Death to the Yellow Pages

Let's talk about dentists and social media. What?? Yeah, keep reading. It gets better.

So, back in the old days, how'd you find a dentist? Why, you went to the only one in town! Times, changed, towns turned into cities, more dentists, how'd you know which one to go to? You looked in the phone book and/or checked your insurance book.

Times changed. There are thousands of listings for dentists in your area; you're not even sure if they are dentists; You no longer have dental insurance, etc. You turn to your co-workers and friends -- on Facebook.

Yep, I just witnessed the most awesome dental referral and social media yesterday. A friend of mine asked on Facebook if anyone knew of a good dentist in Lakeland. Several of her friends began responding. Within minutes, she had not only names but phone numbers and addresses for several dentists in the area, complete with cute stories ("I've known Dr. Brown since I was a toddler...").

You know how Facebook works... her friends responded, and being one of her friends, I could see the responses. When I responded, MY friends could see her post and actually, they too could have posted. What happens is all of the sudden, hundreds of people can "help out" via Facebook. Do you think she looked in the phonebook when all was said and done, or do you think she took her list of 9 dentists and sought more information for her particular needs? You got it... the latter.

How cool is social media? For a whole lot of dentists in Lakeland, pretty dang cool for the free pub they got yesterday!