Using current healthcare events and social phenomena to your advantage.

Happy holidays everyone!

Recently, I wrote on my dental practice blog about the celebrity TV doctor, Dr. Oz. He is a well-known "Oprah-fied" health expert who is very popular. Recently, he blogged about how people can whiten their teeth with home remedies without seeing a dentist. Frankly the advice he gave was DANGEROUS. The Hippocratic oath (do no harm) be damned. Saving a few hundred dollars justifies the advice that will result in tooth damage.

The title of my blog entry is "Don't listen to Dr. Oz about teeth whitening!" If you're interested in Dr. Oz's crazy ideas about teeth whitening, click on the link in this sentence.

The purpose of this blog post is to demonstrate how you can take advantage of a marketing opportunity. By staying current with what is at the forefront of healthcare in the media, you can ride the coattails, so to speak. Even better, you establish yourself as the "expert." Think about it... I'm REFUTING the venerable Dr. Oz! Demonstrating your own expertise in your own words, is powerful. You can leverage hot topics in the media to make yourself THE dentist in your community.

I've had some requests to copy my blog for their own use. Besides being a copyright issue, it is a matter of credibility. Establishing your OWN credibility is CRUCIAL. Don't outsource your expertise. BE the expert!

I’ve long contended that your website, blog, social media posts, etc… should be written by you – in your own words – just like you talk. If someone else writes your content, and then your visitors (prospective patients) actually meet you, there’s a disparity in style, vocabulary, tone, etc. Or, it could be your existing patients (who already know you) reading your content thinking, “This doesn’t sound like Dr. Smith.” It undermines your credibility.

I believe people respond better to content written in a familiar or conversational style (rather than artificially formal or verbose). Be yourself! Write like YOU talk. That way your web presence and in-person style and personality are congruent. Incongruity = no credibility!

Go get'em!