The Reality Regarding The Increasing Role Of Social Media In Dental Marketing

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn offer unique opportunities for dental professionals trying to market their independent practices.

Patients who are considering becoming patients are increasingly taking advantage of social media as an element of their lives. The most interesting thing is that the trend isn’t just limited to those who are young. The over-50 crowd is becoming social media users in alarming amounts.

Intriguing Numbers

Dentists can’t afford to overlook this fact. Facebook boasts more than one million active members around the world. A.C. Nielsen reports that more than 80 percent of American adult users use an online social media site.

Facebook has the largest share in this regard, and Americans are using more of Facebook than any other site. Nearly 23% of time a typical user spends online is spent on social media.

These dental social media posts are prompting an increasing number of professional and small-sized enterprises such as dentists, to think about harnessing the enormous potential of social media to enhance their marketing.

Advantage For Dentists

Independent dental professionals are in a distinct advantage similar to other small companies, when it comes to changing their marketing strategies to social media.

Zoomerang is a renowned online survey firm, carried out an investigation of 1,180 medium and small enterprises (SMBs) along with 500 of their customers; to discover the factors that are driving SMBs and independent professionals to make use of the power of marketing that social media has to offer. It identified three major reasons:

•       A high degree of visibility to a large amount of people
•         Personalised communication with potential clients
•         Self-promotion and personal image enhancement

Dentists who haven’t realised the potential of social media need to be aware that it’s not only a tool for creating relationships, but is also an effective tool to run their business.

Crowdspring, the most popular marketplace for crowdsourcing, has revealed these data:

Over half of professionals and SMBs report that they have gained new clients via social media, particularly via Facebook.

64% of users on Twitter and 51 percent Of Facebook customers are more inclined to buy items or services offered by the companies they follow on social networks.

It is possible to achieve results without spending a lot on social media. The majority of small companies invest less than $100 and 74% don’t have an employee who manages their social marketing campaigns on social media.

SEO As Well As Social Media

Good social media marketing for dentists ought to be able to rank highly on organic searches. Search engines like Google are increasingly giving importance to sites that integrate with active social media.

Search engines use social media to provide one of the more trustworthy sources of evidence to judge the quality of a site from the perspective of internet users. For example, if people share useful content from your dental website via Facebook or Twitter it’s an indication to aid the search engine assess the worth and importance of your site.

Every mention or link to your website’s name on social networks is considered in search engine results as an affirmation or endorsement of your content by people who browse the Internet. Therefore, your rankings on search engines improve when more users “vote” on your site on social media.

Dentists can improve their social media presence by providing relevant, unique and extremely useful bits in their followers frequently. Intriguing blog posts, interesting informational articles, patient testimonials as well as ebooks, case studies and web links that are useful and engaging and informative videos and photos can be shared on the dentist’s social media accounts to earn higher “votes” from readers.

Online Reputation Management

One way is that active social media networks can allow a dental practice to get ahead in the results of a search engine (SERPs). On the other hand it can aid a dentist in maintaining an excellent online reputation.

The Internet is in essence a free medium, which makes it very difficult to manage an individual’s online image and reputation. For instance, third-party reviews using the Internet can ruin or destroy the reputation of a professional and there’s no way for professionals to take action to stop it.

However, with a higher amount of dental Facebook marketing that can be individualised over social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Flickr It is now feasible for professionals like a dentist to control his or her web presence in a more efficient manner.

The Importance Of Content Created By Users

The best recommendation for a dentist is from the patients. The amount of marketing and advertising will match the effect positive reviews can have for a potential new patient.

This is the kind of content that users create on social media is all about from the standpoint of a dentist. eMarketer is a leading Internet analysis and research firm that claims that about 65% of Internet internet users aged between 18 and 24 read the content or comments that are available on social networks prior to making a purchase decision on any item or service.

If a dentist puts in the time and effort to create an impressive online presence on social networks, the result could be awe-inspiring.

More Reach To Your Desired Public

Social media gives dentists the possibility of reaching the largest number of new patients with the most cost-effective marketing costs per patient. When compared to other types of marketing and advertising it can be the most effective because it takes the most effort, time, and funds, and can yield the best performance.

The amazing potential of social networks stems in the simple fact every one of your followers and supporters have their own followers and followers. So If just your follower on Twitter posts a tweet that is interesting about dentistry you shared on the internet, it will instantly be shared with 100 followers, assuming that an average active Twitter user has 100 followers.

Professionally Gaining Clout

One of the most overlooked benefits of social media for dentists is the improvement of their standing as professionals. Alongside communicating with potential patients within the region in which the practice is situated dentists can also enhance their connection with other professionals in the field.

This could include top dentists from anywhere in the globe, possible business partners, journalists as well as experts in marketing and public relations and thought leaders in the field of dentistry, dental event and conference organisers, as well as other industry influencers.

Engaging in social media can help dentists make new connections that can aid in promoting the practice. This could provide opportunities for speaking engagements conferences, invitations to speak at, finding organisations to sponsor community activities and most importantly knowing about the most recent advancements regarding dentistry across the globe.

Working With Experts

To increase the chances of success of their practice through marketing on social media dentists can collaborate with expert social networking experts or firms with experience in social media marketing.

Internet marketing companies with specialisation in promoting dental social media content could be the most ideal partner for dentists in order to develop and manage effective social media campaigns.