Can Twitter & Facebook Help Dentists Get Patients?
If you’re like many dentists, you’ve heard all the hoopla about Twitter, Facebook and other social media being essential to dental marketing.
Most dentists have yet to attempt using Twitter or Facebook to acquire new patients; a few have tried, only to be disappointed with the results.
Let’s examine in more detail the pros and cons of the platforms that “social media experts” claim you must have.
Can You Use Twitter & Facebook To Sell Stuff?
Millions of people are using Twitter & Facebook to hawk products and services. Whether successful or not, these marketers are attracted to the platforms due to their mainstream publicity and the promise of “fast money” online.
If you already have a Twitter profile, it’s a good bet you’ve seen just about every sort of advertisement — from “get rich fast” schemes and pornography, to self-help tutorials and software for gaining 1,000’s of new followers, a.k.a. “friends.” The casual observer might describe Twitter as a madhouse of disjointed opinions and marketing messages where little makes sense.
What Is The Purpose of Facebook & Twitter?
The keyword to understanding the intent of these communication channels is “social”, or the concept of socializing with friends, family and close associates. Thus “social media” is the interaction between like-minded people online.
Facebook is used primarily as a networking tool to locate similar interests for jobs and to find old high school buddies. Another attraction for both Twitter and Facebook users is the potential that maybe someday a well-known Hollywood celebrity or musician will actually answer or acknowledge you.
Social Etiquette for Dentists
Most proponents of Twitter & Facebook (who sell dentists marketing advice) appear to have little regard for socially acceptable behavior. These advocates suggest that you simply watch for mention of “dentist” (hopefully by people in your city), then inject yourself into their conversation — without an invitation.
You are being instructed to “burglarize” other people’s conversations. Imagine trying that in a real-life social setting. Inappropriate and rude, you risk making a nuisance of yourself and even driving patients away from your practice.
The big problem, the elephant in the living room which most fail to see — is that people just do not consider going to the dentist a “social event.” Fact is, people look for every possible reason to justify avoiding a trip to the dentist.
Twitter & Facebook Demographics
As of this writing, the median age of a Twitter user is 31 years old; nearly 20% of them are teenagers. The average age of Facebook users is 26. Over 76% of Twitter users connect with a mobile device. 75% of Facebook members are outside the USA. Current trend for both sites is a steady increase in the ratio of younger members.
For the most part, even though some search engines index “tweets”, unless the person is a member, or takes time to login, the prospective patient seeking a dentist on the Internet will discover that any relevant dialog concerning a dental practice — on either Twitter or Facebook — is inaccessible to them.
According to actual statistics, the dentist would be directing his message to a predominately younger demographic, one that is largely located outside the United States — and to those who use mobile devices for “tweeting.”
Any professional dental marketer can tell you that for best results, marketing should be directed to those demographics most likely to be interested in your offer — and to those people the dentist would prefer having as patients.
People Avoid Pesky Obstacles On The Web
Beyond the disadvantages of advertising to kids who can’t afford dentistry, the point of marketing your dental practice on the Internet is to attract gainfully employed patients to your website and invite them to make an appointment.
Anything that inhibits the easy, direct route to your website is an obstacle. Social media profiles, directory listings, Youtube videos, paid advertising, mentions of your name or practice on blogs and other websites, all require additional clicks and navigation — through a gauntlet of myriad distractions.
Outbound links from Facebook incorporate a “watch out for danger” page before you can navigate away. You could equate this with being warned by a street sign that says, “caution: road ahead may have nails and other objects dangerous to your vehicle.” …another obstacle in the potential patient’s path.
For the majority of Twitter users, the beautiful website you paid a fortune to create and get ranked on Google will never be seen in all its glory, nor will its compelling message be very effective to those viewing it on the tiny screen of a mobile device. Thus, another impediment between patient and your chair.
Best case scenario is: search, click and call. This is “pull” advertising using the search engines to deliver pre-qualified prospects right to your doorstep, er, website — and a marketing method which leaves the decision to schedule up to the individual — instead of imposing sales offers on them (a.k.a. “push”).
Why Is Twitter So Popular?
Be aware of who is actually promoting Twitter. There are 4 main groups:
1) the huge corporations which stand to profit immensely from manufacturing and advertising on mobile devices, the primary method used to access Twitter.
2) mainstream media e.g. TV networks, powerful news conglomerates, printing empires and paid PR writers, all with connections to group #1.
3) the promoters of “twitter-ware” and “how-to” information or “training” who dangle promises of instant wealth and easy-living without any real work.
4) impressionable teenagers and “the mockingbirds” who repeat mindlessly all the Twitter marketing hype they read online — and what they see on TV.
So when a marketer tells you that Coca Cola or some other large company uses or recommends Twitter, be mindful of the real reason behind such claims. Often these corporate giants have an investment, partnership, or influence with major manufacturers and the behemoths in media. Thus, it may be in their best financial interests to help promote Twitter.
Misconception About SEO
Many “social media gurus” are promoting Twitter and other micro-blogging sites as an element of SEO to position dentist websites in the search engines.
Nothing could be further from reality. Either they are misinformed or just plain fibbing. The “gurus” are often only selling books, or webinars that instruct you how to create Twitter and Facebook profiles. They could care less whether the dentist acquires any patients for his efforts (and expense).
Any SEO worth his salt knows that Twitter and most, if not all, other social media sites, incorporate no-follow tags in their outbound links and do not afford the benefit of text links, so essentially there’s zero little SEO value.
Can Twitter & Facebook Help Dentists?
Both these two social media models can and do generate patients for dentists; unfortunately though, each have an extremely low, disproportionate ROI. The time spent vs reward received is far below other Internet marketing options.
From another perspective, Twitter and other social media sites can provide dentists with recognizable benefits. More mentions of your name, website, or legal name of your practice (citations) online can have an aggregate effect and help to improve Google Local Business positions.
A Twitter profile — if named properly — can also provide another notch in the search results for your practice website.
Aside from these advantages, the dentist should consider they may have to invest untold hours, which might result in little opportunity for practicing dentistry, attending to business matters, continuing their dental education, spending quality time with children and family, or other leisure pursuits.
Summary Conclusion
I’m not opposed to experimenting with any method that might offer benefit to my clients (dentists), though IMO and experience, Twitter and other social media (excluding blogs) are not that well-suited for “selling” dentistry. There are better, more productive means for dentists to acquire new patients.
Speaking of my own personal experience — with months invested, several Twitter profiles and thousands of tweets and posts to my credit — not a single client has been acquired. Basically, Twitter’s been a waste of precious time.
However, I’m not a dentist. You may have somewhat better results. Each must decide what is best for them and weigh the possible value against the energy they are willing to spend — testing what others call the “new modern media.”
For The Visible Dentist, I’m John Barremore — best of luck to you.
January 30th, 2010 at 3:33 am
hi,
i disagee with you that twitter will never send you pateints. our office is been on twitter only since last july and i know 2 pateints came from twitter. your making some good pounts tho.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Hi Grace,
Congratulations on your two patients. Were they friends, employees, or family members?
You might want to read the post again; I did NOT say Twitter was completely worthless.
To the contrary, Twitter can help your dental practice acquire a few patients, however, IMO seven months effort and only two patients is very, very poor performance. Some of the clients we’ve positioned in the search engines acquire that many patients in a single day.
I suppose if you are not spending too much time on Twitter (or almost none), then two patients “for free” in over half a year is okay, I guess.
Cheers,
John
February 15th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
If I see one more thing on dentistry and social media, I’m going to take two pencils and place them directly into my eyeballs… I will then pull out the eyeballs and live a happy, productive life…
February 15th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Ouch!!! — that hurts just thinking about it!!!
Calm down Johnny from Toronto!!!
John
April 16th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
I paid a consultant to help our office manager learn how to use twitter. She’s added about 1-2 tweets almost every day for 7 months and not a single patient so far. I’m beginning to appreciate what you’ve written here is exactly true. Wish we’d read this months ago.
April 20th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Well Brian, this is what I’ve been saying all along. When you read again (above) about who is promoting Twitter, together with the lack of benefit you experienced, it becomes quite clear that Twitter is not that well suited for attracting dental patients. The only benefit I’ve seen personally is another position in the search engines for our website.
John
May 12th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Hello,
I believe that Facebook is worth the extremely small amount of effort that it involves. It’s just one more ways to get your name out there. And there’s a lot to be said for marketing to friends and family that might not normally think to go to your work place for their dental care.
It takes all of 30 minutes to set up a Facebook account with pictures and information. That’s absolutely no investment and it’s free. I think that ROI is inapplicable.
May 12th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Hannah, it certainly can’t hurt to have a little more visibilty for your name or practice. Anyone can go to Facebook right now and create an account for free.
Happy Facebooking!
John
May 26th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
I was always wondering if facebook could help with SEO. Thank you for your article.
May 26th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
@Farydon
No, not directly; Facebook might help spread your message, though few dentists have any luck pulling patients from it. Same as most social media sites, Facebook provides your website with zero SEO benefit.
Here’s another perspective:
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/022005.html
John
September 7th, 2010 at 9:20 am
I think that if your primary goal for using twitter or facebook is to get patients you have been mis informed and are setting yourself up for failure. The reality of it all is that we are quickly entering a “social economy” and weather or not that “Social Economy” has hit dentistry yet is still up for debate. However those 26-31 year old demographic isn’t going anywhere, also that teenage demographic isn’t going anywhere. And life is set up in a sort of funny way where as time passes people get older. So soon those teenagers will be all grown up. BUT they aren’t going to grow up and all of a sudden NOT want to eb social.
Soon everyone will be in the business of “Customer Service” weather you like it or not. So eventually in a “Social Economy” people are going to be talking about you. So it is in your best interest to LISTEN to them and RESPOND. There are FAR too many examples of this happening to businesses.
So when it comes to “Social Media” and how dentists should get involved is by 1.) making themselves as EASY as possible to contact. 2.) Find ways to share with the community that aren’t self promoting, but rather just “sharing” and “helping.”
September 7th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Hi Shane,
Regardless of popularity statistics, I think if a dentist discovers there is zero return for his efforts on Twitter, or any other social media site, he or she is likely to drop it like a hot rock.
Personally, I get about 4-10 visits a MONTH from Twitter; most are from overseas and often result in a spam post on my blog. After nearly two years with 1000’s of ‘tweets’ and dogged persistence, Twitter has resulted in zero clients.
I just don’t see social media accounting for much of anything for dentists or the dental industry at large — other than perhaps a pastime for the bored individual with plenty of time on their hands, or the misinformed.
On the other hand, some dentists I’ve encountered are pulling patients from PPC advertising on Facebook. The big difference between Google’s Adwords, or the reason for their success (on Facebook) seems to be the ability to target a more refined demographic with their ads.
For those who are interested, here’s a tutorial on Facebook ads that looks promising.
Thanks for stopping by.
John
December 15th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Thanks for the post. Quite interesting, I do marketing and pr for a small private dentist. Was just getting ready to set up a fb for the practice, but after reading this, I am not even going to waste my time. Thanks for saving me the time!
December 15th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Ryan, thanks for your interest and comment. To the contrary - do set up a Facebook profile for the dentist’s practice.
While it may not result in a flood of new patients, given the overwhelming popularity of Facebook today, so long as you post updates occasionally, every bit helps to attract interest from potential patients.
I would suggest you keep separate though any personal profile from the dental practice profile.
January 7th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Gonna have to disagree with you as well. Anyone who understands SEO, will truthfully tell you that it’s snake oil. Some of your points are valid, but as a social media marketer, I have mulitple clients in the medical fields who have successfully used Twitter to build rankings as well as generate patients.
Thanks for the entry though.
Best of luck,
Steve
January 7th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
I suppose we’ll just have to take your word for it, Steve.
hmmm…
- no website ranking proof
- no client testimonials
- no success stories
From my viewpoint, yes, you are marketing social media.
Actually, those who understand and use SEO responsibly and successfully to help dentists gain an edge online, will tell you that Twitter is over-hyped nonsense — Twitter is the snake oil that wastes your time and energy.
John
January 15th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Visible Dentist:
Snake Oil? Hmm.Take a look at the source on our home page and tell me what you see when you would crawl it as a Google Spider… Then, be informed, and read this - or go to the Google blog itself… You are talking WAY over your head, sir, as an authority and spreading misinformation.
Straight from Google/Bing:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-bing-confirm-twitter-facebook-influence-seo
January 15th, 2011 at 11:26 pm
Yes Glen, snake oil, kinda like your website …with its thousands of useless, duplicate content spam pages — it’s little wonder why 95% of them do not place well in the search results for their topics. Instead of creating all those file dupes to target every city in the US for website design, why not just position your site’s index for the term “website design?”
Hey, wait …maybe you can use the SEO power of Twitter and Facebook to rank them! LOL!
Be informed? I’m aware of all the ballyhoo over Twitter and Facebook having a tiny influence on SEO - and the link you posted to Rand Fishkin’s site is merely saying the same thing. Whoopee. Practically everything has some influence on SEO.
You didn’t use Twitter or Facebook to find this blog; stats show that you searched “dentist twitter” on Google to come here.
Newsflash: The Visible Dentist blog is search engine optimized for its topics — not magically twitterized.
Glen, since you’re a social media hotshot, please adopt some blog etiquette before posting again — FYI, the next fellow you encounter might not be the gracious host.
John
January 16th, 2011 at 12:34 am
There is no — – — – — – — – — – — – — as you are — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –. I never — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –. You have no — – — – — – –. It wasn’t what i was — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – if you were — – — – — – — – — – —- — – — what I wanted.
You’re a — – — – — – — – — – –. — – YOU are a — – — – — – –. Haha.
January 16th, 2011 at 12:55 am
…and I warned you Glen — I will not waste anymore time with you, nor will I tolerate a loudmouth, abusive guest. You asked, you got - you’re now banned from posting on this blog again. Twitter that.
January 17th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
John, thanks much for the detailed article, based on thought, experience, and “common sense” (only in hindsight!).
I have to agree with you on Twitter. At best, I can only see myself tweeting an occasional “limited time offer” — only because it’d be occasional and tweeting is quick - but even then I believe simply putting on my own dental website a link to special offers would reach far more people.
As for Facebook, I don’t have any experience advertising there, but I believe it is worthwhile. It’s quick to set up and forget about, does not need constant attention (as does Twitter to be effective)…plus it’s free and requires no knowledge or time uploading and downloading files with a server.
Cheers and thanks much again.
January 17th, 2011 at 10:45 pm
@Swampscott dentist
While Twitter appears to be a complete flop for dentists, Facebook, given it’s strength in popularity and the ability to create a real profile, is (for now at least) working to send patients to the dental practice.
If you have yet to experiment, Facebook also offers PPC advertising, which I hear through the grapevine, is also proving to be a profitable exercise. Facebook PPC campaigns seem to do best with a quirky, or funny image.
John
November 17th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
This is an interesting post. I am currently promoting a dental marketing web application and the owner has an up-sell that is a tricked out Facebook Fan Page, which I also create for his customers. An example of the features they get can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Interior-Expression-Demo-Carpentry/200034846720185?sk=app_215451685152603
My point is this, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and even Twitter all work in unison to create a collage of social signals, which if done consistently in sync will have a profound impact on organic SEO with the new Google algo (Panda). However, I agree that the biggest bang for your buck will come from Facebook Ads.
There is one more thing that you probably are aware of by now and that is Facebook EdgeRank. This measures the effectiveness of your page in order to get to the top of your fan’s news feed and is heavily influenced by interaction on a Facebook page. This is why “Like” gating and any application requiring user interaction are so important.
I think dentists would see the most benefit from Social Media by using Facebook Ads, providing applications such as Contest Apps that give something away to the winner(s), Group Deal Apps that allow for multiple discounts for participants that trade their email addresses via Facebook Connect (email marketing list building), and a really custom Fan Page in general. EdgeRank measures the touch and go of users and greatly rewards you for this.
This is how I intend to help dentists see great benefit from Social Media. I will persuade them to part with something in order to get a new audience member that wants to receive notification from them.
I hope this post was well received though pretty late to the party.
Jamie
March 8th, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Try RecordLinc Social Media for the dental community.
Best regards,
SM
March 15th, 2012 at 10:56 am
John,
While your post makes a lot of good points, I have to differ with you on the value of social media, Twitter, FB, Linkedin, Pinterest, et al, for dentists or any other business/practice.
There is no simple answer as to whether or not these tools (yes, they are merely tools) will help or hinder.
The effectiveness of social or any other marketing is only as good as the overall plan itself. When used properly, as part of an integrated online marketing plan, which, of course, includes blog posting and other strategies, social media integration can be a powerful business builder.
The problem I see is that most people, dentists included, are Tweeting “Come to our office. Me, me me.” Social media is, above all else, social. Make your message about your target patient and you’ll get better results.
Thanks,
Jim
April 9th, 2012 at 3:02 am
Jim,
Perhaps …though when you compare energy spent between social media and search engine marketing, the latter brings the greatest return for your efforts.
John
April 9th, 2012 at 5:50 am
True, John, however with Google now incorporating social media into SEO rankings, it’s more important than ever to be following a plan and have an integrated system for an ongoing effort.
Too many people are seeing SEO and online marketing as a “one and done.”
Jim
April 9th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Jim, this is something we’ve already done for years. It’s a given that Google considers inbound links, citations and social media profiles in her ranking factors for websites. Establishing an initial social media presence is a good thing. My beef is that dentists can spend a lot of time leaning on these social platforms and get little, if anything in return. A blog, however, if done correctly, can be much more beneficial.
John
April 6th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
I couldn’t agree more with your points. I look at social media for the dental industry as a “necessary evil”. Sure, having a profile may increase brand awareness, and give negligible SEO benefits. But, as far as attracting new patients, that’s a pipe dream. Although, proper use of Facebook ads could be beneficial in acquiring new patients. I give lots of face palm reactions at some of these ortho conferences when the social media “experts” speak about FB and twitter marketing. The big problem that nobody talks about is privacy issues with regards to patients connecting with their Dr or lawyer on Facebook. That in itself is an obstacle that will prevent any REAL marketing capitalization from SM.
But, from an competitive entrepreneurial standpoint, I say go for it Dentists! Go all in on Facebook and twitter marketing, because while you’re wasting your time and money doing that, I’ll be perfecting my website and SEO … And actually gaining new patients.