Should Specialists Market with Social Media?

Is Facebook marketing beneficial for specialists as well? Absolutely. Specialty practices will often ask what they should post about … the answer is a blend of dental and social posts. Remember this is “social” marketing. As with any type of business in social media, it’s important to share a bit of personality with your community.

So, what should specialists post about? Specialists may have a more varied community/audience than general practitioners. Their communities may include patients, referring doctors, colleagues, friends and potential new patients. Be sure to share something for everyone—while at the same time being sensitive to each segment of your community.

For example, if you are an oral surgeon, you may not want to post solely “layman” dental implant information. You certainly could include a bit of these types of posts as the patients in your community may find this beneficial. However, be aware of the amount of this type of information you are posting so as not to bombard your referring practices with information better suited for patient education.

Posts your audience may find interesting include:

• Photos – share about a volunteer effort that you and your team recently participated in together. For example, Habitat for Humanity efforts or participation in a holiday “Toys for Tots” campaign.
• Events – seminars or continuing education events that you are hosting make for excellent posts.
• Value adds –  share about special perks you provide for your patients, such as a photo of the gourmet coffee, paraffin treatment, or aromatherapy you offer.
• Personality –  photos or updates about your doctor or team member’s participation in a marathon, new scuba certification or birth of a baby are “social” posts that add human interest to any Facebook Page. These posts can also open the door to a whole new world of conversation (and relationship building) with referring practices and patients alike.

In addition, be sure to include your referring practices in promotion of your Facebook Page.  Make a special Facebook themed marketing delivery to your referring practices. Remind them you are on Facebook via leave-behinds, e-communication and snail-mailers.

Just as a general practice would market on Facebook, so too can specialty practices … Social marketing is all about growing relationships. Make one of your main goals to create a thriving community abundant with engagement.

As a specialist you can reap double the benefit of word of mouth referrals from both patients as well as referring practices. Are you on board yet? If not, what are you waiting for?