Everyone's Talking About Social Media

There's good reason the marketing world is abuzz with Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Digg, Flickr, Stumbleupon, and others offer a dizzying array of sites. And, the dental community is rather fickle. We tend to embrace the latest thing, until the next latest thing comes along. Now, it's fair to say at this point that social media is here to stay. Personally, I've been involved with some form of online social media since around 1992.

Dentists are always looking for the next greatest way to build our practices. And, that's a good thing. My concern is that in some circles, social media is promoted as the ONLY thing you need. My position is that it is part of the puzzle. But, it's not the whole online puzzle.

I contend that a GOOD website is the central player in an online marketing strategy. Social media, by itself, will fall short in my opinion. In fact, I believe that the primary purpose of social media for a dentist should be to drive traffic to your website.

Your website offers the opportunity to write your "sales letter." Most dentists recoil at the mere mention of "sales." But, we are simply talking about business here. We ARE in business. And, our goal in marketing is to help prospects understand why they should choose our practices over all the others. Our websites give us an opportunity to let visitors see why we are a good match. Why should they choose our practices? They have MANY choices. Why should they choose YOUR practice?

Social media can be a very effective way to get people's attention and offer them some insight about your personality and philosophy. But, social media is typically limited to short bits of communication. It's "short attention-span theater." And, that's OK! If you can master the art of saying a lot in a short piece, you will have their attention. That's when you direct them to your website where you can lead them down the path to choosing your practice as an informed consumer.

You should also realize that to truly maximize your results from social media, it will take a LOT of your TIME. It takes a fair bit of commitment. And, it takes time to see results.

In conclusion, I say jump in! Test the waters. Remember that your goal should be to drive traffic to your website. So, don't neglect your website. Social media is NOT a replacement for a good website. But, it can enhance your dental website success.

Next time, I'll talk about my experience with social media advertising (such as Facebook ads).ti