Wired for Success: Harnessing the Power of Video by Alan A. Curtis, DDS, MS, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

 

Harnessing the Power of Video

by Alan A. Curtis, DDS, MS, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

Marketing your orthodontic practice is nothing more than shouting your service offerings to a broad audience. You might choose to do so using word of mouth, lunches with dentists, bulk coupon envelopes, ads in your local paper or radio/television ads. No medium provides a more powerful method for highlighting your practice than video! If you have ever spent a few minutes on YouTube you know what I mean. Making a video nowadays can be done using inexpensive equipment and be edited using simple software. YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook all provide excellent places to air your videos!

Ways to Use Video for Promotion

Videos of past treatments can help others who are considering your services. A dentist friend and I teamed up to provide free dental and orthodontic care in exchange for rights to make the treatment public. The video has gone viral (Fig. 1)!

Fun practice videos show potential patients the fun experience it is to be a patient in your practice (Fig. 2).

Staff training can also be an excellent way to use video in your practice. Placing your training on YouYube can be a great way to have a new staff member review the expected techniques in your office! In this video, our new patient photography technique is demonstrated (Fig. 3). I teach dental photography at a local orthodontic program and placing the video online allows residents to rewind and review those sections that they need help with.

When you have an office contest, it’s important that you publicize the fact that someone actually wins the contest! We typically create a short video and post it to our Facebook and Instagram pages so that others can share in the fun (Fig. 4)!

Our Curtis Orthodontics YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/CurtisOrthoAZ) has more than 1,000 subscribers and our videos get regular hits both nationally and internationally. Want ideas on how you can use video in your practice? Subscribe to our channel!

The American Association of Orthodontists understands the power of video and hopes to harness its power to promote the orthodontist as the one educationally qualified to treat malocclusions. Many of the videos posted about orthodontics on the Internet are by 13-year-old girls. Shouldn’t accurate information about braces come from the professionals? In an attempt to get more orthodontists to use this medium of communication, the AAO is hosting a video contest to solicit entertaining and informative videos by member orthodontists. Start today and create some fun, entertaining and informative videos with the help of your amazing staff! Share your videos with us by posting them in the comments below this article online at Orthotown.com, and send it to the AAO to be considered in its contest.


Fig. 1: http://youtu.be/xPSqkW3gazM

Fig. 2: http://youtu.be/azArK4XtQZ8

Fig. 3: http://youtu.be/p1YFG40iyMw

Fig. 4: http://youtu.be/wYTaQcqlizI


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