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Being a dental marketing strategy partner, we’ve seen many dentists and practice owners feel overwhelmed regarding social media. We still remember guiding one of our early clients through their first few posts—they weren’t sure if anyone would care. But with the right engagement techniques, their social channels turned into powerful tools for attracting, engaging, and retaining patients.
The strength of social media lies in establishing trust. It allows people to relate to their local community and enables you to extend your expertise in a friendly, approachable way. With the extended use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for advice, recommendations, and genuine reviews, a robust engagement strategy is important to build brand image and convert patients.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through proven patient engagement techniques for social media specifically for dentists that will transform their practice with lots of new inquiries by engaging them.
Before diving into specific strategies, let’s consider this: over half of U.S. adults (54%) now say they get their news from social media at least occasionally. That number has been steadily rising in recent years. This alone shows how powerful social media has become in 2025.
It’s more than just a platform for entertainment. People use it to check a business's credibility, reliable suggestions and solutions, and make informed decisions, including about their healthcare.
From a dentist’s marketing perspective, it’s surely an essential forum for staying visible, credible, and competitive. Here is why social media marketing is essential for dentists. Our dental marketing services are built to help practices grow using precisely these principles.
Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok have millions of active users. Most of these users turn to these platforms to seek reliable healthcare tips and recommendations. As a dental practice owner or marketer, you should probably use these platforms as a powerful opportunity to build trust. You can do this by sharing helpful advice, patient testimonials, behind-the-scenes moments, and real results.
This kind of transparency helps your potential patients feel more confident, informed, and connected.
Picture this: when you use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to promote your services like teeth whitening, Invisalign, or smile makeovers. With the help of data-driven targeting, these platforms allow your posts, videos, and ads to reach new possible audiences which might convert now or in the future. Plus, with interest-based filters and location targeting, you’re not just reaching more people—you’re reaching the right ones who are already looking for your services.
If you’re new to digital ad platforms, here’s a guide on how dentists can run successful Google Ads that complements social media promotions.
There are countless strategies to gain followers, but very few that encourage consistent engagement. Using the best practices for dental social media post ideas can help you achieve that for sure. Regular posts about dental hygiene, fun facts, or appointment reminders keep your practice top-of-mind. They strengthen loyalty and encourage happy patients to refer others. Last but not least, engagement builds patient retention.
Successful social media marketing increases your SEO. Viral dental tweets, Instagram Invisalign short reels, and Facebook testimonial videos capture patient attention and set fire to your online presence. Search engines such as Google see this activity as a sign of credibility and relevance. This can boost your dental website's placement in search results. Enhanced visibility ultimately leads to an increase in website visits and patient appointments.
Social media is a low-cost, high-impact way to market your services. Instead of spending big on print or TV, you can build awareness and drive growth with consistent, well-planned posts and ads.
To maximize the benefits of social media marketing, it's essential to implement best practices that resonate with your potential patients. Here are some of the best practices for social media engagement:
To keep your practice being noticed every time, you need to be consistent on social media. Whether it's an engaging post, Q&A session, patient testimonial visuals, informative video or reels, or just a trendy tweet, it’s all more likely to enhance brand awareness, trust, and engagement over time.
Most of the dental marketing agencies recommend posting at least 3–5 times per week across platforms. This frequency keeps your followers engaged. It also improves visibility through social media algorithms, which favor active accounts.
Plus, consistent posting signals reliability. Patients are more likely to trust you when they see regular updates. In order to sustain it, you can plan your content in advance using a monthly calendar. Mix it up with patient testimonials, before-and-after photos, FAQs, staff highlights, and oral health tips.
This will help you stay consistent with daily postings. It also ensures your brand message stays clear and consistent across all touchpoints.
Interactive content is key. Polls and questions drive genuine engagement on social media. This is one of the engagement techniques where your audience shares their opinion and might interact with your practice. You can use features like Instagram Stories, Facebook polls, or comment-based questions to start conversations and gather opinions.
You can ask about their dental care habits, favorite toothpaste brands, or even light-hearted questions like “How often should I visit the dentist?” These quick interactions help increase audience engagement by encouraging participation. Eventually, this will improve visibility and reach through platform algorithms.
Always note that the final goal is to make your followers part of the experience, not just viewers. When patients engage with your content, they’re more likely to remember your brand and take the next step toward booking an appointment.
Want to know what questions your patients are too shy to ask during appointments? Live Q&A sessions are one of the most engaging post formats on social media. They encourage real interaction and make your practice feel more approachable and relatable.
With these sessions, you can answer common dental questions, explain procedures, or share oral care tips. Also, you can reshare these live interactions later to generate awareness among your followers and potential patients.
Choose question topics based on your past patients’ queries and frequently asked concerns. This will make your sessions more relevant and help your audience feel heard and understood.
Nobody likes late responses or being ignored. The same goes for your patients on social media. Responding to their comments and messages quickly can significantly boost patient engagement. These interactions also create a sense of accessibility and show that your dental practice genuinely values their communication.
Whether you reply with a simple “Thank you,” or an answer to a treatment inquiry, or a follow-up to a concern, every reply strengthens the relationship between your practice and your follower.
Just keep your tone friendly, professional, and aligned with your brand voice to create impact. You can also use quick-reply templates for FAQs to save time, but always personalize your message where possible.
Over time, this habit is more likely to improve engagement and signals to social media algorithms that your account is active and responsive.
Posting patient testimonials and success stories is a highly effective strategy for converting patients quickly. These testimonials and success stories are powerful tools to build trust and credibility on social media. When you share real experiences from satisfied patients, it gives your audience authentic proof of your expertise and care quality.
You can ask happy patients to create before-and-after transformations in the form of visuals or videos to showcase the positive outcomes your practice delivers. This social media content resonates emotionally and gives a sense of confidence to potential patients about choosing you.
Don’t just hit “boost” and hope for the best. That’s how most dental practices burn through their ad spend. You can try promoting posts that already get good likes, shares, or comments—those are the ones that connect. Facebook and Instagram let you target by location, age, and even interests like “oral health” or “family dentistry.” Use that.
Try short 5–7 day campaigns first. Set a daily budget limit initially. See what performs before scaling. One photo might get more clicks on Instagram Stories, while another works better in the Facebook Feed. Spread it out, don’t blast the same ad everywhere. Rotate your creatives. Keep it fresh. And always check the comments—if no one’s engaging, tweak it.
Social media paid ads work best when they feel like regular content. Don’t make it look too “salesy.” Just one clear message, a clean photo, and a simple call to action like “Book Now” or “See Our Work.”
Not sure how people find your posts or instagram reels? That’s where hashtags help. They make your content searchable—even by people who don’t follow you yet. But don’t just throw in #smile or #dental. That’s too broad. Instead, mix popular ones like #OrlandoDentist or #InvisalignJourney with more specific ones like #BracesForTeens or #SmileMakeoverOrlando.
Think of hashtags like signs on a highway. If they’re clear and specific, the right people will find you. Employ a range of 5 to 10 hashtags per post to ensure visibility, without appearing overly spammy. You can even create your own branded hashtag, like #bloomsmiles, and encourage patients to tag their results. It makes them feel part of your community—and that's what keeps them engaged.
Posting something related to social media trends is a powerful way to extend reach and make your audience engage. All you need to do is just be creative and jump on the trends.
When you use popular audio, memes, or challenges, the platform’s algorithm is more likely to show your posts to a wider audience. This means more people see your content and can become new patients.
Perhaps you could create a "before and after" brace set to popular audio. Or a funny skit about flossing habits using a trending format. It doesn’t need to be fancy—just be simple, real, and timed right. Using trends makes your page feel fresh and helps you connect with people who are already interested in that kind of content.
What makes your social media feel more real and trustworthy? Sharing content your patients create is one of the best ways. When patients post their own photos or stories about their dental visits, it shows genuine results and happy experiences.
Encourage your Invisalign patients to tag your practice or use a custom hashtag like #newyorkInvisalignSmile. With their permission, share their before-and-after photos or progress updates on your social media. This kind of authentic content builds trust, gets more engagement, and inspires others to start their own smile transformation with you.
1) Track Basic Interactions: Start by monitoring likes, comments, shares, and saves on your posts. For dental practices, comments can also show patient curiosity about treatments like smile makeovers or dental bridges, while shares help spread your expertise to a wider local audience.
2) Calculate Engagement Rate: Engagement rate is a key metric. To calculate it, divide total interactions (likes + comments + shares) by your follower count, then multiply by 100. For dentists, an engagement rate between 1% and 3% shows that your content is relevant and engaging your potential patients.
3) Monitor Click-Throughs and Bookings: Check how many users click on links to your website, booking page, or promotions with the help of analytics. This shows genuine interest beyond just liking a post. Tracking how many social media visitors book appointments helps measure true ROI from your efforts.
4) Use Analytics Tools: Utilize platform-specific tools like Facebook Insights and Instagram Analytics for detailed stats about your audience demographics, active times, and post-performance. Third-party tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social give you deeper data and trends to fine-tune your content strategy.
5) Identify Your Top Content: Pay special attention to posts with the highest engagement. This can be patient testimonials, before-and-after Invisalign photos, or dental care tips that often perform well. Understanding what resonates helps you create more of the content your audience wants.
6) Compare Over Time: Track your engagement metrics weekly or monthly to spot trends. Are more people commenting after you share educational videos? Did engagement drop during the holidays? What time of the day do you see more patient actions? Use this insight to plan your posting schedule and content focus.
Boosting social media numbers for your dental practice is easy without using quick tricks or flashy tactics. But real engagement isn’t about numbers alone—it’s about genuinely understanding your patients and addressing their questions, concerns, and hopes through your posts and interactions.
When you focus on delivering helpful, honest content and connecting in a meaningful way, your audience will naturally respond. Tools like Buffer or Hootsuite make it simpler to track how your posts perform, respond quickly, and stay on top of what your followers need.
Remember, social media is a great platform to build trust, start conversations, and create a community that sees your dental practice as the go-to place for care and confidence. And if you want help implementing any of these strategies, explore how Remedo’s dental social media marketing service can streamline your success.
Get in touch with our healthcare marketing expert