Creative contests on your social media platforms can increase patient engagement and get your pages more followers. However, coming up with dental contest ideas can be difficult if you don’t know where to start. What competition ideas and contest themes can help increase your social media presence and engagement? Read on to find out.
Benefits of Social Media Giveaways and Contests
You might wonder whether hosting giveaways and contests on your social media pages is worth the time, energy, and cost. However, a study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications indicated that customer engagement through contests increased the number of decisions to buy among users and the amount of money customers spent after engaging with a campaign1.
Engaging with existing and prospective patients through social media giveaways or contests can increase awareness of your dental practice and services. You can improve your social media presence over competitors by offering a free cleaning or special swag bag.
Increase Patient Engagement on Social Platforms With Creative Contests
Social media platforms track user interaction with your pages to determine how popular your page or profile is among local users. The more popular your practice page is, the more often the platform will recommend your page and ads to local users. By increasing engagement for your page through likes, comments, and post shares, you can improve your page’s visibility among local platform users.
Contests based on likes, shares, referrals, and comments can help you reach a new audience of local patients when they’re shopping for a new dental practice. By improving your page popularity, a social platform is more likely to show your page when it’s most relevant for someone looking for a new dentist nearby.
Competition Ideas for Your Dental Practice
So, what are some dental contest ideas you can implement on your pages to boost numbers for followers, likes, and comments? Consider different types of contests to increase each type of engagement, including the following:
Caption Contests
Post a silly or interesting picture and let your followers suggest the best caption to describe the image. Caption contests often get tons of likes and comments if your original content is engaging enough. If your office hosts a silly costume day, post a group photo of your staff in their costumes and ask your followers to suggest the best caption. The prize could be as simple as a $10 gift card to a local coffee shop.
Raffle Contests
For larger prizes, you can hold a raffle contest on your page. Make it free to enter, but include instructions that users must follow your page, share the post, and leave a comment with a specific emoji or keyword to enter. These instructions can help you grow your followership, increase awareness of your page through shares, and increase on-page engagement through comments.
Comment Contests
If you want to increase engagement among your current followers, create a contest for a free Waterpik or half-off teeth whitening to promote your services and increase on-page engagement analytics. Ask users to enter to win by commenting with a specific word or emoji. Most users will also like the post, and some will share it.
Holiday Hashtag Contests
Create a contest campaign for tagged posts by asking your followers to post a picture of their shiny smile, tag your page, and use a targeted hashtag. For example, if your practice is located in Atlanta, GA, you can ask users to use the hashtag #ATLSmiles4July for your Fourth of July contest.
Guessing Contests
Have users guess how many pieces of candy corn or jelly beans are in a jar in the comments to win a prize. This is a great way to increase engagement without requiring a lot of time or attention to manage the contest if your office is busy.
Consider which contests require your social media followers to take more steps and plan your prizes accordingly. Multi-step entries should offer the chance to win a better prize, like a summer fun pack of towels and a new cooler or a fancy holiday gift basket. Dental marketing by Dental Intelligence can help you plan your marketing strategies.
Increase Patient Engagement With Help From Dental Intelligence
From dental contest ideas to using videos to promote your dental practice, Dental Intelligence is a comprehensive practice performance solution. Schedule a demo to learn more about how Dental Intelligence can help grow your practice with new patients.
