Facebook Cheat Sheet

Promoting your dental practice using the power of social media may sound complicated at first. But, as long as you have the right tools, such as an optimized Facebook page, reaching out to hundreds or even thousands of potential new patients and business partners can be easy.

Over the past couple of years, people have started turning to other social media networks like Instagram and Snapchat to connect with their peers.

Although Facebook is currently facing a lot of competition from other sites, it still stands out as the most dominant force in social media.

In fact, Facebook has about 1.09 billion active daily users and experiences a yearly increase of 16 percent.

Given the huge number of people actively using Facebook every day, you’ll be able to turn your followers into leads and eventually new patients as long as you properly know how to manage your page.

In order to do so, make sure to follow these simple tips.

Facebook Business Marketing

Set up a Business Page

When creating a Facebook account for your dental practice, it’s easy to make the mistake of setting up a personal page. A business page and a personal account are two completely different things.

For one, when followers “Like” a personal profile, they won’t be able to see updates from that account in their News Feeds. This, of course, can immediately limit the number of people you’ll be able to reach. Also, creating a personal profile for a business establishment is actually against the Terms of Service of Facebook.

To avoid this mistake, open Facebook’s Create a Page option and click on Local Business or Place. From here, follow the on-screen instructions on how to properly set up a business page for your dental practice.

Create a Vanity URL

Once you have established the page for your business, Facebook will assign a URL and number for your profile. Although you can keep this link, you also have the option to customize it to make it more appealing when sharing it with other people.

To do so, log in to your page and click on Settings. From here, go to General Account Settings and select Username. This information box shows the basic details about your page, including your Facebook URL.

It also gives you the option to edit the username that appears in the URL. Editing the username will enable you to create a vanity link for your dental practice’s Facebook page.

Upload a Cover Photo

When selecting a cover photo for your page, there are a few things you have to remember. First, is to choose an image that accurately represents your brand or business as this will be the first thing that will grab the attention of your followers when they visit your page.

Also, make sure that the size of the image you upload is optimized with the proper dimensions.

As suggested by Facebook, the size of cover photos should be 315 pixels tall and 851 pixels wide for desktop and 360 pixels tall and 640 pixels wide for mobile devices.

In addition, if you’re planning on adding other content to your cover photo such as text or images, make sure they are properly balanced.

For instance, since profile photos are displayed on the left side of the page, align the other content or even the focal point of your photo on the right portion to create a balanced image.

Also, avoid placing text or images on the lower half of the cover photo.

Select a Proper Profile Photo

Since you’re operating a business page for your dental practice, it is important to use a professional-looking and recognizable profile picture. If you are the only dentist in your clinic, you can use a headshot of yourself. You also have the option to use the logo of your dental practice, if you have one, or an image of your clinic.

Optimize your About section

Like most companies’ websites, Facebook also has an About section where you can showcase helpful information regarding your dental practice. This is usually the first section that new followers visit to learn more about your brand. But aside from the main section, Facebook also features a preview of your business’ details at the left side of your page, below the profile picture.

To optimize the preview section, make sure to provide detailed and description information in the Short Description panel of the About section.

Choose a Call To Action button

Back in 2014, Facebook launched a simple yet effective tool called the call-to-action button for business operators. As its name suggests, this button prompts users to execute a specific action to directly interact with businesses.

If your page doesn’t have this feature yet, create one by simply clicking on the Create a Call-to-Action button located at the top of your page, right next to the Like and Message tabs.

Then, choose an appropriate button for your dental practice from the various options such as Sign Up, Contact Us, Book Now or Use App. Once you have created the button, you can then link it to your dental practice’s website.

After all of the set-up, start doing a social media content to make your followers have interactions on your page.