Shyanne McCracken, an All-Star Mastery Coach and treatment coordinator, reveals the truth about social media for dentists on Dental Allstars with Alex Nottingham. Shyanne believes that dentists hesitate to use social media due to the rules and regulations, as well as the time commitment to grow their followers and likes. She suggests that dentists can make use of the time by taking five minutes a day to post and engage with their content or delegate it to a trusted employee. Lastly, she advises dentists to use content that does not break rules or patient confidentiality.
HIGHLIGHTS – Social Media
- [00:38:25] Why are dentists hesitant to use social media?
- [01:20:12] What are the benefits of using social media for a dentist?
- [04:17:00] What should a dentist post on social media?
- [05:37:05] What mistakes are commonly made by dentists when posting (or what should dentists avoid posting)?
- [08:38:01] What are some engagement tips for dentists using social media?
- [00:15:01] All-Star Dental Academy’s Social Media Program for Dentists
RESOURCES – Social Media
- Click here to learn more about All-Star Dental Academy’s Social Media Program for Dentists
- https://allstardentalacademy.com/social
- [PODCAST] Supercharge Dental Patient Referrals
- [BLOG] Social Media: Real or a Fad?
EXPERTS
About Alex Nottingham, JD, MBA
Alex is the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy®. He is a former Tony Robbins top coach and consultant, having worked with companies upwards of $100 million. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. Alex received his Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University.
About Shyanne McCracken
Shyanne has a background in Psychology and English. After graduating college, she worked as a crisis worker and mental health counselor for a few years and then decided to expand her expertise and join her father’s dental team. Still on the front lines of dentistry, she communicates with patients every day. In the insurance-free practice, she understands the importance of relationships, rapport, and trust with each patient. One of her greatest passions is helping other offices understand that being free from restrictive insurance is possible and that it could be the best thing for you AND your patients.
TRANSCRIPT
00:11:20 – 00:34:06
Alex Nottingham
Welcome to Dental Allstars. Our topic is the truth about social media for dentists. And our guest is Shyanne McCracken. Now, Shyanne is a mastery coach at Allstar Dental Academy. She also still works in the front lines as a treatment coordinator and office manager for a very successful insurance free dental practice. She has her B.A. in psychology and English.
00:34:16 – 00:35:28
Alex Nottingham
Please welcome Shyanne.
00:37:04 – 00:38:12
Shyanne McCracken
Thanks for having me, Alex.
00:38:25 – 00:41:10
Alex Nottingham
Why are dentists hesitant to use social media?
00:41:11 – 01:11:02
Shyanne McCracken
Shyanne, I think that dentists are hesitant to use social media because of the rules and regulations and the fear of not being compliant with those. Also, it’s the time that they feel they need to a lot to the platforms to build their followers and their likes. And there are certain ways to make the time for that, whether it’s 5 minutes a day posting and engaging on your social media or delegating it to a trusted employee.
01:11:19 – 01:19:27
Shyanne McCracken
And there’s plenty of content out there to post where you’re not breaking any rules or regulations with patient confidentiality.
01:20:12 – 01:33:26
Alex Nottingham
So we see some of the downsides because I know some dentist tell me, well, it’s not a great return on investment, what have you. And we can get to that later. What are the benefits then of social media for a dentist or a dental office?
01:34:15 – 02:01:09
Shyanne McCracken
So social media is super important because it’s an extra line of communication between you and your patients. It builds the connection that you have with your your patients as well as potential patients. And it’s extension of who you are as a practice and who your team is and who the dentist is. And we know that building connections with patients leads to trust and confidence and credibility.
02:01:22 – 02:25:07
Shyanne McCracken
And therefore, patients are more likely to show up for their appointment to accept a treatment, and to refer their friends and their family to your office. Especially when you’re authentic and you’re real and you’re sharing personalized experience with and post and engaging with your followers. It’s definitely a way to get your name out there and reach a larger audience.
02:25:21 – 02:38:29
Alex Nottingham
Give me some some things that you’re doing that are fun or kind of or the history of this that your doctor was he open and doing it right away or did it take time or or what effects that you’ve seen in your practice?
02:39:12 – 03:01:20
Shyanne McCracken
Eric is a big part of our social media platform. He started our social media for our office and he posts daily pictures that people are commenting on. They’re usually cute little pictures like Halo Spring and things that people actually share to their own pages. And that creates an engagement as well as getting your name out there because they are sharing your posts.
03:02:15 – 03:32:24
Shyanne McCracken
Another thing that we do is we share the new protocols that we’re putting into place that will keep our patients safe during the COVID era. Patients want to know how you are going to keep them safe and looking at the cleanliness of your practice. And so one of the things we did is we have a fogger machine with hypochlorite acid, and we shared in instructions of how we use that in our office and how it keeps our patients safe.
03:33:10 – 03:57:11
Shyanne McCracken
So we’re always sharing what we’re doing that’s new. Anything that we’re promoting in the office, any products that we’re now selling or offering, also highlighting our team members or patients that allow us to post their testimonials now if we have written consent. So we’re always engaging on our social media pages and responding to comments and their shares as well as their messages.
03:57:24 – 04:16:08
Alex Nottingham
And you’re mentioning Eric Vicary, our president of coaching, as well as he runs our social media program that we provide with dentists. And I’ll talk more about that later. But that’s all star dental academy dot com slash social and there’s a brochure of the service that we offer which is pretty cool. And Eric runs that and that’s who you’re referring to.
04:17:00 – 04:31:05
Alex Nottingham
What should a dentist post on social media? You’re mentioning some examples, but give me some more. What what are what are areas? I’ll put it this way. What are examples that work and what are examples that don’t work so well on social media?
04:31:27 – 04:59:28
Shyanne McCracken
I’ll start with what doesn’t work. So posting anything controversial like political views or religious views that could dissuade patients from coming to your practice. Those are things that you you want to avoid on social media. Any copyrighted content or trademarked content, you want to avoid that as well. Anything that breaks your confidentiality with a patient, like I mentioned before, you need written consent to post those things.
05:00:24 – 05:32:26
Shyanne McCracken
What does work is when you’re very intentional about your posts and you make them personalize. We’re in this era right now of COVID, where patients are greeted with a masked face. If you are showing your team members and you’re showing the doctor without a mask on on your social media, and they’re smiling and the patient comes into the office, you may be masked, but they’re going to think back to when they saw your face on social media and they’re instantly going to feel more connected and comfortable with you.
05:33:01 – 05:36:17
Shyanne McCracken
So I would definitely say to share personalized content.
05:37:05 – 06:05:26
Alex Nottingham
It’s a great point that you want to. That’s a really interesting way of getting around the mask. Is that on your pictures? You’re not wearing a mask. Very clever. So that’s one of the good things. The bad things don’t post religious or personal or political statements. Keep it fun. Keep it light. What are are there other mistakes that dentist should avoid or areas that don’t work on social media?
06:06:15 – 06:32:21
Shyanne McCracken
Absolutely. One of the biggest ones that I see is not posting consistent. So I think of the example, if you haven’t posted since 2019 and a potential client visits your page, it would be like them going over to a friend’s house and all the lights are off in the house. Oh, no one’s home. So they’re going to go visit some place else where the lights are on and they know they’re home.
06:33:12 – 06:47:06
Shyanne McCracken
So you need to post consistently so that when people visit your page, they know that you’re active in the community, that you are accepting new patients. So it’s very important to make sure you’re posting daily and interacting as well.
06:47:29 – 06:54:23
Alex Nottingham
What about like posting specials to those work, $99 exams or what have you? What about that?
06:55:22 – 07:18:27
Shyanne McCracken
I would say as long as you’re avoiding the pushy sales tactics, then yes, you can keep people up to date on the specials that you’re doing and you’re promoting. But I would avoid things like, you know, 1499 for a crown, come and get yours today so you can inform people of what you’re doing and your prices, but not being pushy with your sales.
07:19:07 – 07:39:11
Alex Nottingham
Lots of fun content, maybe some educational content. Mix it up essentially. Right. And then you can throw in a call to action here and there. But if it’s all bye bye bye, they’re not going to want to engage with your with your office. What are some engagement tips for dentists using social media? How can they get more engagement on their page?
07:39:27 – 08:04:23
Shyanne McCracken
So one of the things I’ve I’ve learned is that to get engagement, you have to give engagement. So you post and you comment on other people’s things, something that aligns with your values of your practice. If a patient post a cute picture of their puppy dog, go out, go ahead and comment on that and write. Oh, so cute and make mindful, meaningful connections with your patients.
08:05:01 – 08:22:23
Shyanne McCracken
And then even remember that when they come into the practice that you had liked that picture and reference that picture. Oh, I loved your dogs. Your dog is so cute. And you can build connections and trust that way by communicating on Facebook or Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn.
08:23:04 – 08:37:19
Alex Nottingham
What do I have to be on? What should I be on? It’s getting overwhelming. I mean, you have YouTube, you have what are the platforms? What are the most popular platforms for dentists? What do I need to be on and what should I consider being on?
08:38:01 – 09:01:00
Shyanne McCracken
You really should be on as many platforms as you can. I would say Facebook and Instagram are going to be one of the most popular. LinkedIn, Twitter. There’s a lot of engagement on those sites. So I would say trying to be on multiple platforms is important and just figuring out what aligns with your values as well. And you want to personalize your content per platform.
09:01:20 – 09:20:23
Alex Nottingham
And I know a lot of dentist like I just want to do dentistry, but you see the dentists that are engaged in social media and there are hams out there that are off on the deep end, but there some middle ground the dentists like. For me, I’m very comfortable on LinkedIn, so Shyanne runs all of our social media.
09:20:23 – 09:46:25
Alex Nottingham
That’s why I was looking to have her on here as well. And we have a whole social media team, right? You are President of coaching, Eric, Shelly, everybody. And we’re all like Sharon together. So that could be a good thing to do with your your dental office is maybe have someone like Eric Whittaker talking about the end our social media program that can start the fire, make sure there’s content but then everybody in your team comment like, like other people’s stuff.
09:46:25 – 00:10:14:06
Alex Nottingham
So it’s you’re not alone at it but the principle leader has to be create some context. So for example, I’m comfortable on LinkedIn. So what I’ll do is I will connect with some of my friends, dentists and so on. I’ll like their things, I’ll like our things, experts. And there’s a networking going there. Heather She’s comfortable on Facebook and on Instagram, so she’ll do more of that situation.
00:10:14:06 – 00:10:23:15
Alex Nottingham
So so what I’m hearing is it can be a team effort and that the doctor, the CEO in a sense, should be involved in some capacity.
00:10:24:14 – 00:10:50:17
Shyanne McCracken
Absolutely. And if you have, you know, Eric posting daily, that’s great to keep your page active. And then you also want to add in that more personalized information and you can delegate that to your team members. You know, each team member takes a day and they post something a little bit more personal. Obviously, you have to trust them and keep it professional, but it can be a picture of their dog and a little snippet of information about the team member or the doctor.
00:10:51:05 – 00:11:11:13
Alex Nottingham
It’s also important to connect with social media. It’s a network, so you have your page, but then you have people that are linking to your page and liking to your page. So is it appropriate to ask nicely if your team would repost some of it to their page? Because then if we get to their friends, their friends and see our office and they come to our office.
00:11:11:27 – 00:11:21:04
Alex Nottingham
So tell me about that. I mean, is that something you do at your practice? Is that something that we can I’m sure we can we can ask. Well, we cannot compel. It’s a personal thing. Thoughts on that, saying?
00:11:22:00 – 00:11:45:05
Shyanne McCracken
Absolutely. Your employees, your team members, they have to be comfortable with it and you need to respect that either way. But if your team members are there because their vision matches your vision, then most likely they’re going to be comfortable with that. And it brings up a good point about asking patients to follow. You are social media sites as well.
00:11:45:21 – 00:12:14:01
Shyanne McCracken
I think back to Larry Gizmodo’s last podcast with you about asking for referrals. It’s the same type of mindset about asking for social media followers. Patients expect it, especially in today’s world. They know that you’re on social media and it’s okay to ask them to follow your pages, refer friends and family to your your page, invite friends and family and coworkers to like your page and interact with you on social media.
00:12:14:01 – 00:12:29:11
Alex Nottingham
Yeah, well, tell me more about that. So how would that play out? I’m at the oh, you’re at the dental office. Patient comes in, they’re leaving. Just what do you do? Talk about. Hey, are you on social media? Let’s connect. Like, how would that play out? Like, oh, that look like.
00:12:30:02 – 00:12:50:18
Shyanne McCracken
It’s telling patients, hey, did you know we’re on social media? Did you know we’re on Facebook and giving them the benefit? The benefit is for them to to follow us. They can stay up to date with our latest protocols. They can stay up to date with the services that we’re offering or the new team members in our practice.
00:12:51:01 – 00:12:55:19
Shyanne McCracken
So the benefit is really for the patient to ask them to follow us on social media.
00:12:55:29 – 00:13:22:05
Alex Nottingham
Again, the dental office is not a place everybody thinks that’s where I want to go. But the more we can make it a fun, exciting, comfortable place to be, social media can support that. And like you said as well, we have to as the team want to interact with the patients on social media. So we think it’s just marketing, just a phone call, just coming into the office.
00:13:22:05 – 00:13:53:03
Alex Nottingham
But there’s also a patient experience. It’s happening on social media. How is that experience? So the experience has to be consistent everywhere in the domain of communication and practicing and and look, social media, it’s a relatively newer compared to a physical office compared to a website. But it’s out there and this is when we talk about change. I think also dentists are concerned searching the newer dentists.
00:13:53:03 – 00:14:13:02
Alex Nottingham
The younger dentists are all in to social media, but the older dentists are still take a lion’s share of the marketplace. It’s something that they’re hesitant to. But when it comes to considering change or our comfort zone, we have to push beyond that. What you’ve been teaching me, Shyanne, you’ve got to come from the right place, right of service.
00:14:13:02 – 00:14:19:05
Alex Nottingham
And if you come from that place and you put things out there, it does pay off. But you got to be patient, right, with social media, correct?
00:14:19:05 – 00:14:35:15
Shyanne McCracken
Yeah. It’s like you were saying it’s all an extension of that patient experience. And for us, it’s our customer experience. And you have to be authentic. And like you said, patient, it’s not an immediate return on investment, but it does get your name out there. And it’s very important.
00:14:35:29 – 00:15:00:28
Alex Nottingham
You can make social media fun and a good piece of your marketing material. So it’s like we want to again, embrace change, not want to run away from it. Shyanne Tell me a little bit about so you work with Erik Vicary on the program. Tell me what he’s doing. This is the All Star Dental Academy social media program that Erik runs at your practice.
00:15:01:00 – 00:15:04:05
Alex Nottingham
What is he doing? What? What is your doctor get with that program?
00:15:05:20 – 00:15:34:04
Shyanne McCracken
His program involves making sure that your pages do stay active. So he is posting every day content to your social media pages and also interacting with the people that are commenting and liking your pages. He’s responding to messages that you can’t get to right away as a dentist or a team matter member. So he’s right on top of it when it comes to the social media and making sure that everything is getting responded to and staying active.
00:15:34:04 – 00:15:43:14
Shyanne McCracken
And it’s just such a great program and he does such a great job at making people smile with the posts he does. So that’s a great extension of who we are.
00:15:43:27 – 00:16:09:16
Alex Nottingham
So we have a social media program. The link is all star dental academy dot com slash social. If you click that link, I’ll put it in the show notes as well. You’ll get a brochure on how to utilize the program. You can reach out to us if you’d like some help with social media. Shyanne, thank you so much for being on the program and I look forward to having you back again to have some more fun reporting on social media.
00:16:10:17 – 00:16:12:13
Shyanne McCracken
Thanks, Alex. I’m looking forward to it as well.
00:16:12:27 – 00:16:39:19
Alex Nottingham
For those are listening or watching, please remember to follow us on Apple Podcasts and we’re talking about social media. Follow us on social media like comment and for the podcast like comment five stars leave reviews. It all helps grow our following. It helps us develop more content for you and all your friends out there in dentistry. And until next time, go out there and be an all star.
00:16:44:00 – 00:16:58:27
Speaker 1
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All Stars. Visit us online at all. Star dental academy dot com.
