Facebook for Dental Practitioners
Social media has taken the storm in several aspects of daily life. With 2.45 billion users worldwide, Facebook has become a popular social media network. Even the dental professionals have started taking advantage of the features of Facebook to enhance their dental practice. The article focuses on how to effectively use Facebook for success in your dental practice.

Facebook Page – First things first !
Create a Facebook page for your dental practice, if you do not have it already.  Go to Facebook page creation page and begin with your Facebook page journey. You can select the ‘Local Business or Place option and enter your business category. There are options like Dentist, Dental Office, General Dentist and so on. You can choose the one that best fits your practice. Upload the appropriate profile picture and cover photo. It is advised to choose a high resolution, professional photo. Logo also can be used for profile photo. Upload your demographic details, contact numbers, website links if any, links to blog and make your profile appear authentic.

Facebook for Dental Practice – Does it work ?
In this digital era where most of the individuals have a smartphone and internet, people often check in website. When a patient is looking for a dentist in his area, he/ she may find your Facebook page as well. Facebook can make it easier for people to find you or your practice. A good Facebook page has the potential to impress and instill confidence in new patients and also to stay in touch with old patients. Additionally, with family, friends, and patients liking or following your page, you will be well on your way to growing your impact and reach through creating the best Facebook posts on your dental Facebook page and placing the best dental Facebook ads for specific promotions.

Facebook campaign
It can be utilised in 3 ways. One of the way is to create awareness about specific agenda and reach the target audience. Second way is named consideration that is to focus on getting engagement and traffic to the site. Another way is conversion; by this one aims to get people to take action on your website such as making a purchase.

Utilise the ads feature
Create the posts and promote them using Ads feature in Facebook. It is relatively cheap compared to any other modes of advertisement and yet can give you wider audience. You can customize on audience, location, age group and get the right people to reach. There is option to monitor your promoted post on how well it is doing. Based on the insights you can customize your campaign further to yield better results.

Strategies for Successful Facebook Campaign
Target Audience
Knowing the target audience is key to keeping your page active and engaged. You can use audience insights section to understand the trends about your page. Other factors to be considered are age, gender, location, behaviors and interests of the followers. You can choose a social media manager who will do these background tasks for you at ease.

Showcase yourself
It is of paramount importance that you showcase yourself, your practice, staff and the dental clinic itself. One who looks online will definitely look for your credentials, consultants, services offered, advanced machinery or equipment, your previous cases, clinic ambience, facilities like parking, elevator and so on. Make short and crisp videos of your dental practice; this will really boost the impression.

Post Good Content
Present the data in easy to digest manner. It is important for the post to be attractive, colorful and appealing in all senses. Short and simple posts get more engagements. Creativity to create an attractive post is definitely a vital need. Dental tips, memes, videos, blog posts are some of the ways to post your ideas. It is important that not all the posts should be purely promotional. You also need to keep in mind regarding the rules and regulations set by your country/ state dental council/ associations.

Maintain consistency
Be regular. A page that posts consistently in a well-planned and scheduled manner catches more attraction. You may be busy helping your patients in your practice; so choose a social media manager to run your Facebook page hassle free.

Spread the word
It is not just about the good content and beautiful posts on the page. One should to spread the word about the page and promote that as well. This can be done in person with the patient when they are at your dental clinic, or by Facebook ads, link below email signatures, links in websites, link mentioned on business cards, prescriptions and so on. Receptionist can convey to the patient about the page and information that they would get through the page.

Testimonials and Reviews
Testimonials from happy and satisfied patients serve as best ads. In the era of smartphones, patients do check for reviews and testimonials. Positive reviews will surely boost the confidence in new prospective patients. At the end of your treatment, you can ask the patient to post their feedback about their experience at your clinic. More the number of reviews and feedbacks, more the authentic you appear to new patients.

Final Note
It is important to realize that we need to update ourselves and utilize the cutting edge technology and tools, because it is highly competitive world. Without staying updated to technology and trends, one would just give an edge to the fellow professionals in this digital era.