Dental Relationship Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘facebook marketing for dentists’

“The marketers will flood in and ruin Facebook”. This is a quote I heard a few months ago while I listened to Gary Vaynerchuk speak. Gary is the author of Crush It and The Thank You Economy.  He is also a visionary with phenomenal instincts for social media and relationship marketing.

Rita Zamora and Gary Vaynerchuk, Boulder CO

Gary said that sooner or later the marketers would finally convince late adopter business owners to jump on board with social media. In this rush to get on board, people would push out traditional marketing and sales messaging and ignore the nuances of new media etiquette … and that this “push” marketing would result in zero returns and thus a mass Facebook exodus of marketers, businesses, and potentially users.

There are many practices who have their social media efforts down to a system. They are engaging patients, having fun, and getting concrete results like testimonials and referrals. Likewise, there are many practices who are posting willy-nilly on Facebook—with no system, no plan and in some cases no clue. So what can you do to avoid destroying your Facebook Page and experience? Whether you are already on Facebook or not, consider the following tips:

Tip 1) Practice owners, don’t let someone “talk you into using Facebook” to market your practice. If no one in your practice likes or uses Facebook, this tool will not be a good fit for you. Unlike traditional media where anyone could write a check and buy an ad, mail postcards or run a radio campaign, social marketing is different. A key component to Facebook marketing success is participation from within your practice—at least one person in your office needs to co-participate in the management and promotion of your Facebook efforts. Why? Because the only way for your practice to benefit from relationship building is through genuine interaction.

Tip 2) Page Administrators, If you don’t have have anything good to say, don’t say anything. Traditional marketers wake up on Monday morning and think, “How can I push my marketing/sales message out to users right now?”. Remember that social marketing is not direct marketing. You can’t push out a batch of sloppy Monday morning posts and expect them to result in something good. On the other hand, mail out a pile of recall cards first thing Monday morning and that could result in phone calls. See the difference?

Social media is different—users have an internal radar that alerts people to sales messaging and tactics. If you don’t have something fun, clever, personalized, entertaining or useful (useful in their minds, not yours) to post, it may be best to not post anything.

Tip 3) Users, clear out your Facebook clutter. Do you find yourself scrolling through your newsfeed and feeling frustrated because of all the “mindless chatter” that is before you? I found this article Social Utopia Isn’t Coming interesting, because it talks about how we all have a limit to how big our social circles can be. If you have befriended lots of clip art friends (people who literally use clip art for a profile photo and are trying to hide their identity for whatever reason), or people who you don’t really know, or care to know, take time to prune your network. Be conscious when you are friending new people. All of that space in your newsfeed is taking up space on your computer screen and your psyche. You throw out rubbish from your mailbox and inbox, do the same to tidy up your Facebook.

Just as yellow page advertising got more expensive and “harder” because each new ad you competed with got larger and larger, so too will Facebook marketing get trickier. Likewise, email marketing. People are often now ninjas when it comes to protecting their email address. We handed our email addresses and got saturated with too much messaging.

In order to continue marketing successfully on Facebook, be mindful about how you use the platform. Honor your friends and followers. Those practices who genuinely enjoy Facebook, have great patient relationships, enjoy talking with patients, and appreciate the nuances of social networking will continue to reap the benefits of amplified word of mouth and new patient referrals. Those who do not, will likely abandon their Facebook and join the mass exodus that Gary Vaynerchuk described.

The future of Facebook marketing will continue to evolve. What are you doing to keep your Facebook efforts nimble, fun, and effective?

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Watch Rita Zamora’s interview with Randy Alvarez of The Wellness Hour about how dentists and doctors can use Twitter for their practice.

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Is your practice Facebook Page flailing? If so, chances are you may not have a Facebook champion in place.  Social marketing is all about people, growing relationships, and interaction. Without the right champion in your practice, your Facebook efforts may go nowhere.  An effective champion can help to motivate patients to like your Page and build excitement around your online community with both staff and patients. So what traits make for an ideal Facebook champion?  See the list below for several important qualities:

Enjoys talking with people. This is a person on your team who can connect with just about everyone.  They are gregarious, friendly, cheerful, and may smile a lot:)

Is a life-long learner. The one thing that will remain constant moving forward is change.  You want your champion to be open to new ideas and technologies. This person enjoys learning and exploring new opportunities.

Is web 2.0 comfortable. An ideal champion will not fear digital conversation and interaction, whether it be via Facebook interaction, email or live online chat. Here is where some practices are struggling, but rest easy, you can always train and educate your champion. This trait will continue to become even more critical with internet marketing taking over a growing portion of many practice marketing budgets. And while some social marketing activities can be outsourced, even the best social media program will fail without internal participation at some level.

Is a natural at nurturing relationships. Remember you can teach someone technology skills, however there are some traits that you can never change.  People who connect well with others and can nurture those relationships—whether online or in-person—are naturals at what they do.  You’ve heard the term “hire for personality”, and the same holds true for your champion.  Just because someone “loves Facebook and has hundreds of friends in their network”, doesn’t mean they will be effective at asking patients to like your Page.  Natural relationship builders also often have an internal sensor that guides them on the right or wrong thing to say.

In working with numerous practices across the United States and internationally, I’ve heard many team members say, “None of our patients are on Facebook” or “Facebook isn’t working for us”.  However with the right person, training, and tools in place, their Facebook Page efforts skyrocketed resulting in amplified engagement and word of mouth.

Who is your Facebook Champion?

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Stories continue to arise about how employees complained about their boss, their life, or their situation on Facebook. Some people blame Facebook for these annoying, disturbing and sometimes damaging comments.  However it’s not Facebook that’s the culprit. In social media—where authenticity and transparency are the norm—our own true colors shine.

So what are your employees, friends, or vendors “true colors”? If you have an employee who is bad mouthing you on Facebook, chances are they are also bad mouthing you offline.  If your Facebook “friends” are always complaining about their situation and think life sucks, this is likely their true mind-set.

With social media, the cream rises to the top—and the rest will eventually settle.  When people are open and honest about their thoughts, values, and beliefs, it accelerates your knowledge of them. Social media is a relationship tool that can grow relationships or destroy them.  Like-minds attract like-minds, and vice versa …

If your Facebook friends annoy you on occasion, maybe it’s simply because they like FarmVille and you don’t:). On the other hand, if your “friends” are constantly whining, negative or put others down, and this is against your values or preferences, then perhaps it’s time to prune your social network.

I’m not going to downplay a situation where an employee is bad-mouthing their employer.  However, rather than blaming Facebook, should we be grateful we have faster ways to reveal the true personalities of people?  With that said, now is a great time to consult your human resources advisor about adding a social media policy and related expectations to your HR manual.

Most importantly, remember that a social world accelerates and amplifies our true colors. If this scares you, perhaps it’s a good time to be introspective and ask why.

What are your thoughts?

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Is your Facebook community flourishing or flailing?  Before you begin to judge the value of your social media efforts, be sure you are taking full advantage of all opportunities.  Below is a list of social marketing do’s and don’ts (part one).

Don’t #1 – Use a stock photo for your profile picture. A stock photo is even less effective than using a logo for your profile image.  Why?  Your profile image is the main image that people see with every post or tweet.  As consumers we’ve learned to ignore advertising.  What screams advertising more than stock imagery? It’s as if we have a subtle radar in our eyes and minds that alerts us to someone trying to sell us something in social media.  By using stock photos as a profile image, you loose the opportunity to genuinely connect with your fans.

Instead Do This - This is a very simple fix.  Use a photo of a real person or people from within your practice.  A team photo or solo picture of the doctor is best.  Authentic images will allow you to better connect with the people who like you—and that’s what social media is all about … making human connections. A next best option to using a photo of you or your team is a logo that is designed to show up well in a thumbnail.

Don’t #2 - You have a Personal Facebook Profile, but you don’t “run it” yourself, rather your staff does. I’m seeing more situations where doctors are letting their team open a Facebook profile on their behalf.  The team member or members will “friend” others on behalf of the doctor, at times accept patients as friends, and even comment as the doctor.  This is wrong on so many levels, however my biggest concern is risk management. Misrepresenting yourself in social media is a great way to mislead people and break trust.

Instead Do This - Fix this problem by taking over your own personal profile. The only person who should be acting on your behalf is you. If you have no interest in interacting or participating on Facebook, you shouldn’t have a personal profile.  Rather close your account and assign your Facebook Page management to a trusted team member.  Just to be clear, it’s not uncommon for there to be multiple Page administrators for a Facebook Business Page, which is fine.  It’s with regard to Personal Facebook Profiles that this is a definite don’t.

One of the advantages of social marketing is the ability to easily change or revise your strategy and experiment.  What are you doing that is working—or not?

Part two of this article to follow next week.

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Would you like to increase your positive reviews on sites like Google or Yelp?  If so, you are not alone.  Many practices today are clamoring to build up their positive online PR—or in some cases they need to bury a negative review or two.

Some of you may be thinking that you provide good service and that should be enough to motivate reviews.  Yet as, Gary Vaynerchuk, author of The Thank You Economy said, “Marketing is about to get really !@#$%&! hard”.  Will simply good or adequate service be enough to motivate positive word of mouth and reviews?

There are several proven things you can do to help increase your positive reviews, including asking patients via word of mouth, tangible reminders, or digital tools (like surveys or emails that push to review sites).  However the number one best way to skyrocket your positive reviews and testimonials will always be to surprise and delight your patients.

Asking for testimonials is one thing, however igniting raving reviews organically is  entirely another.  Rather than setting your focus on how you can get people to post reviews, how about setting your primary intentions on how you can delight patients?  For some of you this may seem obvious. However I think many practices—even the most successful ones—can almost always find at least one new thing to enhance.

What are a few examples of surprising patients?  If you live in a rainy city, have nice umbrellas you could offer patients when they leave during a storm. Fred Joyal, author of Everything is Marketing said, “Offer limo transportation to patients having certain treatments”.  Think about things that wowed you at your last impressive restaurant visit or resort stay and brainstorm with your team. Once you’ve wowed your patients and given them something to rave about, it’s a lot easier for your team to ask for referrals and patients are much more motivated to talk you up.

Today, digital reputations mean everything. So certainly spend some time taking action to grow your positive reviews. However, spend the greatest effort and energy on what’s even more important—showering your patients with pleasant surprises, thank you’s, and genuine appreciation.  Set your intentions everyday on delighting patients and saying thank you. The positive word of mouth, referrals and reviews will then easily follow.

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Many practices are running some type of competition, contest or drawing promotion on Facebook. Unfortunately, many of them are also breaking Facebook’s promotions guidelines and risk having their Business Pages shut down.

If you are running a contest or drawing on Facebook (or if you are considering running one), you must be aware of Facebook’s guidelines.

See www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php for the details.  In short, you must not collect contest or drawing entries or announce winners directly on your Facebook Page.  You may however run a contest using a third party application, such as WildFire Promotion Builder (visit www.wildfireapp.com).

I often have team members approach me and say, “Yeah, but so and so’s practice is holding contests directly on their Page, they are announcing winners on their Page, and they don’t have any special applications…”  This comes down to many businesses, not just dental practices, who are either unaware of these guidelines or simply don’t care.

Is there really a Facebook police?  Have I seen anyone’s Page shut down due to this type of violation?  Not that I’m aware of.  However, rules are rules—and they certainly weren’t created to be ignored.  Be aware of the rules and determine how much risk you are comfortable with.  If you have a thriving Facebook community, it would be a shame to loose it for something you could have prevented.

What are you doing to promote your Page, yet remain compliant?

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Online reviews are all the buzz in dental marketing today.  However, will the relevancy of reviews still hold power a year from now?

I just watched an undercover investigation report about fake online reviews on the Today show.  The investigation focused on hotels and resorts that are being scrutinized for fake reviews or misleading website advertising.

One of my favorites sites (until now), Trip Advisor, was also mentioned.  The investigators interviewed a gentleman who said he was paid to post phony good or bad reviews about various hotels or resorts. Further, some advertising agencies were also facilitating fake reviews as a service.  What does this mean for the future / relevancy of online reviews?

Although the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is to regulate reviews and prosecute those for false ratings, it’s evident the issue of fake reviews is growing rampant.

So what has this got to do with dental or healthcare provider reviews?  The dental industry has followed many other industries (such as travel, book, or restaurant) review marketing trends. However with more information revealing how trickery is behind many online reviews, will the power of all online reviews be deflated?

In the end, what we can all certainly rely on is the recommendation of a trusted friend.  Perhaps this is what Facebook already knows… The only real reviews, recommendations and “likes” we will be able to trust in the future will be those of our trusted friends. It all comes back to good old word of mouth—whether in person or online it is only our network of real friends, and real Facebook friends, that we may be able to ultimately trust.

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A common concern I hear dentists voice about Facebook is, “I want to keep my private life private…”.  I often explain to clients that it’s possible to be personable in social marketing, yet still maintain your privacy.

With that said, should dentists friend their patients on Facebook?

Here is an excerpt from my recent interview with DrBiscupid.com:

“The mushrooming popularity of social media such as Facebook makes it an effective marketing tool, but experts warn dentists that sharing too much personal information can affect doctor/patient relationships in negative ways…”

Visit DrBicuspid.com and search “Should you ‘friend’ your patients?” to read the entire January 31, 2011 article.

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