Yelp reviews actually get reviewed by community moderators and judged by other Yelpers.  Yelpers are encouraged to like or not like other reviews and to list whether they thought they were helpful.  There is even a category of Yelpers called Elite.  This group is only by invitation which is based on number of reviews written as well as quality of the writing (again, comedy counts).

So how do you get on Yelp?  Chances are you probably already have a listing and maybe even a review.  If you do you can claim it, much like you claim your Google Places listing.  If not, you can add one.  If you add or claim your listing be prepared to receive a phone call from Yelp within 20 minutes offering to sell you advertising on Yelp.  (While their advertising seems to show better results than Facebook, Google Adsense, or pay per clicks, seems to trump all the others still and is a better place to invest).

Yelp prides itself in its catch phrase “Real Reviews, Real People”.  Surprisingly most review services on the web can easily be cheated and reviews are easily bought.  Reviews usually sell at a rate of $5 for 1 to 10 reviews.  This can be a positive review or some will even write bad reviews for your competitors too.  Yelp however is different.  It is near impossible to trick their algorithms and human moderators.  Even real reviews that are slightly questionable get placed in a “filtered” section.  Yelp considers this a small cost, losing a real review, to keep their reviews clean.  Filtered reviews do not count toward your overall rating.

Yelp has been accused and partially caught pushing good reviews to the top of paid advertiser’s pages.  They have since stopped the practice but there is some evidence that having a paid ad may make your page more presentable.

A recent, detailed study by assistant professor Michael Luca from the Harvard Business School found that local restaurants experience a 5%-9% increase in business for every star their rating increased on Yelp (a 5 start point system).  The quickest way to get more customers is to increase your rating!  The study did not analyze the loss associated with decreasing ratings.  Though not statistically proven, it seems that when you drop below 4 stars on Yelp your business noticeably suffers.  It’s the dreaded 3.5 stars.

Many people are surprised that one site can influence so much in regards to your revenues – but it can.  You have to be careful because often times the negative reviews can come from disgruntled employees or ex-spouses.  These reviews are often not removed from Yelp despite pleading or threatening.  Some businesses have actually closed down and opened under a new legal name to escape bad Yelp reviews.

There are many ways to deal with negative reviews, but that’s another post.  The important lessons from this are:

1. Know what Yelp is.
2. Claim your Yelp listing.
3. Know what your online reputation is with Yelp (and other review sites).
4. Have a plan in place to handle negative reviews before they happen.
5. Have a program in place to solicit legitimate reviews from actual clients. 

Contact us for our “Review Blast” program and reputation management.  It’s is a highly effective way to quickly increase your online reputation and presence.

Facebook IS NOT: a great place to find new patients.  It is possible, but the cost per customer acquisition is very high and requires a high degree of commitment on behalf of the practice.

Facebook IS a great place to reinforce branding, enrich patient communications, provide patient education, and reduce the comfort barrier to becoming a new patient.

Facebook is sizzling hot right now. But buy the steak, and not the sizzle!

This analysis is based completely on statistics gathered and analyzed from various metrics implemented over many dentists for many years in many markets.  One such metric is call tracking and recording.  We sell a version that is utilized to measure and monitor the results of various advertising streams.  The evaluation includes learning the cost per customer acquisition – for instance, how much did the magazine ad cost for September and how many patients scheduled as a result of seeing the ad.  Over time, I have implemented call tracking numbers on traditional media and all forms of digital media, including: Google Places, web sites, micro-site, Yelp, Yahoo, Goodle AdWords, Facebook, YouTube, videos and much more.  I have also utilized all forms of site analytics, social media metrics and more.

That said, I have yet to see a Facebook page of a dentist beat the ROI of a well done web site with SEO or Google Places.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen any come close – even Facebook campaigns run by some of the best in the business.  If Facebook brings in 1 caller, Google Places has brought in 40. 

So is Facebook a bad idea?  No, Facebook is awesome – the way people are selling it to dentists should be a crime however!

Negative’s

• Effort is high.  The best Facebook campaigns typically require someone in the office with a good knowledge of social networking to daily update and maintain the Facebook page.
• Vigilance is high.  Even with someone looking at the page each day, it still requires constant surveillance.  If someone were to post a bad recommendation or post on your page, it is best to respond to it as quickly as possible (within minutes).
• Knowledge requirement is high.  The practice should have a social media coordinator and that person should be well trained in the do’s and dont’s of a Facebook page.  They should be fairly internet savvy.
• Lack in any of the above – resources, commitment, or knowledge – the practice will not see a benefit from implementation (in fact, will probably have a negative experience).

Positive’s

• Great Brand reinforcement.  Great way to let people know you are still there and to keep your name fresh on their tongues in case they hear someone needed a new dentist.  Makes the digital referral easier.
• Great communication channel to existing patients.  Definitely more enriching than newsletters.
• Great patient education platform.  If you have videos you can easily post them on YouTube and link the account to your Facebook and they will post there too.  I recommend posting at least weekly and I recommend posting a “dental factoid” which is typically educational in nature yet interesting.
• Shows you are “with it”.  Can be a great platform to tout continuing education and new technology in the office.  It’s important that patients feel you are up to date and have the latest technology, Facebook can be part of that.
• Great barrier reduction. If someone has been considering going to the dentist or needs a new one, they will feel a more personal connection to you, the practice, the staff, etc.  This makes it easier to get new patients and keep old ones coming back in.

I would estimate 1 in 20 practices really have the ability to pull an exciting Facebook campaign off that will really return a decent ROI.  I do see advantages to having a Facebook page and believe that advances in the future social media (be it Facebook, Google+, or some new competitor) will make the ROI better.

So why all the Facebook hype?  Facebook has worked wonders in other industries.  For example, I know of several club type places that use it to advertise bands and drink specials.  Customers use the check-in features so friends can find and join them.  Facebook has helped their business take off. Facebook has helped many other sectors too.  So there are now thousands out there now who have helped start a page, read a book, or joined a MLM affiliate program and they are now Facebook professionals.  That does not make them dental professionals or true social media gurus.  As a matter of fact, after the market is saturated and the true results (or lack of) are well studied, the smarter marketers will have already moved to the next big hype and won’t even be doing Facebook anymore.

So few dentists have business place pages and so it becomes the proverbial “low hanging fruit”.  Dentists tend to follow a herd type mentality and the buzz right now is Facebook.  There’s a perfect storm out there right now of a lot of people who desire to be dental marketing consultants combined with a lot of dentists who are searching for answers to real or perceived problems.  The generally low initial out of pocket investment required means a consultant has something to “sell” which doesn’t cost much and so it’s an easier solution to push during tough times. 

It would be best to consider Facebook a great way to interact with patients without being too intrusive.  Though it may not bring in many new patients, it can help reduce or minimize patient departures as well as adding value to your patients.  It is real time marketing to potentially upsell patients.  Imagine a monthly special for teeth whitening.  When it gets posted, many patients may think, “Hmmm, I have wanted to whiten my teeth before the holidays”.  It’s cheaper than paying for a magazine ad or printing post cards.  There are many ways to use Facebook properly, but that’s another blog.

Facebook is sizzling hot right now. But buy the steak, and not the sizzle!

The problem with social media and Facebook specifically is what we call third party content.  Third party content is content created by others that you do not control – yet it reflects on you and your business.  For instance, let’s say you have added a like page to your home page like I did.  I received a complaint about my site and went to see what the user was talking about and someone had liked me and had changed their avatar/icon to a swastika.  I later noticed someone with a questionable image of a sexual nature.  So my home page reflected values that I was not controlling and could not realistically monitor, police, or patrol.  I dropped my like page add-in code.

Let’s say you have a wonderful Facebook page with thousands of friends who follow you or like you and unfortunately one has a bad experience once and a short fuse.  Next thing you know everyone is reading a post on your page about something horrible you have seemingly done.  In some cases it would be better not to have a Facebook page!  Unfortunately, mathematically, at some point someone will write a bad post and this does not mean you should abandon the medium.  Instead, you should learn how to deal with it. 

I have read many articles on how to handle negative social media and I decided to continually post and update links here to good articles rather than regurgitate some. 

Here’s a start, this article is nicely organized and comprehensive.  The only important item I would add is to not get in an argument online.  Your Facebook wall is not the place for you to look argumentative or like you have lost your cool.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-tips-for-dealing-with-upset-facebook-fans/

Enjoy the reading and check back for more!

SEO/SEM can be used to increase your exposure online, thus resulting in additional callers and new patients.  Many clients often ask us what we do and how we do it.  We like to take the time to educate our clients because not all SEO is the same.  Some SEO can actually harm your rankings and online reputation.  When done properly, SEO can be one of the largest ROI’s in marketing your practice.  When done incorrectly, you could be delisted by the major search engines or end up with a poor online reputation.

We recently saw this infographic and wanted to share it.  It may provide more detail than most practices want to know, but for those interested it graphically displays what is and is not helpful in SEO.

SEO Infographic

We’ve all heard the great debate on form vs. function.  I am sure you have seen it – a famous dress designer who now has a brand name line of garden tools.  Yes, that’s a sexy looking shovel with nice crystals glued on – but how well does it perform and look after 10 minutes in a muddy yard fixing a sprinkler head?

Functional Web Sites

Ok – so the bottom line is utility vs. marketing.  Where is the balance?  The answer depends on your exact industry.  So let’s apply rule #1 in marketing…always know your audience.

Taking the dental industry into consideration, what is the audience?  It doesn’t matter which survey you ascribe to, all agree that over 80% of people making appointments are female.  Now there are two things to understand – your intention for that audience and the purpose of your audience.

Your desired intention is simple – for your audience to schedule an appointment.  Your audience is typically looking for one or more of the following:

• Where are you located?
• Do you perform the service I need?
• Do you take my desired method of payment?
• What about the doctor?

So we now know your audience and their purpose.  Your web site needs to be purposed to answer these questions. 

What should your web site NOT do?  Let’s consider your front office.  I have worked with many coaches and trainers and the front desk is always trained to answer the phone and capture the potential patient.  The front desk should not get into diagnosis, pricing, or other issues that should be discussed at the practice by the doctor.  The goal is to be friendly, gain a comfort level, answer basic questions and schedule an appointment.

Your web site should work in the same manner.  Too many times I’ve seen sites that delve into great detail on treatments, staff bio’s and extraneous information.  Should your web site be educational?  No, it is not your purpose or goal.  Let Wikipedia.com, the ADA, or some other site educate – you can always link to it from your own site.  You want to educate during treatment acceptance at the office.  You want to get them in the door first and then sell them on your staff, facilities, knowledge, technology, etc.

Form or Function?

Too many times designers and practices work on making a beautiful site and lose sight of these basic goals and intentions.  Animations are overused and typically don’t work on some handhelds.  They are important for attention grabbing but should not be overpowering or used in navigation.

Too much information tends to bury the important things people are looking for.  Excessive menu options and links also distract the user.  The purpose of your site should be clear and concise – you are seeking function, not form. It is a marketing piece, but on the balance scale it should lean to the utility side.

For these reasons a site should have a clean and simple design.

$ Snake Oil $

As you well know, there are many people out there trying to sell you snake oil.  I have doctors call me and tell me they just heard that they need X or Y on their site because someone gave them a slick presentation. 

Likewise, I’ve had doctors ask me why I believe their brochure isn’t successful.  One doctor had pictures of him fly fishing and another doctor had pictures playing golf.  The people who designed their brochures told the doctors they wanted to make them feel real, personable and wanted to capture them doing something they like. 

Oops.  Again, let’s take the audience into consideration.  Though many ladies fish and play golf – many do not.  As a matter of fact, many hate it when their husbands do either activity. So mentally these brochures have already turned off their audience.  So even though it was a beautiful brochure by a legitimate company, they forgot the first rule of marketing.

Also, too many times I see web sites that are made for doctors, not patients.  The language used is that of a doctor and medical staff.  I can tell the doctor and staff had too much input.  A truly caring and professional design company should not cater to the doctor’s whim and should stand by their design. 

Isn’t a customer always right?  No!  I would not argue with my periodontist on procedural specifics of an implant.  He’s the doctor, not me!  Too many times “crowdsourcing” occurs.  A test site is created by a legitimate designer who understands the audience and purpose and it is submitted for feedback.  Make no mistake, this is an important part of the process – but what happens next is the doctor reviews it and then shares it with everyone in the office for peer review.  The next step is amazing; everyone in the office becomes a graphic designer overnight full of artistic concepts and opinions.  The designer caves in under pressure to make questionable changes and additions and a good design goes bad.

Crowdsourcing opinions for design is a huge mistake, because an effective design is intended to speak to a specific audience and purpose and should not be the result of a popularity contest.  Otherwise sites quickly become jumbled with information, links, pictures, and more.  The ability of a user to quickly find what they need and schedule an appointment gets lost in the process.

Don’t buy into the snake oil that a large flashy site with many features and loads of information is good for you.  Yes, those types of sites have their purpose – but it is not yours.  Keep your web site clean and purposed – it will bring you more patients!

A Social Media Guidebook for Dental Practices

So you’ve decided to engage in social media and have created a Facebook page as well as a Twitter, YouTube channel – and perhaps more.  Now what?

This is the step where most practices fail in properly utilizing social media.  They fail because they don’t know the following:

1. Who to add as a friend?
2. What to post?
3. When to post?
4. Which site do I post to?

The purpose of this particular blog is not to get into the How’s or Why’s – that’s a different article and a subject well reviewed already.

Who are my Friends?

After creating a new profile the first step on any social media is to add friends. The important thing to remember is that this profile is for your business, not your personal account.  In any marketing effort, rule #1 is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.  In this case, your audience is anyone online who is or may be a potential patient.

In card games and dominos, there’s also a saying – Not all money is good money.  Likewise, not all friends are good friends.  Since Facebook is a great area for referrals, you don’t want to invite a patient who had a potentially bad experience to Join you on Facebook.  If you do, next thing you know you may be doing damage control.

Many practices hand out cards or ask for reviews when a patient who seems to have had a good experience is checking out.  This is the same idea.  If you trust this patient or feel like their experience has been exceptional, hand them a card asking them to like you on Facebook or write a Yelp review for you.

You have the ability to regulate your friend base and in doing so you have the ability help shape and spin your public opinion.

Which Site do I Post to?

So you have your profiles set up and now have a friends base – which social media site do you place your post on?  Here are some general guidelines:

1. Link your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Keep your posts short for Facebook and they will automatically get tweeted for you.  You can kill two birds with one stone this way.
2. YouTube – this site is purposed for Video sharing.  Here you will post any videos you have of your practice.  Don’t ignore this YouTube, if you don’t have any videos – make some!  You would include videos such as: office tour, patient testimonials, message from the doctor, etc.  Embed these videos on your web site too.
3. LinkedIn – this site is purposed for professionals and their associations.  This is more for business type posts than personal or fun posts.  It is important to maintain your professional relationships as well.  There are many dental groups you can join.  Yes, many of the members send out incessant marketing spam, but there are genuine dentists only groups where professional research and ideas can be shared.  It is a great place to get doctor referrals.
4. Digg, Stumble, etc – Each of these sites has a purpose, know the idea and feel of the site and understand the community prior to posting.

How Often do I Post?

Again, it is important to understand the community you will be posting to.  It is recommended to take 1-2 months of watching others post prior to making your own.  You can see what impresses or upsets the community that way.

When you are ready to post, do not post every day.  For SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes it is recommended to post at least once per month but no more than once per week.

Social media can become a burden and there is no need to hire someone to monitor your campaigns full time.  I recommend posting every other week and picking one day per week as social media day.  It should take 2-4 hours to research groups, add friends, accept requests, etc.  You do want to check and respond to message at least every other day  (preferable every day) – but this shouldn’t take long at all.

What do I Post?

First of all, you don’t want to be the community bore.  Everyone hates posts that just say – “I’m going to the store now”, or “Check out this pic of my dog in a new sweater”.  If you are not careful in your postings, you can destroy that carefully built friends list.  People will drop you as a friend and you will lose traction in the community.  Your posts will come to be ignored.

Instead, it is important to post items of value.  Posts should do as much of the following as possible:

1. Humor people.
2. Interest or intrigue people.
3. Posts that others would want to share.
4. Show your community involvement and your local activities.

If you would like information on sharing photos, here is an excellent article on Tips to Enhance Your Facebook Page with Photos.

For text posts, one of the easiest things to post are basic dental related facts.  These are written with a bit of a twist so that they are educational and informative but also humorous or interesting.  Feel free to use these on your page.  Here are 10 of our favorites:

• Children who receive preventive dental care early in life have lifetime dental costs that are 40% lower than children who do not receive care.
• A toothpick is one of the objects most often choked on by Americans.
• Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.
• People who drink 3 or more sugary sodas daily have 62% more dental decay, fillings and tooth loss.
• A Dentist invented ‘Fairy Floss’ or Cotton Candy.
• A tooth that has been knocked out starts to die within 15 minutes, but if you put it in milk or hold it in your mouth it will survive longer. See your dentist ASAP!
• In general, girls have more taste buds than boys do.
• Common oral problems have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, premature birth, and more. http://ht.ly/2VVDr
• Did you know that 80% of unused brand new toothbrushes are contaminated with bacteria? Always disinfect your new brush.
• You get two sets of teeth for free in a lifetime, but the third one will cost you

You can review a more complete list here: http://www.dentistbytes.com/?p=8

Also post to videos of dental related topics or fun pics, here are some ideas:

• Funny toothpaste video (not for British dentists usage): http://www.fanpop.com/spots/chris-farley/videos/1702089/title/saturday-night-live-hedley-wyche
• A great way to pull a tooth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPhRiaNW4UQ

Feel free to comment on this blog and add your own ideas for everyone to read.

·         $50 billion – the amount spent on dental care annually; $100 billion – the amount spent on hair care; $300 billion – the amount spent on lotto tickets.

·         18 yards – the amount of floss bought each year per person; 122 yards – the amount of floss that should be bought each year.

·         Children who receive preventive dental care early in life have lifetime dental costs that are 40% lower than children who do not receive care.

·         A toothpick is one of the objects most often choked on by Americans.

·         60% of people who don’t know that a sore jaw, when combined with chest pain, can signal heart attack-especially in women.

·         Adults with post-high-school degrees had an average of three more teeth than those without a high school diploma.

·         Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.

·         Employed adults lose more than 164 million hours of work each year due to oral health problems or dental visits.

·         People who drink 3 or more sugary sodas daily have 62% more dental decay, fillings and tooth loss.

·         A Dentist invented ‘Fairy Floss’ or Cotton Candy.

·         The first crude toothbrush was used in 4000 B.C.E.

·         A tooth that has been knocked out starts to die within 15 minutes, but if you put it in milk or hold it in your mouth it will survive longer. See your dentist ASAP!

·         If you don’t floss, you miss cleaning 35% of your tooth surfaces.

·         The average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva (spit) in a lifetime. That is enough saliva to fill 2 swimming pools!

·         Most tooth loss in people under 35 years of age is caused by athletic trauma, fights or accidents. Most tooth loss in people over the age 35 is from Periodontal Disease.

·         In general, girls have more tastebuds than boys do.

·         Chewing sugarfree gum increases the production of saliva by up to 10 times the resting rate.

·         If you can’t afford prevention, how can you afford disease?

·         Common oral problems have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, premature birth, and more. http://ht.ly/2VVDr

·         Mother’s Oral Hygiene Directly Impacts Child’s Oral Health http://ht.ly/300iT

·         If your jaws are not properly positioned this could lead to sleep apnea later on in life.

·         Always replace a toothbrush after you had a cold, sore throat or notorious infections. The bacteria remain on the toothbrush which can lead to reinfection.

·         Vigorous brushing does more harm than good. Overzealous brushing can lead to eroded enamel which never grows back causing teeth sensitivity along with other oral problems.

·         The popular practice of placing a cap on toothbrush head actually favors bacterial growth on it as moisture is increased in enclosed containers favoring the growth of bacteria.

·         The peak bacterial count in your toothbrush peaks in three months. Thus, it’s another reason to change your brush every quarter.

·         Everytime you flush, a million bacteria are released in the air. Where do they go? They land on your toothbrush which is the most fertile part of your bathroom. Why fertile? Well, it’s moist, stored in a dark place and has remnants of plaque and food; thereby acting like a culture media. Thus, avoid storing your brush in your bathroom.

·         Cheapest way to disinfect your toothbrush is to dip it in undiluted Listerine for 30 minutes.

·         Did you know that 80% of unused brand new toothbrushes are contaminated with bacteria? Always disinfect your new brush.

·         “A toothbrush can also be defined as an enriched petri dish on a stick…” – Dr. Richard T. Glass

·         “Most of us hate to let go of our toothbrushes. We treat them like old friends. We use the same one, day in and day out, until the bristles practically fall out.” – Dr. Richard T. Glass

·         You know how we are certain the toothbrush was invented in Arkansas? Otherwise it would have been called the teethbrush!

·         It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown

·         A little boy was taken to the dentist. It was discovered that he had a cavity that would have to be filled.  “Now, young man,” asked the dentist, “what kind of filling would you like for that tooth?”  “Chocolate, please,” replied the youngster

·         Little Tommy came to his mom with toothbrush in hand. “I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet.” he said. She replied, “It’s dirty now, we need to throw it away.” A few minutes later Tommy returns with his mother’s toothbrush and says, “Mom, do we need to throw your toothbrush away too? I dropped it in the toilet last week.”

·         You get two sets of teeth for free in a lifetime, but the third one will cost you

·         Minor gum infection left untreated: same bacteria that cause dental plaque can lead to arterial plaque & risk for heart disease & stroke!

·         From gum disease to diabetes to heart disease, Alzheimer’s, your mouth reflects overall health http://ht.ly/2WPRt