In your dental practice, your social media strategy is more important than ever because your clients need to feel comfortable and safe. Many already are afraid of going to the dentist, but now with COVID-19 concerns, that anxiety is enhanced even further. So how can social media help? Dental practice social media expert Rita Zamora has answers.
This episode of The Dental Experience Podcast is sponsored by Trident Lab. Dental Experience podcast listeners - that's you - you can write the code Dental Experience on your first case, and you can save up to $50. Simply visit tridentlab.com/dep for more details.
The Dental Experience Podcast is hosted by Ryan Vet and is edited by Earfluence.
In your dental practice, your social media strategy is more important than ever because your clients need to feel comfortable and safe. Many already are afraid of going to the dentist, but now with COVID-19 concerns, that anxiety is enhanced even further. So how can social media help? Dental practice social media expert Rita Zamora has answers.
This episode of The Dental Experience Podcast is sponsored by Trident Lab. Dental Experience podcast listeners - that's you - you can write the code Dental Experience on your first case, and you can save up to $50. Simply visit tridentlab.com/dep for more details.
The Dental Experience Podcast is hosted by Ryan Vet and is edited by Earfluence.
Voiceover: Today on The Dental Experience podcast:
Rita Zamora: Last year, I would say stop posting those pictures of you with a mask on, people need to see your face and they want to see your smile! But today...
Ryan Vet: Should I be on TikTok? What's Pinterest?
Rita Zamora: But at the end of the day, the only way you can be strategic is if you're planning ahead and being thoughtful and intentional about what it is that you're sharing and you can't do that spontaneously.
Ryan Vet: G-I-P-H-Y. How do you pronounce that?
Voiceover: This is The Dental Experience podcast. Here's your host, Ryan Vet.
Ryan Vet: Welcome to season three of The Dental Experience podcast. It has been a long time since I've been able to say that, and I'm glad to have all of you listening. Thank you to the loyal listeners over the months who have asked where we've been. The whole country has been - and really the whole world has been - on a bit of hiatus, but we are getting back into Dental Experience podcast with a new producer, with new sponsors, and it's going to be better than ever before, so I appreciate your loyalty. And no better way to kick-off a new season and a new year than with an awesome, incredible friend of mine who has just poured so much into dentistry over the years, specifically in the area of marketing, which is critical to all of us right now in, in our practices, Rita Zamora. Rita, welcome to the show.
Rita Zamora: Hey, thank you so much for the invite. Appreciate it.
Ryan Vet: Of course, and, you know, it's been a little rusty dusting off the old microphone here, and I appreciate you putting up with some of the technical difficulties we had getting, getting started, but I think we've all hit a couple of bumps in the road during this time, and it's been a really challenging time for us as a country and us as a world, really, as we're trying to manage and market and grow and love and care for our patients while - and our team - throughout the season of COVID. So over the next couple of minutes, I'm excited to glean insights from you on how to talk about some of these sensitive items while still being able to, to manage and grow your practice and really provide the care we need.
So, the first thing that I've got to talk to you about has nothing thing to do with dentistry but has to social media because that is where you specialize and I spend maybe a little bit too much time sometimes, particularly on Instagram.
So, I was working with a brand, Louis Jadot, and we were doing a giveaway for some Gabriele glasses. So that's a wine brand out of France, out of Burgundy, and Gabriel glasses, this Austrian mouth blown crystal glasses that are like an ounce each. They're so thin, but beautiful glasses. And Rita participated in the giveaway, and she won.
So social media marketing at its finest. Now that works for wine, but let, let's talk about how, how dentists, how, how their team members can get engaged in social media in general, and then we'll dive into more of the more timely conversation.
Rita Zamora: Yeah. Well, thank you so much again for hooking me up with those glasses.
I mean, I think people might say like, "What's so special about a wine glass?" But, until you actually hold it in your hands, you don't know how remarkable and awesome it really is.
Ryan Vet: That is true. That is true. And I think I hear a lot of people ask and a lot of practices ask, why should they be on social media?
And yes, of course you can win some cool prizes if you do giveaways, but there's so much more to that, and there's ways to engage with your patients. So let's talk about why a practice should be on social media.
Rita Zamora: Well, I like to say that social media for a dental practice is the new website. And certainly you still have to have a website, you know, in order for people to check you out and see that you're legit these days, but social media has really become such a huge part of people's lives, especially with COVID. We saw like a 27% increase in Facebook usage while people were staying at home, you know, during the early days of COVID and in the spring. So, it's a great opportunity for your practice to become visible, to become discovered, for you to become known for the types of procedures you want to be doing more in your practice.
I mean, I could go on and on, but essentially, social media is an integral part of your overall online presence. It's an absolute must have.
Ryan Vet: Absolutely. And, and Rita, I know you can go on and on because you are seriously a thought leader. You're just an expert in this space. You've written the book, "Get found, Get Liked, Get Patients: Making the Most of Social Media," and, and it's a fantastic book that every practice should go get if they don't have it now. And I would love to talk about - because that book was written really, before everything has kind of changed in the world, right?
Rita Zamora: Yes. And you know, it's, it is interesting because people have asked like, you know, how could you write a book on social media? Because every day there's new things evolving. There's a new, you know, option out on Instagram, new stickers, new, you know, new features and what the book really focuses on is, you know, what are those evergreen topics around social media? Because now I've been talking about social media for a decade, which seems crazy, but Facebook business pages have been around for about 10 years and we've learned a lot in working with dentists across the country and really, even internationally as well about the key systems that you need to have in place in order to make social media marketing not only more effective, but also more efficient. So, there's some really important components in there that every practice should really have in place and, and that's what we cover more so than like "Here's the latest TikTok move." It's not going to be in the book.
Ryan Vet: Right. And systems that you just mentioned are so important and you even talked about how Facebook has had a 27% increase as a result of COVID, and times change, but systems don't. So even though TikTok might pop-up or new stickers might appear on Instagram, or Facebook might have, you know, increased viewership every day during COVID, what are some of those systems that you recommend? And how are practices currently managing social media today? And what tips do you have to help them, generally, in a normal world, and then we can dive into maybe specific COVID conversations.
Rita Zamora: Well, there's really two parts to it. There's strategies, and then there's tactics and tools that you need to put into place.
But one of the questions that I usually ask doctors about, you know, when they come to us looking for help is "How do you want to be perceived on social media?" And it's something important to think about when you look at your social media, does it reflect how you want to be perceived? I usually ask doctors to think about three different adjectives that they would use to describe how they want to be perceived. For some, it might be friendly, family oriented, community or relationship focused. For others it might be, we want to be known for our high tech practice. We want to be known for, you know, the continuing education that we're constantly involved with, or we want to be known as the stylish dentist, you know, there's no right or wrong answer, but I encourage them to start thinking about how they want to be perceived.
And then also thinking about what they want to be known for, you know, what procedures do want to be doing more in your practice? Because every dentist, usually when I'm speaking with them, will know right off the top of their head, "Hey, I want to be doing more dental implants," or "We want to do more clear aligner therapy," you know, or "I want to be doing more smile makeovers," or whatever it might be, but we'll look at their social media and then they don't have anything that has anything to do with those topics on their social media.
So then we put some systems into place using some online technologies, scheduling calendars, content calendars, some things that are going to help them to stay on track and stay organized.
Ryan Vet: That's awesome. I love that you talk about this idea of understanding, kind of, your, your persona or the perception you want to create, and then making sure that what you do two aligns with that, because I think so often people slap up, you know, the meme of the day on social media and check the box for doing social media that day, and that's just not - going back to the word you use, "systems" - that's not a great system. That is just a quick tactic to put a bandaid on a bigger opportunity that you have to reach patients.
Rita Zamora: Yes, exactly. And it can also go the other route where they're posting actively, you know, pictures, or they might have a birthday they're celebrating or something else spontaneous that comes up, and that's all really great. But at the end of the day, the only way you can be strategic is if you're planning ahead and being thoughtful and intentional about what it is that you're sharing and you can't do that spontaneously.
Ryan Vet: I love that idea of spontaneity and just having that personality shine through. Well, we're going to talk a lot more about, specifically, some tactics you can use and really how the world has changed.
We don't want to harp on COVID, but it is the reality in which we live, and this is to be a resource for, for individuals and practices. So we're going to talk about that right after this brief message from our sponsor.
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Now, let's get back to the show.
And we're back to talk about really, what's pressing and what's on so many minds today, and it's the idea of how do you market and be sensitive, help, you know, fulfill your bottom line, help keep your team employed and really make sure patients know it's safe to come to the doctor in the era of COVID?
So often, before, people were afraid of the needle or, or this or that, but now there's a whole new fear that's really consumed our our entire world. And so Rita, I really want to hear from how do you approach this really sensitive and delicate topic that's being perceived so differently by so many people?
Rita Zamora: Yeah. Well, I think, you know, the great news is that we're seeing that, you know, our dentists are keeping their patients safe. They're keeping their teams safe, you know, through the use of their PPE, which they've always been one of the cleanest, safest places to be, so I'm really proud to work in this dental fam that we're associated with to see what they've been able to do. So, kudos to all the practices out there for that. They've kind of come into this new phase. I don't even know if it's the new normal, but I like to say it's the new phase that we're in right now, and a lot of them are sort of, you know, kind of doing their business as usual and feeling comfortable and safe and not really realizing that, like you said, there is a portion of the population that has always been fearful of the dentist, and now we have another layer on top of that, of people who might be new germaphobes or just really have a hypervigilance about what's going on with safety related to COVID. So, I think one of the most important things to do is to just continue to let patients know what you're doing in the practice to keep them safe and that might be as simple as rethinking some of the photos that you're sharing. And it's funny, Ryan, because even a few years ago, I would say, or even last year, I would say stop posting those pictures of you with a mask on people need to see your face and they want to see your smile. But today - and, and here's an interesting story: there's a patient that was leaving a comment in one of my neighborhood Facebook groups that I'm in here where I live just outside of Boulder, and the woman posted that she left her dental practice today. She was a patient there and she said, "I got up in the middle of my appointment and I left" because she said she could hear people answering the phone and they weren't asking the patients if they had been traveling lately or, I mean, she said that she was pregnant and she was really hyper-aware of what was going on and she felt nervous. She didn't feel safe. So, our patients are listening and looking at all of those details. And so, if you take a picture of yourself and your team without your masks on in your office - having a lunch together or a celebration or anything like that - but you're expecting your patients to come in with a mask, even if you're wearing a mask during treatment, patients are looking at that and going, "Why do you not have your masks on for the celebration? Like why, why are you able to like all get together without your mask on?"
So, there may be a perfectly legitimate reason for that, maybe it was just a quick photo or whatever, but people are doing their due diligence and want to know what's going on with this. Like, they're paying attention to little details like that now.
Ryan Vet: It's funny how - I love how you said it, you know, seven months ago, you told your practices to, to remove their, their normal standard mask they were wearing prior to COVID and smile, and now you're saying "Nope. Keep it, keep it on your pictures."
And it's so funny how this idea of safety and trust, and I think trust is a big thing when it comes to dentistry, how those have changed, how those perceptions have changed. Besides pictures, and maybe that is the best way, but what are some of the most tangible, actionable ways - if someone were to go do a post on any social platform today - to instill some sort of confidence in their patients, what would you recommend? What is that caption or what does that photo or, or what does that video look like and how do you ensure that accuracy, that transparency, that, that authenticity actually carries through in that post?
Rita Zamora: Well, there's a couple of different ways that you can go about it and, you know, some practices have invested the time and money to create, you know, an awesome video, giving them a tour, giving patients a tour of, you know, how they're handling COVID and the new protocols that they have in place.
And that's great, and there's other practices that are sort of telling a story through their content. Like one of the teams that we work with, they have everything from, you know, they're, they're texting their patients and allowing them to wait in their cars before they come in for the appointments, and they're letting them know that they'll provide a concierge service for them.
So they'll text them when they're ready to be brought in, and they'll open the door for them so they don't have to touch anything and it's a touchless experience. So, they sort of put like a concierge sort of touchless spin on it, which makes it sounds a little bit more luxurious, the experience. And then they'll go on and maybe in another post, they'll share a little bit about the surgically clean air that they offer in their office because of the special HEPA filters that they've purchased for their practice.
And they'll, in the next post, you know, be talking about, some of their other protocols that they've put into place, a specific mouth rinse that they're offering for their patients before their treatment and what that does for them. So, they're sort of telling a story that's ongoing about what they're continuing to do and how they're continuing to keep their patients safe, and they're weaving that in.
So, when I say they're telling a story, that's not all they're sharing on social media, but that might be 20% of their content is this particular theme. So there's a couple of different ways that you can go about that, but knowing that this is the new phase for us, and even though you feel comfortable with it, we have to continue to drop those details through these messages, through the posts that we're sharing to help keep our patients informed.
Ryan Vet: I think that's so important, and I went to my wife's practice and frankly, I had gotten plenty of communication on the right way to check-in and all of that, and I was a bad student and a bad reader and didn't necessarily read that thoroughly, but one of the things that they're doing is over-communicating, or maybe not over-communicating, like clearly communicating the changes that have occurred, and I think social media is a great Avenue to do that to not only instill confidence, but also help people understand exactly what's going on around them because it is a different experience than probably ever before for most patients going to the dentist. So, I think that's extremely valid. And I know one of the questions that a lot of people have is who does my social media? Or who should do my social media?
I would love to hear your thoughts on that. Is that someone within the, the office, someone on the team? Is that external? And how do you assess that for a given practice?
Rita Zamora: Well, there's a couple of different ways, we're, we're seeing our practices managing social media today, and one is they could have someone internally that has the time, the skillset and the interest to manage social media. That's - those three different components are really important.
Ryan Vet: So, time, skillset and interest?
Rita Zamora: Yes. If somebody doesn't have the time, obviously they're not going to be able to manage it internally. If they don't have the skillset, you know, they just are not, you know, Instagram savvy or they're like, I'm really having trouble just finding my Facebook page or whatever it might be, it's like, "OK, maybe it's time to look for some training or just to outsource it." Or, if they don't have the interest in it, and there are teams that we work with where there are, you know, a wide variety of ages. They might have plenty of millennials on their team as well, but they love social media socially and personally, but they don't necessarily want to manage it for the practice or be involved in it professionally. So, time, skillset and interest.
And if you have all of those, you can manage it internally and do really well. If you don't, then you can either look at outsourcing or delegating to an organization or a company that can have help you with that. Or, what we're seeing today is, especially with all of the new changes and new protocols that practices have integrated, is what we call a hybrid program where practices can do social media with us, or do social media with a company that can help them with the tools and systems and content ideas and - it almost takes a village, as you know, Ryan, with all these new changes that have been coming out.
Ryan Vet: Yeah, and I think you've hit on something right at the beginning of our conversation, and again just now, this idea of changes and it gets overwhelming and almost exhausting to keep up with it. I mean, social media has been and a large part of my career over the last decade or so since - it's been longer than that now - but since it first came out and working with large, household, international brands and then ending up developing, really, my own brand that has worked with other brands and doing the giveaways and things we mentioned earlier. But, I'm exhausted always having to work with these changes and things like that.
How would you recommend, and it was partly and your last answer, but how would you recommend staying up with these changes? And then the second part of that question is how around the world do you know which platforms are relevant to be on at any given time?
Rita Zamora: Well, I think, you know, part of it, to answer the beginning part of your question about how do you keep up with it is, you know, if you have someone on your team that has the time, skillset and the interest in it, they're probably gonna be reading and watching what's going on in social media and getting inspiration and ideas there.
And for social media hybrid programs, like we have ours do social media with us, we offer resources and teams can ask us questions and get some help, you know, as they need. So, that's, that's a couple of different ways there. But, you know, I think that what we're seeing is it practices, with all the new protocols, they're so busy right now, they really are - and it's not just for social media, you've probably seen it or heard about it with all the sorts of new processes and protocols they're dealing with - they can, they're rethinking the way that they used to practice before. I'm seeing more and more practices interested in outsourcing and looking at what they can do to minimize the number of human bodies that they have in the practice, essentially, to reduce the amount of PPE they have to use. So, I think now's a good time to start looking at how you can really maximize these opportunities and cut down on some of your expenses at the same time by becoming more efficient.
Ryan Vet: So Rita, there's so much conversation about what platform should I be on? Should I be on TikTok? What's Pinterest? Is that only for recipes or can I put my dental procedures on there? What platforms do you think are most important currently for dental practices to be on?
Rita Zamora: Well, I mean, at the end of the day, we have to think about, you know, who your ideal patient base is and who you're trying to show up in front of. But for most practices today, it's going to be Facebook, Instagram and I would include Google My Business in that. Even though Google My Business is not a social media tool, it's not a social media platform, but you can still post content there, and a lot of practices don't know that and aren't taking advantage of that opportunity. So, those are the three platforms that I recommend all practices keep up with and share content on.
And then from there, you know, if you're into TikTok ,and that's your thing, or into Reels now on Instagram, you want to make those video snippets, I think there can be tremendous opportunity there - particularly with Instagram Reels, I'm going to put my money on that even though, you know, TikTok is very popular. But, unless you're an ortho practice that's really targeting a younger audience, you're probably going to get more diverse age ranges on a platform like Instagram Reels versus TikTok.
Ryan Vet: Well, Rita, I take that as a challenge. Next time we find ourselves in the same city and traveling is back to normal, let's make a Reel.
Rita Zamora: OK, I'll take you up on that.
Ryan Vet: Rita, you've been so humble during this entire conversation, but you have a wealth of resources available to practices from tools, to services, to just ways to improve marketing for a practice.
So, I want you to just share all the tools that you have available, and the services that you have available, and ways that you can help practices fulfill this really important aspect of marketing, especially during times that are changing, both with the changing technology and the changing landscape of, of our economy and the world in which we're living in today.
Rita Zamora: Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. Well, we've been really nimble and have always continued to evolve in the ways that our dental clients need us to evolve, you know, based on their needs. And what we're really seeing right now is a need for our hybrid, you know, type of program for social media management, so we created a new program called Connect 90, and we named it Connect 90 because we wanted it, first and foremost, to allow dentists to connect with their patients, and the 90 stands for 90 minutes. It's the minimum amount of time per month that we have researched and found that is the absolute minimum amount of time that you need to spend on your social media to personalize it, because we didn't want to create a program that was cookie cutter, where everyone had the same content. We really nudge our clients to highly personalize their content with their own photos, put their own spin on it, but we provide them with an online scheduling calendar, a content calendar, and plug the calendar in with different topics and ideas, so we have a science behind it. There's a certain amount of practice-building topics where we're reminding patients to thank their patients for referrals, to let them know that you're accepting new patients where we're talking about the clear aligner therapy or dental implants that you want to be doing more of.
And then, we have another certain percentage of topics that might be focused on more social type of topics with a positive spin to it, and there's actually research behind that. I think, Pinterest just released some of their data and said that the most popular topics right now are positive themed and motivational themed. So, we spend a lot of time looking at what resonates with patients on social media and built our platform and our program around it. And, it's something where a team member can work with us to do their own social media and really personalize it, but we're that village that's there for them that I mentioned to you. We provide support through a private Facebook community, all of our content is curated, and we just love providing that personalized service with the dentists so we kind of feel like we're a little part of, we call them our C 90 fam. We feel like all of our clients are a part of our, our family.
Ryan Vet: Those are great insights. And there's two things I want to just reiterate that you said that I think are so true. The first of which is you don't provide cookie cutter content, but you provide a framework for personalization.
I cannot tell you how many practices use cookie cutter content, and they're often in same geographic areas. And if you are trying to build your practice, and a patient is looking at two practices and you have the same exact content, literally, and I've seen this and Rita, I know you have as well, you know, that's not helpful.
So I think making sure it's personalized is huge. And the second piece is, there's actually a ton of science behind social media. There's tons of data, sentiment analysis, which is the analization of the emotion in text, things like that. This is all critical. When I worked with an agency, a social media agency, about 15 years ago, right, when social media was first it's coming out, there was a team of people per account that would analyze the words and comments of every single post based against science and data. So, it's so important and people don't necessarily realize that, but the fact that you're offering this in a, an approachable and attainable way for the dental industry that is relevant, makes a huge difference in really positioning the practice.
And going back to that earlier word, you said "perception," and making sure the perception of the practice, ultimately, aligns with the practice goals. So, I think that's so helpful. Well in our last couple minutes here, Rita, I would love to give you the opportunity to, first of all, let people know how they can get in touch with you, and all of that information will also be in the show notes. And then any last minute closing thoughts? And then I've got one question we'll close with after that.
Rita Zamora: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, to wrap things up, we didn't touch upon, you know, how important it is also share your joys with your patients. So, make sure that you're including in your content pictures of you smiling and spending time, doing things that bring you joy outside of the office, whether it's hiking or cycling or spending time with your kids, or whatever it might be. You know, cooking banana bread, whatever, whatever it is, but sharing those joys with your patients. You don't want to forget about that. So, keep making people smile because we are in the smile business after all. I'm always happy to talk with anyone. If you have any questions, you want to talk about what we might be able to do to help you out, you can find me on and ritazamora.com or on connect90.com, and I'm fortunate enough that my name is unique, you can Google it and you should be able to find any of my social media platforms. The best place to find me is on social media these days.
That makes sense. Well, here's the most important question. How do you say the name of those animated stickers that are on social media or on your iPhone? It's a hotly debated topic. It's a G-I-P-H-Y. How do you pronounce that? Very important question.
Yes. I'm on the gif, the gift family side of things.
Ryan Vet: I have to agree. I think Jif is peanut butter, so I think it's Giphy, but I, I don't know. I know that's hotly debated and it's a very important question, but I had to wrap up with that.
Rita Zamora: Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much.
Ryan Vet: Well, thank you Rita. I appreciate it. I appreciate your, your time and your insights and all the resources you provide for really, like you said, helping practices smile and showing that to their patients.
So, thank you for your time. And listeners, thank you for joining us on this very first episode of season three. Thank you for your support over the last several seasons. If you haven't yet, please drop a review in the comments we strive for five here at the Dental Experience podcast. Thank you for listening, and see you next time.
Voiceover: Thank you for listening to The Dental Experience podcast. For show notes, to ask a question or for more information, visit www.thedentalpodcast.com. The ideas discussed during this episode are the opinions of the participants and do not serve as legal, financial or clinical advice. Until next time, this is The Dental Experience podcast.