In a world dominated by social media, is collaborating with an influencer really the best decision you can make for yourself as a dentist? Dr. Rhona Eskander joins us to talk about how influencers have changed things for her career.
Dr Rhona Eskander is a well-established dentist in the UK whose career has been positively influenced by her collaborations with influencers. But how relevant are they really? Do they have the power to change a dentist’s career for good? Do their actions always deliver relevant results? We spoke to Rhona about all this and more.
Dr. Prav Solanki: Tell me about influencers. There are a lot of people who are dentists who won't know what an influencer is or at least what it entails to treat them, like treatment discounts, free treatment? Are they picky? The difference between an influencer and an actual celebrity and you treat them both, right?
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yes.
Dr. Prav Solanki: I know your business partner. Adarsh mentioned to me that he knows a few people in high positions from a celebrity perspective, everyday names that we all know. Tell us what it's like to deal with these people and what that entails.
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Whether you’re an influencer or not, I love dealing with all kinds of people, but there was one influencer who really changed my world. I didn’t really know what an influencer was. A few years ago I got a DM from two people, one called Beauty and the Blog and the other called Melissa Wardrobe. They sent me a message saying, “I really like your work. It’s not fake. Can I come see you? Do you do any collaborations?”
I asked, “Who are you and what is the collaboration?” I said, “I have no idea what these terms are.” I said, “Hey, I don’t do anything for free, but I think you can come in for a consultation and we can talk about what’s on your mind.” Melissa came in before Michelle, and Melissa documented this journey by showing the tarot eye scanner and the whole experience and to be honest, that was two years ago, I still see four patients a week from her, four patients a week.
Dr. Prav Solanki: Still now?
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Still and now. And he only had about 80,000 followers, which is not a big deal, as you know, in the world of influencers. But it opens the door to a whole new market. It was all Afro-Caribbean, because they really trust her. That's the key thing. Because later on, I found out that we had influencers with 13,000,000 followers and I got about five patients from them in total. But Melissa, it's because her audience trusts her. She's funny and it is authentic. She even put her dental experience in her records.
It was really funny because I work part-time in Westminster too and we have a lot of politicians, a lot of politicians that you know. You know what they are like, Conservative Party, Labour Party, whatever. They would sit in the waiting room. They had been going to this office in Westminster for a long time.
So you go in there and you'd see a very famous politician next to an influencer with a huge wig, with eyelashes, with nails, with a phone in his hand, right next to this really established politician. Then I realized the power of influencers, like you said, and I said, "Oh my God, this has brought in so much business." And then business for me exploded in a way I never imagined.
“It opens the door to a whole new market.”
Michelle came to see me again and Michelle had a similar effect, but they were also just people who were just signing up for treatment plans. Again, it was mainly millennial and Gen Z patients. So it's different. It's different from the old school types of patients. I found that treating influencers was great at first. Now I think it has zero or no effect on my business, to be honest with you, because I've established this reputation.
If an influencer comes to me now, it's a really big deal. In fact, I've changed the rules now. I was treating most of them for a small fee, very few for free, if not a handful probably. Now I'm back to a small fee for good video content and so on. Because, to be honest, I feel like every dentist does this now. As Payman said, for me it lost its authenticity. So I said: "What if?".
Dr. Prav Solanki: What is your benchmark for measuring whether you should offer an influencer a discounted, free, 50%, 30% treatment?
Dr. Rhona Eskander: When Mel B came to me from the Spice Girls, I wasn't going to charge her. I said, "Let's get started with this." I think I basically look at their profile, try to gauge what their follower count is and so on. In Melissa's case, she's going to improve a few things about her smile in a few years, and I think, on the strength of what she's done so far, I know she's a proven case.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: I think what you said earlier is very important, isn't it? Depth of influence rather than breadth of influence.
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yes.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: You have, I don't know, how many? 50,000 followers on Instagram, but that's a number.
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yes.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: First of all, that can be bought and all that. But the depth. That's what I was saying about authentic content. I saw you go on Instagram and say, "I'm sick and I need to take a break.".
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yes.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: To me, that deep connection with 3,000 people is much more important than a shallow connection with 50,000 people. And so that's what she has.
“You would see a really famous politician next to an influencer… that’s when I realized the power of influence.”
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yes. It's very interesting, because a lot of my following was built through influencers talking about me, but that doesn't necessarily ensure good engagement., for example. So, like I told you, some of my posts would have so many likes and then they really dwindled.
When people look at it, they think, “It doesn’t make sense, because of the next board.” Or whatever. But the problem was, when someone came in who had 12,000,000 followers, maybe I gained 3,000 followers from that person. But that doesn’t necessarily mean engagement. You know? It just means followers.
But the thing is, I always believe in honesty and vulnerability, and I think as dentists, there's this massive bravado thing that comes up when we can't show how we really feel, and there's this, we can't be human. I feel like we should start talking about that, because I think the younger generation is going to suffer more than we did.
Social media has already been shown to be linked to anxiety, depression, and now suicide. If we don't start being more honest about how we feel, it could be a catastrophe.We watch these reality shows, like Love Island, where four people committed suicide.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: Four people?
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yeah. Because remember there was Mike, then there was Sophie, then her boyfriend committed suicide too. Then there was Caroline Flack. That's four people. It's like we need to start taking notice of the fact that people get so high, they enjoy this elevated status and validation only to be brought down again. Or they enjoy people who enjoy the fact that they did something wrong or they can't sustain that level of success and they become depressed.
I think it's the same with dentistry, because de-influencing, as you know, Dental Hope called it, is all the rage right now, isn't it? People want to become influencers. Young people message me on Instagram saying, “How do you become an Instagram dentist?” And I ask myself, “Does that even exist now?”. Because, that's what people want to become.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: Yes. And there's always been a KOL, but KOLs used to be older, established people who've done real things with their careers, and now they're people who have influence, right?
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yes.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: But what's interesting is that as dentists, we want to follow other dentists. It's one of those things.
I wish I had realized this sooner and the progress of Enlighten in the first eight years, I was not aware of this fact.
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Yes. But I think the thing is, Payman. I have to disagree with you there, because I think the thing that makes me different from other dentists is that I've always thought beyond dentistry.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: Yes. Sure.
Dr. Rhona Eskander: Even with the Pärla movement, what makes it different is that the traction we've gained is from non-dentists, right? This is from people in the media PR world. They're like, "Wow, this is it.".
If it was just focused on dentists, I'm sorry, like there's a world outside of dentistry and there are people beyond dentists and this is something you have to realize, how many years have you been promoting and bonding? But it didn't become a buzzword until it got into the media through influencers and celebrities.
Dr. Payman Langroudi: Of course.
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Source: enlightensmiles.com
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