We heard from you and today we are starting a 3 week series of suggestions on ways you can measure your social media efforts. This entry focuses on measuring the obvious numbers.
1. Measure Traffic: Check the number of Facebook fans, Twitter followers, Digg links, Delicious bookmarks, and referrals from social media sites, plus existing website traffic. Remember that quality of traffic is more important than quality of traffic.
2. Measure interaction: Patients who interact by leaving comments and reviews, participate through various channels, such as forums.
Post submitted by Lidia Scher, dental office designer, and written by Angela Rutzick, Marketing maven for e-dds.com
Lidia@e-dds.com
Angela@e-dds.com
Showing posts with label Dentists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dentists. Show all posts
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Improve Office Dynamics
Your business is your source of income, creativity and job satisfaction. Your goal is to make sure your office looks inviting, has the best equipment and supplies, and your staff is experienced and knowledgeable.
You want to communicate to your clients that your firm provides the best products and services available.
Thus, you’ve attended to your business’s needs with the utmost diligence: spent money in advertising, attended educational lectures and classes, and implemented the latest technology in your profession.
Yet, something is not quite right but you cannot put your finger on it. Your clients are happy – but you’re not attracting “quality” ones.
Maybe you are not attracting the “right ones.” Your staff seems content (for the moment) but internal workings are not flowing easily. You look around and wonder, what’s missing?
What is often missing is an understanding of how the environment – the decor, the architectural elements, the scents, the noise and the particular energy of these elements – affect the day-to-day operations of the office.
You can undertake a renovation, move or add more space. This is a great way to look fresh and updated. Nonetheless, analyzing the inherent energy of the space and its people according to ancient Feng Shui principles may make the difference between an effective office and a pretty space.
The latter temporarily masks the original problems. The design that incorporates Feng Shui principles yields an effective and beautiful space. Additionally, because the space becomes well balanced, it produces an environment that continuously promotes healing and harmony.
Feng Shui is a 6,000-year-old Oriental art and science geared to balancing people and the environment through the use of ancient principles of energy. Particular energies are present in every aspect of the business, including people. Feng Shui recognizes these energies as five elements represented by wood, fire, earth, metal and water that, when manipulated to produce the correct relationships, create harmony.
Thus, a Feng Shui analysis will yield an understanding of how the environment influences work flow and interpersonal relationships within the office, as well as the health and general feeling of the business. It will help uncover “what is missing.”
In reading the energies of the people who work in your office, one may inherently carry wood energy; the other may be an earth kind. These two individuals will have difficulty working together. Adding fire elements (purples, reds or diamonds) will introduce the bridge energy and help both workers coexist in harmony.
Similarly, a staff carrying wood energy will feel overworked, stressed and inefficient in an environment abounding with metal energy – whites, grays and round elements. They will tend to create clutter or feel that the space is crowded, even if it is not. Painting the walls in lavender tones and adding water features or soothing sounds, wavy elements and greenery will provide the nourishment they need to feel supported and productive.
It is well documented that living and working spaces have a profound effect on physical and mental health. An environment created to support the specific energies of its users can make a positive impact in all aspects of your business. Your clients will feel it and want to be a part of it.
The combination of excellent interior design, grounded in Feng Shui principles and the use of non-toxic and sustainable materials, creates a total healing environment.
Lidia Scher is an award-winning interior designer, an accomplished visual artist and Feng Shui master. She has been at the helm of L.A.S. Associates, an interior and architectural design firm based in Arlington, MA for the past 23 years. Her specialty is dental and medical environments where occupants love to be in work in and return to day after day. She is also a partner in Virtual dental Solutions, a web-based consulting company to the dental community.
You want to communicate to your clients that your firm provides the best products and services available.
Thus, you’ve attended to your business’s needs with the utmost diligence: spent money in advertising, attended educational lectures and classes, and implemented the latest technology in your profession.
Yet, something is not quite right but you cannot put your finger on it. Your clients are happy – but you’re not attracting “quality” ones.
Maybe you are not attracting the “right ones.” Your staff seems content (for the moment) but internal workings are not flowing easily. You look around and wonder, what’s missing?
What is often missing is an understanding of how the environment – the decor, the architectural elements, the scents, the noise and the particular energy of these elements – affect the day-to-day operations of the office.
You can undertake a renovation, move or add more space. This is a great way to look fresh and updated. Nonetheless, analyzing the inherent energy of the space and its people according to ancient Feng Shui principles may make the difference between an effective office and a pretty space.
The latter temporarily masks the original problems. The design that incorporates Feng Shui principles yields an effective and beautiful space. Additionally, because the space becomes well balanced, it produces an environment that continuously promotes healing and harmony.
Feng Shui is a 6,000-year-old Oriental art and science geared to balancing people and the environment through the use of ancient principles of energy. Particular energies are present in every aspect of the business, including people. Feng Shui recognizes these energies as five elements represented by wood, fire, earth, metal and water that, when manipulated to produce the correct relationships, create harmony.
Thus, a Feng Shui analysis will yield an understanding of how the environment influences work flow and interpersonal relationships within the office, as well as the health and general feeling of the business. It will help uncover “what is missing.”
In reading the energies of the people who work in your office, one may inherently carry wood energy; the other may be an earth kind. These two individuals will have difficulty working together. Adding fire elements (purples, reds or diamonds) will introduce the bridge energy and help both workers coexist in harmony.
Similarly, a staff carrying wood energy will feel overworked, stressed and inefficient in an environment abounding with metal energy – whites, grays and round elements. They will tend to create clutter or feel that the space is crowded, even if it is not. Painting the walls in lavender tones and adding water features or soothing sounds, wavy elements and greenery will provide the nourishment they need to feel supported and productive.
It is well documented that living and working spaces have a profound effect on physical and mental health. An environment created to support the specific energies of its users can make a positive impact in all aspects of your business. Your clients will feel it and want to be a part of it.
The combination of excellent interior design, grounded in Feng Shui principles and the use of non-toxic and sustainable materials, creates a total healing environment.
Lidia Scher is an award-winning interior designer, an accomplished visual artist and Feng Shui master. She has been at the helm of L.A.S. Associates, an interior and architectural design firm based in Arlington, MA for the past 23 years. Her specialty is dental and medical environments where occupants love to be in work in and return to day after day. She is also a partner in Virtual dental Solutions, a web-based consulting company to the dental community.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Power of Integrating Feng Shui Principles
The art & science of Feng Shui is a practical way to arrange a home and office that will enhance relationships, work flow, health and prosperity. The advantages of incorporating these ancient principles when considering a renovation, remodeling, repainting, and/or even prior to buying and selling property can greatly enhance the design/build team and give owners and their property a new lease on life. This is because a layout of a home or office provides hidden cues to the success of the business and of people’s life and career.
When we select a space to live and/or work in it, we do so based on our current thinking and feeling patterns. These patterns are a combination of our passion, attitude, goals and beliefs. You may have discovered that in order to succeed you need to come up with smarter goals and you are eager to implement them. Yet if your office or home environment has been arranged based on your former thinking patterns, your chances of succeeding are greatly dimished. Understanding how to tweak the space to support your new thinking may yield amazing results. Don’t under estimate the impact that your environment has on your life. There are no management systems, marketing efforts, or client-centered practices that can be sustained without a supportive environment. That is the power of using sound design practices that integrate Feng Shui principles!
Lidia Scher is an award-winning interior designer, an accomplished visual artist and Feng Shui master. She has been at the helm of L.A.S. Associates, an interior and architectural design firm based in
email: lidia@e-dds.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Chicken or the Egg of Dental Practice Management
We've all heard the age old question "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" Well... what does this mean when it comes to running your dental practice?
In dentistry you might say, "What came first, the dentist or the dental practice?" When we put things in this perspective, it becomes clear when looking at it from the practice management perspective, that we must start at the beginning - with the dentist - before we try to more effectively manage the dental practice.
What would this look like for practice management? Let's take a practice that is not meeting expectation or goals in any particular area whether in production, revenues, expenses, recare, new patients, etc. The first question to ask and answer is "What have I done as the leader here that has helped create these conditions?" Another perspective is "What have I NOT done that has allowed this to occur?" Often we find that just as with professional sports, when things are not correct, we must go back to fundamentals.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Social Networking Netiquette
Invite friends, co-workers, and other professionals — and friends of friends, co-workers and professionals to join your network. Don’t invite anyone and everyone. Be selective.
You can say, “no, thank you.” No one can force you to join a network. If you can’t say no (maybe because it’s a client), you can always accept the invitation and then go back to the network a day or two later and remove yourself.
Consider their answer to be “No, thank you.” If you invite someone and they ignore your invitation, consider their answer to be no, thank you.
Build it and they will come. Don’t be pushy and try to sell your goods. Establish relationships first.
SOCIAL NETWORKING TIPS:
Do your Homework. Don’t accept every offer to join a social networking group. Do some research. Find out which one is best for you.
Understand the Site Culture and Rules. Each site has them. So be sure to adhere.
Use Caution. Make sure your profile doesn’t include anything you wouldn’t want a prospective client or boss to see. Be careful as to what information you give out.
Toot your own Horn. It’s important to keep your profile updated, along with what you are working on and the successes you are having. Also, it isn’t mandatory to include your photo.
Your Reputation is “On the Line”. Keep your promises. Do what you say you will do. If you say that you will make a make recommendation or introduction, do it.
Prepare to Meet Face-to-Face. Online relationships don’t have to stay there. If you think that a face-to-face meeting will be beneficial, you should plan one. Be courteous with someone’s time and know beforehand what you want from the meeting
FAVORITE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:
www.youtube.com
www.myspace.com (the largest membership of any social networking site on the Internet)
www.digg.com (discover and share content, by submitting links and stories. Vote and comment on submitted links and stories)
www.facebook.com (initially intended for college students – has now branched out to everyone including corporate America)
Meetup.com (a great way to find out about offline group meetings around the world)
www.justin.tv (live streaming video)
www.flickr.com (not only a great storage place for photos, but it is a social network)
www.linkedin.com (powerful business networking tool based on 6 degrees of separation)
www.twitter.com (microblogging. You choose who is allowed to follow you and who you follow. Up-to-date information)
wwwactiverain.com (one of the most popular real estate networks)
Marketing maven Angela Rutzick was one of Boston's 2008 top ten Marketing Agencies by Boston Women's Business Journal and received a Quest Excellence Award for community involvement in 2009. She has over 20 years making her business to understand your business. You can reach her @ Angela@e-dds.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
