Oral Health and Dental Management

Social Media adoption among Dental Surgeons in Metros in India

6^th Indian Dental Congress

November 23-25, 2015 Bengaluru, India

Vikram Venkateswaran

The Dental Education, India

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Oral Health Dent Manag

Abstract:

Social media continues to influence the manner in which we communicate with people, forge relationships, form opinions and respond to situations on a daily basis. Not only is it used to maintain oneâ??s personal social network, but platforms like Facebook and Twitter have compelled enterprises, be they large, medium or small, to take their existing and prospective consumers seriously and engage with them. This means that from retail to banking, travel to entertainment, transport to groceries, the digital platform has set the bar high for consumers who are demanding better products and services across all sectors. Interestingly, this new kind of consumerism has percolated to the healthcare industry as well with individuals wanting the same high standards from their care providers. Itâ??s a welcome development for many reasons. And the newest adopter of this digital platform is the dental health industry. Considering that India has nearly 100,000 dentists, we are probably one of the largest hubs for dental sciences in Asia. And given that most of them operate their own clinics, one might even consider them as falling under the category of a small enterprise. Therefore there is a clear opportunity for dental surgeons to leverage the power and potential of social media to reach out to their patients and other individuals. Of course, how one can utilize this medium to oneâ??s advantage requires a little skill and some understanding of the platform. To gain a better insight into the usage of social media among Indian dentists, the platforms and preferences, we conducted a research surveying more than 150 dentists mostly from the metros. We also polled them on their need for professional education to leverage social media better. The responses were quite revealing and the analysis threw up the most interesting results. As it turns out, almost 90% of the dentists used social media for their personal use. But interestingly enough, more than 65% of those surveyed made use of it for their work as well. All the findings on the usage are represented in this report and the presentation will be based on some key facts on the report.

Biography :

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran completed his BDS from College of Dental Surgery Manipal in 2000 and since then completed his MBA from IMT Ghaziabad in 2007. He has run a successful dental practice in Delhi. Currently Dr Vikram works with Dell where he elads the marketing function for their digital busienss services group.

Email: vikram.united@gmail.com