Meet the Influencer: Dentistry’s New KOL

Ryan Vet

The human race has always been inclined to follow luminaries—those thought leaders who innovate, who make a difference, who want to change the world. From philosophical minds like Plato dating back nearly 2,400 years to the centuries of athletes, royalty, politicians, actors, writers, and beyond. For millennia, the tendency of many is to gravitate towards perceived power and influence. They want to follow those who are movers and shakers. Often, when we think of celebrities, we imagine the macro-celebrities, movie stars, athletes, and pop icons. We envision those superstars cruising up to their Gulfstream being driven in their Rolls Royce. These macro-celebrities were trendsetters. The general populous wanted to wear the clothes that these celebs had in their most recent Vogue photoshoot and wanted to be drinking the same Champagne. Times are changing. While it is too soon to say, “long gone are the days of the macro-celebrity,” the power of cultural influence may be shifting. Since the invention of social media, we have seen the rise of the micro-celebrity or more commonly referred to in marketing as the micro-influencer. These are individuals that have a much smaller reach, but their audience is more engaged. In fact, a micro-influencer can have as few as 500 to 1,000 engaged and active followers. But, these followers are far more connected and responsive to the influencer. Countless social media studies published by Hubspot, SproutSocial, et al. show that micro-influencers can garner at least double the engagement of an A-list celebrity like one of the Kardashians or Taylor Swift. This massive influence in a small pond is likely due to several reasons. First of all, micro-influencers are often focused on a very specific niche. Their followers are generally like-minded and all rally around a specific topic, idea, or industry. Similarly, in these smaller circles, followers are often more empowered and feel more heard within their community, creating a deeper sense of trust and loyalty.

DENTISTRY AND MICRO-INFLUENCERS

For some time, the dental industry has been built around the notion of micro-influencers—even long before social media. The industry has affectionately referred to them as KOLs or Key Opinion Leaders. The KOLs were primarily comprised of speakers, writers, and consultants that were and are prolific throughout the industry. While there was no set formula or public requirement for donning the title of KOL, many would argue that if you were a speaker that graced the stages of Chicago Midwinter, the American Dental Association Meeting, Yankee Dental Congress, Hinman Dental Meeting, or the Greater New York Meeting, you were in the club. Similarly, if you had been published in leading publications like Dentistry Today, Dental Product Report, Inside Dentistry, and Dental Economics, you were a thought leader. The speaking circuit and publishing tracks launched the careers of many speakers and consultants alike in the dental community. These traditional avenues are showing signs of aging, and a new wave is emerging. As major national meetings, state associations, and local study clubs struggle to regain attendance at their in-person events, meeting planners are desperately trying to figure out ways to fill seats. Many aspiring and even seasoned dental thought leaders are turning to new modalities to spread their message.

The Rise Of The New Dental Influencer

The term influencer triggers thoughts of macro-celebrities flashing their favorite brand logos in images plastered across their social media profiles. Being an influencer spans far beyond posting a picturesque life on social media. I have done my fair share of so-called social media influencer work for over 20 brands, and it’s not all it’s chalked up to be. Plus, it is surprisingly more work than you would think. I digress. Being an influencer in dental is the new KOL. The terms are generally interchangeable, but the channels for influence are greater than ever before. Arguably, the most commonly thought of definition of a dental KOL is one who writes and one who speaks. The quantity and breadth of each often determined how “popular” or “famous” a given KOL was within the dental industry. As the tides turn, we are now forced to look beyond the stage and the pen and look into the virtually endless facets of influence available to the next general of dental thought leaders.

Trends Of Dental Influencers

Some of the earliest trends we saw in dentistry of the changing of the guard included Facebook Groups, podcasts, and niche organizations and/or seminars. Let’s dive into Facebook Groups. There are countless groups, such as Dental Nachos or Mommy Dentists in Business, that solidified their spot as thought leaders in a completely new forum. Dr. Paul Goodman and Dr. Grace Yum each respectively launched these channels as a way to allow like-minded dentists to connect, grow, collaborate, and be a part of a community. It actually is not all that different than the local dental study club, it is just using a new methodology to deploy a community. As those communities grew they launched custom events and built whole companies around their model of influence. There are countless podcasts that have grown and evolved, taking on sponsors and have ultimately been acquired. The Tale of Two Hygienists started as a passion project and ended up being acquired and integrated into one of the big dental publishing houses. Why? Because it had influence. Many aspiring speakers or those that feel they have unique content found it hard to get onto the national dental speaking circuit. These new speakers found it hard to crack the code of how to get on the stage of prominent meetings. We know that Millennials don’t like to wait for things—so some people took matters into their own hands. Sonya Dunbar and Melissa Turner co-founded the National Mobile and Teledentistry Conference. This conference is one that is niche and focused on an underserved group of dental professionals. With a great deal of experience in the space, these two dental woman entrepreneurs launched their own event and filled the stage with a whole new line-up of speakers that also were not getting booked on the more legacy stages in the industry.And for fear of running out of words, we have not even covered the way in which social media influencers in dental are exploding as thought leaders and influencers.

SO WHAT IS THE FUTURE?

The future of dental speaking, consulting, and writing, is changing. There is little argument there. Traditional dental meetings are not going anywhere any time soon, though they have shown signs of being on the decline. Meetings are working hard to reinvent themselves to be relevant to the younger and rising generation. While the more traditional channels, such as large tradeshows, study clubs, and state associations rework their angle, new and emerging speakers will likely continue to gain their voice by launching their own courses, their own seminars, and speaking to niche groups.Similarly, as publications continue to push for digital and reinvent their platform, the next generation of content producers and thought leaders will likely continue turning to membership communities, social media avenues, online courses, digital mediums, podcasts, and beyond, to reach their connected group. The idea of KOLs in dentistry is here to stay. However, what we call them and how they make a positive dent in dentistry will continue to evolve as more and more innovative creators work to get their voices heard and content noticed.

Ryan Vet is an acclaimed entrepreneur that has redirected his success towards inspiring others. He helps catalyze extraordinary experiences for leaders and the teams they inspire, for brands and the customers they serve.