Got An App For That?

I don’t get the newspaper delivered at home anymore. No more cold walks to the mailbox or occasional rain-soaked pages. I wake up to my iphone applications for CNN, USAToday, and The New York Times daily. With a click, I can check email and text and communicate with friends and clients – while coffee brews – like never before. LinkedIn is a web based, professional networking site that I use to build relationships in dentistry, get new ideas, and meet experts to help my clients with things I’m not good at. My LinkedIn application on my iphone gives me updates on: companies I follow, colleague blogs I read, and new professional connections or opinions in dentistry. What if, as a dentist, you woke up everyday to your network of patients – you saw who was connected to whom, what they thought of you, and who they were telling about your dental work and their experience. We live in a new era of technology and inter-connectedness. People are more connected now than ever and that relationship provides both opportunity and challenges. Social Media expert for dentistry, Rita Zamora, shares in her article on the power of social media, using technology to help your business succeed involves more than just having a website and and email address.

On two occasions in the last month, I’ve seen dramatic success with dentists using highly specialized, online marketing services like www.groupon.com, an online retail-coupon outfit. It’s not the coupon marketing that impressed me, it was the nature of “word of mouth” and social media that drives so many people to these sites. Just as I trust my network of colleagues for advice, the dental patient is migrating towards a social network to build relationships, validate their value-system, and find what others are excited about. (maybe a better smile). Stay on top of the daily changes in social media marketing and be open-minded to fresh and relevant marketing to help your practice.