When a new social media platform like Google+ is launched on the Internet it’s easy to understand why dentists might become overwhelmed and want to ignore this new dental marketing vector.
But a social media service launched by a company as large as Google has the potential to impact you and your dental practice marketing, whether you understand it or not.
Here at The Wealthy Dentist we believe that ignoring Google Plus would be a huge mistake for any dentist seeking to create new relationships with dental patients and potential new dental patients through social media.
We do understand our dentist’s social media angst, so we decided to conduct a survey asking dentists if they are using Google Plus.
We were excited to see that 36% of the dentist respondents are currently using Google Plus, but 48% are not.
“I haven’t done a thing with Google Plus since I got on,” confessed one orthodontist.
Another 16% are planning on using Google Plus at some point in the near future.
Here are some dentist comments:
“I don’t trust GOOGLE! Their products are useful, however, I can’t buy the excuse of a bunch of computer geeks not knowing they are disabling security systems and collecting/selling way more personal information than they want us to know!” (General dentist)
“Google Plus doesn’t seem to have any impact as of yet though, not enough people using it as with Facebook.” (Oregon dentist)
“Love it – it’s better than Facebook.” (California dentist)
“I don’t know that we need it.” (Oklahoma dentist)
“What is Google Plus?” (Georgia dentist)
“Definitively need to spend some time looking into this.” (Illinois dentist)
“We are finding that we don’t like the recent changes to Facebook so we are ready to look at using Google Plus.” (Pennsylvania dentist)
“I think it could confuse ability to monitor your own website results.” (General dentist)
“How can Google Plus help my dental practice?” (Florida dentist)
Bottom line — if you can’t see the dental marketing value in engaging with your dental patients on social media, then Google Plus probably won’t grab your attention.
But if the prospect of engaging with your patients and exposing them to more of your services through social media, it might be to your benefit to get to know Google Plus.
