Digital Strategies for Dental Schools

Maryann BoyleJuly 15, 2012

Why Dental Schools?• Relevant• Need to promote themselves• Somewhat laggard in adapting to new technologies

• Interesting, with several separate, distinct audiences• Students• Parents• Alumni• External partners

• It’s my job

Schools for comparison• Tufts University School of Dental Medicine

• Harvard School of Dental Medicine

• BU Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine

Tufts Dental• Mission: • To prepare students to practice dentistry in the 21st

century

• Target audience• Students/prospective students• Alumni• Faculty/staff• Patients• Practicing dentists• Research subjects/sponsors

Tufts Dental: Homepage

Tufts Dental• Competitors• Harvard• BU• 72 other dental schools in US and Canada

• Audience Outreach• Website• Facebook• Twitter• RSS

Tufts Dental: Digital Outreach

Tufts Dental: SWOTStrengths  A lot of content… Strong Continuing Education

segments

Weaknesses  Text-heavy content Disorganized structure, navigation Broken links Out of date content Poor use of social media

Opportunities  Hire dedicated web team Engage design consultant Cut down content for easier

maintenance, current material Embrace Social Media!

Threats   Stale content will keep visitors from

returning BU has a fantastic site and social

media

Tufts Dental: Recommendations

• Scrap it!

• Recreate it• Get professional help• Hire Skilled staff• Embrace Social Media

Harvard Dental • Mission: • To prepare students to practice dentistry in the 21st

century

• Target audience• Students• Alumni• Faculty/staff• Patients

Harvard Dental: Homepage

Harvard Dental• Competitors• Tufts• BU• 72 other dental schools in US and Canada

• Audience Outreach• Website• Facebook

Harvard Dental: Digital Outreach

Harvard Dental: SWOT Strengths  Useful, relevant, attractive homepage Clear direction toward targeted

information Text-heavy pages make effective use

of photos for visual relief Can drill deeply without getting lost

Weaknesses  Sometimes best pages are buried

(alumni) Patients’ pages confusing Just Facebook for Social Media

o Only moderately active

Opportunities  Drive alumni to their site; get them

involved Improve patient pages for better

marketing

Threats   Missing out on people who use

Twitter, blogs Facebook page not interesting enough

to bring people back

Harvard Dental: Recommendations

• Clean U

• Re-design for Alumni

• Embrace Social Media!

Boston University Dental• Mission: • To prepare students to practice dentistry in the 21st

century

• Target audience• Students/prospective students• Alumni• Faculty/staff• Patients• Practicing dentists• Research subjects/sponsors

BU Dental: Homepage

BU Dental ?• Competitors• Harvard• Tufts• 72 other dental schools in US and Canada

• Audience Outreach• Website• Facebook• Twitter• RSS• YouTube

BU Dental: Digital Outreach ?

BU Dental: SWOT Strengths  Clean, informative, dynamic website Active, comprehensive social media

program Up-to-the-minute content

Weaknesses  With so much relevant and varied

content it’s sometimes hard to be clear about the context of some material (e.g., photos, videos).

Opportunities  Reaching their goal of becoming the

premier dental school by communicating so well, so thoroughly

Threats   Other schools will be poaching their

ideas; they need to keep being innovative

BU Dental: Recommendations

• Keep up the Good Work … and More

In comparison…

…there’s NO comparison!

Tufts Harvard BU

Website• Impact• Ease of use• Relevant Content• Current Content

1131

3443

5555

Social Media Tufts Harvard BUFacebook• Impact• Ease of use• Relevant Content• Current Content

3341

3433

4545

Twitter• Impact• Ease of use• Relevant Content• Current Content

2302

n/a 3345

Flickr• Impact• Ease of use• Relevant Content• Current Content

n/a n/a 3545

YouTube• Impact• Ease of use• Relevant Content• Current Content

n/a n/a 5555