February 27, 2024 • 17 mins
Hazel Dockery catches up with Gemma Starkey, Social media consultant also known as 'Miss Social'. Gemma shares her hints on how to get started with social media and discusses its impact and relevance for dental practices.
What you'll hear:
- Gemmas journey from dental nurse to social media guru
- The importance of social media in the current digital age
- Having a mix of educational, personal, and relatable content
- Using algorithms and different social media platforms to achieve better reach and engagement
- The benefits of having a social media content calendar.
To find out more visit https://www.misssocial.co.uk/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to BODCAST, the Business of Dentistry podcast, brought to you by Practice Plan.
BODCAST delivers the best business advice, real-life stories and practical hints
and tips to make your practice a more profitable and sustainable business.
And now, here's your host. Hello, welcome to Practice Plan's BODCAST.
(00:20):
With me today is Gemma Starkey and she's going to be talking about social media.
So it's great to have you here with us, Gemma. Just introduce yourself please
and tell us a bit more about yourself.
Yeah thanks for having me Hazel and so
I well I was a dental nurse I started
in dentistry when I was around 19 and
I'm 39 now and as
(00:43):
much as I love dentistry I loved working with the patients
I also kind of love the business side of things and
had a bit of a natural flair so within my dental
practice they're a very forward thinking practice we're having
training from people like Chris Barrow and he introduced to the practice owners
the ideas of sort of turning me into a marketing manager so I had a bit of help
(01:06):
there from him yeah now this was so long ago this was at a time when Facebook
had just started to come out.
It was not then what it is and
now and at the time sort
of my marketing activities you know were a
small mixed practice we had
(01:27):
a small marketing budget and social media offered
us a great opportunity to be able to market the practice so over the years as
I've worked with more dentists they've sort of signed me up to help them to
the point that I don't actually do any dental nursing now because I don't have
any time to focus on the dental social media stuff.
(01:48):
Right you're known as Miss Social aren't you?
Yeah I am that was sort of a nickname that was dubbed back in the day but now
I'm a bit older maybe I should be like Mrs Social or something.
Or Ms Social yeah why not. Yeah.
So obviously you're helping people to develop their social media skills in practice
(02:09):
so what's why should people be using social media in a dental practice?
Yeah, well, I mean, I was coming at it from a unique perspective in the fact
that I was dentistry first and then social media.
So I always come at it from a patient first focus.
And of course, kind of knowing the regulations of the GDC and how we want to be represented.
(02:34):
It's always dentistry and professionalism first.
Um but now you know
in the uk there's 84 of the population
and now on social media that's a fact
that i've checked several times because it's so big i've been
insane it but you know i i've triple
checked it and so yeah 84 of the the uk are now on social media and they're
(02:59):
spending two hours every single day there so you know this is where our patients
hang out this is is where they are this is where they're they're spending their
evenings so you know being online.
Offers dental practices that opportunity to
kind of communicate yeah so yeah
(03:19):
so you're actually just tapping into an audience that's
already there really yeah you know
we can reach with digital marketing channels such as
social media you can reach a much larger audience
nowadays days well 84 of the
population yeah okay and we
we do live in a digital world we rely on
(03:41):
what we see online so you
know it when I when I first started out in dentistry I remember it being optional
dentists discussing if they had to have a website you know I worked at perhaps
they didn't have a website was it really needed and it I feel as though we're
at the same junction now with social media.
(04:02):
You know, people think, is social media needed? But this is how patients are researching you.
They want to know, they're making a decision, they want to know what's said
about us online, and they turn to social media for that.
Indeed, yeah. I mean, you mentioned Chris Barrow earlier, but Mark Topley also
(04:23):
is someone who talks about needing to have the right presence on online and on social media as well.
So what sort of things should people be posting then on social media?
Yeah so there's a range of things that people can and should be posting.
I kind of call these the content pillar.
(04:43):
So we want to be posting dental information, we want to be posting.
Information about the practice, more personal posts to kind of personalize the
brand sort of behind the scenes, that type of thing.
We want to be posting articles that are related to what's actually going on in the world.
(05:05):
So right now it's Halloween yesterday, of course.
So, you know, it's coming up for Christmas. So we want to be kind of thinking
about creating some posts that that patients can relate to.
It's about creating a content that strengthens that bond between you and patients or you and new people.
You know, if you think about why you go online, you go on to be a bit entertained.
(05:30):
Whilst you don't want to step away from being professional, we also don't want
to just fall into the trap of only putting out one type of content.
So only putting out that educational content because it could be a turn off
for that audience so yeah so I like to use a variety of different content types
(05:52):
and it keeps it fresh for the people that are looking.
Yeah I mean I think this is a similar thing that we try to adopt here as well
I mean there will be occasions when we'll show a bit of what we're like as a
team as well I mean do you advocate that kind of thing?
Yeah I do and but again it
(06:13):
having that kind of perfect recipe so lots
of products fall into a trap of just doing educational or just
doing personal but there are
different things that you can showcase but it's
also about rethinking the way
that you showcase that material though if
(06:33):
you are doing an educational post for example before
you might might want to share a photo of somebody
brushing their teeth well that's not always engaging but
if you share a photo of the dentist holding the toothbrush a
figure that people recognize then that already is
more engaging but right now we're
of course at the mercy of the operators of social
(06:56):
media and they favor particular types
of content so they're favoring video content
more so if we say
educational content we now should
be start to think about well how do we share that and we
can then rather than doing a tech post do a short video on flossing showcase
(07:19):
those and again it's more personal but social media prefers that right okay
then so you're not just trying to to appeal to the audience,
you're actually trying to sort of game the algorithm as well,
really, then, aren't you?
Yeah exactly you you really are because yeah they they will automatically filter
(07:41):
whether you're putting out a post or a video you will get higher rankings for the video.
Did you do any any sort of courses or is this something that you you've managed
to pick up through experience?
So it's quite funny Hazel because like most people in dentistry we all seem
to have this passion for learning and can get quite obsessive with wanting to
(08:07):
go out and find the information that we need and then get straight into implementing it.
I went out on a lot of
different courses whatever our practice needed we needed
a video for the practice and we had a
quote and it was sort of three four thousand pounds which
we didn't yeah we did we wanted the video
(08:28):
but we didn't have that within our marketing budget and so
unfortunately at the time we were in the EU
and they had lots of free courses available
to help businesses and so I on
a lot of free courses so I went on one course and
it was run and it had a BBC cameraman who taught
us the whole series of writing out a
(08:51):
video script to recording it to editing it so
I would know what we need go and find a course learn it and implement it and
you know that that works out really well for our practice but I clocked up all
my CPD hours in kind of marketing and business I'm not really adventurous right.
(09:13):
So now we're no longer in the EU I mean are there places that people can go
to learn these things yeah there actually is and I've just done a qualification
in digital marketing and that That, again,
was a funded course from the government.
It's offered to people that are either self-employed or I think it's offered
to some small businesses.
(09:35):
But there are a lot of learning platforms online now.
You go and look and sign up to this course.
I am hoping to maybe launch my own course, especially for people within the
dental team to learn everything they need, my skills, so they can manage their
practice's own social media.
(09:57):
Oh, right. That sounds great. I mean, I'm sure, you know, because you've done
both sides, you're not just a marketeer, you're someone who's actually been
a dental nurse and knows what it's all about.
Yeah. And I think it's really beneficial because I know then I think about it,
well what problems have a marketing brain but with
(10:17):
the dental knowledge so I think well what problems are patients
having that they might want to hear about on social media
you know question that we always get
asked in surgery so I can answer that rather than kind of not have any of that
knowledge and I think that if if social media can be done in-house from somebody
(10:40):
who who knows how to do it and not just passed over to the youngest team member,
then that would be really effective.
So how do you suggest that the team sorts out who's going to do the social media?
I mean, have you found a formula or something?
Yes. So when I left the practice that I was mainly responsible for doing the
(11:06):
social media for, I moved to London.
So I had to learn to manage it remotely yeah so
that kind of helped me to give me the skills of what challenges
would come into place if they didn't have someone like me there and I think
that it's really important now that social media is such a beast there is a
lot it's very hungry for content so it does have to be a team effort but it
(11:31):
can be kind of led by one person,
and that one person doesn't have
to say film all of the content but they can be
in charge of making sure what content's needed and getting that together and
giving those tasks to of the team members there is one thing that can help practices
significantly is the use of a social media content calendar right and.
(11:58):
And that is the calendar of all the events that happen throughout the year.
So we're talking about events that happen every year, such as Valentine's Day,
Easter, Bonfire Night, all of these things, they go onto the calendar.
Pancake Day. And then there's also some sort of, you know, National Fun Day,
National Dentist Day, International Women's Day.
(12:22):
Because it's no good just posting about something, a different topic.
Say if we post about tooth whitening
on national book day the pictures in
most people's social media fields are filled with children dressed
up in book day and actually as
a dental practice if you have children you can showcase
(12:44):
the photo of your children at the dental practice dressed up
or any patients that you've had dressed up that post is
going to reach more people it's more more relevant it's more
engaging so you can kind of see the power of using
a social media calendar and then
you can also get in there sort of
the dental events that's happening so you
(13:05):
can showcase off your expertise is it five years
that you've been dental phobia certified are you
a bda good practice member you know
those type of things so having
a content calendar is a great way to start and
then don't wait until that day
to film the content for most things you can
(13:27):
film that content in advance you know yeah
add an extra 30 minutes onto the practice
meeting and take your photos or videos then because in a busy day-to-day surgery
not many people have got time to do the social media that's needed yeah yes
that's I mean I think that's that's excellent advice isn't and it's plan in advance, yeah.
(13:51):
And so what would be your...
Big ticket advice to someone who's
in a practice at the moment where they don't actually
do much in the way of posting what would be your main
piece of advice to them I think the main
piece of advice would be even if
(14:12):
you're not going to be active on social media or you've
no immediate plan to go and still sign yourself
up to some of those accounts you know
so I know lots of practices that no TikTok
important but aren't active on it
yet you can still go and sign up to that account doesn't
mean you have to post but so you've got your name saved
(14:35):
and I think if you have a
team meeting and see if anyone would like to
do it you know and think about
the content calendar and what's happening
in their practice and if you can't do it then
talk to somebody who can do it even
if it's an informal chat to get information that then you know it's like going
(14:59):
for a dental health checkup with someone you can they can find out where you
are and give you what the next steps of advice would be and it's more personalized
for you you don't have to take that advice but it'd be good to know your options.
And what about following other accounts, you know, looking online and finding
(15:19):
people that you want to follow? Would you recommend that?
Yeah, and I think this is sort of falls into what we call engagement.
So making sure that you're not just putting out content onto social media,
that social media is communication.
It's a two way street. so always engaging
(15:40):
with people back so checking on your
last post who's liked that post click through make
sure you've liked their posts and finding
people in the local area and and i'm
talking about instagram in particular here because of
course with instagram we can search for people on facebook
we can't um but you can
(16:02):
search for let's say a local restaurant
that you know has your ideal patient and you
can see those followers are local followers
so you can kind of click to follow those and
it seems a bit old-fashioned still doing that
but I've found that that is one of the best ways to help your account grow but
(16:25):
I would be really fussy with who you follow it's always quality over quantity
and there's no point somebody following your practice if you know,
they live 100 miles away.
So looking at some of those local areas where your patients hang out and making
sure that you sort of follow those people.
(16:48):
Brilliant. That's great. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's been great chatting
to you, Gemma. Hopefully we can speak to you again sometime when you've developed your training.
Yeah, that'd be lovely. And yeah, thanks for having me, Hazel. It's been great.
Music.
Welcome to BODCAST, the Business of Dentistry podcast, brought to you by Practice Plan.
BODCAST delivers the best business advice, real-life stories and practical hints
and tips to make your practice a more profitable and sustainable business.
And now, here's your host. Hello, welcome to Practice Plan's BODCAST.
(00:20):
With me today is Gemma Starkey and she's going to be talking about social media.
So it's great to have you here with us, Gemma. Just introduce yourself please
and tell us a bit more about yourself.
Yeah thanks for having me Hazel and so
I well I was a dental nurse I started
in dentistry when I was around 19 and
I'm 39 now and as
(00:43):
much as I love dentistry I loved working with the patients
I also kind of love the business side of things and
had a bit of a natural flair so within my dental
practice they're a very forward thinking practice we're having
training from people like Chris Barrow and he introduced to the practice owners
the ideas of sort of turning me into a marketing manager so I had a bit of help
(01:06):
there from him yeah now this was so long ago this was at a time when Facebook
had just started to come out.
It was not then what it is and
now and at the time sort
of my marketing activities you know were a
small mixed practice we had
(01:27):
a small marketing budget and social media offered
us a great opportunity to be able to market the practice so over the years as
I've worked with more dentists they've sort of signed me up to help them to
the point that I don't actually do any dental nursing now because I don't have
any time to focus on the dental social media stuff.
(01:48):
Right you're known as Miss Social aren't you?
Yeah I am that was sort of a nickname that was dubbed back in the day but now
I'm a bit older maybe I should be like Mrs Social or something.
Or Ms Social yeah why not. Yeah.
So obviously you're helping people to develop their social media skills in practice
(02:09):
so what's why should people be using social media in a dental practice?
Yeah, well, I mean, I was coming at it from a unique perspective in the fact
that I was dentistry first and then social media.
So I always come at it from a patient first focus.
And of course, kind of knowing the regulations of the GDC and how we want to be represented.
(02:34):
It's always dentistry and professionalism first.
Um but now you know
in the uk there's 84 of the population
and now on social media that's a fact
that i've checked several times because it's so big i've been
insane it but you know i i've triple
checked it and so yeah 84 of the the uk are now on social media and they're
(02:59):
spending two hours every single day there so you know this is where our patients
hang out this is is where they are this is where they're they're spending their
evenings so you know being online.
Offers dental practices that opportunity to
kind of communicate yeah so yeah
(03:19):
so you're actually just tapping into an audience that's
already there really yeah you know
we can reach with digital marketing channels such as
social media you can reach a much larger audience
nowadays days well 84 of the
population yeah okay and we
we do live in a digital world we rely on
(03:41):
what we see online so you
know it when I when I first started out in dentistry I remember it being optional
dentists discussing if they had to have a website you know I worked at perhaps
they didn't have a website was it really needed and it I feel as though we're
at the same junction now with social media.
(04:02):
You know, people think, is social media needed? But this is how patients are researching you.
They want to know, they're making a decision, they want to know what's said
about us online, and they turn to social media for that.
Indeed, yeah. I mean, you mentioned Chris Barrow earlier, but Mark Topley also
(04:23):
is someone who talks about needing to have the right presence on online and on social media as well.
So what sort of things should people be posting then on social media?
Yeah so there's a range of things that people can and should be posting.
I kind of call these the content pillar.
(04:43):
So we want to be posting dental information, we want to be posting.
Information about the practice, more personal posts to kind of personalize the
brand sort of behind the scenes, that type of thing.
We want to be posting articles that are related to what's actually going on in the world.
(05:05):
So right now it's Halloween yesterday, of course.
So, you know, it's coming up for Christmas. So we want to be kind of thinking
about creating some posts that that patients can relate to.
It's about creating a content that strengthens that bond between you and patients or you and new people.
You know, if you think about why you go online, you go on to be a bit entertained.
(05:30):
Whilst you don't want to step away from being professional, we also don't want
to just fall into the trap of only putting out one type of content.
So only putting out that educational content because it could be a turn off
for that audience so yeah so I like to use a variety of different content types
(05:52):
and it keeps it fresh for the people that are looking.
Yeah I mean I think this is a similar thing that we try to adopt here as well
I mean there will be occasions when we'll show a bit of what we're like as a
team as well I mean do you advocate that kind of thing?
Yeah I do and but again it
(06:13):
having that kind of perfect recipe so lots
of products fall into a trap of just doing educational or just
doing personal but there are
different things that you can showcase but it's
also about rethinking the way
that you showcase that material though if
(06:33):
you are doing an educational post for example before
you might might want to share a photo of somebody
brushing their teeth well that's not always engaging but
if you share a photo of the dentist holding the toothbrush a
figure that people recognize then that already is
more engaging but right now we're
of course at the mercy of the operators of social
(06:56):
media and they favor particular types
of content so they're favoring video content
more so if we say
educational content we now should
be start to think about well how do we share that and we
can then rather than doing a tech post do a short video on flossing showcase
(07:19):
those and again it's more personal but social media prefers that right okay
then so you're not just trying to to appeal to the audience,
you're actually trying to sort of game the algorithm as well,
really, then, aren't you?
Yeah exactly you you really are because yeah they they will automatically filter
(07:41):
whether you're putting out a post or a video you will get higher rankings for the video.
Did you do any any sort of courses or is this something that you you've managed
to pick up through experience?
So it's quite funny Hazel because like most people in dentistry we all seem
to have this passion for learning and can get quite obsessive with wanting to
(08:07):
go out and find the information that we need and then get straight into implementing it.
I went out on a lot of
different courses whatever our practice needed we needed
a video for the practice and we had a
quote and it was sort of three four thousand pounds which
we didn't yeah we did we wanted the video
(08:28):
but we didn't have that within our marketing budget and so
unfortunately at the time we were in the EU
and they had lots of free courses available
to help businesses and so I on
a lot of free courses so I went on one course and
it was run and it had a BBC cameraman who taught
us the whole series of writing out a
(08:51):
video script to recording it to editing it so
I would know what we need go and find a course learn it and implement it and
you know that that works out really well for our practice but I clocked up all
my CPD hours in kind of marketing and business I'm not really adventurous right.
(09:13):
So now we're no longer in the EU I mean are there places that people can go
to learn these things yeah there actually is and I've just done a qualification
in digital marketing and that That, again,
was a funded course from the government.
It's offered to people that are either self-employed or I think it's offered
to some small businesses.
(09:35):
But there are a lot of learning platforms online now.
You go and look and sign up to this course.
I am hoping to maybe launch my own course, especially for people within the
dental team to learn everything they need, my skills, so they can manage their
practice's own social media.
(09:57):
Oh, right. That sounds great. I mean, I'm sure, you know, because you've done
both sides, you're not just a marketeer, you're someone who's actually been
a dental nurse and knows what it's all about.
Yeah. And I think it's really beneficial because I know then I think about it,
well what problems have a marketing brain but with
(10:17):
the dental knowledge so I think well what problems are patients
having that they might want to hear about on social media
you know question that we always get
asked in surgery so I can answer that rather than kind of not have any of that
knowledge and I think that if if social media can be done in-house from somebody
(10:40):
who who knows how to do it and not just passed over to the youngest team member,
then that would be really effective.
So how do you suggest that the team sorts out who's going to do the social media?
I mean, have you found a formula or something?
Yes. So when I left the practice that I was mainly responsible for doing the
(11:06):
social media for, I moved to London.
So I had to learn to manage it remotely yeah so
that kind of helped me to give me the skills of what challenges
would come into place if they didn't have someone like me there and I think
that it's really important now that social media is such a beast there is a
lot it's very hungry for content so it does have to be a team effort but it
(11:31):
can be kind of led by one person,
and that one person doesn't have
to say film all of the content but they can be
in charge of making sure what content's needed and getting that together and
giving those tasks to of the team members there is one thing that can help practices
significantly is the use of a social media content calendar right and.
(11:58):
And that is the calendar of all the events that happen throughout the year.
So we're talking about events that happen every year, such as Valentine's Day,
Easter, Bonfire Night, all of these things, they go onto the calendar.
Pancake Day. And then there's also some sort of, you know, National Fun Day,
National Dentist Day, International Women's Day.
(12:22):
Because it's no good just posting about something, a different topic.
Say if we post about tooth whitening
on national book day the pictures in
most people's social media fields are filled with children dressed
up in book day and actually as
a dental practice if you have children you can showcase
(12:44):
the photo of your children at the dental practice dressed up
or any patients that you've had dressed up that post is
going to reach more people it's more more relevant it's more
engaging so you can kind of see the power of using
a social media calendar and then
you can also get in there sort of
the dental events that's happening so you
(13:05):
can showcase off your expertise is it five years
that you've been dental phobia certified are you
a bda good practice member you know
those type of things so having
a content calendar is a great way to start and
then don't wait until that day
to film the content for most things you can
(13:27):
film that content in advance you know yeah
add an extra 30 minutes onto the practice
meeting and take your photos or videos then because in a busy day-to-day surgery
not many people have got time to do the social media that's needed yeah yes
that's I mean I think that's that's excellent advice isn't and it's plan in advance, yeah.
(13:51):
And so what would be your...
Big ticket advice to someone who's
in a practice at the moment where they don't actually
do much in the way of posting what would be your main
piece of advice to them I think the main
piece of advice would be even if
(14:12):
you're not going to be active on social media or you've
no immediate plan to go and still sign yourself
up to some of those accounts you know
so I know lots of practices that no TikTok
important but aren't active on it
yet you can still go and sign up to that account doesn't
mean you have to post but so you've got your name saved
(14:35):
and I think if you have a
team meeting and see if anyone would like to
do it you know and think about
the content calendar and what's happening
in their practice and if you can't do it then
talk to somebody who can do it even
if it's an informal chat to get information that then you know it's like going
(14:59):
for a dental health checkup with someone you can they can find out where you
are and give you what the next steps of advice would be and it's more personalized
for you you don't have to take that advice but it'd be good to know your options.
And what about following other accounts, you know, looking online and finding
(15:19):
people that you want to follow? Would you recommend that?
Yeah, and I think this is sort of falls into what we call engagement.
So making sure that you're not just putting out content onto social media,
that social media is communication.
It's a two way street. so always engaging
(15:40):
with people back so checking on your
last post who's liked that post click through make
sure you've liked their posts and finding
people in the local area and and i'm
talking about instagram in particular here because of
course with instagram we can search for people on facebook
we can't um but you can
(16:02):
search for let's say a local restaurant
that you know has your ideal patient and you
can see those followers are local followers
so you can kind of click to follow those and
it seems a bit old-fashioned still doing that
but I've found that that is one of the best ways to help your account grow but
(16:25):
I would be really fussy with who you follow it's always quality over quantity
and there's no point somebody following your practice if you know,
they live 100 miles away.
So looking at some of those local areas where your patients hang out and making
sure that you sort of follow those people.
(16:48):
Brilliant. That's great. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's been great chatting
to you, Gemma. Hopefully we can speak to you again sometime when you've developed your training.
Yeah, that'd be lovely. And yeah, thanks for having me, Hazel. It's been great.
Music.
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