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Do you know what your patients are saying about you? How about past employees- what are they saying about you, your practice, or other team members?  Are you aware what your competitors are saying? Do you have someone actively “listening” to what’s being said about your practice? 

 A concern often voiced when discussing creating online communities or social media marketing is “What if someone makes a negative comment” or Aren’t we opening ourselves to criticism?”  Their concern is if someone makes negative comments it will harm their business and their reputation. 

Like building your practice, building relationships and a good reputation through credibility and trust takes work, commitment, and time.  As we know, this brings in more new patients and opportunities (through referrals), more treatment acceptance, and ultimately more revenue. 

News, especially bad news, has always traveled fast.  Add to that the Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, and texting and news is now traveling at the speed of light and the news is, geographically, all over the place. 

First, we have to remember, there’s a good possibility negative comments have already been made at one time or another.  In the community, to a neighbor, to a friend or family member, or even a call back to the office after a procedure.  But unless it was a call back to the office, you usually weren’t even aware anything negative had even been said and never had the opportunity to address the issue.  

Negative comments not addressed can grow and can lead to damaging the practice’s reputation, lost opportunities, and less revenue. 

A simple way to initiate and monitor your Online Reputation Management:

• Set up Google and Yahoo alerts for your brand – your name, your practice name, and the names of key employees 
• You can also set up alerts for your competitors
• Use Technorati for tracking your brand in case the post was in someone’s blog 

Note:  The above items mentioned are for simple monitoring for practices without a major or ongoing problem with negative comments and issues. There are companies that specifically monitor businesses brands and go much deeper into Online Reputation Management.  

For the most part, people give very good reviews.  Of course there are always the exceptions to the rule.  Often times complaints can show a practice an area that needs to be improved resulting in better patient services and better patient relations. 

Online Reputation Management allows you to watch your brand, follow what’s being said about you, and allows you to address any negative as it happens.  

This is not to be confrontational, argumentative, or offensive, but rather seen as an opportunity to resolve a negative situation in a positive manner.  It’s not really a question of “What if there’s a negative comment”, but rather the real question is “How will we address negative comments and issues”.

Social media platforms allow you the unique opportunity to address the negative and turn the negative around into a positive.  Even if you aren’t able to resolve the situation (and sometimes you can’t) your online viewers will see you didn’t try to avoid the situation.  Instead the viewers will see you value your patients experience in your office and the positive manner in which you tried to resolve the situation.  Oh, and don’t be surprised if your viewers also come to your defense! 

Online Reputation Management, when used correctly, is just another positive element of social media.

Have you had any negative comments that you were made aware of with social media?  What steps did you take to resolve the situation?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, engaging social media, Google alerts, Livvie Matthews, managing your reputation online, monitoring online reputation, Online Reputation Management, Patient Relations

Social media allows for something that’s never been available to businesses using traditional marketing in the past.  Social media allows you to connect…to talk…to create…an ongoing dialogue with your target audience!

Unlike print ads and direct mail outs that are static and limited in their information or even networking events that are one time meetings…social media allows you to “talk” with your audience…24/7. 

This creates incredible opportunities to be visible and responsive to your market!  But if you’re not careful, social media can be very overwhelming and distracting.  There are the social platforms, the tools (applications, widgets, plugins, etc),  social media etiquette, connecting and engaging with viewers, and the time involved…time can be a big factor!

One of the biggest mistakes practices make when starting in social media is they just jump in with no clear objectives or strategy.  They aren’t sure about what they want to do and how they’re going to do it.

They’ll set up their social sites, Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn, and maybe even a blog, but they don’t know how to connect, how to listen, and more importantly…how to engage effectively. Then after a few posts, their sites just sit there and begin gathering virtual dust. I’ve been to many dental sites on twitter and noticed the date of their last tweet was months ago. 

In using social media, to be effective in attracting and engaging quality followers, you must have these elements in place:

Know your target market and which social networks they are using the most

• Let’s put this into perspective:  If you work out of 3 Treatment Rooms and your patient is seated in TR 3 and you’re seated in TR 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished, you’re not where your patient is.

So if you’re on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance?  Go where the “eyeballs” are…know and be seen where your target market is.

Know and be clear about your objectives – goals – or outcome you want from social media

• What are you wanting social media to accomplish? Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention?  Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or website? Enhance your practice’s patient services?  Maybe you want to grow your practices email list

What are your objectives – what is it you want to accomplish with social media?

Create an engagement plan for using social media

• Once you’ve determined and joined the social network sites your target uses, you’ll need to determine how you are going to connect, engage, and communicate with your viewers.  How often will you “tweet”, post, or update. What are your core messages you will deliver?

Social media is all about connecting, engaging, and effectively communicating which in turn empowers your viewers.

Create a social media policy for your practice

• How will you and or your employees handle social media in your practice? What’s the right way and wrong way for your employees to use social media?  Who is going to be responsible for managing and overseeing your overall social media marketing? 

Whether handling in-house or outsourcing to a third party, you need a social media policy in place. 

One last point to bring is Safety Online:  Remember:  Once you’ve said it on the Internet, there’s no taking it back.  A few good rules to follow:

• Never post anything you don’t want your Grandmother or children to read
• Never give out sensitive information like account numbers or social security numbers
• Never spam – you’ll be un-followed and dropped like a hot dental instrument

By creating and having your social media strategy in place first:

• You’ll know your social media objectives
• How you’re going to achieve your objectives
• An overall plan for implementing your social media strategy

 These are the top elements needed in creating a winning social media strategy.  What additional elements have you used in your strategy?

This article first appeared in Dental Heroes.

Technorati Tags: create social media stragety, Create social media strategy, Dental Marketing, engaging and connecting, How to create a winning social media strategy, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing

Social meda is a powerful marketing tool, but if you’re not careful it can be time consuming and can become overwhelming.

Invitations to connect, invitations to events, join this group, attend this meeting, use this application and the list goes on and on.  It’s no wonder after awhile many social marketing sites just sit there gathering virtual dust.  The key?  You must learn to stay focused.

When first entering the social arena, you might only want to join one of the social platforms, maybe Twitter or Facebook.  Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on to the next.

But if you’re going to be or are already using several of the social platforms, there are some short cuts you can use to help on days when you’re pressed for time.

The biggest time saver for social marketing is to automate using the  following: 

• Schedule Tweets to post in the future using HootSuite.com or SocialOomph.com
• Write and pre-load your Blog content
• Set up searches and alerts
• Link up feed content to RSS Feeds
• Create email autoresponders
• Use plugins like Tweetmeme.com for viewers to be able to “Tweet This”

The “Lists” you can create in Twitter help you follow certain people easier and your lists can be added to HootSuite making it much easier to locate certain people you like to RT or respond to.

These are just a few time saving shortcuts but whenever possible, take a few hours a week to maintain your social platforms for making contacts and building those all important relationships.   This is social media so the more posts and tweets are seen,  the better.  Remember, it’s all about connecting, engaging, and communicating.

What time saving shortcuts can you share?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Building Business, Dental Marketing, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social marketing shortcuts, social media marketing, social media short cuts, time saving shortcuts for social marketing, time saving shortcuts for social media

Today, 85% of consumers are looking online for who they are going to do business with.  They aren’t flipping pages in a telephone book, looking in a magazine, or scanning direct mailers, there’re  on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google viewing what others are saying . 

 But what does that have to do with transparency and authenticity?  In these economic times, people are looking behind the brand to the person and watching closely what’s being said and what’s being done, therefore, whatever is done must be done with quality! 

Through social marketing platforms, consumers have the opportunity to see, really see, who they are doing business with.  They do this by viewing what others are saying about your business, about how you are viewed by your customers, and even by having an actual conversation with you or your representative on one of the social platforms.  

Are you a business that stands behind your products?  Do you support your customers?  Do you go the extra mile?  Do you make solving your customers problem a number one priority?   

Transparency and authenticity allows viewers to see through to the core of how you do business. All of this and more is available to consumers through the social platforms.  

You want to be specific, be informative, be approachable, and very importantly…always be genuine.  You must be transparent and authentic to be real. 

The old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” does not apply in social marketing.  In social marketing it’s all about “who KNOWS (really knows) you!”  

What do you think, what does transparency and authenticity in social marketing mean to you?

Technorati Tags: Dental Marketing, engaging social media, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social marketing, social marketing platforms, transparency and authenticity in social marketing

Due to our outdoor utility room being broken into, and after some research, we purchased a system from CPI Security Systems.  You all know the commercials, it’s the one that says “CPI Security, identify yourself!”

Everything, from the initial phone call, through installation, and then exiting the property was done with customer service in mind and going the extra mile.

Initial phone call:  From the beginning of the call “Brad” (identified himself as he answered the phone) walked me through a series of questions to determine exactly what our needs were, what we wanted from the system, and the type of system we wanted (our objectives). Based on my answers (he listened) , he suggested a couple of options for us to consider.  (Extra Mile)

Brad also stated once the “technician” came out, based on actually looking at our property, we could make changes if needed. 

• At your viewers initial contact ask your viewers questions (and listen) to determine their specific needs (their objectives).   This is not a time to just start off by giving them your “sales” speech and telling them what you think they need.

Installation process:  “Adam” called before the installation time to let us know he would be running about 45 minutes late.  Then when he did get to our house (was actually earlier than the 45 minutes), he sat down with us and went over what he would be doing based on our conversation with “Brad” and asked if we had any questions. 

We did have some questions since we have our cat Muffin in the house most of the time.  We told Adam what we thought we needed for additional security that would be additional expense.   Adam listened to our concerns and then offered some suggestions that were actually better security wise and less expensive.  (Extra Mile)

• After the initial conversation, and upon “digging deeper”, could you offer your customer/viewer something better, based on their need, even if less expensive than what you originally discussed?

Exiting the property:  Adam went through the entire installation process, drilling holes, cutting and running wires, equipment in and out, going into the attic (probably 110 – 115 degrees up there), and installing equipment.  Stuff was everywhere ~ neat, but everywhere.

As he finished his install, he said  he was going to “clean up and put everything back in his truck” and would go over the system with us.

To my surprise, Adam came back in with a vacuum cleaner and literally vacuumed every spot he had drilled, picked up all the loose bits of wire, and put everything back exactly as he had found it ~ except for the keypad, you couldn’t tell he had been there! (BIG Extra Mile)

• When completing your project, break out your “vacuum” and  make sure your customers project has all loose ends ”cleaned up”, objectives are reached, and most importantly… their information presented  expertly to their viewers.  Always give more than what was expected!

In each instance above, going the extra mile didn’t cost a dime more, but the value add to ”company policy” setting CPI above the rest  was immeasurable.

What about you, what “extra mile” do you add that sets your business above the rest?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, following through, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, marketing in detail, service and the extra mile, the extra mile