practice marketing
REVOLUTIONIZING
Word-of-mouth carries a lot of
marketing weight. But as a dentist, we probably don’t have to
tell you that. It seems that no
matter how pretty or clever an
advertisement is, or how
dynamic a website can be, people
still trust the advice of their
friends and family more than
anything else. Whether it’s
through traditional word-ofmouth conversations or online patient
reviews on Yelp.com, Google and other
review sites, positive recommendations
and patient connection are powerful
marketing tools for a dentist.
WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING
AND PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
Facebook has recently added two new
features that not only make it easier to
connect with your patients online
socially, but are changing the way
searchers find dentist recommendations.
Here’s how:
by Neil Rudoff
Facebook Graph Search
We can now add Facebook to the list of
ways your potential patients can find out
which dentists and dental specialists
their friends recommend and like. It’s
called “Graph Search” and it’s a new feature that was released to English-speaking Facebook users a few months ago.
Now, Facebook users can conduct search
queries without leaving their Facebook
page, like “Photos of my sister and I
before 2003” or “Restaurants in Chicago
20 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com
my friends visited in the last year”
or “Photos taken in New York
City of the Empire State
Building”. The search will bring
up whatever you ask it, as long
as it’s within the confines of
Facebook… and it can be amazingly precise.
Using Facebook’s
Graph Search to Search
for Recommended Dentists
So, how does it affect you and your dental practice? How is it a part of the new
word-of-mouth? In addition to searching
for specific photos or places your friends
have checked into or visited, Facebook
users can also conduct searches for businesses or services that their friends have
“liked,” including dentists.
Since a Facebook “like” is fairly equivalent to a positive recommendation,
Facebook Graph Search is transforming