How beneficial is Twitter for dentists?

Twitter has been around for a while, but the benefits of Twitter for dentists have been anything but static.

Initially, Twitter offered a very restrictive 140 characters per "Tweet" (i.e. post) before increasing the limit to 280 characters in 2017. The platform is popular for keeping up-to-date with news events.

After a steady decline in popularity in recent years, Twitter's benefit for dentists was probably a lost cause as it lay in 13th place among the plethora of social media options available.

However, a couple of recent changes may cause a rethink.

In June 2022, Twitter released a feature called "notes". Notes allows you to post more than the 280-character limit, meaning you can post blog-style articles which can work well for dentists. You're also able to add in images and gifs.

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, there are rumours that the character limit will increase again and a new long-form of tweets will supposedly be released early in 2023. This could allow you to educate your users in a more comprehensive way. Twitter is also still growing in Australia and there are currently 5.8 million Australian Twitter users (mainly in their 20s and 30s).

So is the "new" Twitter worth exploring for dentists?

For practices with limited resources to invest in social media, Twitter is still a long way down the list of priorities. Facebook (21.5 million users) and Instagram (13.5 million users) are higher priorities.

However, the more online presence you have, the more beneficial it is to your practice. Think of social media as a giant funnel, where each post and each platform help each other in creating brand awareness for your business/practice.

Twitter sits in the middle of the funnel, where people know what they want but require a little more information.

If you've got the time, jump on board... otherwise keep Twitter on the back shelf for possible future use.