where the magic happens blurredThanks for checking out my blog. I’m pretty proud of it. I’ve been writing it since 2008, although I only got serious about it in about 2010. Since I overhauled the site in July 2011, it really took off. And that’s probably how you found it.

You’re either already a friend of mine on Facebook and saw one of my posts, or a friend of yours read it, commented on it or “liked” it on Facebook and then it got to you. Which really is a testament to the power of social media in general and blogging in particular. Some guy in Saginaw wrote an article on his website, promoted it on Facebook, and somehow it virally made it to your screen. Pretty amazing, really.

That’s why I blog. It’s not the only reason I blog, but it’s one of the big ones. I love the spreading of ideas. MY ideas. I like the fact that I can use my sense of humor and my writing style to bring a different angle to the conversation about dentists, prevention and our profession. It lets current patients as well as potential new patients know about the flavor of my office. Every office has a flavor. People will have an idea of what to expect at my office because of my blog.

Another great reason to blog is for search engine results. This site does quite well with search engines. I don’t pay anyone to keep me on the first page of Google. I just write posts about dental topics I find interesting in a way that I think patients would like. Search engines really dig this. They also like the fact that there is new content quite regularly. They figure a site that’s generating content on a regular basis is more relevant that a site that isn’t. It also serves as an archive of how I teach patients about dentistry. I can link back to stuff I’ve written on different topics in the operatory as well as in emails to patients.

The bottom line…blogging works. Really well.

You should probably have a blog. Many dental website designs include a blog, but most of them are under construction. Worse than that, some of their blogs are filled with content written by someone else. Most of this content is rehashed on lots and lots of blogs that this company is paid to keep up. It’s usually pretty dull stuff, and since it’s on many, many sites it doesn’t do anything for the search engines. In fact, if search engines suspect it’s not original they can even ding your search engine results because of it!

If you have a blog like that, you should probably stop. It’s better to have no blog than one that’s being used on many sites.

I can practically hear what’s going through your mind:

“I don’t like/am not good at writing.”

“I don’t have time to write a blog.”

That’s where I come in. You can hire me to write for your office blog. Or you can hire me to coach you on blogging. If you have any interest at all, you should email me at alan@meadfamilydental.com. I’ll send you a price list and even give you some ideas on how to make a blog work for your website.

Blogging works. It’s probably the most underused form of social media marketing. And it can work for you.