When you think of social media, you don’t often think of your dentist. But when dentists are thinking about patients, do they think of social media?
In 2011, social media and local search represent the most advantageous and cost-effective new patient recruitment opportunities available to the neighborhood dental practice. The smart practices out there have already jumped on board and are reaping the benefits. To keep things simple for this post, we will concentrate on defining social media, and providing a starting point for the majority of practices that have yet to realize or explore social media or local search opportunities.
At this point (February 2011) local dental practices that have started business profile listings on Facebook, commonly referred to as Fan Pages, are now gaining more online exposure to not only existing patients, but also opening up an entirely new way to educate and communicate with potential new patients. These practices are also increasing website and blog traffic, actively nurturing and monitoring their online reputation, and doing so in a unbelievably cost-effective manner. How much does your Yellow Pages ad cost?
Full Stop – This doesn’t mean go out and cancel (or reduce, in some cases) your offline Yellow Pages ad!
In fact when talking about online visibility it is of the utmost important for you to have that foundational practice information within such a trusted and established source. The huge information aggregators out there, and ultimately the search engines, one way use that YP listing to derive or confirm your business info. More on that later.
All we need to do is turn on the TV or radio, or logon to the Internet to realize the immense popularity and marketing viability of social media over the past few years. How this is defined and applies to a dental practice is simple. Everyone is a dental patient, or potential patient. These social channels enable the dentist to develop relationships where these existing and potential patients gather everyday to communicate with each other. Five years ago, every dentist wanted to be on Google – they still do, they’re just behind the marketing curve. Right now, the smart dentists (the ones who are ON Google) know they need to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube…etc. To not only send the message that the office is at the forefront of the technology curve and to communicate and educate new and existing patients, but also that they are an approachable and enduring partner in the patient’s long term overall health.
If we as a general population congregate in specific places regularly – being the social media sites, doesn’t it make sense for our friends and family, the businesses we patronize, and yes even our medical professionals, to also come together in that place?
Now, and more so in the near future, these social connections can be used to amplify that word of mouth marketing so important to the core of a local dental practice – more often than not the lifeblood of an effective internal referral generation program. More of the user experience, along with the locally identifiable map listings (Local Search), can now be combined with the popular social networking sites in a way that is just beginning to be realized. This affords the practice maximum online locally identifiable impact.
Things will only get directed more so this way in the future, and combined with whatever other marketing the practice has enlisted to garner maximum local visibility on the major search engines. Tune in next week to see why Local Search goes hand in hand with social media, then we can begin identifying action steps to initiate your practice social media and local search campaigns.
