676: The 3 Top Lessons I Learned About Social Media – Dr. Christian Coachman

Even today, word of mouth is still the best way to grow your practice. But what if you want to leverage social media? To help you effectively generate content that will grow your business, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Christian Coachman, founder of Digital Smile Design, with his key insights about social media and how to be online. Share useful information, not “show-off” information! To learn more, listen to Episode 676 of The Best Practices Show!

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Main Takeaways:

Be effective in sharing and consuming information.

Know your intent in sharing your information.

Strategically develop your persona.

Be consistent with your content.

Don't overvalue social media.

Quotes:

“The amount of information out there is so big, and the amount of useless information is huge. One of the words that I prefer the most is effectiveness. We need to be effective. Life is short, time is short, and we need to be effective — effective if you're sharing an idea or sharing content, and effective as you absorb and listen and learn. So, you can filter, you can say no, you can prioritize so that you can really make the best of your time. Useless information is the easiest thing to do, right? You see that on social media all the time. Of course, it's impossible for you to know how useful your information will be. But you need to at least stop and ask yourself how this is going to help others. It's not just putting something out there because you think it worked for you, but to structure that information into recipes, steps, and simple, take-home messages.” (9:12—10:26)

“Start with why you're sharing means that you are caring about the impact of your information, caring about how this is going to help others. You're putting yourself in the position of the listener and asking yourself, ‘What is BS, and what is not? What is show-off, and what is not?’ because there's too much BS, too much show-off.” (10:27—10:56)

“There are not many people that are actually putting energy to structure the information in a way that others can absorb and do something with it. So, how can you take something that you think is important, and you pick your words, and you create recipes, and tutorials, and 123, ABC? How can you be effective in a short period of time? Because if you take too long to explain, people will not listen online. So, it requires a little bit of rehearsing, of you saying, ‘Okay, I have a great idea. I know this idea is not bullshit. I know this is useful. I know that it's not show-off only.’ Of course, I want to look good. Of course, I want people to value my information. But it's not only about showing off. I know this is useful but let me spend some time rehearsing in my mind how I'm going to translate this in a useful way — instead of taking a minute, taking ten seconds to translate that idea. How can I distill this into a simple recipe? How can I organize this into steps? How can I express myself in a more effective way?” (10:58—12:12)

“Step one is the intention. What is the intention? What is the intention of your social media, in general, the big-picture intention? What is the intention of that post? What is the intention of that message, that image, that picture? What is the intention of that video? ‘I'm here filming myself. I'm here in Boston, on Congress Street, and I'm going to be’ — why? Why are you saying that? What is your intention in telling people that you ate steak with fries? What is the intention? Be a little bit more strategic with your intention. Clarify your intention. Start with the end in mind is, for me, the first lesson because, honestly speaking, if there is no intention, don't do anything. It's a waste for you and the others if there is no intention. So, start with the intention. You're going to see that 95% of the time you're not going to post anything, and you're going to start forcing yourself to have a better intention, a more meaningful intention. So, that's number one, when people start to see that everything you post has a noble intention, has a practical intention, has a useful intention.” (13:01— 14:25)

“It's very important to identify two types of people that succeed on social media. One is people that really have amazing intentions. It means that they became famous on social media because they have a very useful intention. [The second] type of people that are famous on social media are the people that were already famous or very successful, and they are just there on social media. And because they are very famous or successful, they are successful on social media. That's a big problem because everybody watching says, ‘I want to be famous like this guy. I want to have a social media like this guy,’ and they are copying and following somebody that has no intention on social media. They are just big and successful because they are big and successful because of other things.” (15:03—15:51)

“You can follow people because of two reasons. You can follow people because they are famous anyway and they are successful anyway, and you can follow people because they are very good on social media itself. So, you want to learn from people that are using social media in a useful way. They are becoming more successful because of social media, not despite social media. Most people are admiring people on social media that didn't do anything useful on social media at all. They are just very famous because of other reasons. So, try to balance.” (15:56—16:35)

“After you have the why, the intention is very clear, the big-picture, and in every little post the intention is very clear, number two is you need to define what is your character. What is your persona? You need to build your persona. You cannot be all over. The more you structure yourself in a way that people can connect to that character — of course, we don't want to be fake. We don't want to try to be somebody that we are not. But as normal human beings, we are all over. We can be more this one day, more that another day. We can change. We can be one person at work, slightly different at home. With friends, we are different. So, you need to pick which one that you want to promote, which one you want to highlight. So, building your character on social media and defining it requires a little bit of exercise. You need to sit down and write down, who are you there? Of course, it's totally connected with the why and the intentions, so you're going to emphasize the pieces of you that can help you with that intention.” (16:49—18:10)

“People want to connect with you, right? They want to connect with you. They want to see that there's a human connection there. So, understanding your lifestyle also helps. You want to blend — again, as part of the strategy, you need to define your strategy. Some people are 100% technical, clinical, and they succeed completely on their social media. People are following me a lot because they see that, somehow, I'm succeeding with what I'm doing, and my success is not a technical, clinical success. My success is part of the lifestyle that I was able to build, the balance between health and work, the balance between family and traveling for work. And so, it's part of a strategy. It's real. It is me, and there is an intention. I'm intentionally sharing my personal struggles with my lifestyle and with my achievements because it's part of my overall success.” (19:27—20:36)

“I only started to share these weekly Reels with a summary of the week when I started my personal challenge to get to 50 in better shape than when I was 40. So, I created a cause. I created a movement. And you can do that. You can define a certain challenge to yourself, and establish some landmarks and some goals that you want to achieve, and share that with your community. People love to see you working hard for that idea, for that goal, and getting closer to that goal. That's the reason why I was never posting my daily life on social media until I had a reason, until I had a purpose, until I had an intention. That's when things started to work better with my content.” (20:37—21:34)

“Another thing that’s very important, and you see that on social media, is to be consistent with your content, repeating over, and over, and over again. It's almost like a TV show that, once you have that same show every week, that same time, with the same direction, same intention, week after week, month after month, year after year, you slowly build an audience of that show. So, your content is the same. You want to create that consistency so that people, little by little, can start connecting and, as you said, expecting that. Not that they will intentionally, ‘Oh, I'm waiting every week for Christian's week summary.’ No. But unconsciously, when people see that, they spend a few seconds more because, ‘Oh, Christian just came out with that weekly video, so I'm going to enjoy these seconds and I'm going to watch it.’ So, you have the intention, and you have the consistency. It's a long-term plan. You don't have these things happen like magic. ‘Oh, I'm doing great. I have a great plan, so in three months it's going to explode.’ No. It’s little by little.’” (21:54—23:20)

“Perfection can be a huge enemy in many ways in our life, and one of them is when it comes to content generation because it can always be better. You can always edit better. You can always produce better. But the important thing is that you have an intention — a true, honest, useful intention. Useful. I'm going to repeat that word — a useful intention because, honestly speaking, my life has no use for somebody else. People don't give a damn, right? People are worried about themselves. ‘What is in it for me? How can this help me?’ So, there's too much content that is just there because people are showing off or showing whatever. When you start with the intention and you have an honest intention towards the other one, then your content is completely different from inception. Even as you're recording yourself or doing a selfie — it's amazing. When you start with the intention, the real outcome that you want, the real message that you think will be useful for people, you even change the angle. You change the content. You change the words. You change everything because you are constantly thinking, ‘How can I generate value to the other?’ Not showing off — value to the other.” (24:11—25:42)

“Don't be fake — but be the best possible version of yourself. For good or for bad, be honest, be transparent, and show your weaknesses. Don't be a superhero. Don't always be right. Don't always be cool. Be yourself, be honest, be transparent, but explore the highlights of you, as a person, focusing on the other, connected to the intention.” (26:26—26:54)

“Number three, you cannot delegate content generation. People don't want to follow your social media team. People don't want to follow your company. People don't want to follow your practice. People want to follow you. They want to connect with you. If you have an intention and a cool character, they want to follow you. So, that's why personal social media accounts are always much bigger than company social media accounts. So, you need to be the one behind your content. Meaning — I know you're super busy. If you're a clinician, practice owner, you're crazy, insanely busy. Don't waste your time and money. If you don't have a solution to be in charge of your content, don't even waste your time.” (26:57—27:59)

“The goal here is to find a system that you can have the final word, and the content can represent you in the best way possible without wasting too much time — unless you have somebody on your team that is good and has more time and becomes the face of your business. That's also cool. You're the practice owner. You don't need to be the main character of your practice. That's a very smart move, by the way. And many times, if you can control your ego to put somebody else as the persona and explore — maybe a young associate, or maybe the hygienist, or maybe somebody that has great communication potential — and you use that person as the ambassador of your practice, maybe as the character, then you build and you invest on the character of that person. But if it's going to be you, you need to be the one controlling the content generation.” (28:03—29:09)

“You need to organize sessions. The best way to do it is to pick an afternoon and create content for six months. But again, that content will be useless if you don't start with the intention, if your persona is not clarified, and if you don't have a clear reason why you're spending energy with it. Where do you want to send people? Because you're not making money from Instagram. Instagram is paying you zero. That's not your business. Why are you wasting time on social media? What do you want from it?” (29:11—29:49)

“It's hard to stop every week for a few hours to create content. So, the more structured content, you can batch it. Of course, there are things that are happening, and in that exact moment you want to be able to capture that moment that is not preplanned. So, also in combination with the more structured content that you want to organize in batches. And I believe that two times a year, half a day, or maybe a full day, focus on that if the scripts and the stories and the topics that you want to cover are already pre-organized. In one day, you can record so much content to be able to spread during the whole half a year.” (30:51—31:45)

“There are many things that are happening right here, right now, so you need to find on your team that person — it’s not easy — that has an eye to capture moments before you even say. I see that in specific people on my team. For example, if something interesting is happening, as it's already started, those few minutes something cool is happening and I look around, that person already has the camera on. That person was able to identify the opportunity. It's usually natural storytellers, people that love capturing stories and sharing stories. They usually have an eye to capture these moments. Many times, this skill, that is amazing for me, is dormant inside people. So, you need to identify that, empower that, and give freedom. Say, ‘Look, your phone is one of the most important instruments for our business. Your phone and your eyes, your capacity to identify moments is key. It doesn't mean we're going to use everything that you're recording. It doesn't mean that every moment will end up with a great ending. But don't miss the opportunity. Don't be shy. I'm empowering you, and I'm asking you that if you do this properly, this can become something huge for us, for the business, and for you. So, do it.’ And that person will be able to capture moments that, afterwards, you can edit quickly here and there. These are usually the best pieces of content.” (31:47—33:38)

“Many people love doing social media content. But don't confuse people that love doing social media content with this person that is a natural storyteller. One way to differentiate them is that somebody that loves doing social media content but is constantly putting himself or herself in the center of the story is not a storyteller. So, the selfie thing — no. People with the dormant storytelling talent are the ones that do it quietly, and they are not jealous about the fact that the main character of that little story is not themselves. They're capturing the story. It's the difference between the main actor and the director. The director loves capturing, even if people don't have a clue that he's the one behind the scenes capturing it. The actor wants to show up in front of the camera. Most of the people doing social media content, they are in front of the camera, showing off. That's not the person you want because they will not have the eyes to see the stories of others. They only see their own story, and they only capture their own story.” (34:03—35:26)

“The storyteller is the one that loves capturing these moments, and you may find somebody on your team that has this naturally. Many times, it’s not the marketing person that you hired. Many times, it’s not the one in charge of the social media. Sometimes, it’s somebody that is cleaning the instruments, or the technician in the back of the room, the front desk person, whoever. Do a little bit of research, and I'm pretty sure you're going to find somebody on your team that has that dormant, natural talent to capture special moments.” (36:17—36:55)

“Human connections will become more and more important. Knowing exactly who you can trust will become more and more important. So, as a professional, we want to emphasize our ethics, our morals, and emphasize the fact that we are so good on topic A, B, and C, and we really know how to express ourselves in topic A, B, and C that people can trust us. So, how can you become the most trusted voice in the topics — not in dentistry, in general. It's too big. Pick your battles. Find the topics that you love the most, the topics that you know [that make you] unique, special, [and] different. Find those topics and become an amazing, ethical communicator about those topics and become the most trusted voice in your area in those topics.” (41:51—42:49)

“It doesn't matter how good or how bad you are with social media. As a practice owner, by far, word of mouth is still the best way to grow your practice. Everybody talks about social media, but it's a smaller piece of the puzzle of success. Don't overvalue it. And if you don't feel like doing it, don't even go there. You're not going to disappear. If you are focused on transforming patients into fans for real, in the real world, in person, and you're transforming effectively your patients into fans and your fans into promoters, that's, by far, the number-one way to grow your practice.” (43:00—43:50)

“Think about how to empower your word of mouth. Dentists are only scratching the surface of all the things that we can do to empower word of mouth. That's, by far, the priority. And as you become a master on this, of course you can, on top of it, also leverage social media if you have a reason for, if you have a very clear intention — useful intention — if you have the energy to build your character online, and if you have a system to generate content without wasting time.” (44:08—44:50)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:48 Dr. Coachman’s journey in sharing his ideas.

8:56 Useful information, defined.

12:17 Be intentional with the content you share.

14:41 Two types of people who succeed on social media.

16:46 Define your character and persona.

18:45 The story behind Dr. Coachman’s Instagram.

21:54 Be consistent with your content.

25:50 You can't delegate content generation.

29:52 Batch your content.

31:47 Identify natural storytellers on your team.

36:57 The future of social media.

42:53 Last thoughts.

Dr. Christian Coachman Bio:

Combining his advanced skills, experience, and technology solutions, Dr. Christian Coachman pioneered the Digital Smile Design methodology and founded Digital Smile Design company (DSD). Since its inception, thousands of dentists worldwide have attended DSD courses and workshops, such as the renowned DSD Residency program.

Dr. Coachman is the developer of worldwide, well-known concepts such as the Digital Smile Design, the Pink Hybrid Implant Restoration, the Digital Planning Center, Emotional Dentistry, Interdisciplinary Treatment Simulation, and Digital Smile Donator. He regularly consults for dental industry companies, developing products, implementing concepts, and marketing strategies, such as the Facially Driven Digital Orthodontic Workflow developed in collaboration with Invisalign, Align Technology. He has lectured and published internationally in the fields of esthetic and digital dentistry, dental photography, oral rehabilitation, dental ceramics, implants, and communication strategies and marketing in dentistry.