Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

S lotting quite nicely into the twenty-something age bracket, I should be stere- otyped as part of the online gen- eration, interacting via compu- ter speak and visualising life as though everything was four dimensional. Having grown up in a technological blogosphere, this judgement should be right. However, even though I re- main a twenty-something indi- vidual, I have recoiled from the Facebook phenomenon and re- main impartial to the world it stands for. Inundated with narcissism, Facebook has spanned the world as though it has lived a thousand lives. It has been nurtured and moulded into a popular activity of modern so- ciety and as a result, the social networking site has gone viral. Facebook is a search engine in itself (Looking for a company? Find it on Facebook) and it is this meteoric rise in search queries that has given Face- book its edge. Every ounce of information that can be dis- played is there, in the format of status updates, wall posts and profile pictures. As a result, social media has become a catalyst for mar- keting and communication in a way that no one could have predicted. Brand Business Looking at the facts it can’t be disputed that Facebook is a great tool to sell a company’s brand: in 2009, 200 million people had joined Facebook and in July 2010, 500 million people had a Facebook page. Even Coca Cola, one of the big- gest companies in the world, has a Facebook page and 21,807,247 liked their most re- cent video. However, as far as advertising is concerned, for years companies have been in control of their product and the way it is put out into the world – but now the ball is in the other court and the con- sumers are in control. Con- sumers own networking sites and so it has become impera- tive for companies to delve into the realm of social media; they no longer need to simply sell a product, they need to sell their story. Recognising the market- ing potentials that social media holds over the world, dental practices have started shift- ing into the unchartered ter- ritory of Facebook. But from a dentist’s point of view, is Facebook really a good choice for marketing? A shift in economics Seeking a public response to this question I leapt into the role of the marketer and head- ed to the masses to find out what potential patients really thought about their dentist be- ing on Facebook. Responses included that adding your den- tist on Facebook wasn’t profes- sional and that patients only want to visit the dentist when there is a problem. “Would you add your doctor on Facebook? Or like your hospital?” soon became the theme of discus- sions and answers generated questions, like why would a dentist want to be on Face- book? The answer came down to one possible solution: it’s not to gain friends, but to gain patients. For people in the medi- cal sector, Facebook is un- doubtedly a great place to connect and share ideas; however, in the pursuit of gaining patients, there seems to be two quite different possi- ble outcomes that the practice could face: 1The dental practice would look desperate, awkward and unprofessional, especially if the photos were of the Christ- mas Party or days out. The ‘wall’ could be infiltrated with people who posted messages that you would rather not ap- pear on screen etc. 2 The dental practice could look up-to-date and modern, providing a platform to share information and gen- erate a dental presence in virtual society. Perspective Unable to make a conclusion so early on in my enquiries, I spoke to an expert in social me- dia marketing for dental pro- fessionals, Rita Zamora, to try and gain some perspective as to what direction a dentist should travel in if they decide to jour- ney down the Facebook route. Rita discussed several op- tions that dentists could adhere to. Firstly, she suggested that dentists should keep dental related content to a minimum and keep in mind that Facebook is fun and social. Posts could include information about do- nations that the practice or dentist is making and celebra- tions, such as anniversaries and post news about awards and achievements. “Success can be achieved by exploring new areas of social networking, having fun, and building relationships with patients” Rita suggested, “it’s all about finding that com- mon ground.” Vivid Lime Not entirely convinced I decid- ed to seek a different perspec- tive and spoke to Head of Dig- ital at online advertising and marketing group Vivid Lime, Ifty Ahmed. Ifty explained to me that Facebook could in fact be used in a professional manner. He suggested that say, for ex- ample, the main objectives for a dental practice to have Facebook were to gain patients, deal with customer issues, to ‘air’ the dental practice and recruit staff – then having a Facebook page could provide a platform for achieving all these goals. How- ever, I remained slightly scepti- Word of mouth on digital steroids Dental Tribune’s Laura Hatton looks at the pros and cons of dental practices on Facebook page 10DTà ‘Social media has become a catalyst for marketing and communication in a way that no one could have predicted’ March 14-20, 2011United Kingdom Edition