Dental Relationship Marketing

Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing for Dentists’ Category

This week’s featured social media mistake is “Pretending that social media is free” …

It’s often said that time is money.  Whether you, your team, or a trusted service provider manages your social media efforts, it’s important to understand that social media does require time, effort, and therefore money.  Be prepared to set aside a budget before diving into social media.  Many practices have already made the decision to transfer their yellow page advertising budgets to social media.

Consider the time involved and whether you want to maintain a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube or if it makes more sense to begin with just one account.

There will be time involved to plan “what to post” on your behalf and “how to maximize the benefits” of your social programs. You’ll also want to think about how often you’d like to post.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can “wing it” or “it’s free”… unless you or your team have free time to spare on a regular basis.

Have you read the article 10 common social media mistakes? The article is written by Patricio Robles, tech reporter at Econsultancy. Several points in the article are so important, I’ve decided to review several key “mistakes”, one at a time, and recommend solutions.  Excerpt:

“Signing up for a Twitter account and Facebook Page, for instance, may not cost any money, but managing them (and managing them well) doesn’t magically happen without an investment that can be quantified in dollars and cents. Social media will always require somebody’s time and may require that certain corporate resources be allocated differently. Businesses can’t ignore these costs when planning their social media strategies and evaluating what they’re delivering..”

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Skip this article at your own risk.  Patricio Robles, tech reporter at Econsultancy, wrote an excellent article “10 common social media mistakes” that describes many challenges dental practices (and other businesses) face today.  The article is so well done and relevant, I plan to review one “mistake” at a time and recommend a solution.

Patricio’s mistake number one is “Overfollowing”:

“Social media is called ‘social’ media for a reason, but there’s nothing ‘social’ about following an ungodly number of users, especially in a short amount of time. Success with social media is just like marketing, sales and PR: results are achieved one victory at a time.”

The jig is up.  If you are new to Twitter or Facebook and follow or friend 500 people in 24 hours, chances are you’re not looking to make genuine connections …  Don’t worry about establishing a huge following overnight.  It’s the quality of your relationships that matters—not the quantity.

Follow or friend only those people that you’re sincerely interested in. Whether you want to learn from someone or build a relationship, connect with others for a sincere purpose.  Participating in social media is most successful when you put people first, not numbers.

Read Patricio’s entire article “10 common social media mistakes“.

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How much value do you derive from a referral?  If you’ve long dismissed relationship marketing, you may want to reconsider.  A few major shifts have occurred, creating the perfect recipe for referral and relationship marketing to deliver higher returns than ever before.

The first shift is how consumers are dissecting information.  A quote from a recent New York Times article entitled The End of Newspapers said, “Young people judge the validity of information by the network of friends which passed it on, rather than by which media outlet broadcast it.”  The power of relationships has always been strong, but who knew it would reach the strength to dissolve the power of traditional media.

The second shift is Facebook now surpassing Google to become the most visited website in the U.S.  Hitwise, a web analytics firm, also reported the market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% in 2010 from the same week in 2009. Google also grew, but only 9%. While most of us aren’t yet using Facebook as a search tool, it’s time to pause and consider if that is one of Facebook’s future goals …

The third (potential) shift is that Facebook may in fact surpass Google as a search tool.  Facebook has aggressively enhanced their search technology.  In fact, a recent post from a Facebook representative was entitled, “Delivering More Search Results as You Type”.  This move will essentially facilitate word of mouth among “friends” even more.  An excerpt of that post is shown below:

“Now as you’re typing in a query in the search bar, you will instantaneously see results not only of the people, events, groups and Pages you’re connected with but also the connections of your friends and globally relevant results.”

What this means is that if your patient is a fan of your practice and one of their Facebook friends types in a search for ie:  “Dentist” or “Orthodontist” they are likely to see your page as one of the top search results.

The ROR or return on relationships has become a more powerful force than ever before.  Expect the return you get from loyal fans, who are happy to share you with their network of friends, to become even more valuable.

What are you currently doing to increase your ROR (return on relationships) with your patients?

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More and more dental practices are encouraging patients to post testimonials or comments on public review sites.  At the same time, one of the most common concerns I hear from doctors is, “How will I know if a patient says something bad about me online?”

Let’s face it, today’s online patients are both more social and vocal.  While many dentists understand it’s more important than ever to provide excellent client care, even the best provider is susceptible to an occasional rant.

The easiest (and free!) solution to help monitor your online reputation is to subscribe to Google Alerts.  To set up alerts, visit www.google.com/alerts.  You can then enter:

• Search terms. For example: Your name or practice name.
• Search type. I recommend a comprehensive type.
• How often you want to receive updates; ie:  As it happens, once a day or once a week.
• Length of email updates. The number of search results, up to 20 or 50.

Then enter your email address and click “Create Alert”.  You will then have at least one cyberspace monitor who is watching out for you.  Help protect yourself from online negative word of mouth (or perhaps you’ll discover a compliment!) …

It doesn’t cost anything to police your online reputation, yet it can prove invaluable.

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Your Facebook success is a reflection of how much you talk about it. It’s important to note that Facebook is not a “build it and they will come” marketing tactic—social media marketing is more like a garden that requires continuous nurturing.

With that said, the number of fans you get, and the testimonials and comments you receive on your Facebook page are often a direct result of invitations and promotion done within the dental practice …

One doctor recently said, “Asking patients to become my Facebook fan is just as hard as asking for referrals”.  (Over the years, asking for referrals is one of the most common roadblocks I hear practitioners and teams complain about).

Once the shiny newness of having a Facebook page wears off, it’s time to consider how you can keep the momentum going.  Here are a few tips to help boost your Facebook participation.

1. Will the doctor invite patients to join your Facebook community, or will it be another team member? Whoever is talking to patients about Facebook should be intimate with your page, and the page’s activity.  Discuss this with your team in advance and decide who is best to handle this.
2. Plan what to say when you talk about Facebook. I’m a fan of scripts. Many years ago, I resisted scripts and thought they’d make you sound like a robot.  However with personalization, scripts can be customized to your authentic voice and they can prove invaluable.
3. Determine what you want the “purpose” of your page to be. Will you put root canal videos in your patient’s newsfeeds every week? Or will you be sharing fun news about you and your team, such as the photos of your recent team outing.  When you feel good about your posts, it’s a lot easier to invite patients to join you.

An additional benefit of a Facebook page is to use it as a barometer to show how well you are promoting the page offline (talking about it with patients in your office).  If your page has no recent activity and the fan base is flat, chances are you need to step up the conversation in your practice.  Now, if only there were a tool to determine how often doctors and teams were inviting patients to refer as well: )

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Relationship-focused dentists get it.  Last week at one of our social media marketing seminars for dentists, a doctor said, “I don’t think social media will work for practices who don’t make patient relations a priority”.   Duh, you may say.  However you’d be surprised at the number of people still under the impression that social media is a “build it and they will come” marketing tactic …

In fact, social media is like maintaining a garden—it’s a living thing that must be nurtured and taken care of, again and again.  Your Facebook page will ultimately be a reflection of your patient relations.  The more you delight patients, and invite those delighted patients to participate with you on Facebook, the better social media will serve you.

Dentists are not only beginning to see new opportunities in social media, they are starting to see how social media, word-of-mouth and patient relations interconnect.  In other words, without excellent patient relations, good word-of-mouth cannot exist.  Likewise, without good word-of-mouth, social media will not work.

Social media marketing is a buzz phrase right now.  It’s a hot and exciting topic, however it will never compare to the powerful benefits of simply making patients happy : )

Michael McClure pre-seminar preparation ...

Rita Zamora, Social Media Marketing Seminar For Dentists.

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Every day I’m getting more and more invitations to join Facebook pages. People are jumping on board like the salmon’s rush … Will Facebook become the replacement for the yellow pages—or will it be more like email?

If it begins to seem more like email, you’ll want to remember how easy it was to get people to share their email with you. Now, patients (like all of us), are more leery about giving out their email address. People wonder if they’ll begin receiving emails from you every day or every week. Our email boxes have become inundated with virtual junk mail. Will patients wonder if they’ll get too much “junk mail” via your Facebook page as well? The answer is likely “yes”.

At the end of the day, it’s not whether Facebook will be more like yellow pages or email. What will matter is what people find when they land on your page. It will be less about the “dental information” you post, and more about how your practice personality translates online.

Most importantly, it’s you, your team, and your relationships with patients that will determine the success or failure of your social marketing efforts.

How can you begin planning today to make sure people will fan your page? (and if they fan you that they won’t hide you). First and foremost, make your page a reflection of your practice personality. Let your relationship skills spill over into your Facebook page.

Be cognizant of the amount you post and be highly cognizant of what you say in your posts.  Ensure your page is a long-term success by focusing on patients in a social way, not just a “here’s-some-dental-news” way. Remember relationships first and the benefits will follow!

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In 2010 consumer expectations will drive dentists to change the way they market online.  Patients shopping for a dentist will not only expect you to have a website, they will also want to see what other information is available about you.  In fact they may even want to know what their friends, and the friends of their friends, also think of you.

Consider for a moment how important ratings and details have become in the book and travel markets.  People now not only want to see photos of the hotel they are considering, they may also want to see video, comments from recent travelers and they may search out several other travel sites to compare information.

This high level of research is not only being done by those “seeking out the best deal”, MarketTools recently revealed a study indicating affluent visitors (with annual incomes of more than $75K) are most likely to research products online before buying (43%). While the power of personal testimonials will live on, consumers will want to view as much information as possible before making decisions about buying everything from hotel rooms to healthcare.

In 2010, consider whether your website needs remodeling.  Get comfortable with the thought of video, if not of yourself, perhaps a team member or hire professional talent.  Provide pictures of your practice, even better would be 360 degree tours of your practice’s highlights.  Participate in social media, such as Facebook—focus on your niche.  When you reveal your true self (or brand) online it will in fact attract patients who want exactly what you have to offer.

This was the fifth of my five 2010 dental marketing predictions composed for my friends at DentalPlanet.

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Traditional dental marketing is dead.  It died in 2009. Yellow pages were listed in Wired magazine’s article, “100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About”.  Traditional marketing budgets for direct mail, newspapers, magazines, and television are being moved into online interactive segments, such as search, email and social media marketing (source: Forrester, March/April 2009).

While many tactics may never work again, several traditional marketing techniques will continue to live strong—those being word of mouth, relationship, and referral marketing.

In addition, the common elements that have made all marketing efforts succeed will never change.  Those common elements are planning, implementation, consistency, and tracking.

Marketing is not usually guaranteed, easy, or predictable.  There have always been new opportunities to explore … Remember when you first invested in a website and wondered if anyone would ever see it?

Whether you plan to explore social media marketing opportunities or not, it will still be important to be flexible, consistent, and to track your efforts.  The future will not change these core marketing principles. You will still need to test techniques and evaluate whether they are working—keep doing what is working and change what is not … Be consistent, be patient, and never stop.

Marketing opportunities will continue to evolve.  With new opportunities will be new challenges; however the key to success will be to keep marketing. Doing nothing has eliminated businesses in the past and it will continue to do so in the future.

This article was written as the fourth of my five 2010 dental marketing predictions for my friends at DentalPlanet.  What do you think? What are your marketing plans for 2010?

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Without successful word of mouth strategies in place, social media marketing will fail.  This is the third of my 2010 dental marketing predictions.  Social marketing is not a “build it and they will come” tactic …

For example, a traditional magazine ad required you to build your ad, write the check to pay for it, and perhaps sit and wait for it to work.  Social media marketing requires ongoing effort—sort of like maintaining a yard.  You’ll always need to tend to it or it will die.

Practices well versed in referral marketing strategies, those who understand what it takes to make traditional word of mouth succeed, will likely find social media a remarkable opportunity. On the other hand, those practices looking for fast fixes, immediate floods of new patients or those who practice off-and-on “when we have time” marketing will be quickly disappointed in social media.

It’s happening already.  Check out Facebook, and you’ll find dozens of abandoned dental practice pages.  Pages were created, and for whatever reason were left ignored.  Most commonly I hear, “We just don’t have time”, “We don’t know what to say”, “It didn’t work”, etc.  Here are a few successful word of mouth marketing elements to keep in mind with social media:

• Communicate well and be responsive.
• Be personable (yet you don’t have to get personal).
• Be yourself, authenticity is in.
• Make one specific person in your office responsible for regularly maintaining and monitoring your efforts (it helps if they are people oriented, motivated—and for social media, have good web 2.0 skills).
• Be patient.

Social media marketing efforts will build results for the long term.  As with referral and word of mouth marketing, focus on building quality relationships and communities first—the benefits will follow.

What are your thoughts?

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