social media for dentist Archives

Dental Marketing: Pinterest Seeing More Health-Related Searches

January 8, 2013 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Social media site Pinterest is seeing more health-related searches than it has since it launched in March 2010, according to Lisa Israel, a spokeswoman for Pinterest.

Depending on your dental patient demographic, Pinterest is becoming a social media site that shouldn’t be ignored in your 2013 dental marketing plan.

Pinterest has quickly become the 3rd most popular social media site behind Facebook and Twitter.

Women ages 25 – 34 use Pinterest with most averaging 1 hour and 17 minutes per visit and shoppers referred by Pinterest are 10% more likely to make a purchase than visitors arriving at a website by other sources. Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. A call-to-action pin sees an 80% increase in engagement. (Source: Mashable)

Pinterest generates over 4 times as much revenue per click as Twitter and 27% more revenue per click than Facebook. (Source: Converto)

Dental photographs have always been indispensable in maximum case acceptance. Teeth whitening and braces are the most popular dental “pins” on Pinterest following the trend for users to save (or pin) their self-improvement plans with before and after photographs.

Think about Pinterest as more of an online “to-do” or “want” list in images that link to the websites where the images are found. This is the traffic power behind using Pinterest. Pinterest users “scrapbook” their ideas, hobbies, passions, wants, needs, and inspiration with the world when they “pin” images to their virtual boards.

Members are able to follow each other and comment, just like other social media platforms. They also share their boards with each other.

Here are 7 ways a dental practice can use Pinterest for dental marketing –

1. Share images of your dental practice, both inside and out.

2. Share your before and after photos from those dental patients who have given permission to share their images online. Use ideas from your case acceptance presentations.

3. Encourage your dental patients to share their images on your boards. Consider ideas like “My dental patients graduating this year” and invite them to post their graduation photos with their beautiful smiles.

4. Share new dental equipment.

5. Even share the things you enjoy and you may find many patients who share your passions for trout fishing, race cars, or golf.

6. If you have dental patients who are getting married, ask them to share a couple of their wedding photographs.

7. Women are even planning their weddings on Pinterest. Think of the services you can offer a prospective bride that she may want to include on her wedding planning boards for things she wants to get done before the big day.

Dentists must be present in more places online, and recognize that dental patients increasingly want to engage in social media, regardless of the platform.

Broadening your dental marketing to include image boards on Pinterest is a simple new way to showcase your dental practice in a positive light. To see The Wealthy Dentist dental marketing ideas on Pinterest, visit The Wealthy Dentist’s Pinterest Page for more details.

6 Internet Dental Marketing Tips on What to Share on Social Media

October 23, 2012 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Utilizing various social media sites as part of your Internet dental marketing plan will provide you with the ability to connect with potential dental patients directly.

Your online presence is more than putting up a dental website and having a local Google business listing; it’s about being transparent and connecting with your community on a more personal level.

But this is still difficult for many dentists and small business owners alike.

According to Manta, the provider of information on U.S. and International companies, nearly 50% of small business owners say the most valuable benefit of networking online is gaining and targeting prospective customers. Moreover, 78% of business owners who were surveyed said they gained at least a quarter of their new customers through online or social media channels this year.

However, the recent The Wealthy Dentist survey revealed that the sheer volume of online and social media channels available today can be overwhelming for small business owners to navigate and use successfully. 58% of small businesses said that they struggle to find value in using Facebook to promote their business or don’t have a page at all.

This leaves many dentists and small business owners confused as to what they should be doing with social media.

First, remember that all networking take time to build real connections and networking online is no different. And just because people may not be responding, does not mean that they don’t enjoy what you are offering on your social media channels.

Here are 6 Internet dental marketing tips for what to share on social media —
1. Share how you are different.
You may have the best dental office staff, the most convenient location, or years of experience practicing dentistry — all valuable content to be shared on your social media channels. What problem do you solve better than your competition? Solve that problem through social media.
2. Show support for your community.
Feature events like local football games, soccer games and school fundraisers. Show that you are active in your community.
3. Share your favorite things.
Tell readers about your favorite local restaurant, favorite toothbrush, favorite golf club, or whatever allows the public to get to know you a little better and feel comfortable when visiting your dental practice.
4. Offer specials.
If you’ve decided to offer free teeth cleaning with a check up, be sure to let your online public know too.
5. Promote yourself.
Share your dental education, what you enjoy about dentistry, and what dental specialties you are trained to perform. If you are a bicycle enthusiast, share images of your bike, or photos from your latest ride. Share photos of your family, of your pets, and other hobbies you enjoy. Share where you like to volunteer. People like to do business with someone they trust. Sharing information about yourself is a way to build that trust before that dental patient walks into your waiting room.
6. Connect with other professionals.
Use social media to connect with other professionals in your community and to follow local businesses, business leaders, and local community organizations.

Dentists often need all the help they can get to establish a social media plan and maintain momentum. Set a schedule for doing something small on social media every day.

Social media can offer significant support to your Internet dental marketing plan by allowing your dental practice to remain connected to the community while driving more traffic to your dental website.

How have you used social media to support your dental practice? Do you feel its been a success?

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Marketing, dental marketing strategy, dental marketing tools, dental practice marketing, Internet dental marketing, marketing, social media, social media for dentist

10 Ways Dentists Can Use Pinterest to Engage Dental Patients

July 24, 2012 By Jim Du Molin 2 Comments

According to Pinterest’s own statistics, 68% of the site’s users are women in their 30s and 40s and 45% access the site to research products or services.

With more than 11 million people visiting Pinterest monthly, it’s one marketing vector that dentists might want to take a good look at to see how they can participate.

Users spend an average of 38 minutes daily on the site searching images and sharing what they like, while saving site images to different “pin boards.”

Here are 10 ways dentists can use Pinterest to engage dental patients:

1. Share your favorite local spots.
Is there a state park, golf course, beach, or hike where you like to go to relax? Share photos of these places with links back to your dental website (this can be done when you hit “edit” on your pinned images).

2. Share your (and your staff’s) favorite local restaurants.
Do you ever take photos with your phone of great meals you are about to enjoy at a local restaurant? Share these with your dental patients on Pineterest.

3. Share oral health tips.
Do you have oral health recommendations you often share with patients, like the proper way to floss or how to know when a cavity is starting? Do you have images that you can share?

4. Share images from your office.
Moms love to share fun images from dental practices that kids, who have anxiety around visiting the dentist, will enjoy. Take photos of your toy prizes and the fun things kids like about your dental practice and share them on their own Pinterest board.

5. Before and after shots.
Show off your before and after images on Pinterest. Showcase your teeth whitening successes and other ways you have improved your dental patient’s smiles.

6. Share your videos.
You can share your dental practice videos on Pinterest. Create a board just to share your office videos and testimonials.

7. Share daily deals or coupons.
Share any specials that you are running. Teeth whitening specials are very popular on Pinterest.

8. Share your sponsorships.
Do you sponsor any local teams? Invite your patients to share their game photos with you on Pinterest and re-pin them to their own board on your Pinterest page.

9. Share foods to avoid.
Share images of the foods you’d like your dental patients to stay away from. Create a healthy eating Pinterest board and share your favorite vegetable recipes that work with kids. Your moms will love you for this.

10. Share celebrity smiles.
Share images of your dental patient’s favorite celebrities.

Smart dentists are already on Pinterest and doing a great job at setting up some interesting boards. Taylor Dentistry is one such dental practice that does a nice job of showing what is possible with a dental practice Pinterest page. They feature images of their dentists, celebrity smiles, tooth fairy ideas, ideas for adult dental patients, and their kids. It’s a great start to a dental practice Pinterest page.

Taylor Dentistry on Pinterest –

Another great dentist Pinterest page is Gentle Dental Care out of Queens, New York. Since brides love planning their weddings on Pinterest, Gentle Dental Care has included a wedding season board on their Pinterest page.

Gentle Dental Care on Pinterest –

Even The Wealthy Dentist has our own Pinterest page where we share dental marketing ideas with dentists.

The Wealthy Dentist on Pinterest –

Are you a dentist on Pinterest? If so, come follow us at pinterest.com/wealthydentist. If you aren’t on Pinterest yet, and would like an invite, let us know in the comments and we will send you a Pinterest invite.

Let us hear your thoughts about using Pinterest for interacting with dental patients.

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Marketing, dentist, dentistry, dentists, Internet dental marketing, pinterest, social media, social media for dentist

Dentists Get Facebook Support Targeting New Dental Patients

July 3, 2012 By Jim Du Molin 677 Comments

Jim Du Molin has been spending a lot of time on Facebook… that is, working on how dentists can get the most out of it.

Just this week a study from Internet research firm comScore disclosed that marketing on Facebook can actually help increase a company’s profits.

In the study, those exposed to Starbuck’s message on Facebook were 38% more likely than the typical Facebook user to make a purchase in the four weeks that followed. Target Corp. saw a 21% increase in the same time frame.

Jim doesn’t want you to fall behind these latest dental marketing trends, so he’s now including full Facebook support in his “New Patient Marketing Machine,” letting dentists embed pages from their websites within their profiles!

Click to learn how to get your website on Facebook…

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Marketing, dental marketing with Facebook, dentist, dentistry, dentists, Facebook, Facebook pages, Internet dental marketing, marketing, social media, social media for dentist

10 Top Ways Dentists Can Engage Dental Patients on Facebook

March 27, 2012 By Jim Du Molin 489 Comments

Many dentists worry about the number of Facebook followers when they really should be worrying whether their followers are reading and enjoying what they are posting on Facebook.

The difference between Facebook and other dental marketing efforts is that a dental practice needs to invest a little bit of time on Facebook.

This small amount of extra time can go a long way and can even provide a rewarding experience as dental patients begin to provide feedback and communicate directly with you and your dental practice.

It really doesn’t require more than an hour a week, but you have to know exactly what works on Facebook so you aren’t wasting your valuable time and dental marketing efforts.

The Top 10 Ways Dentists Can Engage Dental Patients on Facebook —

1. Ask questions.
Asking questions of your dental patients is a great way to engage them on your dental marketing Facebook Page. Ask them fun questions like what their favorite dental chair is in your office, or what they think of recent changes to Facebook (there are always changes to Facebook that you can ask them about). Facebook users love discussing Facebook.

2. Share personal stories with photos.
Share images of you and your office staff on Halloween when everyone is dressed in costume, or St. Patrick’s day when everyone is wearing green, but use these fun images as a way to engage your Facebook fans into sharing what it is about your dental practice they enjoy.

3. Hold a contest.
Create a contest strictly for your Facebook fans. Maybe host a Facebook trivia contest where your fans are asked to guess something about their favorite dentist… your favorite color, your favorite restaurant, your favorite hobby, etc., and offer a prize to the winner. Maybe, if they guess the right answer to your favorite restaurant, you can team up with that restaurant to offer the winner dinner for two as the prize.

4. Cross-promote neighborhood businesses.
Is there a local restaurant where you always enjoy lunch, or a place you like to take your children? Why not promote their Facebook Page? Do some of your patients have businesses you enjoy? Think about talking about them and their business on your Facebook dental marketing page.

5. Post Facebook content when your dental patients are online.
Most dentists post their Facebook updates during the work day — not before 6:00am or after 6:00pm. Marketing research has discovered that content posted outside of 9:00am – 5:00pm timeframe had higher user engagement rates than posts made during the work day. Many working moms like to visit Facebook before their kids are up in the morning or after they have gone to bed. Think about offering them something during these hours.

6. Share employee recognition.
Is there an employee whom your patients seem to love? Do you reward your employees on a regular basis? Think about sharing this recognition with your dental patient fans on Facebook.

7. Highlight your community service.
Does your dental practice sponsor a local baseball team or high school football team? Think about posting their game schedule or their losses and wins and ask your fans to attend their games in support. Ask patients to upload photos of the games they attend.

8. Use check-in deals on Facebook.
Facebook allows people to check-in to a business using the mobile Facebook app on their smart phone. To encourage your dental patients to use this app and make an appointment with your dental practice you can create a check-in deal for your page. Maybe you offer those patients who use this mobile marketing app something extra at your practice like a teeth whitening treatment they can use within the year.

9. Offer dental care tips.
Post dental care tips detailing ways in which your patients can take care of their teeth to avoid cavities, or gum disease. Think about all the ways you can help your dental patients protect their teeth, or offer signs of dental problems to watch out for — especially with their children.

10. Ask your followers for content.
Ask your Facebook fans for sugar-free recipes — or for ways they have convinced their small children to brush their teeth before bed. Ask your fans to offer up solutions to common issues with dental care. Highlight and talk about the best solutions from your fans.

Sit down and think about how you are utilizing Facebook for your dental practice and come up with a plan for interacting with your dental patients online.

I hope this inspires you to engage with your Facebook fans in new and compelling ways that add to your dental practice bottom line.