Recently I’ve seen some dental marketing service companies pitching automated dental social media marketing in this way:
“… the primary purpose of a dental practice blog is search engine optimization, not socialization. We turn off blog comments so that they don’t require management …”
and
“It’s Automated! (We offer) a powerful social media management service for dental practices that allows you to get maximum benefit with no time required from you.”
It’s hogwash – and practices that know how social media marketing works see right through this hype. Turning off comments? DIS-couraging interaction? Doesn’t sound social to me.
Sadly, naïve (best case) and/or unscrupulous (worst case) small business marketing providers and SEO consultants are “adding” social media to their list of services in an effort to not be left behind. By pitching it as something businesses need to “have,” not “do,” they reinforce the notion that by simply signing up and making everything automated, the rest takes care of itself.
The only way to turn the tide is through education − and keeping alive the discussion about effective, relationship-based digital marketing strategies independent from the fully automated tool(s) du jour.
The ONLY Way Social Media Marketing Works Is Through YOUR Participation
People like doing business with people they know and like. Create the conversations that connect your team with your patients. In turn, your patients will participate and share. Here’s a blog post we recently helped one of our clients publish:
Care Enough to Connect with Your Patients
You’ve heard the adage, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” It’s true … especially when it comes to social media marketing in a dental practice. If you just build it, they won’t come.
Agree? Disagree? What do you think?
Agree. I can see why small business owners cling to managing *every* aspect of social media and are afraid to let go. One would have to invest time to monitor these posts.
I like your last adage…
Thanks for your comment, Dr. Bhat.
. . . chuckle . . ., we do try and respond to comments posted on our office blog. Our “pro fluoride” post sure brought out some interesting comments.
🙂
http://seasons-of-smiles.com/is-fluoride-safe.htm
That’s great that you are monitoring and responding. And yes, controversial topics may get more comments… However, you would probably be surprised that more people than you think are reading your posts, and just don’t comment. Nice job, Dr. Medina.