Maintaining a social media presence can be challenging for busy dentists, but scheduling tools can help. With a social media scheduler, your dental practice can plan your posts well ahead of schedule so you can maintain a consistent posting calendar without reminding yourself to post something new every single day.
Here are five top social media scheduling platforms for dentists.
Created in 2008, HootSuite is a social media management platform that aims to make it easier for individuals and businesses to schedule content. It was one of the first platforms to do this, and as a result, it’s one of the most well-known and trusted social media schedulers on the market.
HootSuite allows users to post on the most commonly used social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter without having to install additional applications. The cost of a Pro membership is just $9.99 a month, which is a great price point for solo dentists and small practices who do their social media marketing in-house.
Not all social channels are integrated into HootSuite's platform. Pinterest, YouTube, and SoundCloud require you to install an additional app, and some applications that need to be installed have an associated fee. As a result, HootSuite may only be the right choice for a dentist that only wants to use the “standard” social networks to promote their practice.
HubSpot is a complete digital marketing platform with integrated sales, customer relationship, and customer service software. Established in 2006, HubSpot offers industry-leading marketing solutions that make it easy for almost anyone to start using it — even if you’ve never worked on a website before.
If you need an all-in-one marketing tool for your dental practice, including website CRM, email marketing, and extensive analytics capabilities, HubSpot is a potential option. One stop-shopping makes HubSpot another possible option for managing in-house social media for dentists.
Unfortunately, HubSpot is one of the priciest social media managers on this list. However, dental professionals should not consider HubSpot just for their social media but as a much broader marketing solution and tool. If all you need is social media scheduling, a more simple platform will likely serve your dental practice more appropriately.
Sprout Social offers social media management and monitoring at a variety of price points for small and large businesses. Based in Chicago, Sprout Social has integrated CRM software and support for marketing teams that may be a better fit for multi-provider practices.
A great feature of Sprout Social is its helpdesk facility. Staying on top of social media engagement can be challenging, but the helpdesk feature may help your audience to see your practice responding to questions and feedback without putting additional strain on your current staff or having to scale up.
The least expensive plan with Sprout Social is $100 per month, which may not be doable for smaller practices. Sprout Social also has fewer supported channels and integrations than other social media management tools for dentists.
Later is a newer social media manager that was developed largely for the management of Instagram. Other social media channels have also been integrated into Later, but the platform’s focus is still on Instagram today.
With its visual editorial calendar, Later remains one of the most effective social media schedulers for Instagram. Cosmetic dentists may benefit from Later in particular, as before and after photos and images of smile design tend to do well on Instagram.
If your primary social media marketing channel isn't Instagram, Later may not meet the needs of your practice. The only platforms integrated into Later are Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. You won't be able to create a post for Twitter or Facebook without an image or video, even though the individual channels allow for text-only posts.
Buffer is one of the more straightforward social media scheduling platforms and many dental professionals might prefer its simplicity over other more robust tools. It allows for basic posting to many of the most widely used social channels except Instagram.
Buffer offers a free plan. Although it's limited, it can be a good option for new dental practice owners who are just getting started and don't have the budget to invest much in social media marketing. With a paid plan, you can manage multiple accounts on the same platform. This makes it easier for dental practices with more than one location to post content to multiple Facebook business pages.
Buffer does not have Instagram integration, making it challenging for dentists who want to use visual-heavy social marketing to promote their work. The platform also lacks tracking and analytics for searches, mentions, and hashtags, so if you want to monitor those, you'll need to use another social scheduling platform or go through the individual social accounts.
At Treloar & Heisel, we're committed to providing you with the information and tools to help you pursue operating a successful dental practice. Here are more tips on how to engage in social marketing.
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Treloar & Heisel, LLC. and its divisions do not offer marketing advice. Please consult a professional concerning this topic.