When it comes to Central Florida orthodontist marketing, you want to be sure your audience is paying attention. It’s important to post regularly on social media, but it won’t help if no one reads!

Between visits, orthodontist marketing is what keeps you connected with your patients. There’s a lot of value you can offer, even though it might be weeks or months before you see someone again.

The foundational way to keep eyes on your posts is to provide helpful, informative content. Blogs, videos, and more can be posted on your website and then shared through your social media.

But not everyone is looking for orthodontic advice. So, what else can you do for your regulars?

The answer is so simple, you might not even have thought of it before:

Help them have fun.

When someone is scrolling through Facebook or Twitter, they aren’t always looking for a problem to solve or a question to answer. Sometimes they just want to see what comes up. The excitement and enjoyment of not knowing what you’ll see next is a big contributor to the draw of social media.

It’s also part of what makes it so darn addictive!

Your patients, their families, and their friends are going to spend plenty of time on social media, so you may as well be one of the things they’re looking at. The latest statistics suggest the average person around the world spent 145 minutes a day on social media in 2020 and 2019, up from 142 minutes back in 2018.

That’s an astonishing two hours and 25 minutes!

If you’re looking for ways to use social media in your orthodontist marketing, you are already on the right track. The next step is to make sure what you’re offering is fresh and different. Giveaways and contests are ideal, especially for family orthodontists who welcome a broad age range.

Everyone loves to win – and they love the possibility of winning almost as much.

Contests Help You Tap User Generated Content in Your Social Media Strategy

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know how crucial it is to be consistent with your social media posting. Exactly how much you post will depend on your goals and the speed of the platform you use. For example, Twitter moves very fast, so you’ll need more posts than you would on Facebook.

Sometimes, though, the thought of posting 3-5 times a day on social media can feel intimidating.

Without all those posts, you’ll easily get scrolled down to the bottom of your followers’ feeds. But you don’t have time to handcraft posts for every occasion. Other than working with a trusted Central Florida marketing agency, what can you do? Turn the tables by getting followers to provide you with content.

That’s precisely what contests enable you to do.

Branded content, the kind you create and share, will always suffer from at least a small credibility gap. People know that you want to present yourself, your business, and your industry in the best light. That’s simply the way it is. Even if they like you, that thought is always in the back of their minds.

User-generated content doesn’t carry the same stigma. Whatever users submit, most people will take at face value even if it’s not wise. For instance, even though a massive proportion of Amazon reviews are fake, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as friends.

And it’s possible to tap into this same trust in an ethical, helpful way with contests.

The key is to come up with contests that:

• Empower your followers to submit something unique and creative
• Relate to your brand and what you do in a compelling, organic way
• Give you the option of having your followers vote on the best items

Let’s take a closer look at how this can empower your orthodontist marketing.

3 Fun and Friendly Contest Ideas for Orthodontists to Use on Social Media

Creating a contest isn’t as hard as it might look. You already have the perfect platform to tell everyone about it in the form of your social media. Depending on your goals, you can also use email marketing to let your whole subscriber base know about it.

Consider these three contest ideas for your next social media event:

1. Photo Contests

The photo contest is the ultimate social media extravaganza. Virtually everyone carries a camera in their pocket 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Today’s photo apps enable them to share their snaps in just seconds. All they have to do is tag your account and add your branded hashtag.

A successful photo contest doesn’t really need to have anything to do with orthodontics, but it’s a wise idea to have some kind of local connection. You might choose to have people photograph themselves in front of local landmarks, for example, or their favorite restaurant.

2. Scavenger Hunts

A scavenger hunt is a little bit more complex than a photo contest, so fewer people will get involved. But those who take the time will generally be a lot more invested in what they’re doing. You can combine the idea of a scavenger hunt with a photo contest by having people photograph things in your town.

Just be sure they can be part of the photo, too – people love taking selfies.

One way to do a scavenger hunt is through the medium of geocaching. Geocaching is described as “a GPS-enabled treasure hunt” where you bury small items at certain coordinates. You might hide some swag or a coupon your patients can use to save on the services they need.

3. Riddles and Puzzles

The days of the old-fashioned newspaper may be coming to an end, but the crossword puzzle lives on. Look at your ideal customers and figure out what kind of puzzles they like to solve. Then, challenge them with a weekly puzzle or a daily one where all five answers for the week spell out a code.

Those who stick with it all the way can redeem their discovery for a terrific prize that you can tease all along. You don’t necessarily need to spell out exactly what they’ll get; sometimes, not knowing is a lot more enticing. Just be sure you are following any applicable rules for contests in your state!

What Should You Give Away When You Launch Your Social Media Contest?

A contest isn’t really a contest unless there’s something to win at the end!

Luckily, you have all kinds of fun and exciting options:

• Coupons for your own services
• Gift cards for local businesses you’ve partnered with
• Useful household items, like calendars, you can brand
• Toys, “dime store” electronics, games, and books

Whatever you have in mind, New York Ave can help you bring your contest to life – and realize your orthodontist marketing goals at the same time. Contact us today to find out more or get started.