How do you create a Facebook page for your dental private practice that will convince people to book an appointment with you?d
Maintaining a Facebook page is challenging for dentists whose hands are already full from managing their dental office. Do you have an inactive Facebook page? Is your Facebook page lacking foot traffic? Here I will go over ten fundamental tips that you can apply right now to help grow your dental Facebook page. We will also go over the best dental Facebook pages, what they are doing right, and what you can learn from them.
Don’t have time to manage your Facebook page?
1. Fully complete your profile.
Having a complete profile will help your Facebook page look more credible to prospective patients. Facebook makes finding contact information for businesses easy by allocating the top left side for it. When you include your clinic’s address within this section, Facebook will automatically embed a navigation map. This feature is great as it helps patients easily locate your dental clinic.
Having a fully completed profile will also rank you higher in Facebook searches.
Another important mention within this section is to let your patients know the updated hours of operation for your clinic. Since COVID-19 has affected business operations, patients are unsure of how it has impacted your clinic’s services.
Make sure to add a description! The description part of your Facebook page will help prospective patients understand what your dental practice is about. Additionally, this aspect of your page will help set the tone for what kind of character your clinic is as a whole. Your description should represent your clinic’s doctors and hygienists as being friendly, kind, or welcoming.
Research primary and secondary dental keywords like you would for SEO for a blog article on your website, and put those in your description as well. It’ll increase your Facebook page’s rankings and make it rank higher than other dentists who don’t do it.
2. Make sure to secure your Facebook URL.
It is important to secure your Facebook URL before another person or group takes it. Within your Facebook page settings, you should be able to edit your Facebook URL. Or you can also use this shortcut facebook.com/username.
URLs will make sharing your page simpler and help patients find you easier. A key tip for an effective URL is to keep it short. For instance, you can use your clinic’s name or any closely related words to your clinic if some URLs are already claimed. Keeping the URL four words or less is a good range.
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3. Build an online persona.
How can you stand out among the thousands of dental Facebook pages? A great way to differentiate yourself is to build an online persona. This will help patients understand your clinic on a more personal but still professional level.
People relate more to other people rather than a brand. For example, do more people relate to Kim Kardashian or PepsiCo? Kim Kardashian of course. Therefore, it is important to develop a persona for your Facebook page to encourage relativeness for patients.
A key influencer for your persona will be your tone. Does your Facebook post sound friendly? Does it come off as neutral or passive? Your Facebook captions will be important factors to pay attention to because the type of tone you need to use differs based on your targeted audience.
Factors such as the age demographics of your patients are significant considerations for your Facebook post. It will help shape your tone and help you find a consistent voice that works for your audience.
For a deeper look into what your Facebook advertising should entail, check this out.
4. Promote your page.
Producing great content on your Facebook page solely is not enough to be one of the best dental Facebook pages. Promotion is a big part of growing your Facebook page as well. Have your doctors and hygienists like, follow, and share your Facebook page. The great thing about Facebook is that when your friends will see which pages you like and follow. Just this small action can bring great attention from mutual acquaintances.
Another great way to share your Facebook page is to mention it on all of your clinic’s online platforms. Include your Facebook page URL on your dental clinic’s website, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media.
The more exposure the better. After all, word-of-mouth advertising is king. Who would you go to first if you wanted to know the best places to eat in your area? Yelp or your friends and family? People rely on asking their acquaintances for information first before conducting their own research. There is more established credibility.
A popular trend among businesses is utilizing Facebook ads to increase awareness. Facebook has great features where for instance you can boost your advertisements towards a particular geographic region. For an in-depth look at how to incorporate Facebook ads efficiently, visit this page.
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5. Stay active within your posts.
Strive to encourage interactions with your patients. This can be achieved by asking questions such as ‘how many checkups have you been to this year?’. Or you can even add fun questions relating to dental hygiene. You can also post relatable topics such as tips for healthy lifestyles.
Be conversational with your followers. When people leave a comment on your Facebook post reply back. An active account lets your followers know that you care about their voice and that they are being heard.
Remember, comments and shares are more valuable than likes. The reason is, that patients who leave a comment or share your post have put in the effort to do so. Listening to these comments will help gain authenticity for your Facebook page.
The more activity you have on your Facebook page, the more social proof it has and the more it will appear on your follower’s Facebook newsfeed. Which is a great reminder for them to come in for their regular checkups.
A Facebook page that did a great job in one of their posts was the OC Dental Specialists. Their post was about thanking the heroes in the first line who are fighting for us against Covid-19. A call to action that they had included in their post was to “Share this message with anyone you know fighting Covid-19 that needs a thank you”. OC Dental received 17 comments and 54 shares which is an excellent achievement.
It is difficult for dentist pages to get interaction and foot traffic, but it isn’t impossible. Key takeaways are being active with your followers and posting relatable content.
6. Maintain focus within your Facebook page.
Staying focused on your targeted audience will help create and maintain a more put-together Facebook page. Trying out different types of content on dental hygiene, dentists, clinics, and so forth is a good starting point. From there you can see which content was better received and responded to. As well as hone in and strengthen that area of content.
Ideas for your dental Facebook page could be having posts about myth-busting. For example, you can take a factual approach towards your content. You can talk about popular topics such as whether it is good or bad to drink orange juice after brushing your teeth.
Another content idea could be about promoting healthy lifestyles by providing tips on good hygiene practices. Overall, make sure you produce posts that relate to dental practices and how it adds value for your followers.
7. Graphics impact first impressions.
Be mindful of the types of graphics that you utilize on your Facebook page. People are quick to judge by the cover of your content, so make sure it looks professional. Lately, there has been an increasing desire to look at eye-catching or aesthetically pleasing graphics. Therefore, it is important to present your best pictures.
Incorporating color themes and consistent use of fonts help achieve this goal. Minimal is best so try to stick three to four colors within a matching palette. Consistently utilizing no more than three different fonts will help build aesthetic appeal as well.
Another important consideration is to adjust your graphics to the Facebook standards. Make sure that your graphic fits within the dimensions for specifically a Facebook post because each social media platform has varying measurements. It is also important to remember that your cover picture has specific dimensions as well.
By following these measurements, your graphics will not look blurry or out of scale. Double-check that your graphics are high quality. The level of quality could have a bigger influence than you know as to whether a person becomes a follower or not.
8. Include testimonials.
Help your patients gain more insight as to how your dental clinic has helped other patients. Testimonials are a great way to showcase real cases of patients who have already been to your clinic.
Reviews from already existing patients can help persuade other prospective patients to understand how your dental clinic is run and how doctors and hygienists treat clients. You can even implement reviews made on your Google review or Yelp about your dental clinic.
Testimonials also contribute greatly to the overall tone of your Facebook page. These types of posts can come off as genuine and help build your authenticity on a digital platform. There are numerous different dental Facebook pages so it is important to be real with your patients.
Don’t forget to reply to your patients’ responses to your testimonials. Help better build your genuineness by liking and replying to comments on your posts. By following up on small actions like these can help develop a stronger persona.
Here is an example of some of the reviews for our own agency. See how powerful they are?
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9. Incorporate Doctor and hygienist spotlights.
Incorporating content that highlights your doctors and hygienists helps show that you care about your people. These types of Facebook posts help patients observe how you treat your employees of the dental clinic. Patients tend to appreciate these posts because it implies your promise to take care of its patients similarly if not better.
Another benefit to having employee spotlight posts is because it helps spread awareness about the dental clinic. When doing these posts don’t forget to add or mention your employee’s Facebook account (with their permission of course). By doing so it will appear on your employee’s mutual friend feed. Therefore, mutual friends will see not only your accomplishments at work but also your work environment. A bonus is having your mutual friends comment on the post and add another mutual friend to spread the news.
Spotlight posts tend to communicate a company as being appreciative, friendly, and or approachable.
10. Post strategically and consistently
Make sure to do your research on the audience you are targeting for your Facebook page. When are your patients usually on their mobile devices? Strategically post your content at times when the majority of your patients are on Facebook. This helps bring quicker reactions to your posts.
For instance, if you post early at 6 a.m. who is going to see it? Most people will either be sleeping or not fully awake in their morning routines. A better strategy could be posting during lunch or after dinnertime. These are common downtimes that people generally allocate towards social media use. Be present when your patients are there.
Another important strategy is to be consistent with your posting on your Facebook page. Figure out a schedule of when you want to post and stick with it. Don’t strive to post every day of the first week, but then run out of ideas and post only once or twice the following week. Awareness of Facebook pages depends on activeness and consistency. It also helps your patients anticipate when your next post will be.
Summary
The main takeaways that will help you become the top dental Facebook page are being mindful of your graphics and having active content. Be active on Facebook, and have promotions to promote your practice! Following these ten essentials for an excellent Facebook page will help not only you but your patients as well.
For more helpful social media marketing tips, check out this guide.
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