Information that will encourage and empower those who aspire to be successful in life and business.

This is a guest post by Claudia Anderson, Owner of Family Dental Care Park Ridge. Be sure to follow her on Twitter (@ParkRidgeDDS) and Facebook.

I am a dentist.  You know, the person you have a love/hate relationship with at least twice a year.   The person who lulls you into a sense of calm with quiet talk while spa music numbs your brain and aroma-therapeutic oil soaked reeds waft relaxing scents through the air.  And just when your entire body is beginning to relax, and just when you are somewhat convinced that everything will be fine, that perhaps coming to the dentist isn’t really so bad after all, I begin to scrape or poke or drill or pull.  With no apparent sense of finesse or decorum cotton rolls are stuffed, cheeks are pulled and jaws are pried open wider than ever imagined possible.  I am that person.  I am your dentist.

But how did you find your dentist?  What convinced you that your dentist was the one?  Traditionally, dentists have struggled with their image and how, if at all, to market themselves. Within the dental profession there was a perceived sense of classlessness that was associated with advertising oneself.  As a result, the marketing and advertising budgets for dentists were virtually non-existent. Dentists did not advertise…not in the Yellow Pages, not in church bulletins, not in mailers and certainly not on radio or television.  Dentists relied strictly on word of mouth marketing.  And it worked!

When I became a dentist, the advertising tide had just begun turning in dentistry but marketing and self promotion was a difficult concept for practitioners of the previous non-advertising, anti-marketing era.  There was a lot of digging in of heels and foot stomping when it came to being open to the idea of advertising oneself.  The new generation of dentists began advertising…..marketing, even.  Yellow pages were flooded with full page ads for dentists.  Billboards plastered with happy smiling faces touted the benefits of going to Dr. Jones down the street.  Radio ads screamed the advantages of teeth whitening and cosmetic dentistry.  Television infomercials droned on and on about dental implants.  Extreme makeovers made dentists stars to the stars.  And marketing budgets?  Once unheard of, they were now a huge component of one’s fixed overhead costs.  Small practices couldn’t compete and large practices often budgeted themselves right out of reality.

Enter social media. Social media presented an opportunity for businesses of all sizes to promote themselves in an arena never quite before experienced…..the internet….and often for free.  Social media was different than just having a website.  While having your business promote itself via a finely tuned website is very valuable, there is some stagnancy that is inherent in typical websites.  Social medias success is almost entirely dependent on engagement and therefore, stagnation is usually a non-issue.  Ironically, the engagement component is exactly the aspect of social media that is often intimidating to many.  Facebook and Twitter among others have provided social media platforms that are user friendly, fun and free.  Businesses can now have an interactive Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter account for their business as well as an account with LinkedIn and they can all be intertwined such that when a post is placed on one of these platforms, it is shared with all three.

So here is what is so compelling to me.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  The dentists from a generation ago were right….word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective and predictable form of marketing out there.  Social media is the biggest word of mouth marketing platform available.  By engaging with others on a social media platform and acquiring credibility, you have just increased your visibility and potential exponentially.  For free.  The people that you network with on a daily basis on Facebook or Twitter or a myriad of other social media platforms develop a relationship with you.  And so one day, someone who follows you on Twitter is having lunch with their co-worker when the co-worker mentions that they need a dentist.  Twitter follower tells co-worker that they know a great dentist who seems smart or compassionate or funny or whatever it was that attracted your follower.  Word of mouth.  No billboards, no full page ads….just credible engagement and networking.

Your dentist?  They just may be tweeting or blogging or posting their status on Facebook.  And each time that they do that, they are gaining credibility. Becoming more real to you.  To be clear, I am not at all suggesting that one should limit their marketing and advertising campaigns to social media only.  The collaboration of multiple forms of marketing and advertising creativity broadens and enhances your visibility.  Social media works very well synergistically with powerful traditional marketing tools such as email campaigns.

So somewhere during my day in between drilling and filling and probing and pulling, I am following you on Twitter or I might be posting something on Facebook that you might find interesting.  I am inviting you to events and sharing with you Fan Pages that represent things I am passionate about or that I find amusing.  I am real and making myself available to you.  And you?  You might just help my business grow by an offhand yet sincere recommendation.  And all because we tweeted.

Bio: My name is Claudia Anderson and my dental practice, Family Dental Care Park Ridge, has been in my family for over fifty years.  I am also a part time Adjunct Associate Professor at Marquette University School of Dentistry.  When I am not at my office or teaching, I am drawn by my passions which are social media, my wonderful animals, music and writing…in no particular order.

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