Google it. You will find a number of sites that claim Social Networking sites do work. But be careful, many of these sites are also pushing you to purchase products or services associated with them. You might say they, "have a dog in the race."

First, what are Social Network sites? Essentially, they are micro blogs. Blogs have historically proven to be very effective for SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) Twitter is a good example of a micro blog as it only allows 140 characters for you to communicate. Here is how it works. you post "tweets" then people who follow you receive your updates. In theory this is great but keep in mind that most Tweeter users follow dozens of users so in order to stay on top or fresh in the mind you have to constantly be posting to stay on top.

*8:00 "busy day ahead, keep you posted."

*8:15 "First patient needs a full mouth..Cha-ching."

*8:19 "they want to 'think" about it.:(

Bored yet? Imagine how the poor dentist or staff member feels having to post all this? Of course only teenagers would take it to this extreme and most dentist who use Tweeter say they update once a week, but how effective can that be? Probably between, "better than nothing"and "not worth the time."

Companies who are seeing measurable success from Twitter are already well known, established companies with constantly changing content. Ie.. ABC, 24, Wall Street Journal etc... They already have a large database of clients who know who they are and want to hear the latest. Let's be honest, dentistry does change but not as fast as Jack Bauer can.

The biggest success I have heard using Twitter is Dell computers. Big client list and a product that is constantly changing. They will occasionally combine efforts with Twitter and release limited specials to their database. In 2008 they generated 1 million dollars from Twitter. Great money but consider the size of their database.

Facebook was suppose to change the way we communicate. While a very "cool" tool it has yet to live up to the hype or for that matter even turn a profit. The same applies here as it does for Twitter. Personally, HDiQ Dental has a Facebook page that we are experiementing with. We spend a good deal of time updating and putting videos but so far it has produced little if anything except other dentists and labs inviting us to join them.

I am not saying you should not use Twitter and Facebook I am only saying...

A strong web presence and informative and timely blogs are the first step before anyone should even consider Social Networking.

Programs like Ignite Dental are far more effective at helping you Obtain, maintain and regain new patients. Last week the developers announced that Ignite Dental's patient automation service will provide users the ability to create customized websites in about 15 minutes. Nothing new with that but what is unique is in how the programming allows anyone to change metadata to be discovered by the search engines. In other words, let's say you are a dentists in Dallas. Showing up on the first page is either difficult, expensive or probably both. Now it is neither. Now that dallas Dentist can create a page using a simple template. He may want to advertise whitening so he buys the URl (right there on Ignite Dental's site) for (name-Dallasdentist/whitening.com) now any time someone searches for Dallas dentist, or his/her name or for any combination with whitening that dentist comes up. No add words but true specific search engine results. Combining existing technologies and creating a few new ones has taken years to develop but is as simple to use as any template.

Bottom line, this service will allow a dentist to dominate an area by purchasing all the sites with their name an services they provide. It is the new frontier and a lot of land is up for grabs still. Best of all it is immediately effective and like the rest of the services with Ignite Dental like e-mail and text reminder, offline marketing, surveys and more it is all automatic. Set it up once and forget it.

Ignite Dental is still looking for a few more beta testers to try this out for free. To see if you qualify as a Beta tester and to learn more click here to watch the video to hear more of the details.

At least once a week a dentist asks me something like this, "How do I build my practice?" It is a simple question but has so many layers of intent. Some are asking "how do I get current patients to accept care?" Others are saying, "how do I affordably attract new patients?" In this economy, dentist are seeing fewer and fewer full mouth reconstructions. In fact, the return to "bread and butter" dentistry is here.

Now, more than ever it is critical to Obtain, Maintain and Regain ™patients. While I believe Ignite Dental is a great product to do that, this blog is not about that. It is, quite simply, how to build your practice, especially a general dentistry practice in any economic times.

Recently I had the privilege of working with Dr. Marvin Berlin of McKinney Dentist. com. His practice is located just outside of Dallas in a fast growing but still rural area. He, along with his three partners, run a general dental practice that produces over 1 million dollars a month. He is currently gaining over 250 new patients a month and is on track to meet or beat last years numbers. This is not Dr. Larry Rosenthal's practice that is a boutique type catering to Donald Trump (which by the way is a great model to imitate if you wish) no, this is everyday dentistry.

We met at his barn, now let me be clear hear. Calling this place a barn is like calling the Four Seasons a motel. See the picture above. I wish I slept as well as the horses do.

Dr. Berlin is a wonderfully humble person who wanted me to see this as a testament to the fact that any reasonably skilled dentist can build an amazing practice. Just being around him for a couple of hours you start to believe you really can. What I thought was so interesting is that while we taped his discussion and lecture, it occurred to me that most people already know what he was suggesting. The problem is that most of them were not following through.

The entire program is up on HDiQ Dental and is already one of the most popular programs. Here are just a few of the tips Dr. Berlin discusses in detail. Here is a short sample from the program.

Those two tips alone are worth the time to watch the entire program. What I have learned from Dr. Berlin and the rest of our presenters who all have successful practices is that it is the little things that set you apart. As Zig Ziglar says you can take 211 degree water and do a lot of things with it. You can shave, make soup or coffee. But if you add just one more degree, now you have 212 degree water which boils and which produces steam and with that steam you can create enough energy to power a city. If your practice is at 211 degrees, make 2010 a year of 1 degree of separation.