Social Media, Leadership & You

By | December 18, 2013

The ADA Practical Guide to Social Media PlanningRita Zamora just concluded the CE course Social Media, Leadership & You at the 27th New Dentist Conference. Earlier this year ADA New Dentist News spoke with Zamora about using social media in your dental practice. Here are three tips she gave ADA New Dentist News for upgrading your professional presence online:

Show, Don’t Say your Practice Values If marketing is an opportunity for you to say what your values are, then social media is the place to show those values. If one of your values is family-friendliness, then your social media presence should demonstrate your comfort with kids and awareness of the challenges parents face.

Social Media is Social Don’t be the bore at the party who talks about work the whole time. If you are fortunate enough to have a dog, a cat or a baby, you have some of the most popular ingredients for popular social media. If sharing those topics doesn’t work for you, you can post about training for a marathon, hand-tying your own flies for an upcoming fishing trip, or volunteering at a food bank. Like any conversation, it’s worth making the effort to navigate the space between “too impersonal” and “too much information.”

Not Dry, Not Drowning, Just Drip If you never update your social media, your online presence can grow dry and uninteresting. But posting too frequently can drown users in a sea of low-quality content. It’s best to drip out high-quality posts over time and reinforce a message of quality, not quantity.

Interested in learning more about using social media in a way that makes sense for your practice? Pick up The ADA Practical Guide to Social Media Planning. Learn how to use social media in a way that will engage potential and existing patients; make your practice more visible in a growing sea of online information and protect and further your professional reputation online.

How about you—do you have a plan for using social media to support your professional goals? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to follow the conference at #NDC2013.