vi-ral [ virel ] - 1. An image, video, advertisement, etc.. that is circulated rapidly on the internet.

2. Becoming very popular by circulating quickly from person to person.

Double Rainbow. Scarlet Takes a Tumble. Kid President. Charlie Bit My Finger. David after the Dentist. You know all of these, why? Because a parent, a friend, or a single person decide to record an event that the world ended up becoming obsessed with! In the past few years we've grown even further attached to our handhelds, there are 2.6 billion smartphone users worldwide. So far in 2016 there have been a total of 224,801 million app downloads, 15 million of those downloads were of the Pokèmon Go app! To shed some more light on the situation, mobile users spend 90% of their time in apps compared to the mobile web.

With that being said, are you as a doctor mobile? Is your dental practice mobile? Are you taking advantage of the current trends in the technology world? Understanding that it might not be your thing, this may be why you're not seeing a ton of new patients, maybe this is why you're not attracting millennials.

As a twenty something year old, I'm not sitting here saying "Get Pokèmon Go" and I'll come get my teeth cleaned. What I'm simply saying is don't disregard what is going on around you, don't simply shun those twenty something year olds that sit in your waiting room on their phones, or in the chair when they're waiting for you to come in. It may be wise to ask them what they're doing on their phones. Are they on Instagram? Are they on Twitter? Are they looking for a Pokèmon hotspot?

This is all a metaphor for making something go big, for making something go viral. The goal isn't so much to end up on Ellen, or Good Morning America with a viral video or app, but the goal is to make it stick! For example, Pokèmon was a card game that first came out in 1999 which stuck for awhile, but then things started to change. Mobile phones, iphones, ipads, apps, became the rage. After watching society, millennials and apps that have become successful and fun, on the 20th anniversary Pokèmon Go was released.

This is a perfect example of observing and taking action to drive engagement, relative to your dental office how can you create that level of engagement?

The challenge is attention span and as you know from watching our shows the average human has the attention span 6 seconds. So, when it's all said and done you have 6 seconds to get someone to do something. How could you drive engagement in 6 seconds with your patients? Maybe you take advantage of the trends and you do participate in Pokèmon Go, maybe you post about there being a Pokèmon named Charzard right outside of your office, maybe you buy a handful of Pokèmon toothbrushes, put your number on it and give it to them. Who knows!

Theres a handful of things you can do to drive engagement solely based off of what these kids and adults are already doing!

When you do this, make sure to consider the demographic you're trying to hit. If you look at Pokèmon Go, 90% of the people who are playing this game are under the age of 34. If that's the group you're trying to target, fantastic, if not thats fine too! For example, this would work perfect for a pediatric office!

Engagement is a lot easier than it may seem, don't try and make anything viral. As previously said, that's not the goal. Something as small as getting them to vote on what color to paint the office, start a conversation through social media, an appreciation day with hotdogs, free tooth brushes and toys for the kids, games, etc. Get your patients involved!

If you cant make fun something that's viral for you and your team it's a problem, if we can expand the viral nation of that beyond your team and to your patients, it'll be incredible!

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