Orthodontic Marketing by way of Social Media

We are often asked to speak at both doctor and consultant meetings about utilizing social media to help grow a practice.  Social media in the field of orthodontics is, after all, our chosen niche in increasing patient referrals. Ingenuity uses orthodontic contest marketing to incentivize a practice's patients to introduce the practice to those patients' friends, families, and social circles.  But where does Facebook fit into this equation?  How do we utilize Facebook to increase the virality of a given contest?  How do we recommend that the practice conduct itself on Facebook to maximize sharing?  Do things such as posting banding and de-banding photos make sense? Is the practice violating any facet of HIPPA by posting patient photos?

The key to the success for any contest that we host in attracting new patients is formulaic.  So too is the approach we recommend that the practice itself undertake in posting on Facebook (or any social network for that matter).  The first realization is that the posts need to support a "marketable position" for the practice, something akin to imbuing a personality upon the business itself.  To meet this objective it is often advisable that the posts be more focused on the happenings of the practice than its clinical side.  So what about posting patient photos, such as banding and de-banding photos?  We'll err on the side of caution and simply not broach the legal aspects of such (we'll save that for the phone call).  But let's look at such posts from the standpoint of practicality and marketability.  On the side of marketability, the practice needs to set a clear schedule for such posts to occur.  We typically recommend that they be made en masse once per week.  The reason is simple; continual (daily) posts of this type will quickly be tuned out by the followers of the page.  Too much, too often, too similar.  Thus having a photo post en masse makes sense in terms of both marketability and practicality. Once per week makes the task much simpler.

A point that we make continually, though, is that regardless of how engaging the content of such a page may be, there simply has to be some facet or impetus that makes its followers likely to share it with their friends. Otherwise, the page is little more than a blog shared between practice and patient.  This is where Ingenuity Orthodontic Marketing really hits its mark.  We have the platform, plan, and people to make the practice "go viral," and all without the constant oversight (or even participation) by the orthodontist or team.  As such, the practice is not disrupted and can easily adapt to the new growth that the orthodontic contest marketing can yield.