Social media or crowd information vital to trust in dental practices.

From Prosites    https://www.prosites.com/Dental-Marketing-2017-Trends/ProSites-2017-Recommendation.pdf

Nearly 90% of people ages 18 to 24 would trust health care information found via social media and shared with friends.

This applies to health care too. A 2012 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey found that nearly 90% of people ages 18 to 24 would trust health care information found via social media and shared with friends. This doesn’t preclude older generations, as 56% of those ages 45 to 64 would do the same.5 With more people online since 2012, this has only increased and will likely continue into 2017 across all demographics, though trending younger. Social media reviews of dental practice pages can drive consumer choices about using specific providers.

Considering the increased faith in peers and social media, it is important to not only have a presence but be an active participant. Respond to community complaints and compliments alike so that users feel like you are another one of their social network friends and not just another dental clinic. Provide incentives for your patients to share information about your practice and their experiences, whether through raffles and giveaways for Liking your page or with minor discounts for referring a friend for a checkup. Announce that you have a social media channel through patient newsletter emails, your website, and signage in your office—and say what you’ll use it for so that people know what to expect: News? Giveaways? Dental tips and tricks? Finally, conduct formal and informal surveys with qualitative entries to see patients’ complete thoughts and use quantitative data collection to measure their collective attitudes. Make improvements to your practice based on these responses, then share what you’ve done on social media “in response to community feedback.” If you make your followers feel at home, there’s a good chance they’ll have your back and spread the word.