Socialize

The internet landscape is changing rapidly – more so now than in any time over the past decade. How your practice is represented will have a direct and quantifiable impact on your bottom line – your gross practice production.

If word of mouth is your number one new patient source, and WOM originates from your patients….how do they communicate that positive WOM?

They talk to each other. Your patients tell family members, friends, and co-workers that they have a great dentist and then provide your contact info.

Simply put, communication, business location visibility, and user generated content have come together in a way never before realized.

The important part here is, with all of this communication, connections are the obvious result. These connections developed through effectively utilizing these social mediums to communicate your practice presence, mean more loyal existing patients happy to spread positive word of mouth (WOM), and more pre-qualified new patients excited to join your practice.

As a business owner, and community professional, it is virtually imperative to seize this opportunity and capitalize on the new electronic word of mouth marketing – social media.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, along with YouTube, have evolved into de facto search engines in and of themselves.

• Would increased knowledge of your patient base possibly improve your loyalty and retention?
• Do you want locally identifiable practice profile information readily available through the most popular and widely accepted social communities in use today?
• Can you see how this helps prevent customer/patient attrition, and even losing business/patients to the competition?

Now the connection between the dental practice and new, existing, and potential patients extends through multiple online social channels that are widely accessed everyday by MOST people in your local neighborhood. Let us reiterate – MOST PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ARE ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, YOUTUBE, LINKEDIN…EVERY SINGLE DAY!

This isn’t hyperbole or marketingspeak – this is fact. Take it to the bank, scientific, empirically supported FACT.

It’s like having a radio or television station solely dedicated to your practice!

The surrounding local community is on there every day, plug-in and get connected.

Furthermore, from this increase in communication comes a more complete understanding of who your patients are, where they come from, why they contact you for services, and how they make their healthcare decisions. Armed with all of this information, now it is possible to effectively utilize it, and make it work for the practice!

Benefits for Dentists Using Social Media:

• Practice visibility on most popular social networks patients use everyday
• Build/maintain/grow a network of fans, followers, and colleagues on these communities
• Build & nurture DWOM (digital word of mouth)
• Online reputation management – broadcasting patient reviews
• Improved existing patient loyalty – engaging beneficial healthcare communication
• Increased traffic to practice website(s)
• Generate more patient & professional referrals
• Increase website visibility on major SE

We provide the roadmap and driving conditions, tips, insights, even the content – all you need to do is get in and drive!

The importance and benefits realized from communicating practice information through the social media market is just beginning to emerge over the past couple of years. Local dental practices that have started business profile listings (Fan Pages) are now gaining more exposure to not only existing patients, but also opening up an entirely new way to educate and communicate with potential new patients. (illustrate testimonials)

All we need to do is turn on the TV or radio, or connect to the Internet to realize the immense popularity and marketing viability of social media over the past few years.

How this applies to a dental practice is simple.

Everyone is a dental patient, or potential patient, and these social channels enable the dentist to develop relationships where these existing and potential patients gather everyday to communicate with each other.

And they haven’t learned anything from their past mistakes yet. The past mistakes of not realizing opportunity and taking the necessary action to capitalize on their patient’s communication habits.

Right now, the smart dentists know they need to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+,…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 healthcare.

If we as a general population congregate in specific places regularly – being the social networking 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 (DWOM) 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, 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.

Social Media is NOT:

• A fad
• Going to get any less popular
• Expensive
• The be all, end all of practice marketing

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. Synergy and return on investment should be the goal of your practice marketing plan into the future.

Ready to Get Started?