The Future of Social Media Marketing with Melissa Fiddick!

Melissa and the Clearly.IG. team has stepped up to bring the dental industry up to speed with the powers of Social Media marketing by designing and executing premium campaigns, event takeover coverage, and coaching teams on how to maximize their visibility on this powerful platform!

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Allison: This is Allison Lacoursiere from Clear Coaching and clearly IG. Welcome to the future of dentistry podcast. I am your host and I am here with my guest. My co-founder of clearly IAG, one of my great friends, Melissa Fiddick. Thank you so much for joining us today, Melissa. We were both in Bermuda, um, in separate places, but I'm just so glad to have you on the show today.

Thanks.

Melissa: Allison, excited to be here and congratulations on the re rebrand and launch of the pitcher of dentistry podcast. That's awesome.

Allison: Thank you. And I know you had a huge role to play in it, and so that's going to help me introduce Martha. Melissa is the lead head designer of clearly IG. She is the co-founder and she is the brains behind everything beautiful that we do at clearly IG.

So she is in charge of. Creating all the designs, the strategy, the content, the bespoke content and imagery that we do at clearly IG. And so we're here today to talk about a topic that. We get asked so often in the work that we are in with me in dental practices, coaching and leading them and Melissa in the marketing space, in the dental industry, we get questions all the time about how to be effective with social media today.

So we figured who better to come on to the future of dentistry podcast. Then once the fed herself to talk through the strategies that we do every single day in the marketing agency to help practices grow using social. So the first question I want to ask you is how do you feel like social media plays?

Like what role does social media play in the future of dentistry?

Melissa: Interesting. First question, Allison, and I think the real question is what role does social media play in the future of everything? So dentistry is no exception. We're seeing social media takeover in so many different aspects and elements of our life and social media.

I'm sorry. Dentistry is no exception to staying up with this trend and, and keeping on the bandwagon. So, as I said, social media is increasingly becoming a huge integral part of so many elements of our life. And on Instagram alone, for example, there are over 1 billion. With over 500 million people using the app daily.

So even though we're not seeing, we are sorry, seeing an increase in people of all ages using social media and using Instagram, the majority, yes. Are still millennials and gen Z. Now, even if these may not be your target audience, currently, they will be your future target audience. And this is a huge cohort of buyers that has a lot of buying power.

And if your competitors are out there starting to build connections with them now, and you're not. I think it's pretty obvious who's going to succeed in the long run. So something else that I love that Dr. Tao, Dr. Len tau is also known as the reviews doctor always says, is that we're living in a review society.

So we love, love, love, love to seek social proof when it comes to making decisions on products or services or, or even friends in our life. If you really think about it. So 81% of people use Instagram and other social medias to research products and service. So like it or not, people really want that reassurance before committing to a.

And also did, you know, dropping some facts here, but almost half of your potential consumers don't trust old reviews. And the same goes for Instagram being on Instagram, isn't being on Instagram and also socials isn't enough being present on them and also posting and staying up to date in a consistent matter is what really matters.

If people come to your profiles and see you haven't been active in the past. They might think you don't exist anymore. They might think you don't care about your consumer experience. And they're going to go to another service provider. And lastly, to this point, with regards to the future of dentistry, people choose a dental provider.

They choose dental providers that they trust and feel connected to. And what better way to start building a trust and connection with your potential? Then through social media where you can actually engage and communicate with them for free in a matter that's readily available and at your fingertips.

So I think even though dentistry is very a word of mouth and referral based industry, I think that people are still looking to social media to validate these decisions. Even after a word of mouth referral.

Allison: We love that. I love that. It sounds also like kind of just wrapping up all of those points that you just.

Social media in dentistry specifically used to be a nice to have, but now it is a need to have, because, because it is your virtual referral system with dentistry being such a referrals based industry, and with patients needing more than ever to trust their provider, this is where people go to, to trust their provider, to learn about their provider.

Right. From that answer, I would say social media again, to your point, you know what isn't about the future of demonstrate with social media, because it really is the way that we're, we're communicating with our audience and our consumer and our customer and our patient today. I love that. And so something that you and I, we work on this every single day in clearly IgG and in.

But if you could summarize, like, what do businesses need to know about social media when it's, when I've seen the tr the shift and the trend of it's nice to have a social media to know you don't have one, you're actually not seemed as credible or relevant in the industry. So what do businesses need to know about social media?

Melissa: Yeah, sure. I think you just spoke to that, that credibility point, which I think is one of the biggest factors of, of having a social media. Um, and to that point, consistency is key when you're going to have social media, consistency is key and not only in the consistency in your cadence and frequency of your post.

But across your messaging and across the look and feel and across your various platforms. Yes, you can have different strategies tailored to your various platforms, but there needs to be an element of consistency for that brand recognition to really take off and work its magic for your reputation to grow online.

Another thing that's important to note, that's both a pro and con about, about social media is that they're open forum platforms. So what this means is that you don't have a hundred percent control over what people are saying or posting on your page. Which is visible to the general public. Now this could cause a PR disaster, but it could also help boost boost your reputation, tenfold if you're managing it correctly.

So the key is to be vigilant and aware of a strategy to maintain that reputation on social media, with the power of social media, with the amount of people using. It's so important that you have a way to really monitor and ensure that you have a strategy to react, resolve, respond, and resolve any negative comments that are made any dissatisfaction.

Um, people will definitely be looking to how you handle these situations on social media. Another thing I'd like to mention is you don't have to be perfect. We get a lot of people who come to us and they want to be on social media, but they're too nervous or scared or worried about needing to get a blow out and their makeup done every time they're going to come on and go live.

You don't have to be perfect. Instagram is all about authenticity and authenticity is what really builds that trust. Trust in turn builds the marketing receptiveness and drives new business. So by showing them. At your worst at your best, your audience understands that life has ebbs and flows and ups and downs, and they'll relate with this and they expect to see it as well.

These days, with, with phones, having such great quality, all of your content doesn't need to be professionally shot. It's still possible to capture high quality content on the go cheaply already integrating into your daily activities. You don't have to change too much. It's a mindset switch of this is a moment I could share with my audience.

Snap out the phone and catch a quick live. There you go. Strategy executed.

Allison: I love that. I absolutely love that. And something that I love about you and what you bring to the table in terms of your marketing awareness. Yeah. Your skillset that you help clearly IG really employed for dentists is that you come from a corporate marketing background.

And so I see that as such a value add because sometimes in dentistry, we, you know, we have dentists and dental providers that came in to be dentist. And so sometimes the business aspect of dentistry in itself, especially marketing can kind of be missed. We looked for providers, um, in the marketing industry that we don't really know about or can trust.

And so you come in with this ability to bring protocols systems a true. Really professional lens to social media marketing. And that's the, that I would want to drive home to everyone. That's listening is the way that we want to treat social media marketing previously. It was like, listen, Karen at the front desk can poach here or there, she can post when we have something here, but it can't be that way anymore.

It has to, we have to treat it with a higher level of impatient. Because it affects our brand trust and our credibility more than ever. And so I love that you brought that up and really helped kind of drive that point home. And so what would you say allows businesses? Like we see a lot of, we see a lot of our clients come to us and they're like, I don't know what I'm doing, help us out.

Um, and then we see some clients that like, we're like, wow, you're doing a great job already. Let's take you to the next level. So what would you say allow businesses to be successful on social media?

Melissa: Yeah, sure. So firstly, the audience is already there. You don't have to create the audience. You just have to optimize your way and means of getting in front of them.

And there are so many ways to do this. There are so many techniques and features available across the various platforms that allow you to effectively optimize your reach and also optimize exactly who you're communicating with. So you're not wasting any marketing efforts. So for example, You have your hashtags, your geotags, your engagement polls, you have your various stories.

Posts, reels lives. Each of these various features of the app has its own strategy that can be optimized, and that will allow you to target different groups segment. Interests, et cetera. And all of them have a different strategy. And the good thing is, and what allows businesses to be successful. And what allows us to successfully execute on this is that there is the data to support all of the decisions and advice that's provided, uh, on, on these strategies.

It's also easily accessible. If you, if you do a quick Google search, there are loads of great platforms out there that provide monthly newsletters, clearly IG being one of them, providing tips, tricks on our social platforms. As well as in our monthly emails, so quick shameless, shout out, be sure that you're signed up for, for our email list to make sure you're staying up to date on these latest updates, because Instagram is such a fluid platform, as well as Facebook Tik TOK, Twitter.

It's, they're so fluent that you constantly have to be adapting and iterating. You can be successful on these platforms. If you're staying up to date and adjusting as things change, that's going to be the key to staying, staying relevant and maximizing your impact across all of these platforms. The other thing is that you get real time data on how your marketing efforts are performing.

And this is so important because this data is what's gonna allow you to constantly make informed decisions and iterate on your marketing strategies. Also prove that ROI and get that buy-in that you might need from the doctor or from the team. The data is there to prove the benefits and especially with, with great, um, new, new softwares and companies that are allowing you to really track the call and click through rates.

Um, you can really see the impact of the social media marketing and through all of our experience. It's vast and it's a huge success. So if you're not there, if you're not on it, we're here to help you. We're here to guide you, but, um, there's resources out there and you just don't want to be

Allison: left behind.

Love it. I absolutely love it. And I, I also love the shameless plug because this is an example of how we teach our doctors and any anyone that we're helping on social. Is to, we have a cadence, give, give, ask, give information, give support, give community, give education, and then ask for somebody to commit to something.

And that's exactly the way that. Is relevant and successful today is when we're creating an education-based marketing strategy, rather than a sales based marketing strategy. We're all selling. But the way that we sell is more authentic and it's through helping people, genuinely helping people understand what their options are in the marketplace.

And it's exactly what you can do as a dental office, a dental practice, a dental consultant, whatever your role in dentistry. We want to make sure that we're providing that education based marketing so that we can grow our target. Like we can grow that relationship with that audience and something that I always stay in Melissa is probably so sick of hearing this.

Um, because she hears me say this all the time when we're talking to, um, when we're presenting or we're talking to our clients. The end of the day. I know social media can feel very complex and it can feel very, um, overwhelming sometimes, honestly. And like Melissa said, people feel very nervous to get their face onto the platform and to be vulnerable.

And at the end of the day, it's just people connecting to people. All it is. It's just us having access to more people through a virtual platform. But don't forget, all we're doing is connecting with other human beings. And then we can kind of remove that like weird barrier. We can remember them, you know exactly what we're talking about.

We know exactly how to help our audience, and that will help you show up more authentic. So kind of speaking of, um, you know, showing up authentically and you know, what people doing in the marketplace state, what do you see are the biggest mistakes when you're looking at a social media page?

Melissa: Yeah. Funnily enough, continue on that authenticity point would want to hammer home.

That authenticity is, is definitely a good thing and is key, but it's only a good thing if you're doing it in a professional and on-brand way, right? You don't want to be showing up who knows in your. In your birthday suit on, on your base. And you're like today, my washing machine broke guys. Like that's probably not.

So, so just making sure that you have that strategy in place. And what that comes down to too is always iterate. When you're starting in your social media strategy, think these things through from, from the beginning, consider what are your brand colors? What are your brand symbols? What's your messaging?

What's your, your verbiage? What types of words do you want to use? Do you not want to use and then make sure everyone on your team is aware of these so that you can all be showing up authentically while staying on. Another thing that we notice a lot. That's a big mistake from, from businesses on social media is not having a business profile.

So by not having a business profile, you a are coming off less credible than your peers and you be are missing some of the features like the contact button directly on your page, as well as the insights and analytics that Instagram is able to provide you that are super, super valid. Also not using all of the features.

I just mentioned a few of them across from reels to stories to polls. You want to make sure you're using all of these and it's tough to you won't, you don't have to use them all every day or every week, but coming up with a cadence to figure out and make sure that you're touching on all of them, because doing this is really important, staying relevant in Instagram's infamous algorithm.

So definitely make sure you're utilizing all of the features. Another big mistake is not engaging. So it's one thing to be getting people commenting on your photos and, and getting those likes. But if you're not commenting back your engagement, isn't having the, the huge possibility, possibility of region impact that it could.

So make sure that you're engaging with your committee. Proactively and reactively. You want to make sure you're getting out there and making connections with your potential target audience who may not already be in your circle of followers to expand that reach. And then you also want to make sure you're nurturing that group that is within your community and has already decided that they want to be part of your community.

Another thing I want to touch on that I see quite often is, is not humanizing your page. So Instagram. Instagram is all about that human relationship and that human connection. So introduce your followers to the people who make your company, your company, the people behind the scenes, everyone people want to see and meet your team.

They want to see what's going on behind the scenes. They want to see what's going on inside and outside of work. If you're going on a team retreat team, team building, these are the things that allow people to really see how much you care for your employees and your customers by showcasing everyone that they're going to be interacting.

Do you have anything else to add? Allison being another expert on Instagram? I think this is an awesome podcast where I can probably throw some questions back at

Allison: you. Yeah. A hundred percent. And I think this one was probably so obvious that you either forgot about it, but no stock images. Yeah. We do not believe in stock images and I mean, not.

They can't get us documented and edit it and make it yours because we do that all the time with all of our clients. Like we make sure that we have really high quality, gorgeous images, even if they're not sending us stuff, but it's, it has to be branded to you. And so I'll give it to the youth to be effective.

They really did. And there are a lot of marketing agencies out there that are still posting them. And you know, like two years ago, I would've said, you know, it's okay. It's not going to do great work for you, but today it's actually harming your brand because as a millennial. And as many of your target patients and audience are also millennials, they see right through that and they see this company is not personal.

They do not, they're not showing themselves authentically and I cannot trust them. And so you don't want to represent that as your. And something that Melissa said that this is just a really great pro tip and pro hack as I'm in the practice. And teaching me, seeing how do you do social media when you are trying to capture authentic content?

I know it can be like, honestly, another thing that I have to do in the dental office, I have to cure periodontal disease and do a root canal. Speak about Invisalign to every patient.

Yeah, exactly. And I also have to take glam shots for social media, make it a process. And so how you can do that is make it a part of your team. Here at clearly IGN career coaching. We know if we're going to have a team event, which we're having in a few days, we're very excited for, we have a photographer coming to it.

So, you know, you could have a photographer coming to these bigger events, or you can just delegate this to one person on the team. Hey, take your iPhone capture as many photos as you can. Don't worry if they're not amazing and beautiful, we can work with. But make sure that you're thinking proactively about these special events or the things that are happening in your practice like birthday.

You know, if somebody is getting married, if you have a day, an Invisalign day, if you are doing a charity run, make sure you're capturing all of this so that you can show the world. And I think with all the time too, it's like really, what we want to do is pull back the curtain on your business and show.

Exactly who you are, exactly how you help your values, the things that you stand for, the things you've found against, because you'll find people will connect with you. And when people connect with you, they want to do business with you. And that is the whole idea of authenticity on social media. It's not that we want people to be pokey, or we want people to show information.

They don't want to share. It really is just hoping your audience get to know you. My round is over there. Fantastic. I can't believe I

Melissa: forgot the stock image thing. Definitely going to come in and in my little pitch at the end, but I know you'll allow me to do

Allison: I believe exactly. It's yeah. It's something that if you are looking at your page right now, um, and, and I want you to do that.

If you're listening to the podcast, go ahead and multitask, open up your phone, look at your page and ask, does this represent my business? If this was a digital resume, which it is, it is your millennial website. This is where, where people are learning about you, understanding your business, understanding your brand, getting to know you, starting to believe in trust in you open up your Instagram, look at your page.

Does this represent your brand effectively? Do you feel proud of what you're looking at? Would a patient get to know like, and trust you from the content that you're putting on your page? And if not. Melissa, how do you, how do we help businesses overcome these mistakes or truly help them look at their page and say, wow, just the things exactly who.

Melissa: Yeah, there's a few ways we do that. Um, one of them is simply by making sure that you're following us on all socials to make sure you're catching up with all of our tips and tricks, as well as subscribing to our mailing list. Um, we also are launching exciting news this month, the Instagram academy, which is a course that will give you.

Uh, great. Um, a great kickstart to set up and sustain the success of a really powerful social media presence. It's a really awesome course. Allison and I, and the team at clearly IG had been working on in the background for a while now, highly recommend there's loads of great tips and worksheets in there.

It's very interactive. Um, so I look forward to hearing everyone's reviews on that. Um, we also do social media consulting on things like the strategy and brand. So we're always available and excited to help you if you need that kind of guidance on which direction to go. And mainly what we do is we offer full social media management services.

So what we do is we will help you co-collaborate and co-create a strategy. That you're happy with that meets your vision mission and is on-brand for you. And what we'll do is we'll run with that and execute it. We have a team of very well-trained designers and copywriters with experience in the dental industry.

And we have the power to really help take your vision and convey that to the rest of the world. And we're here to help. And like Allison said, no stock photos. One of our mottos is we never copy and paste a big red. And we see this a lot. These days is you're scrolling through Instagram and you see a page and then you keep scrolling and you see another dental office with the exact same post.

And this happens so often, and this is really harmful for your brand. So we ensure that every single piece of content we put out for you from the copywriting to the photography, to the graphics are created specifically for you, with you in mind. We also coach your team. We're one of the only social media partners that coach your team on how to implement those systems that Allison's talking about just now implementing those systems to make capturing content, the organic content that is vital to the success of the page.

We help you implement those systems and get that buy-in across the team. So that's a bit of an overview of what we do and, um, yeah, we'd love to love to connect. So please reach out.

Allison: Absolutely. And that's really why we decided to, you know, offer kind of a variety of services because we want to help you wherever you are in your social media journey.

And we want you to have access to this information because we know that there are heart-centered incredible dental providers out there that can show how you help your patients on these platforms and ultimately help more people choose to come in and get dental treatment that they need. So we're a very hard group of people as well.

At the very least, you know, if you're looking, if you're listening to this podcast, you're like, I don't really know what the next steps are, reach out to us. And we're happy to have a conversation with you and see what your next steps would be no matter where you are on the journey. And then also if you have a marketing agency right now expect more because there is a shift that's happening right now in the industry.

And there are a lot of businesses and doctors that I talked to and they're like, I have a marketing agency and they're just posting two posts a week. They're stock images. You deserve to have a marketing agency that is posting for you in a way that is creating an ROI and an ROI T and return on time to your page.

That also is not polarizing people away from you, but actually bringing people to you. And so the very least expect more and reach out to us. Give us a call. We're so happy to help you become authentic and really take your social media to the next one. So I want to wrap up, um, what I think most of the, thank you so much for bringing all of this information, all of this data, and we're just, you know, ready to connect with you.

So how can, how can people.

Melissa: Yeah, sure. Feel free to send us a DM directly on Instagram. Our handle is at clearly IgG that's clearly I G um, as well as finding us on Facebook and LinkedIn under the same names, we'll be sure to get back to you if you message us on any of those platforms. Also, if you're tagging us in any of the comments, we'll also see those.

You can find us on www www w your clear aligner coach.com under Instagram and marketing services. Um, and then also you can feel free to reach out via email to myself, Melissa, M E L I S S a at your clear liner, coach.com.

Allison: Amazing. Thank you so much for your time today. Hope you guys enjoyed this lesson. If you liked it, give us a thumbs up, share it with anybody that you think this would be helpful.

Um, give us a comment or review and just let us know what you loved about this podcast. And we'll be bringing more of this future of dentistry information to you every single week. Thanks so much for being here, Melissa.