Social media management for your dental practice: Who’s in charge?

Who’s managing your
social media presence? As practices launch or expand their social
media marketing — whether on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat —
someone needs to be in charge and accountable. In some cases,
practices may have multiple team members handling the
responsibility or they may outsource.

If you are managing or intend to manage social media internally,
do you have a social media manager job description in place? Do you
have an annual plan or calendar with ideas and dental topics
you’d like to focus on? Some practices find knowing what message
they want to convey to existing and potential patients helps them
develop their plan and content.

“We found over the years that organic growth worked best when
we as a team shared more personal pics in the office, or in our
community,” said Dr. Jill Wade, of Stonebriar Smile Design in
Frisco, Texas. “We get most likes and shares when we host
specials and events compared to generic dental education. Followers
do respond to our authentic voice on procedures. So, we assign each
team member a unique post/blog and work it into our pre-planned
yearly calendar.”

“I love and I’ve found our patients and community love it
when we post candid, authentic content that highlights our team,”
said Dr. Christopher Kerns, of Primo Smiles in Cynthiana, Kentucky.
“Our most engaging posts and the ones that connect us the most to
our community are the ones that give them insight into who we are,
what our vision and culture is without outright saying it. We take
quick, genuine photos of our day-to-day that show us as fun,
caring, knowledgeable, energetic, compassionate and professional,
that’s what we want to convey.”

Some dentists think it’s important for them to be hands on and
manage their social media. Dr. Larry Dougherty of Rolling Oaks
Dental shares his experience:

“I’ve been managing my practice’s social media for almost
seven years now,” said Dr. Dougherty. “I post once a week,
typically Friday morning, and it’s just part of my routine. I
typically create my posts in Instagram and copy the content to
Facebook and Twitter. If a Facebook post is doing well organically,
I boost it to a target group around my area. Quality and
consistency are key. Keep long term sustainability in mind when
planning a strategy.

“My philosophy and game plan is constantly evolving,” Dr.
Dougherty added. “Most of my inspiration for content creation
ideas comes from other small businesses, not necessarily other
dentists. As a matter of fact, I deliberately try to avoid what
most other dentists are doing. So many dentists link to reviews,
dental education, silly pictures of cartoon teeth or sales-related
content. Building a practice is about building relationships, so I
like to think about social media content creation as the beginning
of building a relationship.”

If you are delegating your social media management to an
internal team member, Ginny Hegarty, a senior professional in human
resources, recommends establishing accountability for the social
media marketing deliverables by setting crystal clear expectations.
“Analytics may include engagement, acquisition and/or conversion
metrics,” Ms. Hegarty said. “These key indicators might include
page and post likes, comments, shares, number of blog subscribers,
click-through rates, cost-per-click, new patient enrollment or
patient retention.

“If you are not measuring, you are guessing,” Ms. Hegarty
added. “The practice’s social media manager should create the
format or utilize the tools available for the data analysis in
collaboration with the practice manager, doctor and/or external
social media
consultant.”

In addition, you can access data about your social media growth
and success via Facebook’s Business Page Insights. Facebook
Insights has reports and graphs that represent how many people your
content is reaching as well as whether your page likes are growing,
and most importantly, what type of content is resonating with
patients — how many people are viewing, clicking, liking or
commenting on your content.

If you and your team do not have the time, interest or skill set
to manage social media, know there are many options to outsource or
partner with seasoned professionals who understand the nuances of
social media for dental professionals. (Keep in mind the dentist is
still ultimately responsible for maintaining patients’ privacy
and ensuring social media posts do not violate Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act rules).

I recommend you familiarize yourself with the examples and
information above so you know what to look for in a social media
manager or vendor — and what results are reasonable. Be sure to
ask for examples of dental practice social media accounts the
vendor is managing, content samples, and references to visualize
your options and set expectations.

This blog post, republished with permission, originally appeared
in the
winter 2019 issue of the ADA’s Dental Practice Success. It
was written by Rita Zamora. Ms. Zamora and her team provide
customized social media marketing services for general dentists and
specialists. Since 2008, they’ve worked with hundreds of dental
professionals worldwide to train them in authentic and valuable
online interactions. Learn more at RitaZamora.com.

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