Human beings are social animals, and generally speaking we’re also a fairly needy bunch; we’re constantly on the lookout for attention from and approval of others. Now whether that statement applies to us individually only sometimes or all the time, it’s usually the emotional elixir of getting attention and receiving approval from others that drives the behavior.

It’s not the approval and attention we’re after; it’s the way the attentive approval makes us feel that reinforces our triggers to go seek more of it.

We all have emotions that sometimes drive our actions a little more so than they should.

That’s all well and good, but what in the H E double hockey sticks does this psychobabble BS have to do with North Korea, Dennis Rodman, or digital dental marketing new patient acquisition?

Fear is a powerful emotion; it can prevent us from doing things that would benefit us greatly, but it also can keep us safe from future harm.

How do we know which fear to kick to the curb, and which fear to heed like a caveman?

When the topics turn to digital dental marketing, dental office social media, local seo for dentists, or mobile dental marketing, fear seems to be ruling the roost for a lot of dentists we talk with.

WTF? (Why the Fear…get your head outta the gutter, you’ve been texting too much!)

It’s amazing how much of an impact the going perception has on digital dental marketing reality.

Seems there are more than a few dentists, some dental website providers, and even a small cross-section of dental consultants that actually consider Google Adwords a waste of money for dental practices.

While we won’t look to call anyone out directly, we can certainly take a look at the perceived negatives and positives with regards to acquiring new patients via Google Adwords.

“Money is only a tool, it will take you wherever you wish but it will not replace you as the driver.” -Ann Rand

Would you pay $25 for a new patient?
How about several new patients?

In our recent run up promoting this free $100 Google Adwords coupon for member dentists, we’ve heard all types of questions from the dental peanut gallery – both members and non-members alike.

• Why am I not on the first page of Google?
• How come I’m not getting any new patients?

 
As it stands in April 2012, some dentists have already heard all the over-expressive promises and realized all the under-returning results from launching their practice head first into the social media (and digital marketing) deep end.

These opportunistic if not so discerning dentists took advantage of the new patient acquisition and existing patient retention opportunities digital marketers (and dental social media blog writers) so proudly pontificated for the last few years.

We commend these forward thinking dentists for publishing their dental facebook pages & twitter profiles – and we certainly cannot fault some of them for falling victim to the less than unscrupulous if not ubiquitous