Tuesday Tip from Pride Institute: 9 great ideas for social media posts for your dental practice

1. Links to articles—Posts about the practice, doctor, team, community, or oral health always work well. 2. Photos—Pictures of the practice, the doctor and/or team, before and after shots, team events, or continuing education opportunities are well received. Note: photos require a signed release, so be sure you have written permission from everyone in the picture before posting.3. Videos—Shoot videos on your smartphone of an office tour, a welcome greeting from the doctor and staff, patient testimonials, or the doctor addressing patient FAQs. Similar to photos, videos also require a signed release, so again, be sure to have written permission before posting.4. Facts and figures—Consider relevant quotes, statistics, and headlines that you think would be of interest to your community.5. Seasonal—Holidays and seasons are perfect opportunities to share holiday wishes, fun facts about the holidays and season, or share a piece of dental advice to fit a specific time of year.6. Contests and polls—These are great for increasing engagement with your social media audience. You can set up polls just for fun or offer prizes.7. Giving back—If you happen to be part of a local group, you can post messages about the cause or link to the organization’s website. Or, if you know of a patient who is very involved in something, you could ask the person to post his or her story.8. Lifestyle—Social media posts don’t have to be only about dentistry. Varying your posts with healthy recipes, useful technology tips, dental jokes, or information about local community events can keep everyone engaged and interested.9. Promotional—Social media is a terrific way to spread news updates about the practice, special offers, info on new procedures, and referral rewards promotions.

No matter what you post, the most important thing to consider is your patients' perspective. Avoid using overly technical language or posting articles only of interest to fellow dentists. Find out what gets your patients excited about dentistry—personal updates about team members and photos and videos are always a hit. A clear focus on engagement with your audience, that would beyour patients and prospective patients, is the way to go with social media.

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Tuesday Tips from Pride Institute are provided weekly on our Facebook page as well as in this column in DentistryIQ. To ensure you don’t miss any of Pride Institute’s proven methods to take your practice to the next level, visit prideinstitute.com, and like them on Facebook.