Many dentists are missing one of the biggest secrets of dental social media success. Dental Staff! I have always been a been advocate of getting staff involved in the social media process. These are the people that keep your office running smoothly and make your office the great place that it is. Your staff does most of the communicating with patients in the office and on the phone, why not involve them in your social media presence. Now I know many of you don’t want your staff interacting with patients on social media sites, while many of you let your staff run the whole process. We have come up with a list of things that staff can do to boost your social media efforts no matter what your restrictions are.
- Tell their friends and family about your office profiles (Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter account, Foursquare profile, Yelp….) Many Facebook fan pages and other profiles need a jumpstart from friends and family to get going. Create a list of all your profiles and get your staff to spread the word. They should be proud of their workplace and willing to share to make it successful.
- Have your staff comment on your Facebook fan page posts even if they only say “nice!”. Every post should have a comment. Vistors are much more likely to comment on a post if they have seen others reacting. There always needs to be an icebreaker comment.
- Tag your staff in office pictures. (if they allow it) When people are tagged in photos, their friends will be notified that they appear in pictures. Pictures generate curiosity and will lead to more visits than text posts.
- Have staff comment on blog posts. Well worded, well tagged blog posts can have a lot of SEO benefit. Comments can also help with rankings. The more the better. Make sure the comments have something to do with the content, but simple ones will work as well. Try to get them to comment at home so the IP address will be different. It is even better to have your assistants and hygiene staff to write blog posts. You trust them to educate your patients in person, why not let them share their insights into dental care with the online community? It will allow them to show their expertise and it will help the online identity of the practice. If your staff really wants to get involved, set up individual blogs for all of them. You could have a hygiene blog, a office management blog, and an assistant blog. Use the right keywords to point back to your content, and you are rolling!
- Bookmark and share posts with social bookmarking and sharing tools. I strongly advise against false reviews written by staff, but I know it happens on a regular basis. There are ways staff can give a vote of confidence without creating a false review. Bookmarking websites shows search engines that human beings are actually interacting with the content shown. You can bookmark almost anything. Have your staff bookmark your website and local search engine profiles on their computers. Also have them share your blog posts on social bookmarking sites like Digg and Stumbleupon. Have them “share” your YouTube videos and Facebook posts. Your office can become a quite formidable social media force when you work together. Install a Facebook “Like” button on your website and have them all “Like” your website. It will show up in their news feed and be seen by their friends.
I have also heard of employees having “Check in Battles” on Foursquare to claim territory in the office. This is a light hearted competition, but it may actually increase visibility for the office. Geo Social platforms like this will probably see increased exposure in the next couple of years. Staff can jump on the Geo Social bandwagon by geotagging videos and photos of the office on sites like Flickr and Panoramio.
Social Media can be a real team effort. Be sure to work together to make your office’s social media presence the best it can be.
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