do you select the best tools and features, AND how do you PRIORITIZE your efforts to make the MOST effective use of your time?

Let us help bring CLARITY to that question.

As part of our effort to bring you the most distilled, relevant, and actionable advice on digital marketing strategy, we focus on a topic or two each month that we KNOW is CENTRAL to transforming and growing your practice using social media.

We invite you to participate with us throughout this month through our free webinar, blog posts, case studies, free ebook, and other free downloads designed to make YOU an expert on THIS particular topic.

Musts, Shoulds and Coulds

You know, sometimes it’s really hard to know where to spend your valuable time most effectively when it comes to social media marketing. So, before you overwhelm yourself and start downloading MORE apps and opening MORE accounts that you have to spend MORE time on, ask yourself, “WHY am I doing this?” AND, as the renowned business-book author Stephen R. Covey once said, “Always BEGIN with the END in mind.”

During September, we’ll be talking about WHICH social media platforms, apps and features you 1) MUST, 2) You SHOULD, and 3) You COULD be using to transform and grow your practice. Prioritizing them in this way will make things MUCH easier for you—with a lot less guilt and frustration.

Facebook First

The first MUST is Facebook. Hands down, Facebook remains, today, THE 800-pound dental marketing gorilla—AND the absolute BEST value when it comes to spending your time and resources. We KNOW this—from our experiences EVERY day with hundreds and hundreds of practices. 80 percent of adults online have a Facebook account, and MOST are spending significant amounts of time there EVERY day—including 75 percent of family decision makers, who regularly use Facebook to get recommendations from their friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. And when we add Facebook’s easy-to-use tools for live video, stories, polls, contests, and post promotion, the answer is clear… It’s where you MUST FIRST focus on building your practice’s social media presence.

This is why the daily content and one-to-one training that we provide to our clients is optimized for Facebook, and why tools like our amazing Photo Booth and awesome practice campaigns integrate so tightly with Facebook—making it easy for both team members and patients to share their experiences and spread the good word online about your practice.

Expanding Your Efforts

Once you’re established on Facebook and you’re comfortable and proficient at posting share-worthy content regularly, THEN you can consider expanding your efforts to Instagram as well. So Facebook is a MUST, and Instagram is a SHOULD—but only in baby steps and only in that sequence. In addition to the MUSTS and the SHOULDS, there are a number of COULDS (including tools like Snapchat) that we’ll spend time talking about this month that can make your efforts even more effective.

So subscribe to our blog to get more free posts, downloadable materials, examples and other advice and training. Be sure to register for our free webinar too. And, we’ll look forward to seeing YOU throughout this month as we help you PRIORITIZE your efforts, learn about some cool new features, AND help you make the most EFFECTIVE use of your time.

The post How to Prioritize Your Social Media Marketing Time appeared first on My Social Practice - Social Media Marketing For Dentists, Orthodontists, & Optometrists.

What to Look Forward to in September From My Social Practice

Don’t miss out! Subscribe below and get notified of new blog posts, videos, ebooks and webinars — all free and all laser-focused on helping you build a fun, thriving dental practice.

WE’RE ALWAYS WORKING ON BETTER WAYS to distill the very best in dental social media strategy so that YOU, our valued clients, friends, and followers can more easily implement those effective marketing tactics inside your practice.

Each month, we’ll be selecting a topic or two that we KNOW is CENTRAL to effective social media strategy and then building our content that month around those topics. At the end of one short year, you will have learned a great deal about ALL of the topics that we know are necessary in growing your practice using social media marketing.

In September, look forward to learning about making the most of your limited social media marketing time and the best practices for earning patient engagement on your posts.

We can’t wait to share with you these exciting aspects of dental social media marketing strategy! As you read, watch and download the great free content we have planned, set small goals with your team to apply the principles in your own office. You’ll be well on your way to building a vibrant, attractive social media presence for your practice and helping new patients find you!

The post What to Look Forward to in September From My Social Practice appeared first on My Social Practice - Social Media Marketing For Dentists, Orthodontists, & Optometrists.

Our August Practice of the Month — Arizona Dental Heights!

Congratulations to our August Practice of the Month — Arizona Dental Heights!

One of the most important realizations in dental social media marketing is this: most of your patients are actually willing to be your practice’s greatest advocates! But they won’t help if you don’t ask. By making it easy and fun for patients to share about you on social media (through things like Facebook posts and Google reviews), you reach the people most likely to become new patients — their family and friends.

The team at Arizona Dental Heights makes involving patients and creating their own shareable content a group effort, and it’s paying off remarkably! Since starting with My Social Practice a few months ago, they have tripled their Facebook audience, doubled their Google and Facebook patient reviews, and built relationships in their community. It just goes to show that once your team fully commits to helping new patients find you through social media, you can begin to see results almost immediately.

We reached out to Rebecca Michael, marketer and hostess for Arizona Dental Heights, for some insight about which social strategies and activities are working best for them. Take the opportunity to learn something and apply it in your own practice!

Q&A With Arizona Dental Heights Marketer Rebecca Michael

(Responses edited for length and clarity.)

Since you started using social media in your practice, what has been the biggest surprise? The one thing you just weren’t expecting?

“We have been most pleasantly surprised with the interest shown by our patients regarding spreading the word about our fantastic dentist, office and staff. Our patients are genuinely interested in helping our practice grow and provide care to their friends and neighbors.”

Which social media tools have you seen the most success with?

“The cute animal videos provided by My Social Practice have been popular, and we boost them on Facebook. The biggest success that we have had thus far is a video we made in the office of our entire staff doing a ‘floss race.’ We set the video as our Facebook page cover and also used it for a paid page promotion. This has resulted in hundreds of new page followers!”

How has social media affected your patient-practice relations?

“Our patients feel that they know us better now, and that when they recommend us to their family, friends or coworkers, they are confident they will have a great experience.”

What do you feel has been the biggest benefit of social media marketing for your practice thus far?

“As a result of our social media marketing efforts with My Social Practice, our patients feel more confident in the care they receive and we have more patients calling our office because they see our Facebook ads and content. They’re great reminders for people to call and schedule appointments. We’ve tripled our Facebook audience, and patients are helping us market our office because now they know how to help. They already love Dr. Hatch and now they have more ways to spread the word about their great dentist.”

What do you and your team do in the office to move your social media efforts forward?

“Our team has a morning huddle. We use that time to identify the patients that we would like to ask for a text review or take a funny themed photo. Also, we talk about who would be most willing to give out a referral card. Everyone knows their assignment, so that no single staff member feels that they are doing it all by themselves or feel burdened.”

What advice would you give to a practice just starting out on social media?

“It’s trial and error, and more TRIAL! Ask yourself whether you would respond to a certain post or video before you spend money to boost or promote it. Utilize the many training videos that My Social Practice has available to us anytime night or day. Watch what others are doing and don’t be afraid to try it.”

Rebecca also mentioned that their team is still working on getting everyone comfortable with bringing up social media and reviews during patient appointments. We understand! Becoming a social practice requires a change in mindset and daily effort! Check out our blog post for an exercise that can help you along.

We’ve been so thrilled to see the great work Arizona Dental Heights has done in-practice and online in the short time they’ve been with us! We wish them continued success and growth as they refine their social media marketing tactics, strengthen patient relationships, and build practice culture.

The post Our August Practice of the Month — Arizona Dental Heights! appeared first on My Social Practice - Social Media Marketing For Dentists, Orthodontists, & Optometrists.

How to Prioritize Your Social Media Marketing Time

Yes! We totally understand. You have limited time and resources to devote to your practice’s social media efforts.

So between Facebook, Instagram, your Photo Booth, LinkedIn, using hashtags, Snapchat, getting reviews, YouTube and other platforms and apps, how do you select the best tools and features, AND how do you PRIORITIZE your efforts to make the MOST effective use of your time?

Let us help bring CLARITY to that question.

As part of our effort to bring you the most distilled, relevant, and actionable advice on digital marketing strategy, we focus on a topic or two each month that we KNOW is CENTRAL to transforming and growing your practice using social media.

We invite you to participate with us throughout this month through our free webinar, blog posts, case studies, free ebook, and other free downloads designed to make YOU an expert on THIS particular topic.

Musts, Shoulds and Coulds

You know, sometimes it’s really hard to know where to spend your valuable time most effectively when it comes to social media marketing. So, before you overwhelm yourself and start downloading MORE apps and opening MORE accounts that you have to spend MORE time on, ask yourself, “WHY am I doing this?” AND, as the renowned business-book author Stephen R. Covey once said, “Always BEGIN with the END in mind.”

During September, we’ll be talking about WHICH social media platforms, apps and features you 1) MUST, 2) You SHOULD, and 3) You COULD be using to transform and grow your practice. Prioritizing them in this way will make things MUCH easier for you—with a lot less guilt and frustration.

Facebook First

The first MUST is Facebook. Hands down, Facebook remains, today, THE 800-pound dental marketing gorilla—AND the absolute BEST value when it comes to spending your time and resources. We KNOW this—from our experiences EVERY day with hundreds and hundreds of practices. 80 percent of adults online have a Facebook account, and MOST are spending significant amounts of time there EVERY day—including 75 percent of family decision makers, who regularly use Facebook to get recommendations from their friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. And when we add Facebook’s easy-to-use tools for live video, stories, polls, contests, and post promotion, the answer is clear… It’s where you MUST FIRST focus on building your practice’s social media presence.

This is why the daily content and one-to-one training that we provide to our clients is optimized for Facebook, and why tools like our amazing Photo Booth and awesome practice campaigns integrate so tightly with Facebook—making it easy for both team members and patients to share their experiences and spread the good word online about your practice.

Expanding Your Efforts

Once you’re established on Facebook and you’re comfortable and proficient at posting share-worthy content regularly, THEN you can consider expanding your efforts to Instagram as well. So Facebook is a MUST, and Instagram is a SHOULD—but only in baby steps and only in that sequence. In addition to the MUSTS and the SHOULDS, there are a number of COULDS (including tools like Snapchat) that we’ll spend time talking about this month that can make your efforts even more effective.

So subscribe to our blog to get more free posts, downloadable materials, examples and other advice and training. Be sure to register for our free webinar too. And, we’ll look forward to seeing YOU throughout this month as we help you PRIORITIZE your efforts, learn about some cool new features, AND help you make the most EFFECTIVE use of your time.

The post How to Prioritize Your Social Media Marketing Time appeared first on My Social Practice - Social Media Marketing For Dentists, Orthodontists, & Optometrists.

What to Look Forward to in September From My Social Practice

Don’t miss out! Subscribe below and get notified of new blog posts, videos, ebooks and webinars — all free and all laser-focused on helping you build a fun, thriving dental practice.

WE’RE ALWAYS WORKING ON BETTER WAYS to distill the very best in dental social media strategy so that YOU, our valued clients, friends, and followers can more easily implement those effective marketing tactics inside your practice.

Each month, we’ll be selecting a topic or two that we KNOW is CENTRAL to effective social media strategy and then building our content that month around those topics. At the end of one short year, you will have learned a great deal about ALL of the topics that we know are necessary in growing your practice using social media marketing.

In September, look forward to learning about making the most of your limited social media marketing time and the best practices for earning patient engagement on your posts.

We can’t wait to share with you these exciting aspects of dental social media marketing strategy! As you read, watch and download the great free content we have planned, set small goals with your team to apply the principles in your own office. You’ll be well on your way to building a vibrant, attractive social media presence for your practice and helping new patients find you!

The post What to Look Forward to in September From My Social Practice appeared first on My Social Practice - Social Media Marketing For Dentists, Orthodontists, & Optometrists.