A Few Ways You Can Measure Social Media-Part 2 of 3

3. Make a note of the less obvious benchmarks:
Research SEO rankings and referrals, customer satisfaction scores and other business data.

4. Make a note of ROI benchmarks:
How much are you paying to acquire customers via other marketing channels? How vast is that advertising budget, and how is it being split up? And what proportion is being directed into channels that you cannot accurately measure?

Submitted by Lidia Scher -Lidia@e-dds.com

Contact Angela@e-dds.com for a quick conversation on these important measures!

A FEW WAYS YOU CAN MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA-Part 1 of 3.

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

Get your team on one page for harmony, efficiency and growth

You entered dentistry because you had a vision for helping people. Now you want your practice to fulfill that vision. Yet it is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day details of running an office that eventually leads to losing your focus.

To work on what is most important, start with a short business plan. Share it with your staff to get everyone on the same page.

Create harmony in your office
Make your office a harmonious work place. Have each member understand his or her role, how it fits into the bigger picture, and how the team works as a whole. Create a climate that acknowledges and celebrates success. Your patients will sense and experience the harmony in your office, as well.

By writing a One Page Business Plan R and sharing it with your staff, you can consistently communicate to them the vision, mission and measures of your practice. When everyone is aligned with the plan, harmony is one beneficial result.

Create efficiency in your office
Running a dental practice is like running a small business. You need systems, methods and quality standards. You also need a way to track and measure performance. Yet you don’t want to get overly complicated. The strategy section of a One Page Business Plan is the place to capture the best practices and methods for an efficient practice.


Create growth for your practice
For a profitable practice, you should determine the key financial measurements for your practice. First, understand your breakeven point. This means understanding your variable and fixed costs and determining your pricing structure.

Next understand how to attract and retain patients. Create a marketing strategy to retain patients and gain referrals that your and your team can implement to keep your practice full.

When you have your team working together to maintain and improve skill level, patient satisfaction and efficiency, your business is poised to thrive and grow.

Capture your best thinking on a single page
Michael Gerber, author of the classic book, The e-Myth Revisited, cautions the entrepreneur to work on your business, not in your business. As a dentist, this means being the leader of your practice, creating clear, consistent practices that take the guess work out of daily activities. It also means that while you use your expertise in treating patients, you also spend time on the essential practice-building activities.

It’s easy to lead your staff when you can get everyone on the same page. They will be inspired when you share the vision and mission of your practice and how each person contributes. Use your plan to:

• Embrace best practices.
• Create systems and policies that are clear.
• Communicate consistently.

This minimizes confusion and frustration. Your team members will be on board and new staff members can get up to speed quickly.

You can write your plan on your own with the help of the book, The One Page Business Plan. or you might consider working with a One Page Business Plan Certified Consultant to speed up the process, get expert advice and an outside, objective perspective.

Amy Grossman, MBA, is founder of the business coaching and consulting practice, Broader Vision. Amy is a One Page Business Plan Certified Consultant and has served on the executive board of the International Coach Federation, New England Chapter. You can email her at amy@broadervision.com.

Keeping Your Cross In Balance

Let's face it…not may people love going to the dentist. They feel stressed. I can say from experience as an emergency room nurse-turned dentist that the level of stress, albeit different, is high in both environments. As a nurse, everyone was glad to see me, seek my help or care. As a dentist, most patients want good oral health and a pretty smile, but don't usually relish a trip to the dentist. In our practice, we have been able to change this attitude by going the extra mile to make our patients feel welcome. It all starts with a philosophy that is mindful of “the cross”.

In our office patients quickly note the beauty and flow of our Feng Shui designed office, the carefully selected art, the pretty "live" flowers and the nice warm smiles to greet them. Our staff is trained to pamper. We offer Bose headsets and MP3 players, warm fleecy blankets to snuggle under, a place for their shoes if desired, dark "safety" sunglasses and heated seat. Are we at a spa? NO! But when our patients can relax and feel pampered our job as dental professionals becomes easier.

How do you get to that place? You create a philosophy of care that suits your style. Ours is “pampered, warm and cozy”; and as a practice we follow the motto of “… keep(ing our) cross in balance", as outlined by L.D. Pankey.

To construct your own cross, write WORSHIP at the top.
Below and to the left, write WORK . To the right, write PLAY.
Write LOVE at the bottom.

When your life is weighted too far in one direction, the three other areas suffer. And then, something gives: divorce, staff leaves, kids feel neglected and get in trouble, you feel like you have to work all the time and can't enjoy your life, it seems meaningless…It goes on and on. Asking for help when you cannot manage was the choice I made.

With the help of The Pankey Institute in Key Biscayne, Fla, I feel I have been able to keep my cross in balance. The expense of attending was returned 10 fold just in the week's following each course. I didn't become a "Pankey Office" I became Dr. Dianne B's office. My designer didn't design the "Feng Shui office" she designed a Feng Shui office personalized for my staff and I. This transformation and stability didn't happen overnight; we evolved over several years, and are still growing. In my case, The Pankey Institute offered a well-rounded course to help run my practice, be a better dentist and be financially sound, yet still have time to raise a busy family.
The combination of a well-designed office and the advice of a top of the line management consulting firm continues to reap its benefits. Recently, a favorite patient of mine met my husband on a Boy Scout camping trip. His new job requires commuting Sunday night through Friday night to another state, and thus had to transfer dentists. He told my husband he really didn't realize how special our office was until he was lying there in a cold unfriendly office, people too busy or grouchy to smile or show they cared about him, the quality of the cleaning was not a good etc. etc. That indirect feedback was music to my ears. You can make a difference in your patients’ lives. Not only doesn’t have to be that bad to go to the dentist. Gee…it might even feel like an hour of rest for weary soul. Have a great rest of the summer!

Dianne B. is a seasoned dentist practicing in Massachusetts.

Marketing Don't Checklist

Don’t send out copy with spelling or grammatical errors.

Always proofread and use your spell check

Don’t show off how many fonts you have when designing a project.

Select only 2 – 3 fonts at the most.

Don’t wait.

Always ask at the end of a project when a client is pleased with the outcome for a referral.

Don’t be the world’s best kept secret.

Network, join organizations, write articles, blog.

Don’t sell on price. You won’t win in the long run.

Sell on value. What is your value proposition?

“Don’t make enemies….

Cultivate opposites” (Thomas Watson, Jr., of IBM)

A good enemy forces you to improve your company. As was the case with Apple and IBM — it helped Apple succeed.

Don’t try and do it all yourself.

Hire people who excel at what you don’t

Don’t forget to track what you do.

Important to find out which of your efforts generate the highest returns and capitalize on your successes

Don’t wait for the media to find you

Write a letter or article to the local paper.

Don’t ignore your customers

Write a bi-monthly newsletter or hot tips. Clip articles that may be of interest to them.

Submitted by marketing maven Angela Rutzick who can be reached @ Angela@e-dds.com