Making Social Media A Part Of Your Practice Culture

A Guide To Understanding Why Social Media Should Be A Culture Shift For Dental Practices

Making sure your dental practice has a positive, collaborative culture can be challenging. In today’s world, the practice’s culture needs to extend beyond the walls of the office. Rather than just accommodating social media as a secondary tool for communication and marketing, it should be an intrinsic part of how your team operates on a daily basis. Here are five ways you can integrate social media into your dental practice culture so that every team member understands its importance and has direction for using it effectively as part of their work routine.

Culture Mindset For Social

A social media culture mindset is the idea of integrating social media into your everyday practice life. This mindset includes making social media a part of your culture, but also that it’s not just something you do by yourself. Social media is a team sport and every member of the team should have an understanding for how to use it correctly. To make sure every member of your dental practice has a solid understanding for how to use social media, you should develop an overarching strategy in which each team member knows their specific role and understands the benefits of maintaining a strong culture. If done correctly, this will be an integral part of your daily routine that you won’t need to think about too much.

Host weekly huddles to highlight good content and collaborate on posts

One of the simplest ways to integrate social media into your dental practice culture is to host weekly huddles. These are informal meetings where you can share what content was most successful and brainstorm new ideas for posts. You can also use this time to discuss how social media strategy is integrated into each person’s workflows, remind people about the tone of voice you’re using on social media, and highlight best practices for content creation. For example, one week might be devoted to talking about a certain type of post (like a video) or discussing a certain topic in the news that day. You could even discuss how your digital marketing efforts are going and make any necessary changes. This meeting gives everyone an opportunity to stop working on their own computer screens so they can collaborate together and learn from one another’s expertise. It’s a great way to encourage teamwork while sharing best practices in digital marketing with each other.

Have a designated person in charge of social media

If you want to create a culture of social media at your office, you’ll need to make sure that everyone understands their role and responsibilities. You may already have someone in charge of the office’s website, but if not, it can be a good idea for that person to take on social media as well. This person should be in charge of all things related to your online presence. They should maintain your social media accounts, respond to comments and inquiries about the business on those platforms, and post content consistent with the company’s values.

Give team members autonomy to experiment and find what works for them

In order to integrate social media into your dental practice culture, you need to give team members autonomy. Social media is a tool that they can use to create a positive, collaborative culture and not just as a part of their job. It’s important for every team member to have the opportunity to experiment with what works best for them so that they can find the most effective way for them. Don’t dictate how your team should create content on social media accounts or what platform they should use (unless there are specific reasons for it). Give your team members time to figure out which tools or strategies work best for them. This will make it easier for them to be successful in their roles and create more engagement with patients online.

Conclusion

Your social media culture, no matter how big or small your team is, is the cornerstone to your marketing strategy. And it should be a true part of your practice culture, not just a chore or obligation. To learn more about making this culture shift, tune in to episode 48 of Dental Confidential where we dive even deep into making this happen!

And if you’re ready to ramp up your social media game and put these tips to the test, explore our signature course, Get Social School. Inside Get Social School, we break down all areas of social media and just how to use it best for your dental practice. The best part, Get Social School is created for dentists, by a dentist! So it speaks your language! Click here to explore Get Social School and all of our programs for your next social media education steps.