Using Social Media to Retain Dental Patients

Ed Zuckerberg, DDS, is the founder of Painless Social Media, a company geared toward bringing in new clients and bolstering relationships with existing ones. He’s also the father of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In this clip, Dr. Zuckerberg explains how to use social media to give patients a sense for who you are as a professional in order to keep them coming back for care.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“As we all know, dentistry has become more of a business. Fees are dictated by and large by insurance companies. Profit margins are not great. The old days of waiting 10, 15 minutes for an FMX to be developed, and schmoozing with the patient about their last vacation, or the sick dog, or what not, that kind of personal interaction is gone. Everything in the operatory is real business-like. A lot of people don’t really get to know much about the staff and the dentist who is treating them because it’s so efficient and business-like, and out of necessity.

I love dentists to use social media to really show off some of the stuff to patients that’s not obvious to them when they visit the office, or even prospective patients who want to learn more about the office. We have a chance to portray ourselves as people, to show some of the great stuff that we do for the community: givebacks, what our personal hobbies are. Dentists are people, right? And that often gets lost in the shuffle.

I find that with patient loyalty and allegiance to offices on the wane because of insurance company affiliations or whatnot. People seem to be changing offices in a lot of the cases like they change their underwear. The more the patients know about the dentist, and the staff members, and the people who are treating them, the more likely you are to increase the bond and decrease the likelihood of a patient loss.”