A world of word-of-mouth marketing without brand evangelism is like chocolate cake without frosting…they can stand alone but, really…what’s the point?

Are you a brand evangelist?

Are you YOUR brand’s evangelist?

First, let’s get some definitions out of the way.  What is brand evangelism?

According to Wikipedia brand evangelism is an advanced form of word-of-mouth marketing  in which companies develop customers who believe so strongly in a particular product or service that they freely try to convince others to buy and use it. The customers become voluntary advocates, actively spreading the word on behalf of the company.

I believe we  need to take brand evangelism a step further.  I think by assuming that your customers are the only ones to become your brand evangelists, we are overlooking a very powerful resource…you and your team.  Because, after all, it is your business.  Isn’t it intuitive that you and your team would be the very best brand evangelists around?

So how can you and your team get motivated to be awesome brand evangelists?

• Never leave without plenty of business cards with you
• Encourage family and friends to spread the word
• Get involved in established communities locally to put a face to your brand
• Find one or two team members that speaks in the voice of your business to be your brand evangelist by proxy

 To me it seems logical that we, as owners, be the most enthusiastic and genuine brand evangelists for our business.  We can only expect our customers/clients/patients to be our brand evangelists if they can see how passionate we are about our brand! 

Here’s to brand evangelism and getting the word out there about your awesome business!

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Sometimes we get all wrapped up in our businesses and hyper-focus on a narrow field of vision…it happens to all of us.  We temporarily lose sight of possibility and vision in an ironic twist as we put all of our energies in one endeavor…to make our business more successful.

It’s time to step back.  Take those hyper-focusing glasses off, take a look around and re-acquaint yourself with possibility.

Host an event!

You heard me….host an event.

It doesn’t have to be a big event.  It doesn’t have to be expensive.  It doesn’t even have to take a lot of planning.  What it DOES have to do is broaden your vision.  

Here’s what I learned from hosting an event.

• More people than you would ever imagine will be willing to help
• People love coming together for food, beverage and enthusiasm
• Decide who your audience will be
• Share what you are passionate about
• Keep it simple
• Keep it relevant
• Keep it fun

If you choose to host an event, you are opening yourself up to new possibilities and new connections.  Creating valuable connections will serve you well and improve your credibility.  A simple event can create lasting connections and provide community good will, all the while generating fun and engagement.

So, pick a topic.  Pick a date.  Pick your audience.  Ready…set…GO!

If you have any questions about how your business can put together a community event, email me.  I would be happy to help.  

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You know you should post something to your social media platforms.  You understand the logic behind the strategy.  You even see the results.  But,you have a business to run and you just don’t have the time.

Understood.

How about doing the delegation dance?  Share the fun.  Get others involved and enthused.

You’ve already done the vetting when you put together your awesome work family.  You know their strengths and you know their weaknesses.   Now you need to figure out how to best use your internal resources to get your social media tasks under control.

The most obvious place to look for help is with your most digitally adept team member. Who knows the ins and outs of Facebook and Twitter?  Who is constantly pinning new looks on their Wishlist Board on Pinterest? Who checks in on Foursquare when they go from one operatory to the next?  There is your internal resource.  Here is the person who is going to find the fun in taking on your social media challenges!

How do you rein in all of the social media energy so that it stays focused on your business?

• Create a posting plan for just one day at first until your evangelist gets the feel for what you are looking to achieve
• Consider third party apps like Post Planner for Facebook or Hootsuite for the advanced poster so that posts can be created ahead of time and scheduled.
• Share your business “voice” with your evangelist.  Make sure that your voice stays consistent for your business no matter who is posting
• Stay aware of what is being posted on your businesses behalf and make any necessary adjustments or suggestions
• Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.
• Engagement, engagement, engagement.

Sometimes the answer has been sitting right in front of you all along…sometimes delegating is the name of the game!

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In the business world, I get excited by really geeky things.  When it comes to technology that boosts business, I get absolutely crazy happy.

So, you can imagine how I felt when I saw this article in SteamFeed… Adding the Send to Kindle Button to Your Blog or Website!  I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even finish the article before I logged into my WordPress dashboards to install this amazing button.  

You can see what the button looks like yourself by scrolling down to the bottom of this post.  Go ahead…click it.  See how simple it is to add posts you love to your Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad!  

Here’s a screen shot of my last post as seen from my iPhone!   

My post is on my Kindle!!

How cool is that?  And, more importantly, how cool is it that the visitors to your website to be able to upload a post that they enjoyed right onto their Kindle?!  

So…why should this excite you?

With the Send to Kindle button available to WordPress users, you have just increased the chances of staying in front of your reader.  Because, let’s face it…we typically don’t delete anything from our Kindles!  I have a few hundred books on my Kindle that have either been read and I don’t have any intention of deleting, are in the process of being read or are on my “to-read” list.  If I start adding posts that I have enjoyed onto my Kindle, chances are, it’s going to have a permanent home there to be read and re-read at my convenience.  

If you blog regularly, you probably have accumulated enough content to be able to consider sharing the relevant wealth on Kindle with interested readers.  By adding the Send to Kindle button, you are “training” your audience to start using their Kindles for more than just books.  Eventually, you may feel ready to put your valuable content into an E-book format that is available on Kindle.

The possibilities are endless!

So, when you have finished Tweeting, Facebooking and Google +ing this post, please add this to your Kindle.  

It will be the beginning of a wonderful relationship! 

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Like many, I find Seth Godin’s blog to be well written and consistently relevant.  His style of writing is no-nonsense.  He cuts to the chase.  Gets to the point. And time after time, he knocks it out of the park.

I don’t know why, but I thought of Seth today as I sit watching the news about the horrific bombings in Boston during the Marathon.   The word that came to mind was “perspective”.  Seth’s gift for cutting to the chase so often helps his readers to keep things in perspective.

Today, we all need a huge dose of perspective.

Understanding what really matters.  Being mindful of the fragility of life.  Caring about each other rather than competing with each other.

I realize that in the ensuing week between today’s tragic event and the posting of this article, perspectives will have changed.  Information will have been obtained.  Timelines will have been made clearer.  And, sadly, the horror of this event may have faded ever so slightly.

But, the gift of compassion, love and understanding…the gift of being human…needs our attention now more than ever.

So, when the dust settles with uncertainty and our lives go back on auto pilot,  in the chaos of your day to day activities, stop once in awhile and try to put things into perspective.  Give thanks for the people in your life.

Perspective.

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At the risk of revealing my age, I was struck today by how many things had changed in the course of my lifetime when it comes to marketing.  As a little girl, one of my favorite days was the day the mailman (and they were ALL men delivering the mail back in the day) delivered the Sears Christmas Catalog.  It was a catalog sure to make children’s eyes grow huge with wonder and anticipation.  My siblings and I would argue over who got to read it first and, once that was determined, a time limit was set so that we each had an equal amount of time to pour through the shiny pages with hope.  Visions of sugar plums dancing through our heads and all…

The the day that the huge White Pages and the equally gigantic Yellow Pages were delivered were eagerly anticipated days as well.  When the brand new versions of the phone books were delivered each year, it was a ritual to look up your own family’s name as if to reassure yourself that you did, indeed, exist.  Our family had an added bonus by having a Dad who was a business owner (dentist) so his name would appear in the Yellow Pages!  On the day that the phone books arrived, we would ceremoniously take the tattered year-old books out of the front closet and throw them away.  They had always served us well.

Those days are gone.  It is a sign of the times that we no longer anticipate the arrival of these iconic symbols on our doorsteps.

It is a sign of the times that children can access the shimmering and glimmering toys that capture their imagination at any time via the internet.  It is a sign of the times that I can’t remember the last time I received a White Pages or Yellow Pages at my doorstep and that every connection I need to make is easily found by a few keystrokes.  It is a sign of the times that we, as small business owners, need to embrace the digital world as part of our ever evolving marketing strategy.

It is a sign of the times.

Helping businesses take control of their digital presence is what makes Social Media DDS passionate…it is what we love.  The nostalgia of old Christmas catalogs and frayed telephone books is a pleasant place to visit…but we are so glad we don’t live there any more.

If your small business need help entering the digital world, let us know.  We would be only too happy to help!  See that Contact SocialMediaDDS  box in the upper right corner of this page?  Just click on it and fill in the necessary information and leave the rest to us!

It’s a sign of the times…

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You’ve asked and we’ve answered.

We are hosting a Social Media Night!

You have sent us many requests for a seminar that helps dental professionals as well as small businesses get a handle on how to incorporate digital media into their marketing strategy.  You’ve made it clear that you are determined to become comfortable with digital media.  You’ve made it clear that you see the need for digital media in your business.  So now, we are here to provide for you an evening of information and fun!

GUEST SPEAKERS

Dr. Claudia Anderson owner of Family Dental Care Park Ridge and Social Media DDS and Kari Sharp, owner of Get Sharp, Inc. will present an evening that will help to take the mystery out of social media and business websites.

Here’s what we will cover:

• the importance of having an exceptional website for your business
• how to spruce up your online business presence
• how to increase the online visibility of your business
• how to use Social Media effectively to speak to your target audience
• time to mingle with many local business neighbors
• outstanding food and beverage from our local social media friends

WHEN:   Monday, May 6th starting at 5:30
WHERE:  Family Dental Care Park Ridge
111 S. Washington Ave. Suite #202
Park Ridge, IL 60068
RSVP:       847-692-6800 or info@ParkRidgeDDS.com

So…

Mark your calendars for Monday, May 6th and join us for this exciting event.  Bring your questions, bring your appetites and bring your business cards.

 See you soon!

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…then you really ought to show it.

And sometimes it’s just plain hard to do, isn’t it?

Take today.

You’ve had a great weekend (hopefully) and you came to work refreshed.  When you got to the office, your first patient is a no-show.  You are frustrated…after all, you could have slept in a bit later had you known…but you take a deep breath and bolster up the staff’s morale and move forward.  Mid-morning, your hygienist gets a call from her child’s school because her child is sick and needs to go home.  Being a single Mom, she has no “Plan B” and you have no choice.  Suddenly, the front desk is in a frenzy trying to contact the hygiene patients for the day to reschedule them into non-existent time slots and you are feeling overwhelmed and frazzled… about as far removed from happy as you can be!

When these challenges present themselves to you…and you do face them every single day…how can you be happy?  Where are you supposed to find happiness when at every turn, there is an obstacle needing to be overcome?

From within. 

No, really! 

From within!

You need to stop trying to find your happiness in your external world and find it from within!

A friend shared this post on Facebook this weekend and I immediately printed it out so that I could reference it every time I want to blame the world for my momentary unhappiness instead of taking control of my own happiness.  Let’s face it…blaming others for our unhappiness is a real cop out. In her post, 22 Things Happy People Do Differently,  Chiara Fucarino shares some very actionable steps that we can take to increase our happiness level.  Simple suggestions like “Treat everyone with kindness” and “Express gratitude for what you already have“.   Seems intuitive, right?

And yet, when “that” patient continues to cancel at the last minute, it’s hard to  “See problems as challenges” (number 3 on Chiara’s list).  Right? 

I’ve read the list at least five times and here’s what my take away is. 

Happiness is available to us 24/7/365.  Sometimes it gets lost in the overwhelming minutia of the day but, (and here’s my favorite go-to… Chiara, you are welcome to add #23 if you like) if we can just step back for a moment, maybe close our eyes, and take five slow deep breaths, our minds become clearer, the minutia doesn’t seem so overwhelming and it slows us down so that we can focus on the happy and not the negative. 

So….if you’re happy and you know it…then you really ought to show it!

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I’d be the first to admit that I LOVE new gadgets, new technology and new tools that make my business and personal life easier.  That’s why when my dental supply rep suggested that I take a look at Revenue Well to help manage business communications, I went right to their website.

Call me geeky, but I get so pumped by technology that thinks outside of the box in order to make my business run more smoothly.  And RevenueWell does exactly that!  Here’s what RevenueWell says about themselves:

RevenueWell is the ultimate practice marketing and patient communications suite.  RevenueWell is a suite of online tools that helps you attract new patients, promote your services to existing ones and increase patient satisfaction – with zero effort from you.  It uses patient and account information from your practice management system to completely automate routine patient management activities – while giving you the tools you need to grow your practice day after day.

If your business is like all of the other dental businesses out there, then, of your patients…

While you can’t do a lot about the first two statistics, you can do a lot about the last four and a tool like RevenueWell makes it intuitive.

There are strategies to reduce patient attrition through internal marketing and social media. The key is patient engagement. If you aren’t communicating with the patient, someone else is – and, most likely it is either their friends or other dental businesses that are out there. Patients with whom you never engage via social media or other means of interaction often aren’t entirely happy with their service, or they feel that the service is a commodity.  One of the reasons that many patients like their hygienist and are ambivalent about their dentist is because, more often than not, the hygienist actually engages in meaningful conversations with them.

It’s all about communication and engagement.

RevenueWell makes the communication process easy, consistent and relevant.  From text and/or email reminders of upcoming appointments, to follow up communication after treatment, to holiday/birthday acknowledgement, to promotional campaigns…RevenueWell has thought of everything.  AND they are constantly adding new and exciting features to their suite of awesomeness.  Founder Alex Nozdrin is one of the hardest working and most passionate developers that I have had the pleasure of working with.  He and his genius staff take the dental business very seriously.

As Alex says:

“RevenueWell’s main premise is that any external marketing/patient acquisition program MUST be supplemented by an internal marketing strategy that maximizes the lifetime value of each patient at the practice through higher engagement.  I think social media ultimately ties into this very well as it helps keep dentistry (and the office) top of mind with patients in a world where dentistry is not in anyone’s annual budget.”

So, if you are thinking of ways to increase that oh-so-important engagement with the patient and offer them ease of online appointment requests, the convenience of making payments online and increased and relevant communication, then I would highly recommend you take a look at RevenueWell.  You won’t be disappointed!

Currently RevenueWell integrates seamlessly with EagleSoft and Dentrix practice software systems but integration with SoftDent and PracticeWorks is expected later this year.

**Disclaimer.  I do not work for RevenueWell, I receive no perks or benefits by promoting RevenueWell and I am not part of any affiliate program associated with RevenueWell.  My enthusiasm for RevenueWell is based entirely on my positive experience with the product!

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We work so hard to make our offices look spectacular.  We keep them looking all sparkly and shiny new.  We make sure that we have staff to greet our patients with genuine warmth.  We create cheerful banter with the patients while they are waiting to be seen.  And yet…

When you visit the website of so many dental office, it is as if no one is home.

Hello…is anyone there??

Did you know that there is a very high probability that people are visiting your website before they make their first visit to your office?

Yikes!

When was the last time you “cleaned house” over at your website home? 

If you knew people were coming over to your brick and mortar office or to your home, wouldn’t you make sure that everything looked fabulous? 

Of course you would!

So why wouldn’t you give the same attention to your website…the place that will provide the

FIRST IMPRESSION

of your office for many (most) new visitors!

Today while at my office, my staff was entering contact information for all of the specialists that we refer to on a regular basis into our office management program.  It was shocking to me the number of echo chamber websites in the dental field that exist out there.  There was even one specialist that had no website at all!  The sites were largely difficult to navigate, information deficient (who doesn’t include an email address in their contact information?) and crammed with stale content.  Clearly, there had been no activity on these websites for a very long time. 

Website maintenance is NOT “build it and they will come“!!

 So, how do you make your website come alive?  Simple really.  Here’s how you can start.

• Do not use canned websites
• Find a website developer that “gets” your vision and, if possible, understands the healthcare industry
• Get coached on how to access your website’s dashboard so that you can control content
• Make sure your website is “mobile” friendly
• Learn how to embed videos onto your website and use them
• Write relevant posts that speak to the needs of your audience
• Keep clinical photos and information to a minimum

And most important of all, make sure that your website is a reflection of your office…something to be proud of…an excellent first impression. 

Do not make me wonder if anyone is there.

Thank you Screwpile Communications for this informative infographic that speaks to the importance of a great online presence!

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