According to Statista.com, there are 193.8 million active Facebook users in the United States as of April, 2024, and 169.65 million Instagram users as of January, 2024. If you think your dental practice doesn’t need to be active on social media, think again.
Social media gives your office a great way to interact with and engage your patients.
Not only is a way to engage, but a robust and active social media presence can:
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate referrals
- Increase traffic to your website
- Improve search engine rankings
- And much, much more
When your dental office is online, there’s a fine line about the activity of your account that should be kept in mind. Knowing where that line is will prevent you from being ignored, overlooked, or simply becoming obnoxious. So, how often should you post to your social media accounts?
Not Too Much
Are your Instagram or Facebook posts blowing up everyone’s news feeds? Are they so long that it takes people 10 minutes just to sit down and read the entire thing? Short and sweet is one of the best rules of thumb to follow. Give your patients and prospects just enough information to have what they need, but will still want to come into or call your office for the answers they’re looking for.
Similarly, don’t post everything back to back. Your social media presence should be spread out over the course of the week or month, not piled on at one time. For maximum visibility, post your content during times your patients are likely to be checking their feeds. There are many useful tools within Meta Business Suite for Facebook, but one in particular will tell you exactly when your users are most active. This eliminates the guesswork when posting. Also, make sure you aren’t posting content just for the sake of posting content, but instead focus on taking your time to create interesting blogs or news for your followers. It’s just as easy for someone to hide or block your updates as it is to follow you.
Not Too Little
If you’re trying to manage your social media accounts on your own, you have to make sure that you have enough quality time to sit down and give it the attention that it deserves. One or two posts a month aren’t going to be enough. Your online presence should be a living, breathing, active source that patients go to for the latest information.
Here are 5 fun and engaging social media content ideas:
- Staff introductions
- Current promotions you’re running
- Upcoming community events
- Patient success stories/before and after treatment posts
- Educational posts about common dental concerns
Just Right
If you seem to run into issues with not knowing the right content to post or finding the time to post, investing in a company to help you with your online presence can do wonders for your patient engagement. This prevents you from taking work hours out of your busy schedule, and gives you the highest quality of proven tactics to reach patients in the best way possible. Marketing has changed—and social media is a key factor in retaining and recruiting your patients. For more ideas on how to market your dental practice through social media, click here.
