Preview of my upcoming Dental Economics article

1. Dental Economics Article
by Dr. Jason Lipscomb D.D.S
Welcome to the Internet land rush of 2009. In the late 90's the dental practice website was the
"you have to do this" item dujour. Now almost everyone has a website, and there is a mad dash
to have the best SEO (search engine optimization) and highest Google ranking, but having a
Social Media profile is quickly rising on the "you gotta have it scale". For those of you who
have been living under a rock, social media is a broad term that encompasses the use of the
Internet for social purposes i.e. Facebook and Twitter.
I recently gave a short presentation in North Carolina about social media and was very surprised
about the response I received. Many people had heard of social media, Facebook and Twitter but
did not know how it would be useful to their practice.
Many were worried about privacy, and many were concerned with the amount of time it would
take. The most common comment was that they did not have time for social media.
The wonderful thing about social media is that you have a lot of choices out there. You don't
have to worry about being in every platform. You don't have to have to manage 5 profiles to be
out there in the social media marketplace. You can easily find a niche. Some locales aren't good
for social media. I have two offices in two different cities. Facebook gets a wonderful response
in one city and not in the other. On the other hand, it is the reverse for Twitter. So I focus more
on Twitter in one area than the other. You may find this to be true in your town. Different
social media platforms can be synergistic if you try, but don't over extend yourself and get
burned out.
Here are some of the most common questions/concerns with starting a social media marketing
plan.
I don't have time for Twitter.
Twitter is one of the simplest forms of social media, but so few people "get" it. People often
think Twitter is a forum where Ashton Kutcher can muse about things, but used in the correct
way it can be a very powerful marketing tool. You are restricted to postings of 140 letters or
less. This is the perfect solution for those who don't have "time" to do social media. A
gentleman once asked how much time per day does it take to be involved in social media. I
responded "I don't know. How long does it take you to type 140 letters?". The biggest mistake
you can make in social media is to not be out there. SEO is great, but there are only 10 spots
available on the first page of Google. What happens when everyone has SEO? Not everyone is
going to be on the first page no matter how hard you try. Why not make a personal connection
with patients and potential patients. Why not position yourself as expert in the community? But
I digress. Start out on Twitter the easy way. Upload a smiling picture of your face. People will
be more likely to connect with a human face than a logo. Which dentist should I go to? This
nice looking fellow, or the one with silhouettes of ducks? Your Twitter background is valuable
real estate. It may look cool to have a picture of your office in the background, but it does not
convey any information. Have a background designed that has your website, telephone #, and a
brief description. A good general rule for Twitter postings is 95% personal or fun stuff, 5%
dentistry. Don't talk about dentistry all the time, it will keep your followers from getting burned

2. out. Post one or two things a day, but at the end type #dentist and #(name of your town). "#"
makes the following word a searchable item. Make sure to use lots of keywords when you post.
Search engines like Bing and Google are starting to include content from tweets in their search
results.
Social Media is only For Teenagers --->Facebook
Many of you think Social Media is only for teenagers to send those text message things. This is
one of the biggest misconceptions out there. Facebook releases stats about its users all the time.
Some of the most recent stats state that the biggest growing demographic on Facebook is females
over the age of 35 who make more than 25K a year. Think about it, who makes the majority of
dental appointments in the household? Who is usually responsible for making dental
appointments for children? You guessed it, Moms. Moms who are on Facebook. Heck over 60
percent of the entire population of the U.S. have a Facebook account. The average user on
Facebook has over 130 friends connected to their account, and are on Facebook an average of 19
minutes a day. You would have to have some pretty great content on your website to keep
someone's attention for 19 minutes a day. Facebook is the second most visited website just
below Google. There must be a lot of teenagers in the country! The truth is when you use
Facebook correctly, you can tap into the viral power of a great platform. When you provide
great content to one person with 130 friend connections, who can then share it with their 130
friends, and so on, you have the potential to reach thousands. The great thing is this viral
capacity is built into the program. Facebook wants you to share the information. Do yellow
page ads have a share button?
I don't feel like social media is secure, and it is too complicated--->LinkedIn
The more business minded, more secure, older brother of Twitter and Facebook is LinkedIn.
While an all business attitude is usually frowned upon in Twitter and Facebook, it is the
lifeblood of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a stripped down version of Facebook, but it has growing
power. The average age of a LinkedIn user is above 30. 66%of LinkedIn users earn more than
65K a year. 72% of users are college grads. A lot of talk about the effectiveness of social media
focuses on the qualified patient. I think many of us would be happy to have patients with this
type of background. LinkedIn has come into its own with the passing of the 50 million user
mark. LinkedIn is very easy to use and caters to those who are not very tech savvy. It is a great
jumping off place for those new to social media. Connections between users is strictly regulated,
so those concerned with privacy will feel quite at home here. Since it is a business based
platform your resume and work experience play greatly into your profile. You will not be able to
market to the average Joe, but you can search by company of employment, and connect with the
human resource manager of the company next door. Fill your profile out to the max using many
keywords about your practice. Make as many connections as possible and join all of the local
relevant groups. Start discussions within the group and answer as many questions as possible.
Position yourself as the local dental expert. Give and request recommendations from other users
to generate word of mouth.

3. I don't use Social Media, but I will use YouTube!
Many of you use YouTube to post videos and get your word out there. YouTube is actually
considered social media. Some of you who swear by YouTube and shun Facebook will be
thrilled to know that the average YouTube visitor is in their mid teens. Posting on YouTube has
a lot of functionality and can be shared almost anywhere. Be sure that your website address is
overlaid in all of your videos. Put it in the bottom right hand corner and out of the way of the
main content. Request comments and views wherever you can. Be sure to comment on your
own videos. When you do comment use many keywords and provide links to your website. Be
aware that viewing other videos while you are signed in to YouTube will create connections to
your videos. Be sure to use caution when you are watching these other videos, and use these
connections to your advantage. The more viewing you drive to your video the higher it will be
ranked.
Once again you don't have to be a master of all the social media outlets. Find one that really
works for you and run with it. When you hit your stride start branching out to other platforms.
Use one platform to build another. Many cross platform applications are now built in i.e. the
Twitter/LinkedIn sync. Social media will not replace all of your marketing efforts, but it will
make you look like a person and not just another name in the phone book or Google search. The
best reason of all to use social media is it is FREE and it allows you to express all of that
knowledge you have gained over the years. Take control of your destiny. Get started in social
media today.
Dr. Jason Lipscomb is a general dentist working in Fredericksburg and Richmond, VA. Dr.
Lipscomb founded Social Media for Dentists with web specialist Stephen Knight. Dr. Lipscomb
is the author of the book "Social Media for Dentist" due to be released December 10th. Dr.
Lipscomb and Mr. Knight will start a Social Media educational tour on Jan 9-10 in Durham,
NC. http://socialmediadentist.com