How Your Dental Practice Could Approach COVID-19 On Social Media
As COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) diagnoses continue to increase around the world and in the United States, social media is filled with information about what this means as far as individual impact goes. It is important that your practice utilizes the tools that it does have to help your patients understand how this will impact them and their interaction with your dental practice. During a time that a lot of individuals in your community may be filled with anxiety or denial about this virus, your practice has the opportunity to represent itself positively, and offer solutions to current problems.
We do not know how the situation will change in the coming weeks, but when posting on your different social accounts we would suggest including:
- Acknowledging the presence of the virus
- Solutions for how you are going to control the spread of the virus at your practice (whether by closing your practice or continued hygiene standards)
- Encourage patients to not come to their visit if they are sick (If you are staying open)
- Reaffirm the importance of patients taking care of their dental health as apart of their overall health and help them keep a forward-thinking attitude
Here is some messaging you can customize for your practice to post on your social accounts:
As novel coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnoses continue to increase around the world, we are committed as always to providing a safe and hygienic environment for our patients and team. Updates may change day-to-day but currently, individual state dental associations are recommending for dental practices to suspend nonessential or non-urgent dental care for the next two weeks to help with social distancing efforts in order to help slow the spread of the virus. OR our doors are still open and we are maintaining business as usual. We do kindly ask, for the health and safety of patients and our staff, that only the patients receiving dental treatment come into the office. We will continue to use precautions with every patient we interact with in order to keep you safe! If you have a dental need and are unsure of the next steps, please do not hesitate to give us a call so we can help you! Our phone lines will be staying open and appointments will be available on an as-needed basis. We will keep in touch if current guidelines change and will let you know of any updates. Thank you for your trust in us, and we look forward to helping you with your dental care in the future.
Check out our website for additional updates or to find our contact information: YOUR Website Link
Include relevant hashtags: I.E. #Covid19 #dentistry #YourPracticeName
We would suggest posting these updates on your Google My Business listing, your Facebook, and any other social accounts you have (I.E. Instagram, Twitter, Blog, Etc.).
Covid-19 Communication to your Patients
Here are some sample posts we liked from different practices on how they effectively communicated these updates to their patients!
Additional Ideas
In addition to posting updates to your patients about the current status at your practice, there is a great opportunity to release some relevant content that is a little lighter in nature. Social media is currently flooded with heavy news articles and serious posts. They are all over social media and online! Why not take the opportunity to try out some alternative ways to communicate with your patients while still informing them, but representing your brand and practice in a positive way?
Here are three creative, and additional ideas you can try at your practice:
Handwash Dance
1. Have you seen the handwash dance that went viral in Vietnam? Why not release your own version to help teach your patients (in a fun way!) best practices for washing their hands? You could even do this from home if you are not in the office!
Wash Your Lyrics
2. Building on the Handwash Dance- Have you heard of Wash Your Lyrics? This website allows you to choose a song and have your own handwashing poster created for you! Why not share the poster of one of your favorite songs and a video of you washing your hands to the music? Kurt Tocci shares the Wash Wash Slide, a fun take on the Cha Cha Slide in this link!
Educational Posts
3. This is also a great time to start putting together content offering educational posts on how your patients can best take care of their oral health! This article from the ADA walks through some great direction on how best to care for your mouth when you’re sick. Try sharing a video, or post showing how as a healthcare professional you recommend for patients to care for their oral health. Be sure to close with messaging about how important it is to come in for your regular dental check-up. You could also post what it means to have a dental emergency, and how to get in touch with your practice in those situations. This post from @BlondeandToothy below is a great example of creative ways to share awareness and the next steps.
At Ascent Practice Growth Strategies we always strive to provide accurate diagnoses and adjustments for your marketing based on current industry trends. If you are one of our amazing clients please reach out with any questions or concerns about how the Coronavirus is affecting your practice or marketing goals. If you are not one of our clients, to learn more please go to our website https://ascentpgs.com/ to schedule a consultation. We are designed to help dentists achieve better results with their marketing by, solidifying their unique brand and then implementing and tracking a coordinated marketing strategy. Simply put, only Ascent Practice Growth Strategies offers a comprehensive approach to marketing your practice. In regards to the current status on COVID-19, For the latest CDC updates please click here. For the latest ADA updates please click here.
