AUTHOR AND CONSULTANT RACHEL MELE’S NEW BOOK HELPS DENTISTS MANAGE THEIR SOCIAL-MEDIA CHANNELS, ONE 24-HOUR CHUNK AT A TIME.

“I GREW UP in dentistry,” says Rachel Mele. “My mom ran a lab out of our home. I like to say I grew up eating alginate off the floor.”

That’s certainly one way to develop a taste for the profession. Mele’s mother — Lynne Fales, developer of FoxFales inventory-management software and a prominent consultant to orthodontists — helped her daughter catch the dental bug over the years. Today, Mele, 36, a speaker, author and consultant who lives in Wallingford, Connecticut, helps dentists across the country keep their practice operations humming — literally, in some instances.

Mele’s new book, 365 Days of Social Posts for Dentistry, published in June, is a page-a-day calendar-style social-media primer. For April 18, “What’s the Name of That Song?”, Mele suggests posting a short video of a patient humming a tune during treatment, encouraging followers to guess what it is.

The book is designed to help dentists “take the guesswork out of social media,” she says, thereby keeping patients and even team members engaged. Some of her tips:

Name a social-media head honcho. Find a team member willing to dedicate, say, four hours a week to it. Your entire team should know that this responsibility is part of this person’s job, and take it seriously.

Avoid false starts. “The biggest risk is loss of motivation,” Mele says, citing as a huge no-no “a Facebook page whose last post is a year ago. To start and fizzle out is the worst a practice can do.”

Make a plan. Know what the coming month’s posts will look like, allowing yourself room to improvise, of course. Prepare mediarelease forms, whenever appropriate, and get your team involved so that everyone in your practice is engaged with the message.

Mele notes that an astounding 100 percent of proceeds from sales of the book will go to Oral Cancer Cause (oralcancercause.org). It’s a compendium of great material — so great, in fact, you’d be remiss not to tweet about it.

RACHEL MELE is a dental executive, speaker, and author of “365 Days of Social Posts for Dentistry,” the aforementioned guide to engaging, funny and informative social media for dental practices. Learn more at rachelmele.com.