Dentists offer a service where trust is vital so you should be using social media as a dentist, not just to advertise but to show off your professionalism and trustworthiness as a dentist, SEO is benefited as well.
For many of your potential customers Facebook is the best place to get in touch with them and interact with them to let them know you exist what you do and even more importantly that people they know already use you. Get as many existing customers to follow you as possible then and also keep reminding them you are there and that you care with regular updates to ensure they keep coming back. Likes and shares on Facebook will also boost your dentist SEO rankings so put effort into the content you share and integrate Facebook like and share buttons into your site. .
Twitter is often misunderstood by those that see one side of it but can be used in different ways: it is up to you to decide how to use Twitter. As a dentist SEO rankings are one part of what you want to get and so use really interesting tweets, such as incredible dentistry facts, that people will retweet and Google will see as a positive signal for your site. Also though don’t be afraid to interact with people directly on Twitter and start a discussion about their dentistry needs etc.
Linkedin is a business to business social network mainly but you are offering a service, which people buy from a person they trust not from a brand so use Linkedin to show your personal profile and get to know local business people so when they come to need a dentist you are the obvious choice.
Youtube
Use Youtube to show off what you do, a few pictures on your site and text telling potential patients how clean and modern your surgery is isn’t enough: a video will show this much more clearly and a Youtube video has another advantage for a dentist: SEO rankings for a Youtube video may well be quicker to gain than for your website.
Google+
With Social media impacting directly on your dentist SEO rankings getting on Google+ is important as every plus one you get will give you a boost in organic search. Google + hasn’t taken off in the way that Google had hoped, it doesn’t seem to have enough uniqueness or innovation to get people to drop Facebook and come to Google plus instead but if you are a business you can’t ignore it and need to be on here and Facebook.