Interacting with your patients - what should a dental clinic post on social media?

Your social media followers are your loyal audience. Some are following you because they are grateful for the molars restored, while others liked the consultation over the phone. The function of social media is to support and increase your audience's loyalty. 

This powerful tool can create trust in the clinic's expertise, and a sense of liking and knowing. This will prompt the customer to remember you next time they need dental assistance.
You can engage the precious attention of your followers by promoting 3 types of content:

INFORMATION

Dentistry is not a simple product. You need to explain how things work in detail and provide extensive advice on the smile and oral health of your potential customers. There are always important things to know prior to an appointment and there is always something less evident that needs discussing.

Post ideas

• Answering customers' most frequent questions. If the answers turn out to be relevant and satisfy the readers, it will add another point to your perceived expertise.
• Behind the scenes. What happens in your dental lab that makes the patients’ teeth feel natural after implantation?
• News jacking. This is the news that you create for your followers on your own. Share photos of the new advanced dental tool you’ve recently added to your clinic and share how it can benefit your patients.
• Meeting the clinic’s team. It’s all about people! Your audience will enjoy knowing who’s on your stuff. Share the contribution to the clinic's success and how you appreciate it.
• Advice. How can your patient eliminate the discomfort caused by cold food or drinks without seeing a dentist? This information would be especially useful in the summer.
• Before and after photographs:  Photographs of the same teeth before and after the treatment help decrease the patients’ anxiety before an appointment and gain trust if the photograph depicts your cosmetic mastery in the best possible light.
• Practice: When you have a professional audience, it is highly beneficial to have live and interactive sessions in which you provide explanations about different procedures while answering your audience questions
• Trends: Share what you’ve lately found new and interesting in your domain expertise. It can be on a recent topic your company researched on or something from an external source which you appreciate.

ENTERTAINMENT

Do not overwhelm your readers with too much information even if it is useful. Let your audience relax from everything that they have read in their newsfeed, and let them have fun too. In this category, they’d love to see cool photos of your dog in the park or anything else that invites a big smile :)

SELLING CONTENT

This refers to the content that should lead customers into a specific action or emotion toward the clinic or your services.

Post ideas

• Interesting offers that are hard to refuse. Offer  “free hygiene on Mondays” or  “1 month dental care set” to the patients undergoing a major procedure.
• Use content. This includes situations such as when your patient takes a selfie with your doctor and posts about it or when a patient posts feedback on visiting your clinic and/or using your services.
• Opinion leaders' feedback and your clients' feedback on their experience in your clinic.

Use social media to the maximum, it doesn’t have to be specifically you but rather one of the clinic’s team members who’s more into it. The important thing is that it will be genuine and authentic. Once it will become a natural part of your daily routine, you’ll find out that it can be a worthwhile investment into your relationship with your patients.