Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

15Social MediaJanuary 23-28, 2012United Kingdom Edition I s your practice on board with Google+ Pages yet? If not, grab your stake... Perhaps you are thinking: “Not another social platform to manage! My team barely has time to keep up with Facebook”. Or you may be thinking: “Why set up shop there, Google Plus (Google+) is a social media ghost town”. If this sounds like you, this article is a must read. It’s no question that Google is still the king of search. Al- though Facebook has passed Google with the amount of time people spend on the site per visit, Google still leads the pack when it comes to search. This means that Google+ Pages have great potential to become search powerhouses for your practice. The added significance of this is that Google pages will become another valuable piece of what I like to call “online real estate” for you. In the past I’ve touted how important multiple pieces of online real estate are, and so does Google ... In Google’s new ebook, Zero Moment of Truth, they make a few key points about the shift of the consumer search: 1What was once a message is now a conversation. Shop- pers today find and share their own information about products, in their own way, on their own time. This means that instead of your potential patient find- ing you in the Yellow pages, they’re much more likely to find you because they searched “dentist London” in the Google search bar of their smartphone or laptop. 2Word of mouth is stronger than ever. For the first time in human history, word of mouth is a digitally archived medium. This day in age, an ad in the Sunday paper probably won’t yield a slew of new patients. What will? A great review on an online review site or a Facebook post by one of your patients sing- Rita Zamora questions whether Google+ pages are the latest “must have” in social media, or a waste of time? A media ghost town or a potential boomtown? page 16DTà ‘Although Facebook has passed Google with the amount of time people spend on the site per visit, Google still leads the pack when it comes to search’ convenient& pr ofessional for all your Core Subject needs visit www.corecpd.com Email info@smile-on.com or call 020 7400 8989 wherev erandwhenever