Can Your Personal Social Media Damage Your Dental Practice?
As a dentist, or really any business operator, it’s sometimes difficult to separate your professional and personal life. It’s importantfor your patients to know you are actually human and not just some person who drills their teeth!
Comfort is vital for patients. That is why some things are best left unsaid. Most professionals have mastered this art—things that make you laugh at work might not make you crack a grin at home. However, with the increased prominence of social media in promoting businesses, it’s crucial to be able to separate what you advertise on your personal and practice pages.
The first step is realizing that there should be a distinction between John Smith’s personal pages (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and Dr. John Smith’s dental practice pages. The former is a personal social media outlet for your personal views. The latter should advertise your practice. Any opinions that are shared on your practice’s page should involve dentistry, not thoughts on the local sports team or a new restaurant around the block! You never know what your patients can take offense to—some may choose to leave your practice just because of a misinterpreted joke about your plumber. By separating business from pleasure, you are allowing your practice and dental skills to speak for themselves, not your personal opinions.
Even if you separate your social media pages, it would be futile if your personal pages were open to the public. Creating strict privacy settings on your personal profiles is essential in dividing your pages. Make sure the only people who can view your personal posts are your “friends” or “followers.” It should go without saying that your patients should not be in those groups. On your personal pages, connect with friends and family. On your professional pages, connect with patients and other dentists.
In sum, you can and should be a real person, but things you would not say in your office should be things you would not say in your professional profiles. You wouldn’t show your patients pictures from your best friend’s bachelor party this past weekend, so make sure they don’t see them on your social media either. You may never know how much damage your personal pages can have on your practice…so don’t take a chance by finding out the hard way!
Some very good points and advice here. Thanks for sharing your blog, I found it very useful
It won’t only damage your dental practice but also increases security risks for your family. Informative post!
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Interesting thoughts! Social media can be a tough environment for anyone to navigate through.
Hey,
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I believe that personal social media can also strengthen your practice. People want to feel connected to others and they want to work with people they feel they know and can trust. If you put out these qualities with your personal social media, then you’ll garner huge support from your fans who know you are a genuine person and do quality work.
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Our clients are mostly small business owners and dentist. Therefore they actually use their private social media accounts to become the brand of their business online. A good rule of thumb to remember is if you don’t want somebody to see it than don’t post it online. I wouldn’t be afraid to connect with patients as long as your not going around posting party pics and pics from your latest hunting trip in Africa.
Hello Daniel Meyerson,
You notice excellent topices . I have lots of dentists friend. Honestly , there are not aware of social networking . They just run personal social page and business page from same profile.
I strongly believe that it should be separated. Professional page should be more engange with practice and professional news . Besides, personal page should be more private for Friends and family . I will send your blog list to all of my dentists and other professional friends.
Cheers
Arran
This post is real talk. I think this applies to every business person who loves to post on social media platforms. Refrain from posting too much personal content in your business account or pages that might hurt your brand. Keeping the reputation of the brand might be a strict process but in the long run, it will benefit your business, it is just a matter of being consistent.www.spargoconnect.com
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Well said Daniel. I’ve read enough stories about people boycotting businesses because of a business owners political views to know it is imperative for your business and personal life to be kept separate. Your patients only care about your ability to provide quality treatment, not what your political views are.