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Graduate Resources - Build Your Personal Brand

How to Build your Personal Brand

We asked dental professionals to weigh in with their experience to help you determine how your personal brand can help you interact with your patients!

What is personal branding?

Dentist 11 Years’ Experience: Dental professionals can determine the success of their career with outstanding practice management tools as well as their clinical skill. However, not all dental professionals establish a personal brand. Personal branding is the process of marketing yourself. If done correctly, it can help unlock opportunities, retain patients, and grow your practice. To create a personal brand, it is important to determine what is important to you, what the values are, and how you can share that with your patients so they know exactly what you stand for.

Brad Newman, Dental Marketing Creative Agency, Dentainment* Simply put, it’s the impression you give to the World, both personally and professionally. A good personal brand allows you to maybe get hired more quickly, potentially negotiate for higher pay and even get promoted more frequently. The key to establishing your personal brand is knowing and understanding your personal values. What do you stand for: Teamwork? Leadership? Clinical Excellence? Everyone is different, so start with your unique story and the mission you’re trying to achieve. Integrity should always be the foundation of every personal brand. Be mindful of what you post on Social Media daily. Whether it’s a Facebook post, an Instagram story, or daily Vlog - your content through Social Media platforms should mirror your personal brand. Everything you say or do either adds to your personal brand, or detracts from it, so be conscious about every post. Personal branding is all about paying it forward and providing a benefit to people’s lives. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing, do what you believe in, and build the brand for yourself. Get started on developing your own personal brand. Doing so will help you with stronger Dental Practice growth, increased revenues, and without question, take your success to a higher level.

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*Dentainment is a Digital Creative Agency for the #Dental Industry! They offer customized Dental Marketing programs that may include Social Media Management, Video Production, Marketing Consulting, Virtual Training Sessions, Logo Design, Website Design + Development, Local SEO, Voice Search, Conversion Rate Optimization, and more. https://www.dentainment.com

How does personal branding help a dental professional’s relationship with his or her patients?

Dentist 11 Years’ Experience: You only have about 10 seconds to make a good impression on patients, so it’s important to know your strengths, and who you are. To develop your personal brand, you need to reflect on what you want to stand for and what areas you want to focus on. A strong personal brand will drive patients to remember you, seek your care, and be more likely to give you referrals.

Brad Newman, Dental Marketing Creative Agency, Dentainment* It’s all about relatability. Building a personal brand helps create rapport with your patients and good rapport creates good word-of-mouth marketing, translating into practice growth. So how do you get there? One of the keys is visibility. Additionally, constant and quality content touching your platforms, networking at local events and speaking at industry conferences. Try to be seen where your Dental patients are - both online and offline. Posting content is a huge component of building your relationship with patients and should be done on a daily basis. A great place to start is with your personal interests and hobbies. The last two lines of a person’s Dental Website bio tells you everything: hiking, tennis, waterskiing, etc. These things humanize you and make you more relatable. Share video, audio photos and the written word. People are huge fans of video content, and it works really well on many fronts: reach, engagement, and patient conversion, just to name a few. Audio works well, too! Why? Because Voice Search is growing exponentially. Leverage your digital audio footprint - especially on your Dental Website. Remember to share on a regular basis and be patient. Building a successful brand takes time. The better your personal brand, the more patient flow you’ll have, and the more referrals from existing patients. Create ambassadors from the people who already love you. And remember, be to true to your brand every day.

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How can stronger personal branding improve my career?

Dentist 11 Years’ Experience: Improving your personal brand will help you build a strong team and create a good reputation with your peers – ultimately leading to more referrals. Participating in congressional meetings and events will also help build your network.

Brad Newman, Dental Marketing Creative Agency, Dentainment* With stronger personal branding you’ll be recognized as a Leader in your field. Maybe the most skilled, the most respected and perhaps the most fun, because you’ve carved out that territory as your own. Remember to follow and engage with the professional groups you want to emulate and be part of. Whether it’s Cosmetic Dentistry, Pediatric Dentistry, Orthodontics, whatever. Start attending those conferences. Meet people. Network. Take their online CE courses. Reach out to the executive committees and ask them how you can become involved with their respective organizations and one day, you’ll be a Leader there. Your personal brand is a promise - a promise of what you’re going to deliver for your patients. Think of the word or words you want your colleagues to think of you. Write those words down. And then start living them - every day. A great way to establish leadership is public speaking. Start out at local events. Then, work your way up to Industry conferences. Set a goal - let’s say, four industry conferences a year. Just make sure to get video and images of you on stage, speaking. Then share that content on your Dental Website, on email newsletters and perhaps, place photos around your Dental Practice. Another great way to get your name into the local community is to host “Lunch and Learn” events at your Dental Practice. These are basically informal seminars, where you speak on a topic of expertise. This will establish your credentials, while at the same time raise your profile and establish your name as a leading Dentist in the area. Be open to all types of opportunities. It could be as small as a blog post request for the local paper - perhaps 10 tips to a healthy smile. You never know where it could lead: maybe to a regular column and then on to a show with the local TV station. It could happen! I call these “adjacent possibilities.” When you walk through one door, many more doors will open - doors that you did not know existed. Remember, a strong personal brand, built up over time, is the best guarantee for future success and exciting opportunities.

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How important is personal branding when looking for a job?

Dentist 11 Years’ Experience: We’re living in an era of personal branding. How you look, talk and the first impression you leave is extremely important to both future employers and patients. You only have about 10 seconds to gain the trust of a patient or client. Not only is your personal brand’s reflection crucial to landing a job, but it is also important to find a practice that aligns with your own values and beliefs.

Brad Newman, Dental Marketing Creative Agency, Dentainment* Hugely! Odds are, the person hiring you is going to do their homework. If you’ve created a strong personal brand, you’ll likely stand out in the marketplace and you’ll also be more likely to be hired. A memorable brand means creating personal flair, something you can call your own and be known for. Whether it’s a quirky article of clothing (I actually wear red shoes at conferences), or a talent like public speaking, cultivate it in order to make yourself memorable. If you’re able to stand out in the crowded marketplace, you’ll increase your chances for success. If you’re coming out of Dental School and looking for the “perfect job” at the perfect practice, your values and beliefs should match those of the Dental Practice. Make sure you let the practice know what you stand for and do your homework to make sure their values match up to your own. Think of it this way: Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room! What is that one word you want them to think of? Is it Excellence? Kindness? Creativity? Whatever it is, live by that mantra daily. Make it a primary focus of your personal branding. Remember, always represent yourself with class, authenticity and integrity. If you create a strong personal brand, you’ll have more choices and opportunity for where you want to practice your career in Dentistry.

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Can social media help define my personal brand?

Dentist 11 Years’ Experience: Yes. Use social media to your advantage to help people see who you are. But remember, everything you post reflects your personal brand. I recommend avoiding posts that are not relatable like lavish vacations. Save those for your personal social media accounts. Leverage social media to promote your foundational practice beliefs for patients to understand your theory of practice and approach to oral health as a dental professional.

Brad Newman, Dental Marketing Creative Agency, Dentainment* Yes! Absolutely! In fact, it’s the BEST way to define it. Just choose the platforms you feel comfortable with. If you’re at ease in front of the camera, perhaps go for video. If you love writing, focus on blog content. Or if you’re good with voice, maybe a podcast is right for you. Whatever platform you go with, start publishing content! Don’t worry about the status quo and what everyone else is doing. Just be yourself, do what feels right, and have fun! Building your personal brand requires persistence. This doesn’t happen overnight. And that’s what’s so good about Social Media. These platforms allow you to post fresh content daily… for FREE! It’s like your own private broadcasting company. So leveraging the power of Social Media channels is HUGE for developing a strong personal brand. You might find inspiration from the brands and people you admire. Think, if there’s a Social Media profile that you love, and keep coming back to - study what it is they’re doing that works. Is it the choice of the filter? Type of photos? Whatever. Just apply that wisdom for yourself. Remember what Benjamin Franklin once said: "Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing about." But most of all, make sure you put out good vibes. Whatever’s hitting your timelines daily, should give people something to smile about.

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