Facebook Changes – How This Effects Dental Social Media

On January 11th, 2018, Mark Zuckerberg made a statement which read, in part, “Recently we've gotten feedback from our community that public content -- posts from businesses, brands, and media -- is crowding out the personal moments [from friends and family] that lead us to connect more with each other… the balance of what's in News Feed has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do -- help us connect with each other."

There will be changes made to the algorithm Facebook uses to rank Facebook posts. For example, the algorithm used to rank content based on how many “likes” or clicks a post would get. Going forward, posts will only receive a boost if they originate from those on one’s friend's list, and posts from businesses and brands will be demoted.

According to Zuckerberg, “As we make these updates, Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.”

Your Facebook Page and SEO

Here at Pro Dental Designs, we include Facebook posts with our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services. From an SEO standpoint, Google and other search engines record many different factors from your interactions on Facebook to rank your website and add value to your overall SEO camping. The changes announced by Facebook will affect some of the SEO ranking elements. However, our 3rd party articles and blogs we place on your Facebook page will still appear within your posts, continue to provide rich content, add keyword value, and provide back-linking. Although you may notice a drop within the reach of our 3rd party posts, they still add SEO value.

Here at Pro Dental Designs, we have always encouraged our dental clients to post more personal posts to your business page when there is a following of 25 or more. Additionally, we recommend posting personal practice posts around 2-4 times per month as this will extend your online presence and add even more SEO value.

Facebook Campaigns

The power of Facebook can be used threefold:

1. To be utilized as a support for SEO in ranking your website and business listing. *included in our SEO services
2. Increase patient conversion through reputation and reviews
3. Increase leads through Facebook's PPC (Pay Per Click) platform

In a 2013 study, while 72% of people look online for health information each year, only 1% say they searched for that information on Facebook. This means that the majority of potential patients are not using Facebook to find or search for a dental practice. However, in 2017 a study found  90% of respondents from 18 to 24 years of age said they would trust medical information shared by others on their social media networks. Therefore a Facebook business page enforces a dental practice's reputation and becomes a powerful tool for conversion by adding reviews, news article posts, personal updates, and utilizing ad space.

Here are a few things you can employ to get more out of Facebook:

1. Use Facebook to support SEO *included in our SEO services
2. Building audiences to increases online reputation and SEO value
3. Further your reputation with personal practice posts
4. Employ a review generation camping to increase conversion (ask about our Pro Reviews Platform)
5. Utilize Facebook ad campaigns

If you’d like help navigating Facebook campaigns, or for assistance in building an online presence through social media, please contact Pro Dental Designs today. Specializing in dental Facebook Ads, dental Facebook management, dental social media management, and more.