Making the Most of Social Media Seminars for Dentists and Specialists
Are you registered for one of Rita’s social media seminars or any courses on social media marketing for dentistry? If so, here is some insight you may find helpful for planning or attending your next conference.
Did you know there are many different levels of attendee social media knowledge at dental seminars? In fact, some dentists and team members may be non-social media users. They may have never visited Facebook or seen Instagram—hard for active social media users to believe, right?
69% of the public uses some type of social media – Pew Research Center’s 2018 Social Media Fact Sheet
According to Pew Research Center’s 2018 Social Media Fact Sheet, about 69% of the public uses some type of social media, so not everyone. Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that there are segments of our dental population that are not users either.
On the other hand, there are dentists and team members who may be frequent users of social media, and even those who are super users.
Which social media user category do you fall into?
- Never seen social media (if you are reading this on social media now, gotcha! Lol)
- Never use social media but have seen a friend or family member’s account
- Have one social media account, but rarely use it
- Have one social media account and use it regularly
- Have several social media accounts and use them on occasion
- Have several social media accounts and use them often
- Have several social media accounts and use one or all every day or multiple times per day
How Do You Please Everyone?
Imagine attending a social media course where you have a blend of the above knowledge levels. You have those who may feel social media terms, like profiles vs. pages, direct messaging, hashtags, and more are unfamiliar. A newbie in the course may be sitting right next to a super user, who eye-rolls when we need to break down how hashtags work. Yes, this has happened (not nice!). This is one of the reasons I ask people in my courses to understand that we often have various levels of knowledge and familiarity in the course and that we all agree the meeting is going to be a friendly, safe, and hopefully fun, engaging, and motivating place to interact and learn together. 🙂
Social Media Topics Are Unique
Social media topics are not unlike other conference topics where you may have varied levels of knowledge, but they are unique in that attendees may have very different expectations of the subject matter to be covered.
Example: Case presentation seminar
Attendees may expect to cover subjects such as how and where to present treatment recommendations, how to discuss financial options with patients, and how to follow up. Pretty straightforward. It’s likely that most attendees will be interested in all of these components of case presentation as you need to know all of them in order to be successful with case presentation, right?
Example: Social media seminar
Some people may attend a course hoping to learn what social media looks like, or what the first steps are for a Facebook beginner, while other attendees may want to focus on higher-level Facebook ads/boosts or Instagram techniques … This is where it gets tricky, as the advanced folks don’t want to sit through the basics and the newbies may feel the more advanced topics are too much for them in one sitting.
Have you ever experienced something similar to this in a course or presentation you attended?
What can be done to ensure you make the most of your next social media course?
To start, be open to sharing what your knowledge level is with the instructor/presenter before the course. Send an email ahead of time or talk to me before the course starts. If you’ve ever attended one of my courses, you know there is plenty of time for interaction and Q&A. Take advantage of that time to let me know what you hope to gain from the seminar or any topics you want to be sure we discuss.
In the future, meeting planners may consider adding shorter or more varied social media courses; for example, instead of one 3-hour course with general social media content, there may be three 1-hour, more focused courses, where people can pop in and out as needed, such as:
- Keynote: The Changing Face of Communication & Marketing
- Introduction to Facebook and Instagram
- Social Media Management Options
- Social Media for Specialists
- Methods to Grow Online Reviews/How to Protect Online Reputation
- How to Place Facebook Boosts, or Instagram Ads/Sponsored Posts
- Understanding Social Media ROI
Whether you are a meeting planner or attendee, I hope you found this information helpful. My goal is to deliver world-class social media seminars for dentists and specialists. If you are looking for a social media or online reputation management speaker for your event, are attending one of my seminars in the future, or if you are interested in one-on-one virtual assistance, I’d love to hear from you!
Request Rita’s speaker packet and availability.
See a list of Rita’s extensive social media speaking experience.
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