Keys to Effective Social Media for Dentists:
Local Business Contests, Influencers, & Fundraisers

In the last couple of articles in our “Keys to Effective Social Media for Dentists,” series, we’ve looked at the fundamentals of successful social media tips and the types of tasks you need to do on a regular basis.

Now it’s time to look at the other keys to success – tasks tied to special events or particular projects.

Infusing your social media marketing strategy with these tactics will help your social media presence shine, leading to what you’re really looking for – more new patients coming through your door!

Local Business Contests

You know these contests; they tout the “best of” businesses across a variety of categories. Residents vote on their favorites via local papers and their websites, and winners proudly display their framed certificates in plain sight within their establishments.

How to Make Local Business Contests Work for You

Find businesses in the community you want to nominate for these “best of” contests. Go meet the owners (another way to connect with the community!) and tell them you want to nominate them.

For instance, pick the five best burger places in town and go to them. Tell the owners/managers you’re having a contest and want to promote them as a finalist. Have people come back to your page to vote with the chance to win a $50 gift card when voting for their favorite restaurant. The restaurant, hoping to win the “best of” award, will promote your page, which puts you in front of their audience, and hopefully, leads to more new patients! This not only engages the community but also sets up solid networking opportunities for you.

Social Media Influencers

If you’re involved with social media, particularly Instagram, you’ve most likely heard of influencers… you know, the people who are all over your feed, promoting the latest products and vlogging. These people get a lot of visibility online, so why not use them to help spread the word about your business?!

The good news is you don’t have to track down the top Instagram influencer to accomplish this; you have tools at your disposal to find the right influencer for your practice! All it takes is visiting good influencer marketing sites, such as Izea, Influence.co or Ninjaoutreach.com, to find influencers in your local community. See who represents what you’re looking for and will attract the kind of patient you’re looking to bring into your practice.

What Should I Look for in Networking with Influencers?

When you’re assessing the different influencers out there, be sure to pick people with these traits:

• Strong local presence – you don’t need the hotshot out of NYC when you’re based in Omaha; you need someone who knows your community.
• They post stuff you’re okay with – they will represent your practice, so you want to make sure what other content they’re posting works for your brand.
• Engage with the kinds of patients you want – this whole practice is designed to bring you more patients, so make sure they are connecting with the kinds of patients you want in your practice.
• Strong stats – Influencers are successful because they engage with their audience. Check out their stats and make sure they’re doing that when promoting other products; if not, then they may not help you out that much.

Once you’ve determined the best influencer for your practice – now it’s time to hire them. You can go the traditional route and pay them ($20 to $50 a post is typical) or offer up some of your practice’s services. For instance, provide them teeth whitening or discounted Invisalign treatment and they can be a viral billboard for you in many ways! It’s surprisingly inexpensive to market your services through an influencer – just think, if you were to pay $100 to $200 a post and get two to three patients from it… that’s a good deal!

Charity Fundraisers

As someone wanting to connect with the community, you want to do what’s right, and what better way than through charitable support? When it comes to bringing in patients, though, there is more to it than just giving a donation on behalf of your business.

How to Leverage Social Media with Charitable Fundraisers

First, find a charity that is active on social media (and something you’d actually want to support). Then, come up with a fundraiser designed to get people into your practice. The hook – it needs to be mutually beneficial, so it motivates that charity’s followers to come in, too. For instance, if you’re supporting a pet shelter, offer to double any donations patients make to the shelter.

Then, once it’s event time, and you’re ready to provide the check to the chair of the charity’s organization, use Facebook Live to help promote it! The key – go live FROM the charity’s social media page. This is why it is so important they have an active social media presence – because when you do this Facebook Live event, you want to capture their entire audience, and Facebook Live provides that capability! Consider this – if you just post a picture on a page with 10,000 followers, only 300 to 500 people will see that post. Conversely, if you do a Facebook Live from the charity’s page, it gets you in front of ALL their followers and partners because everyone receives a notification when the page goes live. What a way to drum up business for your practice!

If you’re ready to round out your social media marketing skills and capitalize on all these new ways to bring patients into your practice but still have some questions, give us a call at TNT Dental! Our team of dental marketing experts can help you nail down the basics, carve out your regular tasks, and then sprinkle in some of these project-based tactics, to fully enhance your social media marketing strategy.

About The Author

Tim Healy is one of the founders of TNT Dental, the #1 creator of custom websites and marketing strategies for dentists. Recognized as a leading expert in helping dental practices attract new patients, Tim has a true passion for teaching dentists the important “business stuff” they do not teach you in dental school. If there is anything Tim can do to help you, please do not hesitate to contact him directly at the office, (877) 868-4932, on his cell, (214) 680-1270, or via email at tim@tntdental.com. Of course, you can always visit www.TNTDental.com to learn more.

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