Thursday, May 30, 2013
Are you net savvy? Take this quiz to determine your online footprint.
- Do you have a practice web page?
- Has the practice web page been updated in the last year?
- Do you send e-mails to patients?
- Do you have an office blog?
- Are you on Facebook, as a dentist?
- Do you Tweet?
- Are you listed in online dental directories?
- Do you have videos on YouTube?
- Can people contact you through the Internet?
- Have you claimed your Google+ place?
Give yourself one point for every yes answer. If you answered no to question two, your web page is not up to date, subtract three points. It is actually worse to have an out of date, poor web site than to have none at all.
If you scored a perfect ten then you are an up to date, 21st Century, net savvy, Web 2.0, power practice.
Most U.S. dental offices score five or six.
The quiz has two purposes. The first of course is to give you a score to evaluate yourself in order to determine how well you are doing and where to put future resources. The second purpose of the quiz is to demonstrate that having an online footprint does not simply mean you have a web page or an office Facebook page.
Growing your online footprint means tapping into the power of dynamic, interactive web sites, social media, e-communications, search engines, social networking and more.
Another way to test your online footprint is to type your name into a search engine such as Google or Bing. If you have a very common name you may need to add dentist or DDS.
Even if you scored zero on the quiz you will show up in a search. You will show up in Yellow Pages, Superpages or Yelp and the like. As a zero you are not invisible to the Internet. You just have no influence on what shows up and what others see or read about you.
Although developing an online footprint is more than a web page, it does start with a web page. An up to date web page.
A complete web site makeover is not a requirement for answering yes to question 2. It is just asking if you have added content and updated things. This is important for two reasons. Search engines seek out change. If your web page has not changed at all in more than a year, the spider-bot minds that determine search results begin to think it is abandoned. Just as important if a patient lands on the page and sees the whitening special from the summer of 2005 or the name of a staff person who left in 2008, they will question your efficiency and professionalism.
Facebook is an amazing phenomenon with more than one billion members. As such, many people think of social media as Facebook. However, there are many other significant social media websites dentists can use to grow your online footprint. The two you should consider first are Google+ and YouTube.
Google+ is often thought of as Google’s version of Facebook. However, it is a whole lot more where businesses are concerned. Next to having an actual practice website, claiming your Google+ place is the most significant thing you can do to enhance your online footprint. Google has combined their map and places feature with their Google+ social media platform. What that means is once you sign up for Google+ as a business you can control how you show up on the map feature and add your own content to your “place.”
Next create a few videos of the dentist welcoming patients to the office, testimonials from happy patients and maybe a brief discussion of what makes your office special. The key is to be brief. Each video should be 60 to 90 seconds. Upload them to a practice YouTube channel and link them to your website and blog.
The final item to remember is that modern Web 2.0 systems provide two way communications. You need to not only send e-mails to patients but make it easy for them to e-mail you…and then respond. Your website needs to be more than an online brochure. Patients need to be able to interact, to check on appointments, ask questions or pay bills.
In the modern world if you are not online you do not exist. The future is coming and it will be amazing!