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Friday, March 5, 2010

The Importance of Reviews!

Your online reviews are becoming more and more important. Consumers are getting smarter about how they use the internet and they are looking for more information about you and your practice than what you present on your website.

Having a first-page listing, an authoritative website, and a blog that lets consumers get to know you are all great ways to generate web business, but off-site information about you matters too. A big source of information about you are the reviews on your Google Local Listing.

Not only does Google use the reviews on your Local Listing to rank where you show up on a local search, but your potential leads are choosing whether to contact you based on the reviews they find in that listing. The more positive reviews you have, the better you show up and the more business your listing will generate.

Here are ways to get more reviews:
  • Ask for them! For doctors, a great time to ask for reviews is during a follow-up appointment. Patients have had a chance to get complimented on the work, they've lived with the results for a while and they are happy, so take advantage! If you are a lawyer, ask for a review right after you settle a case.
  • If your office sends out a newsletter, link to your Google Local Listing in it and ask for reviews.
  • Post a link to your Listing on your Facebook or Twitter page! This is a great way to use social media.
Ask your Account Manager for a one-page information sheet that explains how to post a review. We can customize it with a link to your Google Local Listing and you can give it directly to your clients. This is a great way to improve your online image!

posted by Erica at 3:33 PM 0 comments

Friday, February 26, 2010

6 Tips for Engaging Facebook Fans

It seems that February unofficial became social media month for me. I worked with several clients to setup new Facebook fan pages and discussed how to get more fans. But whether the client was new to Facebook or had a fan page for awhile, I found myself having the conversation of "How to make the Facebook fan page better?" over and over again. Here are a few tips.

Tip #1 - Start a Discussion
The entire basis of social media is to connect and share. By utilizing the discussion application, you open up your fan page from being a source of information about the practice page to an engaging social media page.
An easy way to start a discussion is to ask for opinions or questions about a recent news topic connected to your industry. For example, if you're a plastic surgery practice you could start a discussion about ABC News' story on Fat Transfer for Breast Augmentation. You can briefly share your thoughts about the procedure and/or story and end by asking fans what their thoughts are or if they have any questions they would like answered about the procedure.

Write a teaser and post a link to the discussion page as a wall update. If you're having trouble getting the discussion started, encourage practice staff or other people you know well to comment. I also recommend posting a link to the discussion on your personal page to get things rolling.

Tip #2 - Take a Poll
This is a quick and simple way for your fans to share their opinion. You can poll about anything, but keep it related to the practice in some way. If you've been thinking about doing a special on a service but not sure where to start, then ask your fans what procedure they would be most interested in getting if money wasn't an issue. As an extra incentive to cast their vote, you can offer a free or discounted service to one randomly chosen voter.

You can also make it as fun as well as research based. For example if you're a dental practice and a hygienist gets a new puppy you can have the fans vote for its name. Does your practice make philanthropic contributions? You can have your fans vote to determine which charity you'll give to or participate in. The possibilities are endless.

Tip #3 - Setup an Event
This is a great way to connect with your fans offline as well as online. I recommend keeping the event related to your business. For example, a plastic surgery center that has an Aesthetician can do a wine and skin care evening. You can add details about the event, receive RSVPs, and much more. The event application can also be used as notification tool if someone in the practice is speaking at an event, being featured on TV or radio, or is making any other form of public appearance.

Tip #4 - Join the Conversation
I've seen numerous pages that don't allow its visitors to comment on their videos, posts or photos. I highly discourage this. Even if you allow comments, you still have control over whether they are visible or not. But it is not enough just to allow comments. You must join the conversation! If someone leaves a comment, don't forget to comment back. To ensure timely responses, I recommend having a dedicated admin for this.

Tip #5 - Become a Resource for Information
The most common mistake I see are a fan pages that only talks about their business toting their own specials, blog posts, staff, etc. and nothing else. While it is a good idea to share that information on the page (after all it is your practice's page!), I recommend publishing interesting and relevant content about your industry. Have you recently read an interesting or relevant blog that someone else wrote? Then share it! This helps to make users not only fans, but repeat visitors.

Tip# 6 - Offer Exclusive Incentives to Fans
While I realize this may not be feasible for every business, for many businesses it is. When someone new becomes a fan, send them a welcome message with the incentive. Recently I began following a company on twitter and received a message from them thanking me for following them, as well as a code for 15% off one of their services!

In addition to sending out initial fan incentives, you can periodically send incentives to all of your fans or even just the fans that are active on your page thanking them for their input.

The fundamental basis of all social networks is connection and sharing. To do that it's essential to engage your audience. Need more help? Your Page 1 Account Manager can work with you to get the conversation started!

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posted by Jessica at 1:09 PM 0 comments

Monday, February 22, 2010

New Website

Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Keith Blankenship has a brand new website. He offers full service dentistry to people in the Jacksonville, FL area. Dr. Blankenship is an LVI fellow and has numerous memberships in prestigious organizations including Florida Dental Association (FDA). http://www.pontevedradental.com/index.html

posted by Millicent at 10:45 AM 0 comments

Friday, February 19, 2010

Resolution Evolution

Screen resolution and screen dimensions, used synonymously, represent the physical number of columns and rows of pixels you are viewing on your monitor (e.g. 1024 x 768).

As monitors and technology advance, so does the average screen resolution. Currently, 20% of people view their screens in 1024(W) x 768(H) screen resolution. This used to be the resolution a majority of people used, but now, due to the creation and distribution of wide-screen monitors, 76% of people use screen resolutions that are larger than 1024(W) x 768(H). Over the last six months, only 2.6% (average) of all viewers have used browsers with 800 x 600 screen resolution.

Previously, designers used to focus heavily on keeping the most important elements "above the fold" on a monitor (the point at the bottom of the screen you can see before having to scroll down). This was considered crucial to ensuring people with smaller screen resolutions are able to see the most important design features of a site since the design would be compacted or cut off in order to fit in the smaller resolution. The down side of trying to accommodate viewers with smaller resolutions was the creation of "top heavy" designs. Fortunately, as the web has evolved and technology has advanced, web users have become more savvy and don't think twice about scrolling through pages. This offers more freedom in where design elements may be placed.

While it still tends to be a better practice to keep the most important and sought after design elements above the fold (e.g phone numbers and addresses), it is also noteworthy when considering design to limit the amount of horizontal lines that are present at the fold. Having multiple horizontal design elements at the fold might accidentally trick the viewer into thinking they are at the bottom of the screen and prevent them from following their instinct to scroll.

Resolutions continue to be a factor in designing websites, but fortunately it is easy to test designs to confirm they translate throughout all current resolutions than it used to be. If you'd like to know what screen resolution you are using, click here.

posted by Lesa at 4:22 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Key is Connecting

It is well known that Search Engine Optimization is crucial to getting potential customers to your site, but how do you get them to stay and contact you? There are a lot of elements of your website that can affect a lead's decision to contact you or keep shopping, here are a few:
  • Is the site welcoming? Are there photos of your office staff? Pictures of your staff help people know what they will be seeing when they come in to your office.
  • Do you update your own blog? Personal updates can make a big difference. Write a quick blog entry about a recent case you worked on or charity event your office participated in - these can help web visitors feel like they know you before they ever step foot in your office.
  • Calls to Action - Well-designed buttons and images that call attention to items like financing options or your page on Facebook can help patients get to know more about your practice.
  • Contact Info - Is it easy to get a hold of you? Is the phone number easy to find? Are there contact forms on each page? If a lead has to think too hard about how to contact you, they won't do it.
Finally, make sure you are tracking the phone leads from your website. Talk to your account manager about getting a call-tracking number so you can really track of the value of your SEO.

Connecting with potential leads is crucial, even if your website is on the first page of Google. Don't let your site get passed up because your personality isn't there!

posted by Erica at 4:17 PM 0 comments

Botax??

Did you know that there could be a 5% tax in 2010 on cosmetic procedures to help fund the health care reform?

Seemingly, this new tax would target the wealthy with enough expendable income to be able to afford elective procedures. However, it's arguably a very sexist and classist tax that most Americans are not happy about.

This proposed tax will ultimately affect middle class women. Almost 90% of all cosmetic procedures are performed on women with an average annual income starting at just $30,000 (71% of those who get plastic surgery make less than $60,000 annually).

In addition to the discriminatory issues with this tax, it would also likely drive cosmetic procedures overseas. In 2004, New Jersey enforced a 6% tax on cosmetic procedures which caused residents to travel to surrounding states (particularly to New York and Pennsylvania) or even overseas for their cosmetic procedure(s), where surgery risks and complications are much higher than in the states.

Here are some good articles I found on the topic:

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Media/Press_Releases/Nationwide_Survey_Shows_Americans_Oppose_a_Cosmetic_Tax.html

http://www.atr.org/cosmetic-tax-failed-economic-discrimination-policy-a3596#

posted by Mandy W. at 3:24 PM 0 comments

Monday, February 15, 2010

Keep up with Changing Times

Google has a new search algorithm called Caffeine coming out in early 2010. Once Caffeine is implemented, users will not likely find the search result experience much different, but webmasters may see their placement results climb or fall based on changes made for Caffeine.

Some of the factors that could influence your results on Caffeine include:
• Frequency of updates to site
• Load time for website
• Broken links
• Links out to relevant websites
• Social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) updates will be listed high in Google

Page 1's SEO and Social media teams are already implementing many procedures and are ready for this change:

1) We regularly test sites to ensure there are no broken links.
2) Improving code to ensure optimum load times for sites.
3)We recommend regular updates to websites such as page additions, blogs, and videos.
4) Our social media specialists send updates to Facebook, Twitter etc.

If you are concerned about improving or maintaing your website results please contact us for recommendations that apply to you.

posted by Erika at 12:19 PM 0 comments