The Breakdown on Social Media Users…
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We’re going to save our words this week, because the really smart people over at Flowtown managed to say more than we ever could with one of their brilliant infographics:
Don’t worry though, we’ll still share a few words with y’all this Thursday for anybody who wants to learn more about the largest Social Networking site on the web – Facebook.
Join us for an educational webinar and Q&A session to learn about Facebook in more detail…and how you can even get us to set it all up for you!
Get educated – join us this Thursday at 12p PDT by RSVPing here:
http://www.DoctorBase.com/webinars
Social Networking Increases +40% in the Past Year…
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Nielsen (the ratings company) released findings this week that Internet users spend about 23% of their time on social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter – over a 40% increase in the past year. That’s over twice as much time as people spend online gaming, and almost 3x as much time as most spend reading & sending email.
So, with your patients spending their web-surfing time on social networking sites, have you set up your own profile on Facebook yet? If not, we’d be happy to set up your profile on both Facebook & Twitter for you!
Learn more about how DoctorBase works, and how it will put social networking to work for your practice. Join us for a special webinar this Thursday evening with guest speaker Dr. Martin Jablow.
Along with running a successful private practice in Woodbridge, NJ; Dr. Jablow also blogs & speaks internationally on dental technology as a partner at Dental Technology Solutions.
Join us this Thursday at 5p PDT (8p EDT) to learn about the latest Internet trends, and how DoctorBase can make them work for your practice by registering for our free webinar here:
http://www.DoctorBase.com/webinar
Three Simple Steps to Grow Your Online Reputation
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Here are 3 simple actions you can take to grow your online reputation and claim your name on search engines like Google…
Claim Your Google Local Listing
Google Local (which, as of this morning, has renamed itself “Google Places”) has pretty much replaced both the Yellow Pages and that map you’ve been keeping in your glovebox since 1982. When people want to find you, they type your name into Google. By claiming your Google local listing, your contact info, address, and a map of your practice’s location will come up in the search results.
Plus, if a patient simply wants to find a dentist in their hometown, they’ll type in something like “Dentist San Francisco.” By claiming your Google Local listing, your contact info will also be included on the map that Google includes at the top of their search results whenever the search term includes the name of a city.
Get a Blog
Most doctors have a website. Unfortunately, most of those websites haven’t been updated in a couple years – making your practice itself look outdated. And, they often come across as a bit salesy – which can be the kiss of death for a healthcare provider.
A blog is a dynamic page that gives your online presence a personal touch. By posting the occasional tidbit to your blog, you can connect with your patients by educating them – not selling them services. This establishes you as an expert in your field and builds loyalty before they even set foot in your practice. Plus, it provides the fresh, unique content that will improve your ranking on Google.
Setup Your Social Media Profiles
Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, & Twitter all carry a decent amount of weight with Google. Even if you’re not into sharing every little detail of daily life at your practice, simply setting up a profile under your name and updating them from time-to-time will help you claim more of the Google search results page.
This, in turn, pushes those third-party review sites containing unverified reviews & advertising for your competitors down the results page into near irrelevance.
And the best part about this and the previous 2 actions – they’re all completely free!
If you have any questions about how to get started with suggestions above, or you simply want to learn more about claiming your name on Google, join us for a free educational webinar and Q&A session on how to grow your online reputation. No Ads. No Sales Pitch.
Join us this Thursday, April 22 at 12pm PDT by RSVPing here:
http://wwwDoctorBase.com/webinar
How “Name Squatters” Take Advantage of Dentists in Private Practice
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If any dentist does a search in Google for their name and city, they’ll hopefully find their own website as the #1 search result. Looking below that result one may find a collection of review sites and online directories. Maybe even some ads from competitors on the right hand side.
These search results did not get there by accident – they are designed by these sites to be found on searches for your name. Such website owners that purposefully advertise under your name are increasingly referred to as “Name Squatters.” These sites know that doctors and dentists will be searched by name, and up to 66% of the traffic on these searches for your name may become diverted to these squatter sites.
So while brands like Procter & Gamble enjoy trademark & copywrite protections on the Web, we dentists – for whom our name IS our brand – get little to none. In fact, the more our names get “Googled” the more our names are worth to our competitors who advertise on those searches. So we do all the hard work to build word-of-mouth and then the squatters come in at the tail-end to try and divert patients attention.
Solution: Creating public “presence pages” and other social media profiles can eventually (in 5 to 9 months) populate the first page of Google results – with multiple listings on the first page. That means you may want to think about creating a blog, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. The more you control the first page of Google the better you can create & manage “mind-share” amongst your patients – especially those 35 and younger.
While you won’t be able to totally eliminate “Name Squatters” or misleading negative reviews, you can battle for eyeballs and opinions by being proactive. Otherwise, this trend is not going away anytime soon. In fact, reviews for dentists and other private practices are the fastest growing piece of the onine reviews business (anyone notice all the Angie’s List commercials lately?)
Top 10 Twitter ‘tweets’ from CDA Anaheim 2009
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Top 10 Twitter Tweets for CDA 2009 Anaheim
