Summary
This video addresses the misconceptions and ineffective use of social media in dental marketing, particularly for local dental offices and large dental service organizations (DSOs). The speaker emphasizes that while social media has a legitimate role within the dental marketing ecosystem, the common practice of using social media primarily for attention and reach is flawed.
Key Points
- Misuse of Social Media for Attention:
Many dental practices and DSOs use social media platforms as tools to gain broad attention and spread reach. However, this approach is backwards because social media platforms prioritize global engagement rather than local trust-building. - Case Example:
A prospective client had an Instagram account with 39,200 followers but received only 2 to 9 likes per post, indicating very low engagement despite high follower count. This highlights a disconnect between follower numbers and actual patient traction. - Mismatch Between Social Media Goals and Dental Offices’ Needs:
- Social media platforms aim for global user engagement by promoting content that is shocking, entertaining, or emotionally engaging to appeal to wide audiences.
- Dental offices seek a local audience and want to build trust to convert followers into patients. However, people do not actively seek out dentistry-related social media content to build trust.
- Correct Use of Social Media for Dental Practices:
- Instead of focusing on constant posting to gain eyeballs, practices should post infrequently but meaningfully, focusing on humanizing content that reveals the team and office culture.
- Posting a few times per month is sufficient to maintain visibility and build trust locally. There is no need to post daily or at high volume.
- Purpose of Posting in Other Contexts:
The speaker personally posts frequently not to gain patients but to improve public speaking and communication skills, showing that posting frequency depends on the intended purpose. - Visibility and Patient Growth:
To scale and attract more patients beyond organic social media reach, paid advertising is necessary. Social media platforms are designed to reward advertisers with visibility, so relying solely on organic content without viral appeal will limit growth. - Content Quality vs. Audience Type:
- Content that is engaging for a global audience may not build trust locally.
- Content that builds local trust is unlikely to go viral or generate mass engagement.
- Healthcare influencers who produce trending, generalized content may gain fame but lose focus on their initial patient base.
- Clear Positioning:
If a dental office’s goal is local patient acquisition, they should not rely on social media for viral attention but use it as a trust-building tool supplemented by advertising.
If the goal is to become a healthcare influencer or gain broad recognition, then creating engaging global content makes sense.
Timeline Table
| Timestamp | Content Summary |
|---|---|
| 00:00 – 01:09 | Introduction: Social media has a place but is misused primarily for attention and reach. |
| 01:09 – 02:24 | Example: Large Instagram following with minimal engagement shows ineffective use of social media. |
| 02:24 – 03:57 | Explanation of mismatch between social media’s global engagement goals and local trust-building. |
| 03:57 – 05:16 | Recommended approach: Post infrequently with humanizing content to build trust locally. |
| 05:16 – 06:30 | Paid advertising is necessary for scaling visibility and patient acquisition. |
| 06:30 – 07:17 | Summary and clarification of goals: influencer fame vs. local patient growth. |
Key Insights
- Social media platforms prioritize global engagement, not local trust.
- High follower counts do not guarantee meaningful patient engagement.
- Dental practices should focus on humanizing, trust-building content posted infrequently.
- Paid advertising is essential for scaling patient acquisition on social media.
- Content strategy should align with the primary goal: local trust or broad influencer status.
Conclusion
Social media is a valuable tool for dental marketing but only when used strategically to build trust with a local audience rather than chasing global viral engagement. Dental offices must recognize the inherent mismatch between platform incentives and their marketing goals and adjust their content strategy accordingly. Paid advertising complements organic content to drive patient growth effectively.
Recommendations
- Limit posting frequency to a few humanizing posts per month.
- Focus on showcasing office culture and team personality.
- Use paid ads to expand reach and attract new patients.
- Define clear marketing goals (local patients vs. influencer status) to guide social media strategy.
- Consider alternative marketing methods such as word-of-mouth and trust-building outside social media.
00:00:00
Hey, today I want to talk about why you should stop leveraging social media as a tool for getting attention. And I want to make this very clear that social media has a place. It has a reason and a purpose for being within this entire dental marketing ecosystem. But it’s not the way we’re using it. And the way I see people using it, even big companies, like big DSOs with multiple locations, how I see them using it is that they use it as a way to get attention to try to spread reach. And this is very
00:00:34
backwards. So, I actually just got off a phone call with a prospective client. Um, I think we’re starting uh we’re signing him on tonight. And he said that um how they used to get patients with this other DSO uh before they purchased it from them was that they would run um or they would have this huge Instagram following. They had about 39,000 followers and they would create posts that basically helped those people um find that office. And so we took a look at the numbers and they had 39.2,000
00:01:07
followers on their Instagram. And each post that they would do every couple of days would get about two to six likes, maybe nine if it was good. And so basically zero engagement because they were using social media as a tool for getting awareness, which is not how it’s done. Um, so let’s talk about two things here. One is going to be the mismatch between what social media wants uh and what you want. And the second is going to be the way forward, the other way to use social media. All right. So
00:01:45
the mismatch social media, what do they want? If you think what do they want? How are they seeking to survive and beat the other social media competitors? Well, what it really is is they want user engagement at a global for a global audience, right? So they want content that is shocking, that is engaging, that causes fear, that causes joy and happiness, right? Maybe some education in there as well. And they want to do that at scale. So you have to dilute it. You have to create it for a global audience that a lot of people can like.
00:02:21
So if you want to do social media, you have to engage. You have to create content that they want and then they will award you. They will reward you with visibility. the algorithm will like that and start spreading it around. Now, what you want is likely local a local audience and you want to build trust through social media, right? You want to build the conditions for them to trust you enough to take action and people aren’t going out and seeking posts about dentistry that build trust. They’re not
00:02:52
looking, they don’t wake up and say, “Hey, you know what? I want to build trust with a new dentist today.” So rather that moment when does that when is that trust built when they’re looking for a dentist then they start looking into the offic’s social media and so on if they even get to that right it’s as now we have to use it we have to treat it as a trust building tool which is what I’m getting into with my second point you don’t have to post constantly consistently at volume the reason I post
00:03:24
constantly and at volume is for a different purpose purpose. I’m not looking to get eyeballs. I’m looking to get better at public speaking. I’m looking to hone my message and um hone the ideas that I have. Right? So, it serves a different purpose for me. And I’m also looking to build trust. So, when people see my content, they see that I’m um practicing what I preach. When they see your content, you have a different dynamic to fulfill. What they want to see is humanity. They want to
00:03:52
see the other side of the office, right? They don’t care that you’ve posted in the last week. It’s not going to increase their trust with you. If you posted in the last two, three months, that’s okay, right? Just post a bit more. Like, dial back the amount you’re posting if you’re if you’re going all into it. Just post a couple of uh times every month. Just post humanizing stuff that shows who you are, shows off your team. And beyond that, there’s really not much to be gained. If you increase
00:04:22
the frequency of posts like you’re not going to get the visibility because of that audience mismatch. So when you’re posting just a couple of times a month there is no magic number that I can give you but just enough so that people can see it and build enough trust then that’s all the benefits that social media can really give you. All right. So now when we look into visibility and when you need to scale, when you need to get more patients, that’s going to be advertising. These social media
00:04:48
platforms, Google search platforms, um all the advertising platforms, they grow because of advertisers. Like social media grows because of advertisers. So if you want to engage at them uh with them and you don’t happen to be in a position where you can grow through uh posting you know viral engaging content then you’re going to have to pay. They’ve designed it so that you win when you pay or else it would be a very terrible advertising platform. They would make no money. Right? So there’s a misconception that people
00:05:27
believe if they make good enough content that they can get patience from social media. There’s a huge mismatch. What’s good content for you won’t be engaging for the global audience. And if you do create content that’s engaging for a global audience, that’s great. But now you haven’t created traction with a local audience who wants to build trust, right? your content is now totally other stuff. And we can see this in other big YouTube um YouTubers in the healthcare field, healthc care field where they’re
00:05:59
just covering more general topics every day. They’re looking for more trending topics and it neglects the initial audience that they sought to serve. If that’s the path you want to go, if you want to become an influencer, if you want to um get more fame and recognition in that way, then by all means go ahead. like it makes sense to do that if that’s your goal. But for what I see is many offices their goal is local patient traction and then they go to this engine that is designed for global um
00:06:29
hyperengagement and they don’t see the results and then they wonder why. So I just wanted to clear that up. All right, hope that makes sense. If you want to see how you can grow your office with word of mouth, if you want to know how you can position create better um alignment with the people you seek to serve, so much so that they choose you, uh check out our free course. I’ll put it in the description. Um otherwise, thanks for watching. See you.