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Top Five Reasons Dentists Will Not Use Social Media Jason Lipscomb, DDS

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by Jason Lipscomb, DDS
Everyone is talking about social media. All the stars are conversing with their fans on Twitter. Fifty-five percent of the U.S. population is on Facebook, and YouTube receives more viewing time than Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS combined. If you were to take a bird’s-eye look at social media you would see that it is made up of dozens of networks, a virtual sea of interaction flowing into another great sea of humanity. How is it possible for a dentist to leverage all of these options into a successful strategy to grow their practice?

The simple answer is, you’re not going to. Social Media is much like a pebble thrown into a lake. At first, not much seems to happen, but soon the ripples make their way to shore. And the more pebbles you throw, the more activity you see in the water. But can a dentist do this consistently? I’ve spoken with hundreds of my dentist colleagues, and over time, I began to see a consistent pattern concerning why dentists feel they will not use social media to grow their practice.

“Too Many Pieces”
The to-do list for social media seems overwhelming. Social media experts tell you that you must have a Twitter page, Linked-In profile, YouTube channel, Facebook fan page, blog, press release campaign, e-mail campaign, SEO, SEM and you need to be familiar with viral video sites, etc.

The list is intimidating, and I can see how dentists would feel overwhelmed. By looking at this list it almost seems like social media is a full-time job. The good news is, as dentists we are fortunate in many ways. First, we do not have to convince the entire world that we have a superior product or offer the best service. We only have to convince the local community.

As dentists, our patients – potential and existing – are those who live right in our local community. That means we can embrace just a few pieces of the social media puzzle to create a powerful local campaign. You do not need to be involved in dozens of social media communities to have great results. What are the most effective social media areas for dentists to engage their local community?
  • Local Business on Google, Bing and Yahoo; more than 80 million local searches a day
  • Blog power
  • Twitter and/or Facebook
  • E-mail campaign
  • Flip-Cam video
I know that looks like a lot to do, but actually it doesn’t take more than a few hours of work to implement all of it. Once everything is deployed, you can run a successful campaign by investing about 10 minutes a day to grow your practice.

“Not Enough Time”
Most dentists feel that they don’t have time to commit to creating a successful social media strategy that would correctly represent their practice. If you don’t have a strategy, and a clearly defined goal, you could be running in circles. Is your goal to get 10 new patients a month? Is your goal to have your patients schedule more appointments more frequently? Is your goal to become the dental expert in your local community? Maybe it’s all of these things.

The most time-consuming part of the process is initial setup. Just to make things a little easier, I can tell you approximately how much time it takes (on average) to get started.
  • Become listed in your local business community on the main search engines.
    Google, Bing and Yahoo: 45 Minutes
  • Setting up a Wordpress Blog and creating your first blog: 45 Minutes
  • Twitter or Facebook with professional background: One Hour
  • E-mail Campaign using professional e-mail software: One Hour
  • Flip-cam Videos – shooting video editing uploading: 15-25 Minutes (per video)
Once you have a good social media foundation created, the rest is easy. The basic set-up generally does not have to be changed very often. A dentist can be highly effective in these arenas just by spending 10 minutes a day on them. If you set up your local business on the major search engines, a lot of the work is done for you, as traffic will automatically be driven here. As far as Twitter is concerned, you want to establish yourself in the local community as the expert to go to. Use Twitter as a tool to gain exposure by tweeting “helpful” information to fellow tweeters in your local community. At first it will feel like you are tweeting to no one, but keep at it, and keep using local keywords that tie to your location.

If you decide to use Facebook, the same type of communication should be used. Give the local community what they will find helpful. A majority of the online community is women. Give them helpful information related to their children’s health and their health. Use Facebook and Twitter to link to your blog where they can find more resources and perhaps videos on topics related to dental and overall health.

Some of you might not want to blog, send out e-mails or film videos. The great thing is there are plenty of resources out there that will provide articles and how-to videos for your Web site and your blog. There are medical blog content writers that absolutely enjoy writing blog posts. For very little money you can have a professional set up your entire social media campaign for you and write two-to-three blogs for you every week, cutting the time you would need to spend down to just a few minutes a day.

“Too Much Money”
“I’m already spending thousands on advertising, I don’t have the budget to add additional advertising.” This is one of the biggest concerns dentists have. Some practices spend more than $30,000 a year on marketing and see little to no growth. The great thing about social media is it’s virtually free. Your biggest expense is in the initial implementation phase – after that the costs are trivial.

A quick review shows the costs that can be involved in implementation of several social media options.
  • Local business listings: Free
  • Wordpress blog: Free
You will need to have a hosting provider, generally the same place you are currently hosting your Web site. If you do not have a hosting provider, you can get a domain name “www.yourname.com” and hosting for about $120-$150 a year. If you wish to have someone install a Wordpress blog for you, and a branded header with color scheme to look like your Web site, expect to pay about $100-$150.
  • Twitter or Facebook: Custom Twitter Page: $50-$99; Facebook Fanpage: $400-$500
    You will want to have a professional Twitter background or Facebook fan page created. You will want them to be a continuation of your brand.
  • E-mail campaign: These generally run about $19-29 a month. E-mail campaigns are a highly effective way to stay in contact with your patients, engage your patients and get patients to schedule appointments more often.
  • Video: $199-$249 for an HD flip cam. Videos are amazingly important and powerful. Flip cams can quickly be used to shoot how-to videos for your blog or e-mail campaigns. A simple example would be showing how a child should brush properly.
  • Additional expenses: Some dentists simply do not enjoy writing, and the thought of having to write two to three blogs a week sounds like torture. That’s where companies like Elance and Guru come in. You can hire talented medical writers for very little money to write content for your blog, e-mails and even your Facebook page. The average blog will run you $5-15.
Tip #1: If you do hire a professional blogger to write for you, be sure to hire someone who has a medical background. There are numerous doctors, retired doctors and medical students who enjoy writing, look for them.

Tip #2: Create a contract that says that you own the rights to anything that is written. Make sure that before you pay for any work you have a copy of this contract signed by the writer.

Used wisely, social networks like Twitter can be used as a highly effective “tool.” One strategy I use is to follow local media experts. I make sure I comment on what they say, and I always try to engage them. As a result, I’ve been on local TV three times because of Twitter. How valuable would it be to your practice to have you interviewed on the local news as a dental expert?

Social media when used correctly can be an inexpensive yet highly effective way to grow your practice.

“It’s a Fad”
“Social media is the newest thing, it is a fad and won’t last.”

Yes, social media is a new concept, but it is growing and projected to continue to grow. This year, Forester research reported that 53 percent of companies expect to increase their social media spending and campaigns.

More and more businesses are finding extremely creative ways to engage their local community through social media. They are finding that they are having much better results when they try to connect and engage their community rather than try to push their services. Many companies are using Twitter and Facebook as a “We are listening page.” The first thing you see on Best Buy’s door is “Tweetforce,” its online Twitter force. Southwest Airlines and Comcast use Twitter as a customer support system.

Another reason for the growth of social media is customer review sites. Sites like Yelp give individuals a voice that they have never had before. Feedback is huge – in fact, most dentists don’t even realize that they have feedback (the last three dentists I worked with not only didn’t know about feedback, but had also found out they had already received bad reviews). Just about every dentist has some feedback on Google Local.

Twitter and Facebook give you an opportunity to engage your community. You become more than an advertisement in the phone book; you become a person who has their best interests in mind. Many companies like Blendtec, Burger King, Zappos and Dell are prime examples of how to use creative social media to explode your business. Burger King actually ran a contest that had Facebook users sacrifice (or “unfriend”) 10 of their friends in order to get a free whopper (until the contest was canceled). Imagine having the ability to talk to thousands of people about your services without it costing you a penny.

As technology expands, more and more people will also use their cell phones as a social networking device. Already people rely on social media networking for reading reviews, finding local businesses, and communicating with their friends on Twitter and other social media platforms. Every day there are conversations going on about products and services. One out of every four tweets on Twitter mentions a product or service. There are conversations going on every day about dentists and doctors, and all of the main search engines are indexing Facebook and Twitter messages. Social media will continue to grow. Facebook employs more than 1,000 people, and for the first time beat Google in traffic this year. YouTube continues to grow and is considered the second largest search engine in the world. According to Nielsen, Twitter grew 1,382 percent this year and is expected to continue growing.

There are dozens of pieces to the social media puzzle – some will continue to grow and evolve, and others will be left behind as new technology evolves. A quick look at technology in the past shows that we need to communicate and we are continually striving to create new and efficient ways to do so. From the rotary phone, to the pager, to the cell phone, to the Internet, to powerhouse mobile devices, for the first time ever, everyone has an equal voice, which is not a privilege that anyone is going to readily give up.

“Only Kids and Teens Use Social Media”
Actually your largest most targeted audience is out there in force and is the fastest growing group on the Internet. Mothers make 80 percent of the buying decisions for a family. They also schedule eight out of 10 appointments for their family or significant other. Mothers are extremely active in online social communities. This is a very engaged group that has grown more than 63 percent in 2009.

YouTube averages nearly 100 million viewers a month. Nearly a quarter of videos watched on YouTube are educational or “how-to” related. Who is watching these videos? According to Nielsen 43 percent are in the 45 and older age bracket. Nielsen also says that about 50 percent of the viewers have an income more than $75,000 and 42 percent have either some college or college degrees and 13 percent had post graduate degrees.

The number of women older than 55 on Facebook grew by 175.3 percent, nearly doubling the number of men older than 55 years of age. In total, women now make up about 56.2 percent of Facebook’s U.S. audience. Teenagers only make up about 12 percent of the overall Facebook audience.

Baby boomers actually increased reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67 percent and they posted a 59 percent increase in using social networking sites. Social media is becoming the de facto way to communicate and engage in conversations with others.

The truth is, the only reason dentists should not use social media, is if they do not want to expand their business. Social media is enabling dentists to communicate with their local community on a completely different level. Consumers have a new found voice, they want to be heard, they want you to listen. They are quick to express their opinions, but they are just as quick to give their praise. This is your opportunity to be a part of the local conversation that is already taking place in your community.
Author’s Bio
Dr. Jason Lipscomb is a general dentist who operates two practices in Virginia. He specializes in helping dentists expand their practices through the use of social media. Jason started Social Media for Dentists to help dentists master social media and attract new patients by gaining exposure online. To learn more about creating successful social media and internet marketing strategies for your practice visit Jason’s Web site www.socialmediadentist.com and on Twitter at @socialmediadent.
 
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September 2025
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