Having a strong social media campaign can seriously boost your dental SEO.
When you have a strong social campaign, you are able to reach out to more people, and more people will share your posts, leading to even more links back to your website or blog.
This snowball effect can be massively helpful for your search engine optimization efforts.
But how do you actually improve your social media marketing?
Do people really want to connect with their dentist’s office through social media?
If you are posting the right kind of content, in the right kind of format, they absolutely will.
Here are ten actionable ideas that will improve your social media marketing and boost your dental SEO.
1. Highlight people who get involved.
What better way to encourage people to get involved with your posts and to actually share your links than to publically thank the people who already do that.
Everyone likes getting a shout out, especially from a page that they follow and value.
When people share your posts, you’ll be notified, so when people do so, publically thank them on your profile, tagging their page so that they are notified that you’ve thanked them.
Those people will be more likely to share again and people who want in on that action will share if they were hesitant to do so before.
2. Respond to questions and comments.
Social media may not feel like the very best place to answer questions (especially about dental topics), but when someone asks a question on your office’s profile, you have the opportunity to post a link to a blog post you have written about that topic.
For example, if someone asks you if dentures or implants are a better option, answer that question with a short note and link back to a blog post you’ve written about that topic.
3. Use paid advertising options.
Most social media now have great paid advertising tools that make it very easy for you to reach out to people in your local area who might be looking for a dentist.
Social media campaigns like these are usually relatively inexpensive and provide a high level of return on your investment.
4. Post daily or weekly tips or facts.
Most dentists love educating their patients.
Educated patients have healthier teeth and therefore have fewer health problems.
Posting tips about how to keep the teeth clean and the mouth healthy is a great way to engage with your patients and to post a link back to your website where it gives more information about tooth brushing, mouth wash, floss, etc.
Whenever you have the opportunity to include a link back to your website, do it.
Social signals are an important ranking factor, and you can boost those social signals by always trying to connect your posts on social media back to your webpage.
5. Make recommendations.
Unless you are also an oral surgeon and an orthodontist, your patients will eventually have issues that they have to take to specialists outside of your practice.
You may already have an office that you send most of your patients to.
As your build your social media account, you will probably find people asking you where they should go if they need braces or need their wisdom teeth removed.
You can easily make recommendations online and give yourself a boost while also helping out a fellow provider.
6. Create a contest.
A contest is a great way to get your followers to do your marketing for you.
One idea for a contest a dentist’s office could run might be for followers to post pictures of their own smiles or to guess which famous person’s smile you’ve posted a picture of.
These ideas are prime ways to get your audience to engage with you and to spread the word about your page, bringing you more followers, and stronger social signals in the long run.
7. Curate content.
You don’t always have to link back to your website or to your blog.
If you have a blog that you enjoy reading or if a scholarly website has the information a follower is asking you for, posting links to these high-authority websites can be a great way to strengthen your social signals and boost your own SEO, even if you aren’t placing those links directly on your website (though that can help, too).
Curating and presenting content that you trust to your followers will make your page more valuable—and that’s always a good thing.
8. Do something different with each social media.
Most brands use each social media to do something specific.
For example, your office might want to use Facebook to provide updates about office news, while you might prefer to use Twitter to engage with your followers.
Making each social media a source of different information about your office is a good way to get those who follow you on one social media to also follow you on another.
9. Ask your followers questions.
If you’re stuck for blog topics, one of the best ways to create content that you know your audience will engage with is to ask them what they want to read about.
Ask them questions about their dental health concerns, what procedures they want to hear more about, etc.
10. Post something visual.
Most websites and blogs are dedicated mostly to written content.
While there is great value in written content, there is also plenty of value in pictures, gifs, infographics, and videos.
If you’re tired of posting written content, your audience also probably tired of reading it.
Post something visual with a link back to written content that provides more information.
You’ll refer people back to your website or blog, while still providing value.
