By Lucy McCarthy, Marketer at Hive Business.
You’ve heard the saying ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’, well the same concept can apply to your dental practice’s social media accounts. It’s far better to do one platform brilliantly than five accounts in a ‘slapdash’ manner.
Each profile has a different format, for example, Twitter provides a snapshot of what is happening right now, LinkedIn is a professional network for promoting yourself and Instagram is for sharing images. There are plenty of ways the use of social media could enhance your business and your presence will raise awareness for your dental practice and give you a platform in which you can update your followers on the latest from your practice. However, if you’re not using the platforms properly, your social media accounts could be bad for business.
Here’s why:
It gives people a giant megaphone
Your social media accounts mean that people have access to your current and potential new patients (in the form of your followers/ connections). For example, if someone writes a negative review on your Facebook page or complains about you on Twitter and you aren’t managing that account, your reputation will suffer as a consequence.
Ensuring you have a platform where your patients can contact you (be it for good or bad reasons), means it is easier for you to monitor your reputation and create an appropriate, timely response. Where possible always request negative reviewers call you or visit you at the practice to ensure it can be resolved offline. If it goes well, they may even retract their negative review.
If you have a profile you don’t check regularly you could be missing out on comments from your patients, if you let people know you have a profile that you use, at least you can keep track of the feedback you’re receiving.
It’s way past its use by date
Have you set up a social media profile, posted a few pictures, updated the information and then just left it to go stale? This is one way to create a poor first impression. If you’ve not logged into your account in the last few months and do not intend to keep it up to date regularly, I suggest you delete the account. We’ve seen accounts with old telephone numbers, links that go nowhere and pictures of staff members who left years ago.
If you would like to create a positive impression of your practice, simply keep your profile on brand, up to date and full of engaging content.
The content struggle is real
Are you finding it tricky to post content each week? This could be a clear indicator that this platform just isn’t right for your business. It makes more sense to use one social media platform, with a clear content strategy, than lots of different platforms with sporadic posts that aren’t necessarily suitable for that platform.
We often see Twitter and Facebook pages linked so that they post the same content. This is not good practice and you really need to tailor your content for the platform you’re using. For instance, you only have 140 characters in a tweet compared with the 63,206 character limit on Facebook. This means your great Facebook post is only marginally carried through to Twitter, it also adds a link back to Facebook which can be irritating for the user. Additionally, hashtags (#) are great to use in abundance on Instagram, on Twitter however, it’s best to keep it to no more than three and if you’re linking Facebook with Instagram just consider that your post will be full of hashtags which can look a bit messy.
If you haven’t already, create a content plan for the next few months to give you a clear guide to the type of content you’ll be posting each week. It’s great to post topical things too. You’ll need to post these on an ad-hoc basis to ensure it is relevant (there’s no point scheduling a news story you found today in three months time). This can help you balance your content within each profile as well as tailoring the character length of your posts to suit the platform.
Don’t get us wrong, each practice needs to consider every social media platform and if it fits your demographic and wider marketing plan, by all means, proceed. The trouble is, we see so many old social media accounts set up just for the sake of it that really are doing more damage than good. We suggest picking the platform which you know works for you. If you’re not sure which platform that is, ask yourself:
- Does this social media platform fit with my wider marketing plan?
- Are my patients or potential new patients using this platform?
- Do I have the time or someone who I can trust to manage this platform properly?
- Will I have regular, relevant content to post on this platform?
If you answer yes to those questions, that platform is good to invest your time and energy into. If you answer no to any of those questions you ought to consider using a different platform or investing your time into another marketing tactic.
If you’re already using a platform, ask yourself this question: Have I got any new business from this platform in the last 12 months? If you haven’t you ought to review your content strategy and refine it. To get you started, some elements you can review include:
- The level of audience engagement
- What sort of content is popular/ unpopular on your page
- Your current followers (who are they and are they relevant to your practice?)
- Social media advertising opportunities
If you need help with your social media presence or if you’d like a social media audit for your dental business, get in touch on 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.
