Archive for the ‘Bus. Building’ Category
4 Social Media Myths
July 12th, 2010 at 8:15 am by Livvie
Social media is the buzz word in marketing. You can be watching TV, eating in a restaurant, or on your computer and you will see or hear some mention of a social networking site. It may be Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blogs, or another of the many social networks.
Whether you are on the social networks or not, you’ve even come to recognize their logos. Social media has become a way of life and a powerful marketing avenue for businesses.
But as powerful a source as social media presents, there are some business owners who still aren’t utilizing this incredible opportunity to grow their business sighting one or more of these 4 myths:
Myth #1: It’s Just A Fad
Social media is still in its infant stages, however, it’s already proven its value and is definitely here to stay! Facebook has over 400 million active viewers who spend over 500 million minutes per day on Facebook alone.
Traditional advertising, newspaper ads, telephone ads, and direct mailers are static in nature. They are usually advertisements about your services. Once the printed piece is presented there is no opportunity for connecting with and engaging the viewer and answering their concerns.
Social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs allow you to connect and engage your viewers with one on one conversation or group conversations.
What does this mean for you: More potential new patients and more treatment acceptance.
Posted in Bus. Building, Mktg-Internet, Social Media | 
Tags: Livvie Matthews, myths about social media, Social media and Internet marketing, social media myths, social media truth or myth, Time investment for Social Media | 
Comments Closed
Patient Relations: Let Your Patients KNOW You Care
June 11th, 2010 at 1:36 am by Livvie
Working in a dental office presents many challenges…daily, you could even say…hourly! One of the biggest challenges is making certain your patients know you care because they don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care!
We had a dad bring in his young daughter today for several procedures. As it turned out we needed to refer her to Pediatric. Due to the procedures needed, their front desk person said they would have to work up a time frame and they would call the dad.
The dad had to come back to our office later for the band and loop to take to the pedo office and when he came in we could tell he was upset. The pedo office had called him, the phone call had not been a good experience at all (first impression), and to make matters worse it was going to be August before she could be seen for a consultation!
His daughter was upset this morning, he was upset because his daughter was upset, and to make matters worse, he had a bad experience on the phone with the pedo office regarding his daughter. What do you think his impression was of that office? And more importantly ~ what was his impression of our office for referring his daughter to them?
If you work in the front office you know what came next. I got on the phone with the pedo office, spoke with their office manager, relayed the circumstances, asked her to ”smooth” their first impression, and worked out an appointment for the daughter to be seen this Tuesday. Now what do you think the dad thinks of our office?
In just a few short minutes we positioned ourselves as caring in several ways:
- We let him know it matters and we care about his daughter and her well being
- We let him know it matters and we care about his inconvenience and his feelings
- We let him know it matters and we care about his experience in our office AND his experience in offices we refer to
In short, he now knows…we care.
What are some things you do in your practice to let your patients know…you care?
Posted in Articles - Dental, Bus. Building, Cust. Relations, Services |
Tags: Building Business, caring dentists, Livvie Matthews, Patient Relations |
Comments Closed
Is Your Social Media Policy In Place?
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:07 pm by Livvie
Social Media has certainly become a factor for practices today. Engaging online on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and even your practice blog presents tremendous opportunities for your practice, however how you participate, inside as well as outside your practice, presents tremendous accountability.
An example would be the recent firing of a waitress here in Charlotte, NC for her posting, off work, relating to a situation that happened at work in the restaurant while she was working. Fortunately for the restaurant, they had their social media policy in place for this situation.
In his post Social Media in the Workplace, Michael J. Lotito says:
The best way to protect your company is to make sure you have a clearly outlined policy.
Whether or not your practice participates in social media, you can’t afford to ignore or downplay it’s role in todays workplace. By being proactive, your employees will be clear about what is acceptable in your practice and what isn’t when you have your social media policies in place.
5 Mistakes To Avoid When Using Social Media
May 15th, 2010 at 1:19 pm by Livvie
Recently I was asked a great question: What were the top couple of mistakes made when using social media. In my response, I only mentioned a couple, but it led me to think about several other mistakes to avoid with social media.
1) Trying to use social media for making sales. This is the #1 mistake. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all about making contacts, opening doors, gaining trust and credibility, and building those all important relationships.
Once you’ve gained your viewers trust and you have a relationship with them, you will be the one they turn to when they are ready to do business. Wouldn’t you rather do business with someone you have grown to know and trust? Relationships first…business second.
2) Going into social media without clear objectives. What are you wanting to accomplish? So many times, businesses will just jump in without knowing what their objectives are for using social media.
Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention? Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or your website? Enhance our practice’s patient services? Maybe you want to grow your practice’s email list…what’s your objective? Know what it is you are trying to accomplish.
3) Not knowing how to listen and engage effectively. To attract and engage targeted followers effectively, you need to have several elements in place. Here are a few of them:
- Be clear on your target market and be familiar with the social networks they prefer to use the most. Let me put that into perspective. If you work out of 3 operatories and your patient is seated in OP 3 and you’re seated in Op 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished. You’re not where your patient is. So if you are 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!
- You must have a strategy and a plan for implementing your strategy in place..FIRST.
- You will want to have a Practice Social Media policy in place. In other words, how will you and your employees handle social media in your practice?
Are you noticing how all of these are building on one another?
4) Becoming distracted. Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but if not careful can be time consuming and become overwhelming.
Invitations to connect…invitations to events…join this group…attend this meeting…It’s no wonder after awhile many pages just sit there gathering “virtural dust”. You MUST learn to stay focused. Remember your goals and your objectives. Stick to your game plan!
5) Spreading yourself too thin. Knowledge of the difference social platforms, the different tools like plugins, applications, widgets, etc and the time involved. Time is a BIG factor!
When first entering the arena, you might want to join one of the social platforms…maybe Twitter or Facebook. Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on the next. Either way, there are some short cuts you can use to help when you are pressed for time.
One of the biggest helps, is pre-scheduling your tweets using social platforms like HootSuite.com or SocialOomph.com. Both allow you to schedule your tweets into the future. Hourly, daily, monthly…whenever. It’s a great way to deligate some of the time involved.
Another is to link up content to RSS Feeds. You can also set up and create Autoresponder messages. These are messages you create to go out at specific dates and times. Sort of like having your business on Auto-pilot.
Well, we’ve made a list…hope you’re checking it twice. What about you? What mistake can you add to this list to avoid when using social media?
Posted in Articles - Dental, Bus. Building, Mktg-Internet, Social Media |
Tags: Building Business, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing |
Comments Closed
Social Media Marketing Industry Report For 2010 Released
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:26 pm by Livvie
Some very interesting statistics and insights were released in the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report for 2010 sponsored by Social Media Examiner. The number of participants more than doubled from last years study and the report shows a significant change in how people view using social media as a marketing tool to directly connect with customers.
Even a year ago people were not sure about social media, but make no mistake – Social media is here and it’s here to stay! As Michael Stelzner of the Social Media Examiner says “Much like email and websites first empowered businesses, social media is the next marketing wave.”
Just look at this sampling summary for their primary findings:
- Top three questions marketers wanted answered: (1) How do I measure social media return on investment? (2) What are the social media best practices? and (3) How do I best manage my time with social media?
- Marketers are mostly new to social media: A significant 65% of marketers surveyed have only been involved with social media marketing for a few months or less.
- How much time does it take? The majority of marketers (56%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and nearly one in three invest 11 or more hours weekly.
- The top benefits of social media marketing: The number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating exposure for the business indicated by 85% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic (63%) and building new business partnerships (56%).
The above summary is merely a sampling of the information in the actual report. In addition to the sample list above, people also wanted to know about blogging and social media, generating traffic and leads, the tools needed for social media, and especially about the time commitment.
This report also contains graphs, charts, and is packed full of information on social media and how others are using it to market their businesses. It’s a great tool to use in planning your own social media marketing strategies!
Click here to receive your Free copy of this revealing report
Posted in Bus. Building, Bus. Promoting, Mktg-Internet, Social Media |
Tags: Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing |
5 Comments »
