Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

Lasers - Whitening - Cameras - Curing Lights Visit www.quicklase.com Call us 01227 780009 OFF o O QLQW40%Mag231211RG Upto a Whopping 11Social MediaFebruary 27-March 4, 2012United Kingdom Edition efforts you could end up driving around in circles. No wonder so many practices find themselves lost! To help you get clear direc- tion and most importantly make your efforts both manageable and effective, take time to create a basic strategic plan. Consider the following: 1Who will be responsible for your marketing efforts? Decide if you will manage these efforts internally or partially out-source the responsibilities. Notice I don’t recommend total outsourc- ing of your efforts. If you are con- sidering totally outsourcing your social marketing so you “don’t have to see or touch it”, then so- cial media marketing may not be a good fit for you. 2What is your promotional strategy? Although social media is a digital tool, much of the suc- cess of your efforts will rely on your offline marketing. Think about signage, scripting for ver- bal invitations, and other tangi- ble support materials. 3What is your content strat- egy? Determine how you will come up with content for your Facebook Page. Consider what you will tweet about and how you will interact... Note also how often and when you will par- ticipate, such as Tuesday and Thursday mornings or when the practice is typically slower. Problem number three: We weren’t sure if it was working Once you have a plan and sys- tems in place to leverage your social marketing, you are ready to address challenge number three. Do you know if your so- cial marketing efforts are really working? Much like getting into a car without knowing where you are going, if you aren’t sure how you are going to measure social media successes, how will you ever know how you are do- ing? To use an analogy, how do you know when you are success- ful at driving your car to your practice? The answer of course is that you actually got to your practice. To know if you were successful at your social market- ing efforts, you must have some specific measurable outcomes that match your overall goal in mind. Solution: Decide which met- rics you will measure As with any marketing activity, social media efforts should be measured. While there are sev- eral metrics you can use to de- termine how you are doing, the most important metric of all is tracking specifically where new patients have seen you. Often practices say they are seeing the number of new pa- tients “from the internet” grow. The best way to learn exactly where you were found is to ask. Wait until new patients visit your practice for their first visit—and you’ve wowed them with excel- lent service. Then simply say: “We are working hard to ensure we can be found easily in our community. Would you mind telling us if you happened to see our, ie: Facebook, Twitter, Goog- le+ or YouTube?” Keep in mind the movement of social metrics may move slow- ly. However the quality of new patient referrals via social media (conversational, relationship- focused) will, for most prac- tices, be far greater than those acquired via traditional media (one-to-many, sales-oriented). If you haven’t already, make the most of the unique opportuni- ties social marketing has to offer. Thrive in 2012 by considering your goals, putting a basic plan into place, and tracking exactly where people have seen you. Following these recommenda- tions will put your practice on the right track for a socially suc- cessful future. DT About the author Rita Zamora is an international so- cial media market- ing consultant and speaker. She and her team actively co-manage dozens of dental practices’ social media pro- grams. Her clients are located across the United States and internation- ally. She has been published in many professional publications. Rita is also Honorary Vice President to the British Dental Practice Managers Associa- tion. Learn more at www.DentalRela- tionshipMarketing.com or email rita@ ritazamora.com.