@Maria, will you please write your own article on this?

I believe you are all missing the boat. For the first time in a consumer’s history, their voice can and frankly will be heard. The purpose of these mediums is not to solely sell products or get new patients, but to find out how you and your services are performing, how your organization is performing, what new services you can potentially offer – simply, engage with your patients and vice versa. They want to and will be heard.

Have any of you taken a survey from your patients to find out who is using these mediums and the demographic breakdown? Where are they spending time?

I disagree that spending time on any of these sites is a waste of time. In all the work I have been doing with my clients, I have learned that you now have the potential to develop programs that transcend age, time, location, revenue, and address your audience in ways that are meaningful to the individuals. And, the kicker is that most of these programs are free with exponential ROI and cost containment for your operation. Once you learn how to “connect” with folks, they then want to transact with you. Until you offer them anything of value, then you might as well not bother. Also, this is not just a PR or marketing vehicle. Do you remember the days of “Dot COM” or organizations that simply focused on eBusiness (Scient, Viant, Razor Fish, IXL – those professing to be the experts. THEY DON’T EXIST TODAY!) Those organizations born out of MARCOMM, PR, and Advertising firms and focused on only one small compoent of the overall opportunity for their clients. Today, because “media” is included in the description, everyone considers the use of these tools as a marketing play. How about the cost efficencies and productivity improvements they bring to your organization? You have the ability to launch a new program, immediately gauge how it’s performing, and exit the market before too much time or effort is spent on that initiative.

The Dental Industry and providers haven’t been utilizing these mediums for very long. Other industries that have been “on-line”, understand that websites, social and professional networks, videos, blogs, podcasts must have a well thought out and executed strategy. That your websites and technology capabilities for your online presence must provide for ease of use and self-service functionality, not to mention access to content that pertains to the reader, regardless if you are a sole practioner, or a large practice. That all the individuals within your offices and practice must engage and support. You can’t just “tweet” or put a profile on Facebook without a plan – one that takes your entire organization and constituency base into consideration.

Many providers have been extremely successful using social networking tools – which they all point to the fact that they put together a strategy and executed the plan, continuing to monitor and engage. One of my clients grew his practice by 7% between 1/08 and today, and shaved 15% off his marketing budget.

Bottom line – you’re going to need to figure it out. 67% of individuals between the ages of 18 and 37 spend a minimum of 31/2 hours a day on-line, most of the time is spent on facebook and twitter sites. Whether or not your patients respond to you, be assured that they are watching you. The 65+ demographic is right behind.

I worked with one of the greatest brands ever created which happens to utilize the internet as the foundation for their business model. They launched in 1993. They went from a $2.3B organization in 2006 to $789M in 21/2 years. Why – they got greedy. They focused most of their efforts on their employer/business constiuents that spent the money for their services, and lost site of their most important asset, the consumer. If you give the patient/consumer what they want, the money always follows.

The total time invested to achieve the above was several hundred hours, which means it was an absolute failure, a ROI disaster and a BIG waste of my time.

Compared to search engine traffic, visitors referred by Twitter are not pre-qualified, highly targeted prospects interested in my offer, but only mindless curiosity seekers. At least 50% of the clicks originate from other countries too.

After all is said and done, the single biggest benefit for my website and SEO service has been to acquire another position in Google’s SERPS for The Visible Dentist.

Unknown to the mass millions who join, Twitter has quite a different agenda from what most users believe; and it sure is heck isn’t about helping you, Mr. Dentist, attract more new patients to your practice.

John Barremore
Houston, TX

The only way that dentists can guard against hot-heads is to piss off as few customers as possible. I call that unprecedented, efficient quality control.

Embrace consumerism and everything will work out fine. Count on it.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

I am a pretty big follower of yours, I follow you on Twitter, and I agree with most of what you say above.

You can’t get away with selling much on Twitter and not be considered a spammer.

The BIG AHA with Twitter is two fold:

1. As @Proots said above, he can deal out some targeted hell to companies very quickly. His message spreads very quickly, and he can quickly build a community of follwers to help his cause. If he can do it, what’s to keep a patient from trashing a dentist who gave bad service. Information spreads quick, and not just on “review sites.”

2. The power of Twitter is not in the communities, it is in the search. Use the search function on Twitter to find information right now. Keep tabs on your practice name, or even see what people are saying about Sleep Apnea, Invisalign, or Dental Implants.

Half (or more) of the battle in marketing is some research on the emotional needs of people. Twitter is a great source for that information as it happens.