•         Group: Dentist Network
•         Subject: New comment (31) on “As a Dentist how do you view Social Media for your practice? Is it a benefit, is it Useless, or is it a Nuisance?”

I just recently started a social media campaign. After speaking to several Internet Marketing companies that offer social media services to dentists, I realized that I could setup Facebook and Twitter accounts on my own. Well, I didn’t exactly do it on my own. I enlisted the help of my website designer who knows far more about Internet marketing and SEO than I. In the first month, my Facebook page attracted one new patient. Here’s how it happened:

I posted five dental patient video testimonials to my facebook wall. Three of the five patients in the videos happened to have Facebook accounts of their own. So, I submitted requests to those three patients and became friends with them via the Facebook system. Next, I “tagged” the video testimonials that corresponded to those patients, now listed as my friends on Facebook, indicating that the patient appeared in the video. After tagging each video with the patient’s name, the video automatically appeared on that patient’s Facebook wall with a link to my Facebook page for all their friends to see. This was free advertising. 

Each patient had over a hundred Facebook friends, so lots of people saw the videos. Because my name and picture were also connected to each video, it was possible for people to visit my Facebook profile and read more about my dental practice. One patient’s best friend quickly requested to be my friend on Facebook and setup a consultation at my office.

I got lucky, because three of the five patients in the videos already had Facebook accounts. The other two patients didn’t have a Facebook account. Additionally, I had to become friends with those patients in the videos that had Facebook accounts, before I could successfully tag the videos with their names and have the videos appear on their Facebook walls for all to see. It took some time and effort to post the videos, submit the friend requests, tag the videos after becoming friends with the patients, etc. But the time and effort required was well worth it, because it resulted in a new patient.

Now, I realize the same thing could be done with before & after photos of patients. Yet, it is necessary for the patient to have a Facebook account and, hopefully, have a large network of friends who will see the photos and get interested in the dentist who did the work. I’m sure there are even more opportunities for a dentist to use Facebook to market his or her practice.
Posted by Howard Steinberg, DMD, MDS