![\"using](\"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/twitter-icon.jpg\"){kind=icon}
Earlier this week I discussed the pros and cons of Twitter with an experienced dental practice manager. The guy is quite savvy about the benefits of online marketing and had been tasked by his principle to deliver the “best bang for buck” from their web marketing initiatives. Very solid and commendable objectives.<\/p>\n
To support their new website, the practice started to use Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus, along with a plan to start blogging and structured search marketing to boost their Google ranking. Within the first couple of months, the practice accrued over 700 Twitter followers – however, soon after they closed the account.<\/p>\n
This came as a slight surprise, particularly as they had made good headway, at least as far as followers are concerned, in a relatively short space of time. The explanation was understandable in that the manager had quickly realised that the huge majority of their followers were of a “business to business” nature and not their preferred target i.e. existing patients or potential new ones. Given that the guy was looking for quick and quantifiable ROI, he made the decision to quit Twitter and focus resources elsewhere. Understandable but potentially premature – but why?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Whilst engagement with your target audience should always be the primary aim of Twitter, this is actually quite difficult for dentists to achieve. In reality, far more dentists fail to engage than actually achieve it – marketers would usually not tell you that, but in this business sector it’s true. Saying that, there are an increasing number of practices who put the effort in and do get the benefit.<\/p>\n
However, there are other, very good reasons why dentists will benefit from using Twitter aside from immediate engagement potential:<\/p>\n