The Internet world of Social Networking, Try Updates YouTube, MySpace, and Web 2.0 are the “New Frontier” in PR marketing for orthodontic and professional practices. Marketing-savvy professionals willing to venture outside their comfort zone and embrace the new age of online marketing for small businesses will lead the way, guaranteeing their future positioning in online marketing. Combining online and offline marketing strategies to market your practice to the current tech-savvy generations effectively requires a synergy of marketing modalities. Capturing the attention of the most entrepreneurial, overstressed, and skeptical generations to date requires a new way of thinking from professional practices.

Internet

GenX, GenY, and Global Tweens are flocking to Web 2.0 locations where they:

* Blog and leave comments; voice their opinions, good and bad

* Listen to audio and watch videos on the specific content of interest to them

* Research on business/special interest websites to gain information

* Are entertained

* Communicate in social communities such as MySpace, Facebook, etc.

There isn’t a subject or idea with an online community where people share information, ideas, news, and thoughts. The goal of web 2.0 marketing is to embrace this type of information gathering and proactively join in to increase patient awareness of your practice and services.

Your Digital Fingerprint

Internet marketing is “evergreen,” leaving a digital fingerprint of who you are and what your practice is all about. Taking marketing responsibility for your business with the latest in Web 2.0 marketing tactics is the preferred communication tool of tech-savvy generations when gathering information. Failing to understand this new phenomenon may prove disastrous for those unwilling to update their marketing strategies.

Once on the web, your message is broadcast to the world. Attracting and maintaining attention once visitors click on your site is what Web 2.0 is all about. Companies of all shapes, sizes, and product/service categories will drop an estimated $1.4 billion on social media advertising this year alone. By 2012, the investment should double. Online marketing is the most direct means of reaching patients interested in your treatment services.

Old traditional marketing methods no longer cut it. Melding successful marketing tactics that include word-of-mouth marketing with online digital technology is a winning combination. It is also the most direct and cost-effective means of educating potential patients. The challenge for marketers is understanding social media, how it works/interacts, which avenue(s) you use, how you measure social media results, and the obstacles.

Social media:

Is all about people and building relationships; sharing opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with others can generate effective viral word of mouth for your treatment services is an arena dominated by early adopters (revolutionaries) willing to lead the way for others through the new Internet frontier will become increasingly significant in influencing how other practices follow the “Internet Cowboys” who lead online marketing tactics in orthodontics provides a unique opportunity to connect with referring professionals and patients to gain feedback and provide content-rich information.

The demand, the interest, and the need for social networking are growing in leaps and bounds. The Internet is no longer the future of marketing... it is NOW. However, the window of opportunity to take advantage of positioning is limited. Savvy online marketers implementing successful marketing strategies to stake their claim in online marketing real estate today will be tough

to unseat with the current rules of online social networking tomorrow. It is forecast that Internet traffic will quadruple by 2010. The ability to understand and engage your target market with the laws of online marketing is critical to the future growth of your practice. If you think email is overpowering you, it is inconsequential compared to the volume of content that is being streamed, pushed, and pulled across the Internet.

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