Facebook posted the below notice on my Facebook page this morning…

This is the kind of thing that gets Facebook into trouble. They try to inform their users about important concerns that have legal implications by way of cutsy little one-liners. I’m not of the camp that feels entitled to Facebook in a Burger King-esque, “have it your way” kind of sense. I understand that I am using a free service owned by a private company and that I have agreed to certain concessions (i.e. ads based on my profile), I don’t feel particularly violated by anything that Facebook has done (thus far), but this overly subtle approach is what most people object to.

“Ever wonder how Facebook makes money?” Uh, not really. But if the notice said, “Ever wonder how Facebook shares your information with advertisers?” I bet many more people would want to “Get the details.” Even the “details” page is quite vague, glossing over the segment about sharing the user’s information with the statement, “The right people see the ad.” This kind of presumptive simplicity would never go over in a court of law or a televised debate, and I think that enough people are going to feel patronized by this approach that it is only going to add fuel to the fire in the Facebook privacy debate. It’s akin to the government telling U.S. citizens, “We’ll only tap the terrorists phones.”

Instead of feeding the public this marketing spin complete with adorable clip art, they should have just linked the “Get the details” link to this page and been done with it.

Learn more here.

For dentists, testimonials can be extraordinary when it comes to telling the story that goes along with a particular procedure. Several Concerto dentists are providers of Facelift Dentures, a technique that brings together the concepts of beautiful dentures and healthy occlusion using neuromuscular dentistry principles. Below is a video by Dr. Mac Lee (used with permission). Note that this patient hasn’t even received his final denture at the time this video was recorded, but his quality of life has already improved dramatically…

Dentists interested in the Facelift Dentures technique can learn about the procedure by attending a seminar by Niche Practice Seminars.

Disclaimer: Dr. Lee is not a Concerto Internet Marketing client.

I took my son to his first day of kindergarten today. It was sort of emotional. I didn’t actually *tear, but it did remind me of a conversation that I had with a client about redesigning his website. He insisted that his website was brand new. Why would it need a redesign? Well, like raising my son, time has flown by for my client. Life moves at break-neck speed and the shelf life of your average website seems to shrink every year.

This client’s website was built in 2008. Just three years old. That’s like 10 years old in website years! Before you roll your eyes and say, “Oh, that guy’s just trying to sell Web design,” consider this: consumers are bombarded with new websites all the time. If there were no new websites published since 2008, my client’s website would be just fine, but his patients are exposed to new websites every time they get online. Even if the consumer rarely visits different websites, the websites that he or she frequents are constantly being updated and redesigned. Nobody likes to think of themselves as someone who needs to keep up with the Joneses, but as a business owner, you really do need to keep up if you want to stay competitive.

Check out your competitors. If they have websites that are newer than yours, don’t leave it to chance that your prospective clients are going to look at your credentials or before and after photos and contact you because you obviously have more experience. In most cases, patients don’t get that cerebral when they’re online looking for a dentist. They are making emotional decisions, and design affects emotion more than information. If your website looks outdated compared to your competitors, you can bet that they’re getting more inquiries than you are, especially if their websites are ranked higher than yours.

So, take a deep breath, bite your quivering lip, and realize that your baby’s all grown up. It’s probably already time for a redesign.

With increasing importance given to websites that have social media buzz and Google’s new +1 program rolling out, pay-per-click is becoming less and less valuable. Think about it: if you see results in the organic results with your friend’s recommendation next to it and then you see random ads in the margin of the results, which listing are you going to click on? Google will undoubtedly add +1 support and consideration to its Adwords algorithm at some point, which will help, but what does that do to basic PPC customers? It means that basic PPC where you set up ads and create a budget and get instant traffic is on its way out the door (and really has been for quite some time). SEO+Social Media should be your primary focus for Internet marketing. If you’re relying on pay-per-click to drive business to your practice, the writing it on the wall. Adapt or be prepared to pay the price!

Check out this video for more reasons why social media is here to stay and has changed (and continues to change) the Internet marketing game forever: