Ohio dentist uses podcasts to engage his community

Engaging your community is difficult if your audience is gripped with fear and doubt—which poses a problem for dentists.

One Ohio dentist set out to change that with an aural—rather than oral—technology: the podcast.

Dr. Kyle Bogan’s show, covering local events and dental care tips, is the winner of Ragan’s 2019 Health Care PR & Marketing Award for “Best Podcast.”

Incisively, Bogan widened the podcast’s focus to topics beyond the dentist’s office. The podcast team “hopes to make listeners feel more connected to the community, keep them updated on important dental-related news, and give them the knowledge and tools that they need to keep their smiles healthy.”

For example, in April’s episode, Bogan spoke about oral cancer but also touched on vaping, how to give yourself an oral cancer check, and local high school athletics. The podcast offers educational insight into a dentist’s view of the dangers of vaping and offers a platform to community leaders to share about their current initiatives.

Bogan and his office used an array of outlets to push their creation, including their webpage, iTunes and Stitcher. They also created an episode preview that could be shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To boost their reach, they tagged interviewees and asked their organizations to share the preview.

For a show that targets a hyper-local audience, Bogan was pleased to have over 230 unique downloads—an average of 58 per episode. For a new project, Bogan’s team said they were very happy with the results, especially with the added engagement they saw among their Facebook audience.

Congrats to Dr. Bogan and his team on a well-deserved awards win.