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Posts Tagged ‘engaging and connecting’

“Getting to Know You” is a show tune sung by Julie Andrews from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, but it could very well be the theme of social media.  Social Media:  Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You.

Traditional marketing  such as telephone book ads, magazine ads, and direct mail are static ads.  Once mailed there isn’t any more contact unless someone replies to the ad. The only thing the viewer knows about you is just what you’ve been able to place within the ad space.  There’s no interaction and the ad just stays there until the next ad renewal only to be renewed “as is”. 

With Social Media Marketing such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and your blog, there’s no limit to the amount of information the viewer can learn about you, your practice, your team, and your skills.  In addition to practice information, the viewer also can learn about your hobbies, your interests, even your likes and dislikes. 

Yes, social media has given dentists the opportunity to show personality, to show skills, to show techniques, and to gain their patients trust. But most importantly social media gives dentists the opportunity to show they’re real!

Let’s face it…who likes going to the dentist?  I don’t and I work in dentistry (a 30 year dental business office professional)!  Most all of us have a fear of dentists, some much more than others.  It’s the biggest reason given for not going to the dentist until there’s a dental emergency.

New patients walking in the door today already know far more about the dentist than the dentist knows about the patient. Because of social media and reading the social posts, the new patient has connected with the dentist because the dentist loves dogs, loves fishing, loves to cook, has teenagers in their family, has a military background from their same branch of service, attended the same college, loves the same sports team….and the reasons go on and on.

The real benefit of social media:  Helping to take the fear out of going to the dentist and drawing more people into the practice for the dental health care they need, because with social media ~  patients are getting to know you, getting to know all about you! What a huge benefit!

What connection has social media played in bringing in new patients to your practice?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, engaging and connecting, engaging social media, Facebook, Facebook for business, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing, Twitter

This is the age of Social Media and at the heart of social media is relationship marketing.  It’s all about building relationships by increasing visibility, establishing credibility and gaining trust.    

As the shift in dentistry has turned from just running a practice to running a business (which they didn’t teach in school) so has the focus shifted and the emphasis grown every day in your business office from just making appointments and collecting the money to patient services with the emphasis on patient relations.

In the treatment rooms you perform your procedures – preventive, basic or major – sandwiched in around the business office procedures of having seen the patient before and after your procedure.

With the emphasis on patient relations, have you thought about everything that’s going on up front in your business office? This is your first and last impression area, it’s your hub of activity:

• Telephone calls are received and made
• Patients are welcomed and dismissed
• Appointments are scheduled and rescheduled
• Treatment is enrolled and financial options arranged
• Finances  are discussed and money collected
• Insurance is filed and payments received
• Relationships are started, nurtured, take root and grow

This area is not only a top producing area, it’s your in-house “specialist” area…. the actual lifeline of your practice!

When we think “specialist” we think “tops in their field” because of what they know and what they can do.  What would happen to production if any one of these areas above were to break down? Whether or not you have more than one front desk person, the break down in any one of these areas could be detrimental to your practice.

So, if you find production is down, broken appointments are up, collections are off and stress is on, consider this scenario and ask yourself this question then answer truthfully.  Once the patient leaves your treatment rooms, they are in the hands of your business office “specialist”.  Are they hearing from your Wal-Mart type sales associate or are they hearing from your CEO in charge of production?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, Dental Marketing, engaging and connecting, engaging social media, Livvie Matthews, Patient Relations

Social media marketing has definitely become mainstream and presents many opportunities for marketing your business.  One of the biggest opportunities is how it levels the playing field allowing small businesses the opportunity to market like, and be seen with, the “big boys”. 

But although still relatively new there are some mistakes you will want to avoid when using social media.  As you market you business below is a list of 5 social media mistakes you will want to avoid:

1) Trying to use social media for making sales. This is the #1 mistake to avoid. 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’ll be the one they turn to when they are ready to do business. Think about it, 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 social media to accomplish for your business or practice? So many times, businesses will just jump in without knowing what their objectives are for using social media and a strategy for getting to those objectives.

Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention? Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or your website? Enhance your practice’s patient services? Maybe you want to grow your practice’s email list…what’s your objective? Know what it is you’re 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? What can and can’t be said?  How will you respond to complaints or negative posts?

Are you noticing how all of these are building on one another?

4) Becoming distracted. Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but if you’re not careful it can be time consuming and become overwhelming.

Invitations to connect… invitations to events… join this group… attend this meeting… not to mention the games and other distractions.  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 only 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 or SocialOomph. Both allow you to schedule your tweets into the future. Hourly, daily, monthly…whenever. It’s a great way to delegate 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.

These are a few  mistakes to avoid.  What can you add to the list?

Technorati Tags: engaging and connecting, engaging social media, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media mistakes, social media mistakes to avoid

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

Mashable released a great post by Jennifer Van Grove How Women Use The Web (Report) stating more women than men visit social networking sites spending as much as 30% more time on the sites and are more engaging with the sites than men. 

This ties right in with my recent post 4 Social Media Myths and relates to Myth # 2 – Social Media Platform Are Only For Teenagers.  Read Myth #2 here:

Myth #2: Social Media Platforms Are Only For Teenagers

Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are no longer sites just for teenagers.  Businesses have found these networking sites to present an incredible opportunity for connecting with and engaging their audience.  

According to Inside Facebook, a Facebook tracking source ,the fastest growing demographic is Women over 55.  Women also comprised over 56.2% of Facebooks audience, and 45% of Facebook’s US audience is women over age 26.  

What does this mean for you:  Women make approximately 80% of the decisions concerning purchases for themselves and their families. 

What percentage of women are in your practice and what’s their average age…bet they fall into one of these two ranges above.  Women are extremely active on the Internet and social media networks.  When the phone rings at your office, well over the majority of the calls are from women scheduling appointments or getting information.  

Social marketing and women presents tremendous opportunities for your practice to be able to connect, engage, and communicate in real time. 

Unlike the old traditional marketing of placing a static ad in a telephone book, magazine, or direct mail out,  and once printed there was no opportunity to connect and engage.  Social network marketing sites are all about relationship marketing ~ connecting and engaging ~ which is what we’ve preached in dentistry forever. 

Cosmetic Dentistry in years past was thought to be only for celebrities ~ the rich and famous ~ however we all know it’s the trend, it’s here, and it’s not going away.

Like Cosmetic Dentistry, Social Media is not a fad, it’s not going away, it’s firmly planted and here to stay. 

With Facebook passing their 500 million active users and buinesses gearing up for even more social media  marketing, it’s time to realistically look at your marketing plans in terms of what can social media do for your practice, which social media networks will benefit your practice the most, and how soon can you get started. 

If you are already utilizing social media in your practice, you may be ready to crank it up a notch expanding on what you’re already doing. 

But if you are one of the practices not yet started with social media, don’t worry, it’s not too late…in fact, it’s really the perfect time, because most practices have only been using it for a few months, but it’s an incredible opportunity you don’t want your practice (or your bottom line) to miss out on!

How are you using social marketing in your practice?  What benefits have you seen?

Technorati Tags: benefits of social media, Dental Marketing, engaging and connecting, engaging social media, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media and women, women using social media