Learn to track your dental practice’s social media metrics.

According to one study, around 52% of dental practices have some type of social media presence. Of those, 91% use their platforms for marketing purposes.

We all know that these tools have the potential to attract followers. They can be used for educational and advertising purposes, as well as for interactions. Yet, you want to use your time and energy wisely.

How can you confirm that what you’re posting is actually adding value to your dental practice? The key is to track the right metrics.

Today, we’re sharing how to measure the value of social media for a dental practice and how you can get started.

1. Understanding Analytical Data

Most social media platforms, including the big four: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, have back-end tools that show you exactly how many people your posts are reaching. You can even dive into more detailed metrics, such as:

• What time they’re accessing your profile
• Which locations they’re visiting from
• Which specific posts they’re engaging with

As you review this data, pay attention to your click-through rate (CTR). Put simply, this is the number of impressions you made that resulted in a click on a link you shared.

For instance, how many people clicked that link you posted to your dental practice website in yesterday’s post? What about the blog link you shared last week?

When any business becomes active on social media, a high CTR is obviously one of the chief goals. You want people to not only read your content but also follow it and engage with it. Yet, CTR shouldn’t be the only metric you track. Other key ones to pay attention to include:

• Number of followers: How big is your online community? Is it consistently growing, or has it dropped or plateaued?
• Impressions and reach: How many unique social media users are seeing your content? How many times does your post show up on their timelines?
• Follower engagement: Are your posts resonating with your followers? How many likes, comments, retweets, mentions, etc. are you averaging per post?
• Volume and sentiment: How many people are talking about your brand? What keywords are they using to depict their mood?

Use those built-in analytic tools to your advantage. The data is there, and the most important step in effective marketing is knowing how to leverage it.

2. Gathering Patient Feedback

Increasingly, healthcare providers are turning to social media to promote their services, market their offerings, and build their brand names. However, it always helps to talk about those efforts in the real world. If you’re looking to ramp up your social media presence for your dental practice, reach out to your patients!

If a new patient walks through your doors, ask how they heard about your practice. Was it through a social platform, and if so, which one? Feedback like this can help you understand which platforms to prioritize over others.

Ask which features and what types of content they’d like to see, and plan your posting schedule to incorporate more of those elements. While the answers you receive might vary, most current and potential healthcare patients (including dental patients) want to interact with providers on social media in a way that feels reputable and respected. As such, they value features such as:

• A professional, well-designed social media page
• Polished content (nothing gimmicky, flashy, spammy, or goofy)
• Posts that are informational, motivational, and interactional

When it comes to that last point, you don’t have to go wild and turn every post into a Q&A or video office tour. Below are a few examples of what we mean.

Informational

As their name implies, informational posts simply share information. To keep your readers’ attention, the insights should be relevant, helpful, and actionable.

For instance, you could create a post that mentions the effects of periodontal disease or how often you should change your toothbrush. Include tips they can follow to optimize their dental health, and include a link to your website where they can learn more.

This is also a great way to incorporate any video marketing efforts your practice has done! Share links to your videos, and briefly recap what viewers will learn.

Motivational

Motivational posts are all about helping the reader feel a certain emotion. After they read each one, they should be inspired and energized.

One idea is to share a challenge! For example, you can prompt your followers to show off their healthy smiles to 10 people that day. As you plan out your content, keep in mind that not every post has to be dental-focused in nature.

To add variety and keep your followers interested, you can always intersperse motivational lifestyle content. To be effective and reach more people, localize the content to your area by using specific keywords. Write about how beautiful it is where you live, or the top things to do locally!

Interactional

Finally, you can also add posts that spur your readers to do something. In marketing-speak, this is a Call to Action, or CTA.

In your CTA, you could share a link that takes your reader back to your blog page. Or, it might go to your contact page where they can reach out to learn more information about your practice. You can also set up an email newsletter to share tips and information with your patients, and share a CTA to sign up!

3. Posting and Engaging Wisely

It’s easy for companies to sign up and create a social media profile. It can be a lot harder to keep posting and closely monitor follower engagement.

Yet, this is a critical part of the puzzle. Try to respond promptly if anyone asks a question on your post, or sends you a direct message on your platform. Interact in the comments to add your voice to the conversation.

As you do so, remember that your responses directly represent your dental office. This includes your official posts, as well as your engagements. In your posts, keep the tone professional and avoid “downing” or offending anyone.

For example, a quote like “74% of patients say they brush their teeth, but your hygienist knows you’re lying” might get some eyes on your content, but that’s not the kind of brand identity you want to build.

Another tip? Keep the content visually appealing. While your job might require you to look at a close-up of someone’s stretched lips and incisors, it’s unlikely that your followers will want to do the same.

Instead of posting pictures of teeth alone, go for a person smiling after their treatment is over. The effect will be much more memorable—for the right reasons.

Optimizing Social Media for a Dental Practice

There are lots of pros and cons to social media. Yet, for businesses wanting to expand their presence and boost engagement, it can be incredibly effective.

Now that you know a few of the best ways to approach social media for a dental practice, it’s time to get started! As your efforts pay off and you start to bring more patients into your practice, we can help you grow.

At Synergy Orthodontic Seminars, we offer a range of hands-on orthodontic courses designed to help you expand your service offerings and widen your reach. To learn more about our upcoming events and courses, contact us today!