Facebook Marketing

Hey guys,

Okay maybe I was in one of those moods on Friday.
I went to do my research for my blog on Facebook, and I got side tracked.
My site, which I haven't even commented on since NOVEMBER, was full of meaningless stuff.
I just got a little annoyed.
Is there some good to it? Yes
Are there things on Facebook that are productive? Yes
Can we speak to a bunch of people at the same time? Can we show pictures of family? Can we communicate with people effectively? Yes, yes and yes.
So this still doesn't explain why when I go to my site I see loads and loads of dribble....okay I will just stop.

I will tell you how this thing started. I was at a study club meeting last week (it was on sleep apnea...blog entry coming soon) and marketing on Facebook came up. You see Dentistry From the Heart is coming up on Friday (if you don't know about DFTH, see the end of the blog).
One of the dentists announced his volunteering on his Office Facebook account. Another dentist, who was a fan, said he was going to put this on his office Facebook account.
So we got to talking and no one else has this for their office.
Okay so have any of you done this? Anyone loving the results?

I did it.
I did it this week. I made A Soft Touch in Family Dental Care business page on Facebook.
Now what?
So my friend at Angulo Dental has a practice page. He puts pictures of his office. He puts pictures of his work on there.
He has fans....157 of them. Most of them might be friends like me and his specialists and his patients....who are already fans of him.
So is it something that is worthwhile? Is it a lot of work to have our "friends" look at our work?
Okay let's say it IS worth it.
Just like our websites are worth it. But they all take work to maintain.
I made my website about two years ago, and I haven't done anything to it since. I have a person on my staff (kind of) in charge of the website. But unless you say to them, "What is new with the website?", it usually falls by the wayside for her too.
So if you don't do anything to your website or your Facebook account it will fizzle out.
Are we willing to put the time and energy into something with mild success? It will be fun for a bit because it is new. You will put a picture up there and a couple of your "fans" will comment. "Dr. X your work is so good. You are such a good dentist."
Wow that makes you feel good. But does it make for real results? Results like people picking up the phone to call, or results like getting into their car and driving to your office.
Is it a feel good thing? Yes.
Does it strengthen the bond between you and your patients/friends? Probably.
But what is the cost reward? I have to tell you I am not really a fan of getting random stuff from Facebook. I am glad to see an old classmate, but I don't know how I would feel about getting something like "Be a fan of Winter Park Urology".
I know I could press "ignore" but I don't know if they get a report of who doesn't want to be their friend. I start to feel bad because I like Winter Park Urology (we have shared a moment together), but I don't want to be a fan of their Facebook page.
Am I rambling? Don't answer that.

What I am trying to say is I don't think it is for me right now. I don't have time to update it. I don't have the time or energy to care about it. Maybe because I don't see the benefit. Maybe you do.

Speaking of working. What IS working for you? I am going to write a series of blogs on how we are marketing ourselves: internal marketing, Yodle.com, External marketing, websites.
Is anyone paying Google or doing search engine optimization?
If you are doing something that is working, I would like to hear from you. If you are doing something or did something that didn't work, I would like to hear from you too.

Real quick I will give a brief synopsis of Dentistry from the Heart, this is the blurb I sent the local radio station.

Drs. Victor and John Gammichia and staff are hosting the 4th annual Dentistry from the Heart.
This is a day of free dentistry. We are just going to be doing ambulatory care...fillings and extractions.
Friday February 12th.
7am-4pm and we will see patients on a first-come, first-serve basis. We recommend patients getting here early because last year the first person came at 9pm the night before.

It will be a true community event.
15 volunteer dentists...general dentists, endodontists and an oral surgeon
25 nondentist volunteers (our staff members and our families, some of the other dentists staff members, old employees, patients and people from the community that heard about it and want to help).
Chili's, Sam's Club, Winn-Dixie and Dunkin' Donuts are working with us to feed our volunteers.
Uth Stuph has donated T-shirts.
Most of the dental supplies are donated by Patterson Dental, a local dental supply company.
We have a DJ donating his time to entertain the masses outside.
We have a local church that is bringing food and drinks for the waiting patients.
It is going to be great.

We saw 130 patients last year. We always want to improve.
But what we really want to do is improve people's lives.
We recognize this is a tough time for people and sometimes a nagging tooth problem might be something people are really suffering with.
Or maybe something broken in the front that a patient is self-conscience about or something wrong in the front that the patient feels is keeping him or her from getting a job.

So Friday's blog might just be a photo montage of the day.

Have a great Wednesday,
john