March 2017 - David Schwab, Ph.D.

Five Ways News Releases Help Your Dental Practice

News releases help your dental practice in five major ways:

News releases are a great way to boost your website search engine optimization (SEO). When a news release is published nationwide through a news distribution service, it will likely appear on the websites of various newspapers and television stations. Your practice website URL is included as a link in the release, so you will have what are called “backlinks” to your website on those media sites. Backlinks are very valuable for SEO because if your website is important enough to be included as a link on another website, then Google will rank your website higher for search purposes. It does not matter if your release appears on a news website in another state. It is true that if you are in Chicago you will not get patients from a local television news station’s website in Dallas, but Google is still likely to reward you for the link with a higher search engine ranking.
The release may be picked up by your local media. It’s not a given, because competition for news release placement is strong, but a media outlet in your area could either choose to publish the release on its website or—best case scenario—contact you for an interview. While you cannot expect your release to appear on page one of your local newspaper, the goal is to have it published on many media websites, and your local media outlets are logical targets.
A professionally done release looks impressive. The release can be printed in PDF format. You can frame it and put it on a wall, include it in patient information packets, or pass it out at health fairs. Specialists can distribute the release to referring dentists. You should also, of course, publish the electronic version on your own website.
News releases have “legs,” which means that releases show up in Internet searches for a considerable period of time. I have written news releases for doctors and found them by doing a Google search for the doctor’s name eighteen months after distribution. The more hits for your name or your practice’s name on Google, the better. In addition, it is impressive when someone finds a news release about you on the Internet, because it makes you look important and newsworthy.
The news release is searchable content on the Internet. If you practice in Nashville and the release is about your work with dental implants, for example, then someone may find your name because they are searching for “dental implants Nashville.” The release pops up on a media website, you are positioned as the expert, and the release has a link to your practice website.

Opportunities for news release content abound.

You may have great material for news releases if:

You have won an award or received other recognition.
A new doctor has joined the practice.
You have opened or renovated a dental office.
You have lectured at a major dental meeting.
You have introduced a new treatment modality into your practice.
You are the first or only doctor in your area to incorporate certain equipment or modalities into your practice.
You have published an article in a scientific journal and you want to share the information with the public in laymen’s terms.

Writing and publishing news releases will require a degree of experience and expertise. If you have an idea for a release or questions about the process and would like some guidance, please contact me. Sending out a news release is a straightforward project that requires very little of the doctor’s time and has the potential to significantly benefit the practice.

www.davidschwab.com

Social Media Content–An Unlimited Source in Your Dental Practice

Social media content–as much as you’ll every need–is right in your own practice. Your patients provide unlimited content for social media, because you tell their stories. I write social media content for doctors as a turnkey service, but whether I write it or you do it yourself, the stories from your practice are unique.

I always use an attention-getting headline. Listed below are three excerpts (not the full blogs) of stories from three different practices that really grab the reader’s attention. These constituent great social media content.

“If you hurt me, doc, I’m going to throw you out the window.”

A patient who was a professional football player came in to see me. He had known that his upper teeth in particular were failing for a long time and also was told that he was losing them and that he would have to wear a denture. He said that he just could not wear a denture because it was not in his personality and he was a tough guy. In fact, he threatened to throw me out the window if I hurt him. We are on the second floor with shatterproof glass, so I knew that was not going to be a pleasant experience. [The blog ends with the story of how the patient was very happy with treatment.]

Patient Too Embarrassed for Years for Photos Now Smiles for the Camera with Her Son

I had a patient had never had another picture taken with her then 13-year-old son after the day he was born. She had only one picture taken when her son was born. She lacked confidence due to her dental issues, and she did not have any more pictures taken until, literally, the day that we delivered, not only her implants, but her immediate fixed teeth.

That was actually the first time in almost 13 years that she had a picture taken with her son. I had no idea that we were making that kind of an impact. I thought I was simply helping a woman who was having trouble chewing due to failing dentition. The implant dentistry treatment gave her confidence and changed her life in more ways than one.

“Wow!” That’s What Patients Say After Dental Laser Treatment

The comment I get most often from patients after laser surgery is, “Wow! It was so much easier than I expected.” Patients tell me that they hardly have any discomfort. They may take an over the counter product such as Motrin or Tylenol for two days at the most and then they report that they feel fine.

As you can see from these examples, your social media content should be interesting and educational. When the content is about your practice and your patients, it is customized and compelling.

davidschwab.com

How to Write Killer Content for Social Media

Wanted: killer content. In my last blog I talked about how to fill up your blog “bucket” on your website with content and send that content out to social media. (Click here to see that post.) Here are some tips for writing killer social media content.

Start with a compelling title. If you are writing about dental implants, for example, here’s a sample title: Dental implants Give Woman, 85, New Lease on Life Says Dallas Dentist Dr. John Smile. The opening provides a success story in just a few words. There is an 85-year-old woman who is now very happy with dental implants, so the reader is thinking that, yes, older adults can have dental implants.
Put key words in the title. “Dental implants” is a good choice. Notice also that the phrase “Dallas dentist” is included. Some people search for that exact term. The doctor’s name is also included in the headline. You want to be very visible on the web. The more times your name is mentioned in a professional context, the better.
Limit the title to no more than 70 characters, including spaces. There are different authorities who will give you a slightly lower or higher number, but 70 characters maximum for a blog title will work out fine. If the title is longer, it will likely be cut off by the search engine results page (SERP).
Make the blog interesting and informative. Here is an excerpt from the body of the blog: “When I first met her, the patient was unhappy. She could not eat the foods of her choice and she thought she was too old to have dental implant treatment. Now that her dental implant treatment has been completed, she never stops smiling! She eats all her favorite foods, she has a terrific smile, and she does not have to worry about traditional dentures that slip, click, or cause embarrassment. She says she feels young again thanks to dental implants, and she certainly acts that way.” Now that’s killer content!
Include a link to your website at the end of the blog. Some people will click and be taken right to your website. Your content is not only about your practice; it leads back to your practice.
Use different authors. When I write blogs and social media content for dental practices, I interview not only the doctor, but team members as well. The result is that there are blogs from the doctor and also some from the unique perspective of the team
Include an image to make the blog post memorable. An image helps give the blog credibility and may induce someone to spend extra time looking at your blog post and reading it. A great site for finding free images is pexels.com.

In Part 3, I will discuss how to find a never-ending source of killer content for your blogs and social media accounts right in own practice.

www.davidschwab.com

How Blog and Social Media Content Boost SEO (Part 1)

Social media and blogs significantly help SEO. A website that looks great but ranks on page two is akin to being exiled to Siberia; anything lower than page two and you might as well advertise your practice on Neptune. So how to you get to and stay on page one of Google?

To keep up your rankings, you need to post a regular blog and then push that same content out to your social media accounts.

What is a blog?

The term “blog” is an amalgamation of two words: web and log. Blog is an unfortunate term because it sounds like a Soviet housing project. Linguistic prejudice aside, I can define a blog as an article written to inform. Think of a regular newspaper column on sports or politics. On the Internet, the columnist would be called a “blogger.” Use your blog to as your personal column in your own publication (your website) to tell people what you do and invite them to come to your office so you can solve their dental problems.

How long is a blog?

Unlike newspaper columns that have rigid length requirements due to space considerations, a blog can be almost any length. However, Google wants blogs to be at least 300 words in length, because Google does not want to reward frequently blogging with higher search engine rankings if a blog is only one sentence long. Some “long form” blogs are thousands of words in length and they can greatly help SEO, but those types of blogs will be discussed at another time. For now, think 300 words.

What does the blog live?

The blog should be visible or at least accessible on your website. It’s a simple matter for your webmaster to install a button that people can click to access your blog. Blog hosting can be handled in many different ways. Many blogs are hosted by WordPress, a service that makes posting very easy. In fact, if you can copy and paste text in Microsoft Word, then you can figure out how to copy your article into WordPress to create a blog.

How does a blog help SEO?

Two ways. First, by posting regularly (once a week or at least several times per month), you continually add new content to your website and that helps SEO. Second, you can push the blog out to your social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter. When someone clicks on the headline content on Facebook, for example, the entire blog opens. If everything has been set up properly, the reader is actually now on your website, which of course means one more click. Google gives you credit for lots of clicks because Google thinks your website must be important if it is drawing many visitors.

How do I find the time to write a blog?

Writing a blog can be time consuming. Web developers are continually asking doctors for content, and doctors always say that they do not have time. I have developed a blog and social media creation service. I write all the content for an entire year based on a phone interview with the doctor and staff. When this customized content is “in the bank,” so to speak, it is easy to grab a new ready-to-go blog each week and post it. Problem solved.

If you prefer to write blogs yourself, I will discuss the elements of a good blog and give you tips in my next posting, Part 2.