Social Media Strategies for Dentists - Part 2: Facebook

One of the smartest online marketing strategies for your dental practice is creating a Facebook page. Because Facebook is the largest and most popular social network, it makes it easy for you to increase your clinic’s visibility and potentially meet new patients while also building a community.

If you’re unsure about creating a Facebook page for your dental clinic, consider this: Facebook has over 901 million users who are active on the site for at least 20 minutes per day. So what better way could there be to communicate with your current patients while also generating word-of-mouth about your dental practice with potential new patients?

Getting Started With Facebook for Your Dental Practice

The first step in your online marketing journey with Facebook is to create a business page. Don’t use your personal page for your dental clinic. Facebook’s business features offer more ways to reach your target audience than a personal page does, so take advantage of these benefits.

Once you have your business Facebook page created, here are some of the following steps you can take to make it stand out:

• Add an attention-grabbing cover photo. This is also called a banner, and it takes up almost a quarter of the screen on desktops, so you want a memorable and appealing image. The dimensions for your cover photo should be 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall for desktops and 640 pixels by 360 for mobile. If you use smaller images, they may look blurry.

• Add a recognisable profile picture. This could be a photo of yourself or your dental practice logo, perhaps. Facebook will picture this image at the top of your page, and it’s also the thumbnail image that appears next to all of your updates, so choose your profile picture wisely. Dimensions for this image are 170 pixels by 170.

• Optimise your about section. This is one of the first places people go to when they visit your Facebook page. Facebook uses your ‘short description’ copy to optimise your preview section.

• Choose an appropriate ‘call to action’ (CTA) button. Facebook offers a few choices for your CTA button; however, ‘contact us’ is ideal for dental practices because they can link to a homepage, landing page, or contact page that is set up for patients to book their appointments.

Excellent Facebook Posting Ideas for Dentists

Now that you’ve created an attention-grabbing Facebook page, it’s time to start posting and building your community!

It’s a good idea to create a content calendar for your dental practice to help you plan what to post and when to post it so you’re consistent throughout the month. Remember, the more often you post on Facebook, the more engagement you’ll create with your community, hopefully leading to more referrals and meeting new patients.

Here are some quick post ideas that you can add to your content calendar:

• Highlight charity work or community events that your dental practice is participating in. This is also a great way to invite your Facebook followers to join your community events.

• Share a clinic or team photo. Potential patients will love seeing who they’re going to work with.

• Spread some humour. Don’t be afraid to have fun on your Facebook page! Share a joke or funny story with your community.

• Do a team member spotlight. Highlight how amazing and fun to work with your team is.

Some Additional Notes About Facebook

Invite Your Current Patients to Engage With You

Be sure to let your current patients know about your Facebook page and invite them to follow it. This will help you build more exposure to your page for potential new patients.

Post Engaging Content

Take some time to research your content so you can ensure what you’re offering is relevant and engaging for your community. Then, create a mix of fun and informative posts, so your content provides helpful information and keeps your community coming back for more.

Visit some other dental practice Facebook pages to see what they’re posting and how it’s working for them.

Remember, the more inspired people are to share your content, the better your chances of meeting more potential new patients.

Consider Using Facebook Ads

Advertising on Facebook is an excellent way to target particular markets or highlight specific services or products.

Do You Need Help With Your Dental Marketing Strategies?

If you’d like to learn more about marketing your dental practice with Facebook or by using other online strategies, Great Dental Websites would love to talk with you.