Social Media Campaigns & Contests

If you aren’t already, it’s time to start utilizing social media to help market your dental practice! There are many visual platforms to use, and patients are publishing posts from right inside their dentist’s office during their visit. If you search the term #dentist on any platform, you will be amazed to see thousands of photos! Social media for dental offices is best utilized for positive, emotional content – think smile makeovers, whitening results, special events and promotions in the office, and photos of dentists and staff members participating in the community or celebrating milestones.

The best way to run a successful social media campaign is to focus on gaining followers and likes, and sharing your unique hashtag as far and wide as you can. Don’t be afraid to get your patients involved!

Spread your Hashtag!

Hashtags are useful because they will briefly summarize your post and then disperse it to anyone searching for those terms. For example, if a patient in Boston is in search of a teeth whitening, they may go to Instagram to quickly find some before and after photos. They will likely search #BostonTeethWhitening, #TeethWhiteningBoston, #BostonDentalWhitening, or something along those lines. Choose a few unique hashtags and remember to always include those in your Instagram posts. Brand your practice using these hashtags. If you want to be known for implants in your town, always use a hashtag including the keyword “implants” and the name of your town. We don’t advise flooding your post with several hashtags, but instead 3-5 hashtags that describe your post and will bring local exposure to your dental practice.

Campaign Ideas

This campaign can be long term or short term. It can run continuously, or every other month for a specified period (30-60 days).

 

When your patients come in for their appointment, invite them to join the No Cavity Club at your office and have them take a selfie and share it on social media. Use the hashtag #NoCavity(Practice Name) and make sure your patients know to use that hashtag when posting. Anytime someone posts with the #NoCavity(Practice Name), they will receive a free toothbrush and toothpaste!

 

Be sure to thank them for their post with an @mention as well! After they post their photo, you can re-share their post using the same hashtag and letting people know that the patient won a free gift for joining your office’s No Cavity Club. This will encourage others to join your No Cavity Club and post their own pictures with your hashtag! This will increase your visibility and when you stay engaged with your audience, they stay engaged with you!

This is a long-term campaign that should run continuously in your office weekly or monthly. Be sure to post on Wednesdays.

 

Every Wednesday do a weekly highlight of one of your employees at your practice. Highlight a new skill they have learned, a promotion, or if they are just doing a wonderful job and you want to show appreciation. Encourage the staff member to share the post with their family and friends on social media pages. If they can bring 10 new likes to your social media pages from sharing the post offer an incentive! Maybe lunch out on the boss, a Starbucks gift certificate, or teeth whitening!

This is a short-term campaign (30-60 days). Run this campaign every other month or once every 2-3 months.

 

This is one of the most popular campaigns for dental offices, and it can be very successful! Who doesn’t love to take a selfie? Enlist your staff to help encourage patients to share a big smiling selfie on their social media pages after their appointment. Make sure to establish a hashtag just for this contest. It should be something like #SmileSelfie(Practice Name) or #(Practice Name)SmileSelfie. When you search this hashtag, all the posts with this hashtag will show. This way you can see which patients posted their smile selfie and who received the most likes. Set a time limit for the contest (usually between 30 to 60 days), and give a $250 gift card off treatment to the patient whose post received the most likes!

 

Make sure to highlight the winner in a post on your own social media pages at the close of each contest. Use an @mention to make sure they are notified and all your followers will see who the winner was as well.

This is a short-term campaign (30-60 days). Run this campaign every other month or once every 2-3 months.

 

Caption contests are great as they allow your fans to show a little personality. And an added bonus is that other entrants will actually enjoy reading through the entries! This kind of contest is also preferable to a simple “like this photo to win” contest, as all the engagement on your post will ultimately lead to more exposure in your fans’ feeds!

This is a short-term campaign (2-5 days). Run this campaign every other month or once every 2-3 months.

 

Quizzes are a GREAT way to get engagement and boost contest entries. Post dental trivia or questions about your staff. Have patients share their answer on their social media pages when they visit your office for their appointment. Let the quiz or trivia questions run for a couple of days or a few days before announcing the answer. Choose a winner or winners and reward them with a great prize. Of course, don’t forget to come up with some great hashtags and have your patients always mention your page in their posts!

Post consistently every day, or every other day, on your social media pages.

 

The best things to post about are Staff Trainings, Birthdays, Wedding Announcements, Baby Announcements, New Hires, Community Events and Sponsorships, and anything else fun and exciting that is going on at your practice. Also see our Social Media Calendar for more ideas!

Don’t Forget Talent Release Forms

A talent release is a document which gives permission for your office to use patient testimonials, images or videos in your marketing or promotional materials. It’s very important that you have your patients complete a talent release form before they participate in a photo or video shoot at your office or when they provide a written testimonial that will later be used in social media, your website or elsewhere.