Improving Social Media Marketing for Cosmetic Dentists

Tom Sullivan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:49:23 +0000

Within the past year, more and more cosmetic dentists have been jumping into social media. Back in April of 2009 Matt Arndt wrote an article titled “How can cosmetic dentists use social media more effectively” and it focused on one of the few dental practices utilizing some forms of social media.

The April 2009 article touches on how the use of video, blogging, and social bookmarking can help your cosmetic dental practice increase business. In this article I’ll discuss a few additional ideas that you can implement into your internet marketing efforts:

1) Review sites: Encourage your patients to write reviews about your practice. For cosmetic dentists you’ll want to steer them toward your Google local business listing, your Yelp account and Doctor Oogle (a niche review site for doctors and dentists). Consider offering discounts off future services for writing a positive review. Increasing the number of quality reviews your dental practice has will increase the ranking of your listing both on Yelp and Google’s local business listing.

2) Social networking: Set up a Facebook Fan page and a Twitter page. Create a custom page within your Facebook Fan page that has an opt-in where you can collect leads. This custom page should reflect a consistent design with your website and other marketing materials. The same goes for Twitter. Creating a custom background will help you brand your dental practice. Also consider adding your social networking and website links to your custom Twitter background. Both social networks should serve as a forum for you to communicate with people and offer expertise and tips on everything dental. Finally, make sure your blog automatically syndicates out to Facebook and Twitter.

3) Email marketing: In a previous blog post I touched on some email marketing solutions. No matter which solution you choose, the main thing is to pick one and use it. Schedule emails to go out to both prospects and former clients. You can schedule these emails to go out based on the client’s last visit and offer discounts in order to get people to act. Don’t over promote your practice with email marketing by spamming your list. Instead pick and choose the best blog articles to send out occasionally.

If you have a cosmetic dental practice and you have yet to take advantage of social media, then you’re missing out on potential clients who are looking for you. Talk to Turbo Social Media today to review your current internet marketing strategy and map out a plan to bring new business to your cosmetic dental practice.

How can Cosmetic Dentists use Social Media More Effectively?

Matthew Arndt — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:07:46 +0000

So, I just found what I think, is a great example of how a cosmetic dentist can use video testimonials to increase business to his practice. I am going to analyze what I found on his site, and even tell you how I would make the work that he’s already done, even better (and more effective). I mean, why go to all the hassle to put this together if you aren’t going to share it with the world…right?

So Here Is the Article I found It is actually a press release that is being used for search engine optimization as you can see by their use of “anchor text”.

The practice, “Smile South Florida” is run by Dr. Charles Nottingham and Dr. Kenneth Anenberg. In this article they discuss how Smile South Florida is using patient video testimonials on its website. I just wanted to point out what a great idea it is for cosmetic dentists to use patient testimonials on their websites, and I think they are incredibly smart for using this emerging technique.

However, there are a few essential things that I would do to make this much more effective:

The videos are great, I would edit them so that they have intro’s and outro’s as well as text telling someone who finds the video where to go to get more information (also known as watermarking)
Distribute the videos with unique titles out on as many video sites as possible. This will increase the SEO opportunities and create buzz and traffic to the Dentist’s website.
On the press release, I would allow commenting to engage those reading it in conversation about the Videos.
They are involved in some blogging, which is fantastic and they did a smart thing by posting the press release I found onto their blog in this article.
They are also doing things correctly by having the Social Bookmarking links on the blog article as well. This will allow users that like the article to submit it to all of the important social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious. I would take this one step further by actually manually submitting the article and changing up the title and description. This will allow extra linking and reach of the same article.
They have a way to subscribe to the blog, but without having the blog on Google’s FeedBurner Service, they are losing out on the free and easy to use syndication.
The only other thing that I would suggest is to blog more often (but I would tell that to anyone not attempting to blog at least twice per week!)

Overall, I would give their social media efforts a B-. I know I’m being critical here considering that most cosmetic dentists are not using social media marketing at all! This is a great example of how dentists can learn to use the social web to generate new patients.

Please comment below or to learn more about Turbo Social Media’s services for Medical Professionals, fill out the form to the right and watch my easy to understand Video Series!

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you all!

Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media- 877-673-7096.

Turbo Social Media Marketing» Cosmetic Dentists | Turbo Social Media Marketing

Improving Social Media Marketing for Cosmetic Dentists

How can Cosmetic Dentists use Social Media More Effectively?