Is social media killing professionalism in dentistry?

Are young dentists really “clowns” online—or is lightheartedness perfectly fine?

Is social media a disease? Where’s the line between humor, banter, and outright disrespect?

In this episode, Jaz is joined by Joseph Lucido from the States to tackle these tough questions head-on. Sparked by a fiery Facebook rant, they dive into whether social media is harming our profession, how dentists should present themselves online, and if there’s still room for fun without crossing the line.

Whether you love or hate dental content on social media, this conversation will make you rethink how we represent our profession to the world.

Shout-out to two US doctors creating excellent, entertaining content on social media

Check out the 3-Step Modern Dental Marketing Plan from Clear to Launch Dental — designed to help you simplify your marketing and grow your practice without the overwhelm.

https://youtu.be/W7Uh-ML9dZg

Watch IC063 on YouTube

Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below!

Takeaways

Social media etiquette is crucial for healthcare professionals.
Avoid controversial topics to maintain professionalism.
A social media presence is essential for modern dental practices.
Patients often check social media to verify a practice’s credibility.
Content should reflect the personality of the dentist and practice.
Highlight satisfied patients to build social proof.
Consistency in posting is key to maintaining engagement.
Separate personal and professional social media accounts.
Batch content creation to save time and effort.
Engaging content can lead to more patient inquiries.

Highlights of this episode:

00:00 Teaser
00:31 Intro
01:47 Introducing Joseph Lucido: Social Media Expert
03:21 Social Media Etiquette for Dentists
06:14 The Importance of Social Media Presence
12:04 Balancing Professionalism and Humor Online
17:39 Authenticity in Social Media
19:51 Balancing Personal and Professional Content
21:51 Effective Social Media Strategies
25:27 Time Management for Social Media
27:26 Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media
29:43 The Power of Social Proof
30:49 Conclusion and Resources
32:47 Outro

Love this episode? Don’t miss Best Practices in Social Media for Dentists – How to Stay Out of Trouble Yet Be Impactful (IC035)

#InterferenceCast #Communication #BreadandButterDentistry

This episode is not eligible for CPD/CE points, but never fear, there are hundreds of hours of CPD waiting for you on the Ultimate Education Plan, including Premium clinical walkthroughs and Masterclasses.

Click below for full episode transcript:

Teaser: What is the correct etiquette in 2025 and beyond for social media for dentists?

Teaser:
The biggest shortcut a lot of social media questions get would be, we tell a lot of docs, this is social media, it’s social in nature, so your job is not to directly sell 24/7. The most extreme version of yourself is gonna get the most attention. So you might get, oh, look, I’m getting a lot of views. But going back to what I said earlier, it’s, well, what are people thinking when they see this?

Jaz’s Introduction:
I saw a rant on Facebook. Obviously it was on Facebook. Where else do rants belong, right? It was saying, what has happened to our profession? What has happened to our beloved dentistry? The kind of crap we’re seeing on social media.

This dentist, who’s basically vexing about the way that he thinks young dentists are portraying themselves on social media, this anonymous poster of course, was saying we’re being clowns, we are disrespecting patients, we’re doing all sorts of unsavory things to get views and likes.

So Protruserati, is this the death of professionalism in dentistry? Is social media a disease? Is there a proper way to conduct yourself on social media, or is a bit of humor and banter and a bit of lightheartedness acceptable?

I’m a bit of an idiot on social media sometimes, but I know someone who does know. Today we’ve got our guest, Joseph Lucido from the States, and I asked him all these tough questions. He knows a thing or two about social media. So in this episode, you’ll find out what is the proper way to conduct yourself and whether Joseph thinks there is a space for idiots like me.

Hello, Protruserati. I’m Jaz Gulati and welcome back to your favorite dental podcast. This is an interference cast. This is a nonclinical arm of the podcast. Hope you enjoy the main interview and I’ll catch you in the outro.

Main Episode:
Joseph Lucido, welcome to the Protrusive Dental Podcast. For those who are listening right now, Joseph has sat in this wonderful, you’ve got this wonderful background, that common look of the books behind you, so it makes you look like you’ve got so much authority. And he totally looks badass. But I had to ask him, is this real or is it fake? And actually he reached out, man, this is a very beautiful library behind you. Joseph, welcome to the show, my friend. How are you doing?

[Joseph]
I’m doing great. Happy to be here.

[Jaz]
Tell us about yourself. You’re not a dentist, but tell me how you are connected to dentistry. What makes you an authority? Talk about social media for dentists today, which I’m really excited to get into.

[Joseph]
Sure. Probably starting around eight years old, I wanted to be a dentist. Just being in the dental office, I always loved getting my teeth cleaned. I had a few uncles that were dentists. It was just exciting for me.

And then just through my education, formally marketing degree, and then half of the books behind you are on marketing or psychology. And then it comes down to just different reps over and over and over on different platforms with docs, seeing what works, seeing what doesn’t work. I guess that gives me, I don’t know about the authority, but it gives me a pretty sharp edge on what works and what doesn’t.

[Jaz]
Well, I think that does give you authority. The fact that they have skin in the game, the fact that you work with people on this, so you totally have the authority.

Interesting title we’ve opted for, right? Social media clown or healthcare professional. I really like this. When I first read it, I thought, oh crap, he’s onto me. He’s seen my videos. Because sometimes I’m a bit of a clown, and sometimes I’m very professional. I’m really looking for what your thoughts are on this.

So I guess the first place to start is, what is the correct etiquette in 2025 and beyond for social media for dentists? It’s a big topic and we can break it down and go anywhere you like.

[Joseph]
Yeah, there’s gonna be a bunch of nuance to it, but the biggest shortcut a lot of social media questions get would be, what is the potential patient, the person viewing this, the followers, what are they gonna think after seeing whatever I post?

That should just be your starting point for everything social media related. Before you post, you want to be intentional in thinking. Now it becomes intuitive after a while to do it the right way, second nature. But from an etiquette standpoint, we wanna be thinking, I don’t wanna post anything that’s too controversial or too polarizing.

Now I’m talking specifically through the lens of a healthcare professional. If you’re trying to get attention some other way, that’s fine. But if we’re talking about being a professional in healthcare, we don’t want to talk about politics or religion. Avoiding these topics can alienate 50% or more of your audience, and it also kind of speaks to your self-awareness. You probably shouldn’t be posting this from a business perspective.

Arguing online, never a good look. Taking a combative stance, anyone who sees that, even if you’re defending yourself, even if you’re 100% in the right, that’s not what you wanna do from an etiquette standpoint.

We tell a lot of docs, this is social media, it’s social in nature, so your job is not to directly sell 24/7. Everyone’s seen the doc that posts and all they’re doing is selling, and you’re not gonna follow them.

[Jaz]
So what you mean by that is, “Come in for our new patient Invisalign offer,” and just banging on about it every single day, and that’s it, it’s like repeat.

[Joseph]
Even the other post is too much. And what we’d even argue is, the way that we operate it is we have the docs say, you do nothing from an office level organically. You should be fun, entertaining, posting like that, and then we’ll take care of the direct selling, because that’s what our team has experience in.

You don’t have experience in, how do I sell something, specifically the language that needs to be used, the call to actions, where the buttons go. That is so outside of your purview. But what’s inside of you, you’re an expert on you and your office. That’s what you should be posting about.

[Jaz]
I think one thing that perhaps I should have asked, and I will now, is taking a step back. I think I went too deep too soon. I’m trying to understand what you are trying to say and what we can learn.

Like I said, building on that correct etiquette and top mistakes we make. Now we are at a stage where virtually every dental practice has a website, I would imagine. But not all dentists have a social media presence. But those that do, a significant majority of those would probably post on 4th of July and then post on Halloween and then completely abandon it.

So let’s tackle that for a second. Do we need a social media presence in this day and age to be a thriving clinic? Because in the past it was, word of mouth is the best and patients refer other patients of the similar kind of caliber and likeness, which works well for clinics. What do you think about that question of the need of social media for every practice?

[Joseph]
So I think practices still, word of mouth, referrals, those are the best practices. Practices where it’s in the front door, out the back door, they’re always gonna be chasing the new patients.

But when it comes to social media, the effort that is required for the return on that investment, if it’s posting once a month, having someone in your office just post strategically once a month. Because what people are really doing nowadays is they’re just checking to see if you have a pulse.

Yes, we can get information from your website, but if you have an Instagram account or a Facebook account, you can do the bare minimum. What people are doing is verifying, and it also gives the opportunity to see what it looks like inside of the practice, who works there, what other patients are saying.

That’s so important because in a day when people are buying, they’re gonna be looking at multiple different dentists. Even if from a word of mouth standpoint they recommend you and someone searches the internet, social media has an effect where you show up on the internet. Some of your social media accounts will show up.

By checking that box at a reasonably high level, with minimal effort, it verifies that, hey, I’m a professional. It gives you an opportunity to make a great first impression outside of your website.

[Jaz]
I’m aware that, myself included, I had to pick a surgeon for my shoulder. Patients will Google their practitioner, or they’re thinking in their town, they want to get teeth straightening or just find a family dentist. As well as asking friends and colleagues and their new workplace, they will Google, “Who’s best? Name me,” or they might get a hunch about this clinician, “I’ve heard good things about them, let me now Google their name.”

Do you think the behavior has now changed so that the “younger folk” are, instead of going to Google, actually searching on Instagram or searching on TikTok? What are your insights showing based on how important presence is, relative to the website presence and what shows on Google?

[Joseph]
Yeah, we don’t have to guess. The numbers are showing the search volume going up. I think it’s a very well-known fact that YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world.

But then after that, you’re gonna be seeing Instagram, Facebook. People are checking those boxes and looking. Just by having consistency across all of those, you are gonna have the opportunity to put your best foot forward again. So we don’t even have to guess. That is 100% happening.

We’ll say younger folk, but younger, I’m starting to date, I’m getting a little old myself. So younger folk being 50 and under is completely applicable in this situation.

[Jaz]
When it comes to social media, one advice that I took onboard is trying not to be great on all the platforms. Pick one platform at a time and try and make a presence and work on your goal there before you then go elsewhere.

Because then what you have is this dead X profile that you never post on, but it just exists and it doesn’t reflect well on you or your clinic. You might as well not have it. Is that what you think as well?

[Joseph]
I like to have everyone run it through someone else’s perspective. If I see an account, X, Facebook, Instagram, and they haven’t posted in eight months, what are your thoughts?

“Oh, they can’t keep up with this. Is this place no longer open?” It puts a seed of doubt that could be completely removed if you didn’t even have it or if you kept up with it.

That’s exactly right. I encourage docs, let’s do the main ones. Let’s do Facebook and Instagram. Once we’ve proven that we’ve got a great system in place, and by system I mean someone at the office level putting out great content consistently on those, then you can explore into others. But those are gonna be the main ones that you want to hit.

[Jaz]
Compared to website, if website has extremely high importance, it’s where you have your testimonials, your contact details, the first place that potential patients see. Is Instagram or a named social media platform the first place that you want to perhaps name drop? How important is it relative to the website presence?

[Joseph]
People are gonna go different places for different things. Instagram, they’re gonna be looking extremely visual at what they want. On a website, you have the opportunity to highlight exactly what someone is looking for.

So if we think of someone who’s doing this great, Dr. Brian Harris out of, I think it’s Phoenix, he is highlighting exactly what the patient experience looks like. Then you also have high profile celebrities who have just gotten their teeth done. He does an unbelievable job of painting a picture for you, and you say, oh, I can go to that office, I know what it’s like, there’s the front desk person.

That is more what the website is for, information and guiding people through, “Here’s what it’s gonna be like to be a patient here.” Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, you have an option to entertain and show more of your personality there. Just humanizing yourself is a good way to think about it.

They all serve different purposes, but at the end of the day, we wanna paint you as a doc in the best light possible.

[Jaz]
What if you like to be, I mean, yes, I agree. Religion and politics, that kind of stuff, are perhaps more appropriate on your personal profile, not on your business profile.

But I see some hilarious, there’s two really funny US docs. I’ll find their name and I’ll put them in the description. They make really funny content that’s perhaps borderline not appropriate, what dentists talk about, but they do it in a very nice way. They do it not in a disgusting way. It’s good humor and I love it.

I love what they do. I don’t know if patients resonate with that, but in terms of, as a dentist looking at it, it’s real talk. It’s hilarious. Is there a place for being funny and being a clown on social media because that could be a true representation of yourself and your values and who you want to attract? Or do you feel that, again, that’s something that belongs on your personal profile?

I’m sure you can think of some very successful social media accounts of dentists, doctors who are putting out very funny scenarios. There’s one where the guy’s blind. He’s a dentist, he’s blind, he’s walking in the clinic, and the patient’s like, “Wait, what the hell’s going on?” And it’s like, “Well, you are the one who said you don’t want any X-rays, right?”

So you’re doing the whole thing blind, and as a dentist I resonated so much with that. But that’s also being seen by the members of public.

[Joseph]
Right. I think the idea of entertainment is a loaded word, and there’s a lot of different ways to be entertaining. That’s a very clever way to be like, “Oh, you don’t want X-rays,” but they’re giving the analogy of what it would be like to operate without them.

It’s gonna resonate with more docs than it will with patients, but at the same time it’s gonna hit a lot of patients. And I think you hit the nail.

[Jaz]
It might then get rid of some patients who say, “I don’t believe in X-rays, I’m not gonna go ahead,” and you know what? That’s a win for the dentist and that’s a win for the patient.

[Joseph]
Yeah, and I think that’s kind of your personality. If you are funny, if you are witty, then yes, being in line doing that.

This is where that line, and there’s always gonna be edge cases of someone who does have a big personality and that being entertaining is what they’re gonna do. But entertaining being a loaded word, most people hear entertaining and they think shocking, in-your-face comedy.

The reality of the situation is you can be educational, you can be interesting, novel, it can be heartwarming. You could do storytelling, visual. There’s a lot of ways to be entertaining. Planet Earth is a great example of this. It’s not funny at all. It’s very entertaining. It’s very educational. It’s very visual.

Completely different than someone who gets a lot of attention. Think of Britney Spears. She got a ton of attention from melting down. Yes, she got a ton of views. That’s not what you’re looking for, so that’s not great.

I tell people all the time, the most extreme version of yourself is gonna get the most attention. So you might get, oh look, I’m getting a lot of views. But going back to what I said earlier, what are people thinking when they see this?

If you are a clown on social media and you’re dancing and that’s not your personality, or you’re making some jokes that are a little bit too far, then that’s gonna deter people.

The problem is, you’re never gonna know that you didn’t get them. Because when you deter people, it’s not like they call and say, “I’m not doing business with you.” They just go somewhere else. So operating on that line of entertainment without being extreme is the fine line that you don’t want to cross.

[Jaz]
I think it boils down to what kind of frame you wanna put on yourself. I use that word intentionally because of something that one of my mentors, Dr. Michael Melkers, taught me. He was presenting in London. He said something really interesting.

He said he doesn’t actually connect with patients in terms of knowing the name of their dog and family and that kind of stuff. The frame he puts on is highly professional. “I’m here to listen to you and diagnose and help in co-diagnosis and helping you.”

Whereas I’m very much like, “Hey, how’s your daughter’s football game going?” So I pick my frame. I like to be the friendly neighborhood dentist kind of frame.

When he mentioned that, I thought, that’s true. The kind of clientele he attracts and the kind of plans he might be doing will be fitting to that kind of professional frame. Some patients will resonate and enjoy that more. Whereas some patients will be very put off by this friendly dentist and they’re actually looking for someone who’s more of a surgeon than the friendly dentist.

So I guess the answer, there’s no right or wrong answer. I think, Joseph, the worst thing you could do is not choose which frame you’re going for.

[Joseph]
Correct. And I would say there is a right or wrong because you hit the nail on the head. You speak jovially, you’re talking about sports teams and these different things. When people come in there, that’s what they’re gonna expect, and then you don’t have to change personalities in the office.

I do like the very professional, very straightforward medical professional who is going to help me with anything that I have going on with my teeth, no nonsense, down to business. So when I’m looking at docs on the internet, I want their content to be about that. You are an expert and you’re no nonsense, and that’s gonna attract patients like me.

At the end of the day, you wanna attract patients that you enjoy working with. There’s nothing worse than attracting a bunch of patients that are looking for a different experience, and there’s this subtle disconnect. When that disconnect happens, that’s when you see patients leaving because you don’t have a great relationship with the doc.

It’s almost like a mini bait and switch. Docs are like, “Well, I don’t understand, they came in.” It’s like, well, you’re behaving differently online than you are in the practice, and it creates this disconnect that you’re not looking for.

[Jaz]
Reminds me of something. There was an Australian, I think it was an Australian dentist. His name was Paddi Lund. I think he maybe still operates, but he used to, in the early noughties, teach and do courses about that generation of marketing.

I think he wrote this book about dentists, kind of like firing your patients in a way that you eventually kick out the patients that don’t share the same values as you, and eventually you become a liberated and happier professional.

One thing he teaches is, if you are passionate about football or soccer, have the jersey of the team hung up there. You’re putting it out there that these are the kind of patients you want. Eventually with time and experience, your list of patients ends up reflecting you. I like to think of it like that.

I think what you said there is you just have to decide what kind of person you’re going for and be authentic. It’s all about being authentic and not doing something for the sake of social media, and then patients coming in and saying, “Wait, hang on a minute, this was a different person on social media.”

But if you are presenting the same way on social media, you know what you’re gonna get. As long as it aligns with your values, then that will lead to a happier practitioner and actually more fulfillment from their work.

[Joseph]
Yeah. When you say it like that, it sounds so easy. Just be yourself and you’re gonna attract the people that are coming in there. We call it humanizing yourself.

A great way to think about it is, for example, if you’re a dentist and you like to golf, every now and then posting about golf, that’s 100% acceptable, because then other people see, “Oh, my dentist is a golfer. Hey, I’m a golfer, I like this.”

You go into his office and maybe he’s got some places he’s been. That’s cool. Now, if you post every week about golfing, then the patient thinks all this guy does is golf. He probably knows more about golfing than dentistry. He doesn’t want to be here, he just wants to be golfing.

You do have to think of it through that. But you do want your personality to come out through your social media. Like you mentioned, sports are one of the big ones. If you are a diehard, who’s your soccer team over there?

[Jaz]
Manchester United. We’ve had very bad, dead seasons unfortunately. I’m gonna have to cut that bit out of the podcast, it’s that bad of a season we had. Anyway, I’m just kidding.

[Joseph]
Oh no. Historically one of the worst ones we’ve ever seen. Big soccer fan. But if you put that out there, other people are going to resonate with that. Guess what? Eventually you have an office filled with Manchester United fans.

Even if you get some Chelsea or Liverpool fans in there, there’s some banter going back and forth. There’s some conversational things.

One big thing is we let docs know, on social media you should be shopping or supporting local when you can, letting people know that. Because let’s say you go to a restaurant that’s right down the street from your office and then you post about it. Well, guess what? Everyone that goes there, they tag you. They have a bunch of people that are gonna come there too. Then you’re in the community as well.

So there’s a lot of opportunities to be authentic, which is, I think, an overused word in social media. But just be yourself and highlight the things where possible, and you’re gonna get people that really enjoy coming to your practice.

[Jaz]
You mentioned about not oversharing the whole personal side. I guess it goes without saying that if you want to do the personal stuff on Instagram, have your own personal account and have a separate account for work.

Although some people I’ve seen just combine it. They post about their kids and then, “Oh, here’s a smile makeover I did the other day.”

What is your stance and advice to dentists who are thinking about, should I have two accounts, or should I just have one and just, that’s the whole package, you get me, you get the whole package?

[Joseph]
My advice is two separate accounts. One needs to be business related, and you don’t wanna be posting your kids and make it a private account.

If someone is a patient and they become, I’ve been in many doctors’ weddings, I’ve become friends with a lot of these docs. There are so many great people in the industry. They follow me on my personal account, and then we also have a business account.

What I’m putting out personally shouldn’t be shared with everyone that comes to my practice. So yes, I would say having two different accounts is what I would recommend.

[Jaz]
Fine. That’s a very clear recommendation. I agree with you.

Another thing that’s crossed my mind is with social media, the algorithms and the way it all works so that you have potential to make a good piece of content and it can be seen. One of my reels has over a million views. It’s great, like, wow, this is cool.

Now, when clinicians are trying to appeal and raise awareness to patients and attract a certain type of patient, for example, and they do a piece of content that blows up, but actually when you talk about how many inquiries did this lead to, one or zero, because it’s going to the world.

If your practice is in Phoenix, Arizona, and someone in Jakarta in Indonesia is seeing this and they’re laughing and they like it and share it to their friends, it’s not really benefited you.

So what is the strategy that you advise dentists to do? Because their main goal is not necessarily to entertain, and you can’t deposit likes into the bank. You’ve got to actually be able to be relevant for your local community and solve problems for your local community. How does that change the way that you play the game of social media?

[Joseph]
I’m gonna steal that, “You can’t deposit likes in your bank account,” because I’ve never heard that and that’s a good one.

What I’ll say is there’s nothing wrong with that, but what is your expectation and how did you get it? Did you go viral because you put something so outrageous out there?

But let’s say you put out something that was great, clever, whatever it was, and it went viral. There’s gonna be value to that because if a million people are seeing it all over the world, that means the number of people seeing it in your local area is also gonna be high. That’s just how we think about it. Content’s great content.

When it comes to the algorithm, highly debated topic. The shortcut for thinking on how the algorithm works: what am I gonna do that is rewarded by the platform?

Google’s first algorithm was basically how many websites you were linked to. Now they have hundreds of things that go into that.

What is social media rewarding at this time? It’s always gonna be changing, but if you can look around at other people’s content that’s doing well, that’s a clear indication that’s what that particular platform is rewarding at this time.

[Jaz]
Fine. That helps. As long as there’s good content, it’s good content, and it can only help you.

But when you are talking to your clients and dentists about making a difference and actually making, what kind of content do you tell dentists to make? They’re looking to you for advice.

Should we just make, “How to brush your teeth better”? “We are doing a fall promotion,” or, “Do you like the fall promotion?” What kind of content is good?

We’ll segue from that into the dos and don’ts as a final segment of this podcast. But someone’s listened to this and thought, you know what, Jaz and Joseph are right. I need to have an Instagram presence. Let me reactivate. Let me make one for my clinic. Let me make one for me as an associate or a practice owner and talk about my work. I’m passionate about it, but then they’re like, I don’t know what to talk about. I need some ideas.

Nowadays with ChatGPT and stuff, you just need to give the right prompts, you’ll get the ideas. That still needs an expert touch and experienced touch. So with that in mind, what kind of content should colleagues be making?

[Joseph]
There’s so much nuance to this question. I will try and be brief.

Highlighting your strengths. Thinking about the content that you’re putting out. Whatever type of dentist you are, even if you’re a general dentist, why are you good?

Highlighting your professionalism. Highlighting patients, because there’s always gonna be this ratio. You don’t want to always highlight patients, you don’t want to always highlight staff. You want to have this blend of it.

You want to paint a picture of what it’s like, a day in the life. It’s almost like a mini reality TV show of what your social media looks like. “Oh, I can see these patients. I can see new equipment,” whatever it is.

We just want to make sure that it’s your personality being super important and the personality of your office. So you’re saying, “What do I need to post?” I think it’s more, what is the blend that I need to post?

Letting people know, these are the type of patients that are here. This is the type of staff that’s here. This is what I’m like personally. This is what I’m like professionally.

Then you have just the general throughout the year, like, oh, it is Halloween, it is Christmas, and you can mix those things in. You’ll never be short on content.

We have a completely free social media calendar that we put out every single month because it’s just, here’s what you could post every single day of the week, and it’s content ideas. The amount of content that you could post is really unlimited.

[Jaz]
So we’ve covered there what we could post and there’s so much out there. But the number one thing I hear from colleagues, especially those who are maybe a little bit older, is, how do you find the time?

That’s probably the biggest objection: time. So what’s your advice to colleagues who think, where do you find the time?

[Joseph]
Where do you find the time? This is something that depends on the person. If the person’s on social media and they’re posting on their personal, we can carve out that time pretty easily.

But for docs who are not consistently on it or posting, one of the easiest things in the world, because every doc is busy, we know that. They need to be running a business, production, that is the most important.

This is something that we typically offload to front desk staff. You can work with them. You do not have to pay them much to do this because it’s so native to someone who is younger.

You can also have content days where once a month or once a quarter, you’re gonna get these 20 different pieces of content. That way it’s not an everyday grind.

We have some practices that twice a year, two times a year, have a photographer and videographer come in, and you can even do this with just an iPhone. They’ll have a list of, “We are gonna get these 20 photos,” and that is gonna be our posts for the next six months.

When it’s, “Can I do content two times a year?” Then the lift seems a lot less heavy versus, “What am I gonna post every three days?” That can be exhausting.

So it’s more, we know what to post, now if you’re talking about the tactical, how do we do it, just batch it. If it’s not your thing, outsource it to someone on your team and then batch it a couple of times a year, and you’re still gonna get the outcome.

[Jaz]
I think a lot of people fall into the trap of they know it’s a good idea, they know they should be doing it, but they don’t have that delegation conversation or some basic training, or imparting the values of what we want to do, and then letting someone on the team and trusting someone on the team to just go for it, then revise it, and have some sort of intention or being proactive about it.

So it’s good that we’re talking about this. Let’s then talk about dos and don’ts. Let’s say Joseph’s dos and don’ts when it comes to having a presence as a dentist on social media.

[Joseph]
I’m such a stickler on, when I see content, it’s impossible for me not to view it from every different angle. So we wanna start with the very basic ones first.

Make sure your environment’s clean. Don’t ever show a dirty break room. I can’t tell you how many times I’m like, oh, it’s someone’s birthday, and there’s food wrappers in the background. When I see that, I don’t need to be seeing the back of the house like that, and a patient doesn’t either, because you don’t know how they’re gonna judge you.

So just making sure everything’s clean. That’s a big do and don’t, making sure everything is in order and it looks great.

[Jaz]
It’s like a risk assessment. When you’re in a practice, you have to risk assess every little thing. Before you hit record, it’s kind of like a risk assessment you have to do.

What could someone think about this? What could someone think about that? Setting the scene before you press that record button.

[Joseph]
That’s exactly right. If someone’s new, their only impression of your business, they’re gonna analyze that too. They might not externalize it like we do.

It’s like, well, if they can’t even take care of a clean break room, do they have clean ops? Are they good hygiene? Do I really wanna go here?

All of that goes through their mind in two seconds and they don’t even realize it. They just know, maybe this isn’t the dentist for me.

So step one, make sure everything is clean, organized, highly professional, especially for any photos that you’re gonna be posting.

Then dos and don’ts, it’s a lot of the things that we covered. Not selling, not acting crazy, versus running it through the filter of, how are people going to view me in this situation? Once they see this post, are they more or less likely to go on the internet and make an appointment or call me? That’s a very easy heuristic to run through.

[Jaz]
What’s the number one thing a clinic could do to help see results from their social media? If their aim is, we’d like to see more new patients every month to keep a healthy flow of patients and be able to do the kind of work that we’ve trained to do, and we wanna make sure all our associates are full of patients, what’s the number one Pareto principle?

The 20% things that you do that make 80% of the difference. What are the Pareto principles of social media to actually get bums on seats?

[Joseph]
I think it is very easy. You want to be posting content about satisfied patients.

One of the easiest things for us to think about: if we’re working with, say, a peds practice and we know the household decision maker the majority of the time is going to be a female from ages 25 to 50, and they’ve got two or three kids, the more content we can post about them being satisfied.

There’s a saying in business: how many satisfied reviews would you need to see to be convinced that I do a good job? Even in our business, when we engage with clients, it’s like, here’s a list, a wall of a hundred testimonials, and if you don’t believe any, reach out to any of them if you want.

No one’s ever really reaching out to a lot of these people, but if you think about it at a practice level, if all they see on their social media is happy patients like them, that’s the number one thing. The shortcut is, they clearly know what they’re doing with people just like me and they’re happy. I would also be happy.

So that’s the number, that’s the Pareto principle of what do I need to be posting to get bums in seats, as you so eloquently put it.

[Jaz]
I think it makes so much sense. Social proof, it’s always about that.

[Joseph]
Yeah.

[Jaz]
I love this little overview of social media. Joseph, how can we learn more from you? How can we follow you? How can we see what you get up to, my friend?

[Joseph]
I’m just here putting the good word out. I did mention the social media calendar, which is apt for this episode. It’s something that we put out every single month for free, and it just goes to offices and gives them ideas, inspiration, makes it easier for them. It’s not cookie cutter, it is a framework, and then you put your customization into it.

The other biggest thing is, I think it’s been viewed a couple thousand times in the last month, we have a free, everything-you-need-to-know-about marketing plan. It’s the biggest CE that we get paid to teach. It’s everything that you’d ever wanna know about marketing, including social media, how to pick a provider, marketing theory, and how we got to where we’re at today in 2025 in the marketing landscape. So yeah, that’s it.

[Jaz]
Amazing. If you send me that, I’ll put the link in the show notes.

[Joseph]
Sounds great.

[Jaz]
Amazing. Well, thanks for the time and helping us to understand the value of social media, but also the etiquette and, I guess, whether someone decides they still wanna be a clown or not, as long as they feel it’s right, it’s in line with their values, speaking correctly, but also not in a way that’s gonna make people think, what on earth is happening in this clinic, and not causing adverse effects without proper risk assessment, which we delved quite deep into.

As long as everything is authentic and purposeful and someone’s put some thought in. It’s like when you’re going out, it’s nice for someone to say that whatever they’re wearing, they’ve put a little bit of thought behind it.

I’m the worst person at clothing myself and stuff, but my wife says, look, at least a minimum, someone should say, okay, at least he thought about it a little bit. It’s the way you dress. Your social media should be the same.

So Joseph, thanks so much for driving that home, my friend.

[Joseph]
Oh, thank you.

Jaz’s Outro:
Amazing. Well, there we have it, guys. Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end. About 99% of our episodes are eligible for CPD. This one isn’t. But I hope you gained value. I hope you get an idea of how to conduct yourself in social media or it inspired you to behave in a certain way or implement some strategies that we discussed today.

Please do not forget to hit that subscribe button. It really means a lot. I just want to take a moment to also thank Team Protrusive for all their hard work. I’ll put all the show links so you can reach out to Joseph below and for all of the nicest and geekiest dentists in the world in Protrusive Guidance.

Thanks for making a lovely community. And if you’re not already in this community, check out Protrusive app to join us. Protruserati, I’ll catch you same time, same place next week. Bye for now.

October 15, 2025

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