5 Dental Practices That Absolutely Rocked Halloween on Social Media!

What makes Halloween so great for dental practices? It’s the perfect opportunity to show off your creativity, have fun with your team, and create memories with your patients that they’ll remember fondly for years! As part of our annual Halloween celebration, My Social Practice has held our Dental Team Costume Contest for the past several years, giving some truly remarkable dental teams a chance to shine.

Let’s take a look back at some of this year’s best entries, and discover why creating a great Halloween post isn’t just all about fun, but actually helps attract and retain patients.

1. Legacy Pediatric Dentistry

Legacy Pediatric Dentistry proved that “you’ve never had a dental office like us” with their jaw-dropping Aladdin costumes! They racked up a lot of engagement, which is great for their visibility and making sure fans see more of their posts in the future.

2. Bright Inspired Dentistry

The social media all-stars at Bright Inspired Dentistry went all out for this pirate-themed team costume, complete with amazing scenery! In the comments of the post, patients and fans talked about how much they love seeing posts from the practice and sharing them with friends. They’re turning patients who love them into their best advocates through social media!

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

 

3. MH Dentistry: Marc Heiden, DMD

A dental team with candy-themed costumes? Sure, why not? The team at MH Dentistry: Marc Heiden, DMD earned a TON of engagement with this great team photo, especially comments and shares, which Facebook weighs most heavily when determining the reach of a post.

4. Thomasville Pediatric Dentistry

Patients know they’ve got a friend in Thomasville Pediatric Dentistry, who stunned with their Toy Story outfits! You can tell that they’re a team that likes to have fun, and seeing how much they enjoy their jobs helps build trust with potential patients!

5. Dickson Dental

Finally, we’ll highlight our Dental Team Costume Contest winner, Dickson Dental, who blew us away with these trophy costumes! Amazing things happen when you’re not afraid to showcase your team culture on social media!

Great Social Media Builds Relationships

These practices put in the effort for excellent costumes and a lot of people saw their posts, but visibility for visibility’s sake is not enough to build trust in your business. You need to give people a look into your practice culture and what patients can expect in your office.

And what do these photos say about these practices? They says that these are places where the team and patients are happy, comfortable and having fun. And in the minds of prospective patients who see it, those good feelings are transferred to their beliefs about the practice as a whole.

“If the team enjoys working together this much, then they must provide a great patient experience,” they think.

Your practice’s social media presence alone can be enough to convince ideal potential patients to call for an appointment, switch care providers, or recommend you to family and friends. Regularly post content that is personal, fun, and showcases what makes your practice and team special. This not only builds relationships, it also has a higher chance of being shared—just like these Halloween posts.

My Social Practice provides all the training, tools, and content to help you create content that will build relationships and grow your practice! Request a demo and one of our friendly social media experts will show you step-by-step how we make it incredibly simple. Let’s find your practice’s perfect social media solution!

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Our October Practice of the Month — Columbus Center for Periodontics & Dental Implants

Congratulations to our October Practice of the Month — Columbus Center for Periodontics & Dental Implants!

If you’re looking for an example of how to build patient relationships through remarkable social media, look no further than the team at Columbus Center for Periodontics & Dental Implants! Patients love the excellent experience they have in the practice, and through social media, that experience is continued until their next visit.

The team at Columbus Center for Periodontics & Dental Implants knows how to keep their social media feed fresh and interesting with a variety of content. Whether it’s a fun team photo, a prize giveaway, or a charitable cause, they always have something engaging and relevant for patients and fans to interact with. They say one of the biggest benefits social media is it allows them to show potential patients their fun and caring practice culture!

We reached out to Michelle Gault, office ambassador of the practice, for some insight on how social media is growing their business and what’s been working for them. Take something from what their team has learned to apply in your own social media strategy!

Q&A With Michelle Gault, Office Ambassador

(Responses edited for length and clarity.)

What has been the biggest surprise of social media marketing for you?

“In the beginning, our team was reluctant to participate in some of the photos and videos. After seeing the impact our personal posts have on our patients, our team has surprisingly grown more comfortable with participating. They feel good about the posts and know that without them our patients would still be reluctant to visit the practice.”

Which of your team’s social media efforts have shown to be most effective?

“We feel that posts containing a video paired with a giveaway have been the most successful. Our patients enjoy seeing the other side of our practice and really get involved when we have something to offer for their participation.”

What has been the biggest benefit to your practice and patients since you started using social media?

“Our patient relationships have changed tremendously since utilizing social media. Everyone can now see firsthand how we care about them wholeheartedly. Patients generally do not like to visit dental offices, including ours, and our presence on social media has changed the way patients feel about us before they even meet us. They feel like part of the team before setting foot in the door.”

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

 

What kind of feedback have you gotten from patients about your social media?

“We were unsure if our patients actually took the time to look at and engage with our posts. After taking a bit of a break from posting, several of our patients asked why they hadn’t seen any recent photos and videos from us. This made us realize that they really do see us and want to engage with our practice.”

Thank you for sharing, Michelle! Your team really understands how social media grows dental practices, and we’ve loved watching your online presence grow!

At its core, dental social media marketing is about growing practices through increasing your reach, enhancing your local reputation, and building relationships with patients and potential patients. My Social Practice has remained laser-focused on these key objectives for over a decade as we’ve built the perfect dental social media solution.

Even if you have no social media experience and no time to learn, My Social Practice’s fully-managed solution does all the heavy lifting for you—growing your practice while you focus on serving your patients.

Learn more and request a free demo of our services and we’d love to show you step-by-step how we can make your practice shine online!

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Our September Practice of the Month — Oak Ridge Dental Arts Rockwell

Congratulations to our September Practice of the Month — Oak Ridge Dental Arts Rockwell!

Does it feel like social media marketing is too complicated for your dental practice, and you just don’t have the time or energy to take it on? Take a look at our September Practice of the Month, Oak Ridge Dental Arts Rockwell, and you’ll see that becoming a social dental practice is simpler and more rewarding than you think.

A smart social media strategy focuses on three key things:

1. Increasing Reach
2. Strengthening Relationships
3. Enhancing Reputation

The team at Oak Ridge Dental Arts Rockwell does a great job at all three! They post valuable and fun content to their social media pages regularly, focusing on connecting with people on a personal level. Plus, with over 100 positive patient reviews across Google and Facebook, they are building their reputation as the premier dental practice in their community—and potential patients are noticing.

We reached out to Allie Widenhouse, office manager of the practice, for some insight on how social media is growing their practice and what’s been working for them. Take something from what their team has learned to apply in your own social media strategy!

Q&A With Allie Widenhouse, Office Manager

(Responses edited for length and clarity.)

What has been the biggest surprise of social media marketing for you?

“The love from patients once we started with social media has been amazing. Our motto is, we strive to create a relationship with our patients based on mutual trust, honesty, communication and respect. We are able to fulfill this with the help of social media.”

Which of your team’s social media efforts have shown to be most effective?

“Posting about personal life events of our staff members seems to be the most successful. Our campaigns are always really fun as well as we have great interaction with the patients. We LOVE the Photo Idea Boxes. The props and ideas really help us set time aside and plan ahead.”

How has your social media marketing helped grow your practice?

“It has drawn so many relationships with our patients. It’s such a great conversation starter when the patients come in. We have something mutual to talk about! Social media has made our practice more open and friendly, and patients love how personal we are. We want them to be comfortable and not have the dreadful feeling of walking into a dentist office.”

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

 

 

What one piece of advice would you give to a practice thinking about doing social media marketing?

“Don’t hesitate! Just do what comes to mind! Believe it or not, patients will love your crazy ideas. We love partnering with My Social Practice!”

Thank you, Allie! We love working with you too!

At its core, dental social media marketing is about growing practices through increasing your reach, enhancing your local reputation, and building relationships with patients and potential patients. My Social Practice has remained laser-focused on these key objectives for over a decade as we’ve built the perfect dental social media solution.

Even if you have no social media experience and no time to learn, My Social Practice’s fully-managed solution does all the heavy lifting for you—growing your practice while you focus on serving your patients.

Learn more and request a free demo of our services and we’d love to show you step-by-step how we can make your practice shine online!

 

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3 Quick Tips for a Better Dental Instagram Page

Instagram continues to be one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, and new features are frequently being introduced to make it more useful to businesses. Get your dental practice’s Instagram strategy ready for action with these simple tips.

With well over a billion active users, Instagram is one of the best places to grow your dental practice’s online presence. However, for dental teams still just trying to get a foothold in Facebook, expanding to another platform might sound like too much to take on at once. It’s easier than you think! Top brands and small businesses alike are using Instagram to build relationships and awareness through interesting visual content and fan interaction.

Once you become familiar with the best ways to create and share Instagram content, it becomes a powerful tool in your dental marketing toolkit to help you maintain top-of-mind awareness and introduce your practice to even more potential patients. If you’re ready now to attract and retain ideal patients using Instagram, check out how My Social Practice makes it easy!

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

 

3 Keys to Using Instagram Effectively in Dental Marketing

While the basic fundamentals of social media marketing and creating good content certainly do apply to Instagram, these tips focus more on what makes Instagram unique. Once you have your business profile filled out and your account linked to your practice’s Facebook page, follow these guidelines to help you use the platform to its fullest potential:

1. Post a Photo of Your Team

Our client practices consistently report that one of the best ways to kickstart social media engagement is by sharing photos of team members. When patients become familiar with your team and are engaged on a personal level in return, you strengthen the relationships that allow your practice to thrive.

2. Proactively Engage With Your Followers and Community

Interacting with patients and members of the dental community on Instagram is an excellent way to grow your following, especially for practices just starting out.

Make sure to follow back patients that follow you, and occasionally Like one of their recent photos. Respond when people comment on your posts or tag your practice. Seek out relevant dental hashtags and take part in the conversation. Follow local businesses, doctors, artists, restaurants, and news outlets.

When you follow someone on Instagram, Like one of their photos, or tag their business location, they’ll receive a notification from your account, increasing the likelihood of them following you back. So don’t be shy!

3. Experiment With Promoting Posts

Much like Facebook, Instagram utilizes an algorithm that displays content to users based on how relevant it thinks it is. Simply put, the more fans interact with your Instagram content, the more likely they are to see more of it in the future. On the flip side, if someone doesn’t interact with your content, they may not ever see it again — even if they follow your page!

Promoting (or boosting) a post allows you to invest some money to increase a post’s reach and get it seen by more people, just like how it works on Facebook. Here are some quick guidelines:

• Start small. Boost your best post of the week for $5 and see how much it increases reach and engagement. You can decide to increase your budget from there.
• Include a call-to-action link. Normal Instagram posts do not allow a link in the caption, but promoted ones do. Link to your homepage, Facebook page, or a special offer. For best results, use the same link that you put in your Instagram bio.
• Boost posts that invite interaction. For example, if you run a giveaway that asks people to Like your page to enter to win, that would be ideal to promote.

Make Instagram Part of Your Social Media Strategy

If your practice is not yet on Instagram, get started today! The easiest way to do it would be check out My Social Practice’s comprehensive social media marketing solution for dentists, which allows you to build a vibrant, attractive Instagram page for your dental practice in a snap. Don’t have time? Let us fully manage it for you! Learn more and request a free demo today!

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Our July Practice of the Month — David Toney DDS!

Congratulations to our July Practice of the Month — David Toney DDS!

Getting over the initial doubts about becoming a social practice is a part of the process nearly all our clients face. Sharing your team culture online, involving your team and patients in social media, and asking for reviews all take you out of your comfort zone. But check out David Toney DDS and you’ll see why it’s worth it!

The team at David Toney DDS maintains a fun and well-rounded online presence: they post valuable and fun content to their social media pages regularly and include their team members whenever they can. They also really impressed us with their patient reviews! With nearly 300 patient reviews and a perfect 5.0 score on both Google and Facebook, the team at David Toney DDS has elevated their profile as the premier dental practice in their community—and potential patients are noticing.

We reached out to Laura Braswell, marketing coordinator at David Toney DDS, for some insight on how social media is growing their practice and what’s been working for them. Take something from what their team has learned to apply in your own social media strategy!

Q&A With Laura Braswell, Marketing Coordinator

(Responses edited for length and clarity.)

What has been the biggest surprise of social media marketing for you?

“Patients love pics of the staff. They like to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries with us. It helps us create relationships with them, and they get to know us better. They even bring up what they see from us online during their next visit.”

What are the most significant ways social media marketing has benefited your practice and patients?

“Patients form trust with our practice and staff. They love our online presence. They feel we are an open book and love seeing our fun side.”

What has been the biggest challenge of social media marketing for you?

“Trying to find content and creative things to post. That’s why I love the ideas and creative graphics we get from My Social Practice. We may not be able to use everything, but it gives us a starting point for our online activity.”

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

 

What advice would you give to a practice starting to build their online presence?

“Be consistent, original, and always stay positive with your posts.”

Thanks for sharing, Laura! We’re proud to have your awesome team as one of our valued clients!

Social media marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. As social platforms continue to evolve, using them effectively is less about technical know-how and SEO tricks and more about simply creating engaging, shareable content that sparks interaction.

So even if you have little or no social media experience, there’s never been a better time to start building your dental practice’s online presence. Request a free demo of our services and we’d love to show you step-by-step how we’ll make it happen!

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Our May Practice of the Month — Erin McLendon, DDS!

Congratulations to our May Practice of the Month — Erin McLendon, DDS!

We recently asked over 600 dental practices about the biggest roadblock to building their online presence. Can you guess the top answer? It was “it’s too hard to come up with ideas and create posts.”

Perhaps you’re not surprised, because it’s how you feel in your own practice’s social media efforts.

So this month, learn from the team at Erin McLendon, DDS, who went from searching the web for something to post to easily creating their own unique, personalized and engaging social media content!

Why is consistently posting worthwhile content important? Because search engines and social media platforms are giving more and more priority to content that meets people’s needs, connects with them on a personal level, and is relevant to their interests and communities. And when people come across that type of content, they’re more likely to engage with it — meaning more interaction, strengthened patient relationships, and increased visibility for your practice.

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

 

Q&A With Office Manager Brittany Tadlock

Responses edited for length and clarity.

What’s the most valuable thing you’ve realized about social media marketing?

“Understanding that social media is not just an advertisement you have to actually interact for it to be successful. You can preschedule your posts, but if you are not engaging with comments and replies it is not successful.”

What has been the biggest benefit of your social media efforts for your practice and patients?

“Our patients and community get the opportunity to know our staff and recognize them by name, not just Dr. McLendon. We’ve also seen an increase in follow up visits. If we are constantly in front of a patient on social media, it reminds them to schedule their appointments.”

What sort of feedback have you had from your patients about your social media?

“Patients see us as more personable and not so stiff. We take lots of pictures with patients, pictures of staff with Social Signs, pictures of the office, pictures of patients from the photo booth.”

Thanks for the tips, Brittany!

It’s true that it can be difficult to find the time to post something engaging daily. But our easy-to-use Publisher app makes it simple! My Social Practice clients have access to the world’s largest library of dental-related social media content, with images and pre-written captions you can customize to fit your audience. Plus, you can schedule posts in advance to go out to your accounts when you choose! Get a free demo of the Publisher today!

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How Smart Dental Professionals Handle HIPAA on Social Media

Sharing authentic, engaging social media content that features patients while staying 100% HIPAA-compliant isn’t as complicated as you may think.

HIPAA. Even just reading the word may cause dental professionals to feel a little stressed, and understandably so. Its guidelines are strict, but HIPAA is one of the most important protections patients have in place today.

However, in the age of the connected, savvy consumer brought about by the internet and social media, potential patients want a transparent look into what really goes on inside your practice before they make a decision about whether or not to give you a call. They want to see the experiences that real patients are having with you, and how you treat them.

Because of HIPAA, many dental professionals are scared away from sharing anything at all that involves patients, and they miss valuable opportunities to build reach and relationships with patients and ideal potential patients.

HIPAA doesn’t have to be a stumbling block for your dental practice on social media. Remember that the rules are there to protect patients, not create barriers. By adhering to a few common-sense safeguards and making sure your entire team is trained, you can confidently and comfortably share photos, videos, and other posts involving patients as part of your social media efforts.

HIPAA Guidelines for Dental Professionals on Social Media

1. Don’t post protected patient information or circumstantial details. This may seem obvious, but it can happen if team members aren’t thinking about it. Even if you don’t include a patient’s name, assume that a patient’s information can still be traced if you post about the circumstances.

2. Don’t assume information is private. If something is online, chances are that it will stay online in one form or another. Deleting a tweet or removing a Facebook post doesn’t guarantee that information is gone, so it’s essential that dental professionals catch HIPAA violations before they ever make it to social media.

3. Create a practice social media policy. Having a written policy and training your team on it ensures that everyone in the practice is on the same page and familiar with your approach to social media.

4. Make your practice’s “social media champion” someone that understands HIPAA. The fewer people that post to social media on behalf of your office, the better. It’s generally a good idea to only have one or two people in charge of social media for your dental practice. Choose team members that understand HIPAA’s rules and have dedicated time to check social media activity on your pages.

5. Get signed consent from patients first. There may be times where you want to share a
patient testimonial or answer a question sent to you on social media. It’s important to have the patient’s signed consent before posting, and even after receiving consent, keep as much personal information private as possible.

Download our Printable HIPAA Authorization Form

Every time your practice shares any post that includes or refers to a patient, it’s necessary to obtain their signed consent. A good HIPAA release form will cover a few simple items:

1. What the patient is authorizing: permission for your practice to share a photo or video on your social media accounts.
2. The purpose of the authorization: social media and/or advertising.
3. The patient’s power to revoke the authorization and the expiration date of this power.
4. The option for the patient to receive a copy of the form.
5. Who the patient is authorizing: your practice name.
6. Space for the patient, or parent/guardian of a minor, to sign and date.

If you have questions regarding how to create a HIPAA release form for your specific circumstances, consult with your practice attorney.

Or Let Our Dental HIPAA App Handle Everything

With My Social Practice, posting HIPAA-compliant patient photos is as easy as snap, send, share. Our state-of-the-art HIPAA mobile app features the easiest way to share photos that include patients—simply, securely, and in 100% compliance with regulations.

We know that in everything you do in your practice, patient safety and comfort come first. Here at My Social Practice, we believe that same level of responsibility and patient care is vital in social media marketing as well.

Snap a pic with our iOS/Android Publisher app, and you’ll be prompted to text a link to the patient included in the photo to ask for their approval to share it. Your patient will be guided through a few intuitive, easy-to-understand steps to give you permission to share the photo to your practice’s social media accounts.

People like to do business with people they know, and the My Social Practice provides the best way to share content that showcases the people and culture of your practice, all in 100% compliance with HIPAA. Discover how easy it is to start growing your practice with social media by requesting a free demo!

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