Virtual Magazine Rack

A new web site named Maggwire.com provides magazine publishers with a new means to distribute their content online.

Maggwire intends to apply the i-Tunes business model to magazine publishing, which you probably already know is drowning in red ink.

According to a company press release, "For the first time, magazine readers can select a topic and browse current magazine articles from a pool of more than 600 leading magazine publications.

While Maggwire Beta is currently free, the company is partnering with magazine publishers to develop Maggwire Premium, a subscriber model that will deliver premium magazine content exclusively to Maggwire users."

So what's the big deal? Magazine publishers have been putting their content online for years. Many have tried to charge for so-called premium content with few takers. Why is Maggwire.com any different?

The company's co-founder and COO, Jian Chai readily admits that virtually all digital initiatives by magazine publishers to date have been failures. The reason? "Magazines have achieved limited innovation compared to music, videos and books," explains Chai. "Now we finally have a product focused on delivering an incredible experience to readers, while helping magazine publishers and advertisers reach their goals."

The user experience will be shaped and driven by social intelligence technology.  In other words, based on your reader preference history, Maggwire "learns" what you like to read and then makes recommendations accordingly.

Here's how your preference history is tabulated: As you read and rate articles with 1-5 stars, Maggwire.com builds a personalized profile of your interests. The company then uses that information to "predict" how you will rate newly-published articles.

What's more, unlike Amazon's and Apple's proprietary approach to content distribution, Maggwire is an open platform, accessible from any phone, computer or digital reader.

The amount of magazine titles available on Maggwire.com surpasses that found on traditional news stands. However, no dental publications yet.

Hygienist be Heard!

In case you weren't aware, Lanmark Group (my employer) is conducting an online survey for dental hygienists only.

We believe the hygienist's opinion, insight, and point-of-view are extremely valuable when it comes to product preferences, day-to-day office procedures, social media usage, career satisfaction, CE/training programs, patient communication, etc.

The survey will take about 20 minutes, but think of it as spending quality time with someone who truly values your input.  So if you've ever thought to yourself "How come no one asks what the hygienist thinks?" Here's your chance to be heard.

By the way, if you take part, you'll be entered for a chance to win a Grand Prize of an Amazon Kindle™ 2 (retail value $299). You’ll also have the chance to win one of five $50 VISA gift cards...Not too shabby!

Here'e the link: http://bit.ly/EaHlT - Feel free to forward to your hygienist colleagues!

Twitter: It's In The Way That You Use It

According to Newsweek writer Daniel Lyons, Twitter is “a playground for imbeciles, skeevy marketers, D-list celebrity half-wits and pathetic attention seekers." He also cites a recent report that found 40% of Twitter content to be "pointless babble."

That's harsh commentary for a micro-blogging platform that just received $55-million in venture funding, but I know what he means. There's certainly a lot of trivial content chaff surrounding the grains of useful information originating from bonafide subject experts.

But Twitter is only a few years old and many aren't quite sure what to do with the kid. Because it's free, easy to use and very portable, it's expected to gain 12.1 million registered users by the end of the year - and right now, a lot of people are simply messing around with it. This includes the legions of Oprah lemmings who signed up earlier this year after Ms. O said she uses it.

Eventually, those with nothing to say but "I'm eating corn flakes" and those tired of receiving such compelling messages from their self-absorbed friends, will get bored and drop out of the network for more interesting pusuits -  such as watching Paula Abdul's replacement on American Idol.

In the meantime, Twitter will continue to attract and retain a core base of power users that frequently share truly useful information with others sharing common interests or working in the same industry.

For example, I think the majority of dental industry tweets I receive are keeping me pretty well informed. Inside information from industry insiders - what's not to like.

In his article Mr. Daniels goes on to say that  “...of all the hellish things that have been spawned in the fever swamp that is the Internet, Twitter may turn out to be the most successful of them all — not in spite of its stupidity, but because of it.”

However, he also admits that some serious people, like George Stephanopoulos and Al Gore, use Twitter, and that he himself uses Twitter to link to his articles and blog posts.

He also mentions thatit was a Twitter user who posted the first photos of the US Airways plane crash on the Hudson River in January, and that the first reports of  the Iranian protests broke on Twitter. Scooping CNN - That's some serious tweeting!

So when it's all said and done, the question of whether or not Twitter is relevant or irrelevant can be best explained by quoting the title of an Erin Clapton song, "It's in the Way That You Use it."

When Was The Last Time Someone Gave Your Dental Practice A Free Marketing Campaign?

Did I mention that there are no strings attached?

It's true. The Dental Trade Alliance recently launched the “Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait™” Awareness Campaign to warn consumers about the risks of postponing regular dental checkups and treatment.

Therefore, the DTA with the help of my employer, Lanmark Group, has developed a strategic, fully-integrated, multi-faceted marketing campaign that is available to any and all dental practices for the taking...or download if you will.

This is slick, big-agency stuff that is beyond the budget of most dentists. Using the materials is pretty much a no-brainer in my book - Here's what I'm talking about:

• Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait logo and slogan
• Dedicated Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait website for dental professionals http://www.oralhealthcarecantwait.com/
• A special consumer web site as well -http://www.visityourdentistnow.com/
• Dental trade and print and online advertising support
• Consumer print and online advertising materials
• Professional and consumer public relations support
• Radio public service announcements
• Patient education brochures and posters
• Dental practice marketing tool kit to promote “Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait” campaign in local markets
• Online video for distribution via YouTube, etc.
• Statement stuffers
• Newsletter article
• E-mail template
• More items being continuously added

The Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait campaign's ultimate goal is to sustain and improve oral health in America with the grass roots marketing materials developed to move the needle on a national scale being very valuable to local dental practice marketing efforts.

You may have to pay for some printing and ad placement, but the strategy and supporting materials of this campaign are gifts to the industry, to your practice and to consumers in communities across the country. Take advantage of these gifts by bookmarking http://www.oralhealthcarecantwait.com/ and then implementing the marketing materials provided.

Twitistics

With all the hype about Twitter being the next best thing since the invention of Velveeta, marketers the world over are wetting themselves as they attempt to answer to those annoying little questions asked by clients and corporate executives, such as "Who uses Twitter...and while you're at it, how do they use it and why?

Help is at hand from a Toronto-based company named Sysomos (Greek for "everything together"), which describes itself as providing business intelligence for social media. In other words, Sysomos provides analytics for social media; thus filling a critical void for any marketer tasked with integrating social media strategy and tactics within the rest of their marketing mix.

The company recently completed an extensive study to document Twitter's growth and to gain insight into how people use it. Here are a few statistical nuggets that came out of the company's analysis of information disclosed on 11.5 million Twitter accounts:

• 72.5% of all users joining during the first five months of 2009
• 85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update/day
• 21% of users have never posted a Tweet
• 93.6% of users have less than 100 followers, while 92.4% follow less than 100 people
• 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity
• New York has the most Twitters users, followed by Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston; while Detroit was the fast-growing city over the first five months of 2009...You read that right - Detroit!
• More than 50% of all updates are published using tools, mobile and Web-based, other than Twitter.com
• TweetDeck is the most popular non-Twitter.com tool with 19.7% market share
• There are more women on Twitter (53%) than men (47%)
• Of the people who identify themselves as marketers, 15% follow more than 2,000 people. This compares with 0.29% of overall Twitter users who follow more than 2,000 people

The study, entitled "Inside Twitter: An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World" was compiled by Sysomos analysts Alex Cheng, Mark Evans, and Harshdeep Singh. The complete 29-page report is available as a free PDF download at http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter/. There are gobs of interesting and useful information with many corresponding charts and graphs.

If you're a marketing professional, this report can help you look and keep your pants dry in the board room.

Treat Employees Like Crap. Watch Company Go Down The Toilet.

On Sunday, May 3oth, the Asbury Park Press, the dominant newspaper for the Jersey Shore area, published a feature article by business writer David P. Willis entitled "New Kid in Town."

The article examines how the family-owned, regional consumer electronics chain P.C. Richard & Son is expanding beyond its New York strong-hold into new local markets recently abandoned by the bankrupt national chain Circuit City.

The century old company, now run by a fourth generation Richard family executives, seems poised for success based on several smart retail business factors:

• Extensive product selection


• Emphasis on name brand merchandise


• Low price guarantee


• Well trained employees - Across all departments!


• After sales customer support

One aspect of Mr. Willis' article that really made stop, think, and nod my head in agreement, was his mention of a seemingly small detail that I firmly believe struck the final death blow to the once mighty Circuit City.

"Circuit City's decision to lay off its most experienced sales workers in 2007 and replace them with lower-paid staff are among the reasons touted for the company's demise. Angry customers abandoned the retailer."

I remember when Circuit City first announced this policy and saying to myself, "This will be a public relations nightmare." The company did give long time employees the option of accepting a 50% pay cut, but that was a "thanks for nothing" offer.

What the Circuit City bean counters failed to take into consideration was the community relations meltdown that this policy caused.

Let's face it, even national chains are community businesses in the respect that they employ people from the surrounding community. Other than store managers, the majority of rank and file retail employees live only a few miles from the store.

If you live in the same community as a Circuit City location, the people the chain laid off were very likely to be your friends, children, spouses, etc.

This six degrees of separation ignited a negative word of mouth brush fire that helped to reduce one of the country's leading retailers to ashes.

I don't believe that average person wants to support a business that obviously screws other people - especially people they know and especially when they can easily take their business to another retailer down the road or on the Internet for that matter.

Now even if a shopper were oblivious to the announced Circuit City "employee bait and switch program" they surely noticed a lack of product knowledge on the part of the newer, lower paid employees - As the old saying goes, "They stayed away in droves."

What does this all mean to a dentist or any small business owner for that matter? First of all, your professional reputation and standing in the community depend heavily on word of mouth.

There's always going to to be a former disgruntled employee who will badmouth you at any given opportunity. However, if your business is a revolving door churning out legions of naysayers, something is definitely wrong.

Better hire a management consultant or remove yourself or your general manager from day-to-day employee contact.

Secondly, do your best to hire, train and retain the most qualified people possible in order to provide your customers with the highest level of customer service - The community will take notice and patronize your business.

Is Your Dental Office Peter Perfect?

It's an overcast, drizzly Sunday afternoon at the Jersey Shore.

I've been whiling away the day by pounding on my laptop while the Style Channel's Peter Perfect marathon plays in the background.

Yeah, I know - I should probaly be watching the Yankee game or something more macho, but this show appeals to the marketer in me.

Anyway, in case you weren't aware, Peter Perfect is a business makeover program featuring Peter Ishkhans, a British-born hairstylist to the stars who is remarkably effective at reinventing and re-branding floundering small businesses of virtually any type.

He does this by combining his impeccable good taste with common sense principles of corporate branding, interior design, retail layout and employee image.

It made me think that it may be time to for Peter to visit a dental office.

Although dentistry has come a long way from the days of drill and fill, rinse and spit; many dental offices do a poor job of communicating this via their visual appearance.

Half-taped, hand-written signs, dog-eared wall paper and stained carpeting do not enhance the patient experience or the professional image of the practice.

In fact, they actually counteract and devalue the highly-aesthetic, beautifully photographed images provided by the manufacturers of tooth whitening systems, veneers and clear orthodontic aligners.

That's because a cluttered, shabby office makes it hard for patients to believe that the results shown on these slick waiting room posters are possible at the dental practice they are sitting in.

You wouldn't expect a gourmet meal from a restaurant that looks like a greasy spoon would you? And not for nothing, any doctor's office should be spotlessly clean.

But what do I know? I'm just a consumer.