Lifestyle Lift Abruptly Shuts Down

According to the Better Business Bureau's website, Lifestyle Lift is believed to be out of business.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the company, which claims to offer a “minor one-hour procedure with major results,” abruptly shut down a majority of its 40 surgery centers Monday and announced it would consider filing for bankruptcy.

The company, founded in 2001 by Dr. David Kent, had 40 surgery centers nationwide offering what it billed as a less-invasive face-lift procedure that required only local anesthesia and a shorter recovery time. Its advertisements boasted that the services are affordable for everyday people who want to “look as young on the outside as you feel on the inside.”

In a letter to employees sent Sunday and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Kent said the company “has made the decision to temporarily cease operations until further notice.” The letter tells employees not to report to work “until further notice unless otherwise instructed.”

In a letter sent to employees over the weekend, Dr. David Kent – the founder of the company – said he made the “decision to temporarily cease operations until further notice.”

“The future of the Company is uncertain and therefore it is currently developing both a wind down plan to close the business and a reorganization plan to accommodate a new investment,” the letter states.

A spokesperson for Michigan-based Lifestyle Lift tells the WSJ that the company is considering its options, one of which is filing for bankruptcy.

As of Monday, Lifestyle Lift is only providing some post-operation checkup procedures.

As one of the 'franchise model' cosmetic medicine businesses Lifestyle Lift saw dramatic growth before a series of setbacks. In 2008 it sued Realself for allowing negative reviews to be posted on the site. Realself countersued claiming that Lifestyle Lift employees were posting fake counter-reviews in violation of the sites user agreement (commonly known as 'astroturfing').

Santa Clara University School of Law professor Eric Goldman, who advised RealSelf on the case, posted about the issue on his personal blog:

No matter how many times I see it–and in the Internet era, I see it all too frequently–I always shake my head in disappointment and frustration when a company uses trademark law to lash out against unflattering consumer reviews. To these companies, trademark law is a cure-all tonic for their marketplace travails, and trademark doctrine is so plastic and amorphous that defendants have some difficulty mounting a proper defense. As a result, all too frequently, the threat of a trademark lawsuit causes the intermediary to capitulate and excise valuable content from the Internet.

In its answer, RealSelf goes on the offensive and alleges that Lifestyle Lift directly or indirectly posted shill reviews to the Lifestyle Lift discussion, thereby breaching RealSelf’s user agreement. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of another lawsuit where the message board operator sued a company for shill postings, so I think this case may be breaking important new legal ground.

The bruhaha led to an investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office and in 2009, then-attorney general Andrew Cuomo announced Lifestyle Lift would pay $300,000 and stop posting fake reviews online.

Cuomo said in a statement at the time that Lifestyle Lift’s “attempt to generate business by duping consumers was cynical, manipulative and illegal.”

How Your Competitors Might Be Destroying Your Medical Spa Business Using Google Maps

Almost anyone can damage your medical practice business or reputation by turning Google against you.. and it's not very hard.

Here's an example from Wired Magazine detailing how a restaurant's business was destroyed: Read the article.

It began in early 2012, when he experienced a sudden 75 percent drop off in customers on the weekend, the time he normally did most of his business. The slump continued for months, for no apparent reason. Bertagna’s profits plummeted, he was forced to lay off some of his staff, and he struggled to understand what was happening. Only later did Bertagna come to suspect that he was the victim of a gaping vulnerability that made his Google listings open to manipulation.

He was alerted to that possibility when one of his regulars phoned the restaurant. “A customer called me and said, ‘Why are you closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday? What’s going on?’” Bertagna says.

It turned out that Google Places, the search giant’s vast business directory, was misreporting the Serbian Crown’s hours. Anyone Googling Serbian Crown, or plugging it into Google Maps, was told incorrectly that the restaurant was closed on the weekends, Bertagna says. For a destination restaurant with no walk-in traffic, that was a fatal problem.

In the case above the business owner is actually trying to sue Google, claiming that a competitor manipulated the restaurants business and that Google didin't do anything about it.

He's not going to get anywhere with that, but it serves to highlight just how vulnerable a local business can be if you're not keeping abreast of what's going on.

Beneath its slick interface and crystal clear GPS-enabled vision of the world, Google Maps roils with local rivalries, score-settling, and deception. Maps are dotted with thousands of spam business listings for nonexistent locksmiths and plumbers. Legitimate businesses sometimes see their listings hijacked by competitors or cloned into a duplicate with a different phone number or website...

Small businesses are the usual targets. In a typical case in 2010, Buffalo-based Barbara Oliver & Co Jewelry saw its Google Maps listing changed to “permanently closed” at the exact same time that it was flooded with fake and highly unfavorable customer reviews.

“We narrowed it down as to who it was. It was another jeweler who had tampered with it,” says Barbara Oliver, the owner. “The bottom line was the jeweler put five-star reviews on his Google reviews, and he slammed me and three other local jewelers, all within a couple of days.”

The first thing you should do is go to Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and Bing and search for your business in different ways using your street address, name, zip code and your name (with misspellings if that's possible) and see what the returned results are. That should give you a sense of whether or not you might have an issue. All of the search engines have a method for creating a local business listing and changing it once you have it.

Not addressing new technology is really just whistling past the grave yard. Your business and reputation are vulnerable and makeing sure that you have clean information online is the first step.

The Power Of The Botox Birthday Coupon

For the past 5 years, our plastic surgery office has been offering patients birthday coupons worth $50 off their Botox injections.  

I've been impressed with the power of this Birthday Coupon. Basically this is a letter sent out via a group email with birthdays identified one month at a time. Our EMR is able to identify birthdays which are coming up. Of course we take advantage of the blind cc: email function soin order to protect patient privacy. We also let our patients use it for fillers instead of Botox, and because all patients are getting this email who have a birthday coming up, some patients aren't appropriate for Botox or fillers, and thus we allow them to pass it along as a "regift."

It brings back patients whom I haven't seen in while.  It also brings back patients who have wandered off to other Botox places.  I've also seen new patients who have never received Botox before because they got a the coupon tactfully passed along from one of our existing patients.  And best outcome is when a patient is converted over from an unrelated plastic surgery procedure such as breast augmentation or tummy tuck (already happy and familiar with our office), and now he or she is armed with coupon in hand ready to try Botox!  And in general, our patients seem very grateful for the gift - especially the ones who have already used our services every 3-5 months.  Another benefit of the Birthday Letter is that it makes patients eager to give us their email addresses to stay in touch.

For our office, it's Botox that we use, but I think this concept could be converted to another product or service which helps patients look younger.

The Birthday, itself, of course is a great event, however it does remind all of us that we are getting older, and getting Botox is one of the ways to help us age more gracefully.  I think using a cosmetic injection coupon is a great marketing tool and I've seen a good return on the investment for our own plastic surgical practice.  Best of all, patients seem to really like it and it is a "win-win."

Adipose-Derived Stem Cells In Cosmetic Surgery: Ready For Prime Time?

Are adipose-derived stem cells in cosmetic surgery ready for prime time use in your cosmetic practice?

Google “aesthetic stem cell treatments” and you will be greeted with a panoply of therapeutic offerings ranging from mundane to fantastic. Injecting your own adipose derived stem cells can lift your face, tighten your skin, enlarged your breast, slow the ageing process and even put some zip in your libido if injected into anatomically correct nether regions. Cosmeceutical manufacturers are even putting non-viable stem cells into facial creams hoping to knock 10 years off your visage. These marketing claims have captivated the public with the promise of a minimally invasive fountain of youth.

Adipose-derived stem cells are multipotent and possess the ability to differentiate into fat, bone, cartilage, nerves and pancreatic tissue.  They also secrete cytokines that are angiogenic, antioxidative and immunosuppressive. They release a whole host of growth factors that facilitate wound healing and tissue regeneration. Stem cells hold great clinical potential and offer considerable commercial possibilities.

We are all very enthusiastic about the promise and potential offered by the emerging field of adipose- derived stem cell science. Encouraging data from hundreds of ongoing international trials support a bright future for aesthetic and regenerative applications and real progress has been made in developing methodologies and protocols for every day clinical use. Yet many are advising caution.

A recent review in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery notes that there is considerable uncertainty about the true clinical potential of adipose-derived stem cells and too much remains unknown about their fundable biology to be used safely and reliably. There are several contradictory studies about whether these cells promote or repress cancer growth. There are no standard protocols yet developed for adipose-derived stem cell applications. We still are unsure of the number of cells required per treatment or how many treatments are needed to achieve a desired clinical outcome predictably. In short, we are not quite sure what we are doing yet with adipose-derived stem cells despite the encouraging science and our best intentions.

A lot remains unknown about how to effectively and safely use this new technology. To market aesthetic stem cell procedures outside of clinical trials to the public seems a bit deceptive considering the current state of the art. What do you think??

Free Medical Spa & Cosmetic Surgeon Directory Listings

Take advantage of these free directory listings for your medical spa or laser clinic.

There are a lot of directories for laser hair removal, cosmetic surgeons or medspas... Here are some that are free and that I know are very good.

Add your clinic to the relevant directories.

• Laser Hair Removal Directory
• Cosmetic Surgeons Directory
• Medical Spa Directory

Our New Facebook Group: Physicians + Facebook Marketing - How to do it correctly!

Join our Facebook group: Physicians + Facebook Marketing - How to do it correctly!

Facebook now has more than 500 million accounts.... and if you're not using it to promote your services and build a community around your medical spa or clinic, you're missing the point.

Rather than just discuss Facebook marketing here on this site, we've decide to actually show you how to do it by using Facebook.

The new group that we just started, Physicians + Facebook Marketing is only a few days old. So far, we've got 30 people to join and we're going to grow this group while showing you exactly how we're doing it... on Facebook.

We'll have a number of our staff who are responsible for our social network marketing on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in this group to answer any questions you may have, or just learn from the case studies and articles.

You'll also want to listen to some of our new podasts since we've been discussing social marketing on there.

As always, if you like the content that you find here on Medical Spa MD, please give us a small pat on the back by clicking the new 'like' button that you'll find at the bottom of each post.  ; )

MedSpa MD on Facebook

Medical Spa MD on LinkedIn

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Medical Spa MD Members get a Podium patient review marketing account and save $1,257

Protect your reputation. Get new patients. Medical Spa MD Members receive a special, full service Podium account that includes: no setup fee (save $300), a 10% discount forever (save $330/year) and on-demand patient review marketing training for your entire staff ($597 value).  This offer is not available anywhere else.

Frontdesk SEO: Medical Spa Marketing & Keyword Selection

Frontdesk has a growing number of full-service website SEO accounts from Medical Spa MD Members and additional do-it-yourself accounts popping in all the time.

Read this review of our SEO software by a Medical Spa MD Member.

Since we've had so many Medical Spa MD Members sign up and begin using our SEO software or outsourcing their SEO to us, I though I'd comment on one of the most common questions that we get from plastic surgeons and medical spas that are just starting; keyword selection.

What are keywords?

Keywords (or key phrases) are what someone who is looking for your clinic types in to the search engine. For many, selecting the right keywords can be of the utmost importance. If you select the right keywords your marketing efforts should see some pretty significant results after just a short time, but select the wrong keywords and you're going to be banging your head against the wall with little to show for it. So, let's talk keywords that are going to be most useful for Medical Spa MD Members.

Most Medspa MD Members are individual physicians who have a single clinic location. As such, you're targeting potential clients based on geographical location; a certain 'radius' around your practice that you typically pull new patients from.

This one single piece of info gives you the ability to be especially effective by using your geography in your SEO efforts. And since 85%+ of your potential clients are now using the web to find local businesses it's more than just a 'nice to have', it's imperative for success if you're looking to grow.

Selecting Your Medical Spas Best Keywords

There's some good news here. If you're offering Botox, Dysport, laser hair removal, or photofacials, or you're using technology that clients might be searching for like Fraxel, Thermage, or IPL treatments, you can just stick your area code or location on the end (which is how people commonly search) and you're set; so 'Fraxel' now becomes 'Fraxel Manhattan', 'Thermage' becomes 'Thermage NYC', and 'laser hair removal' is now 'laser hair removal 90210'.

Of course there's a hitch. Just because you're being ranked for 'Fraxel NYC' doesn't mean that you'll rank for anything else. So, you'll need to keep up your marketing efforts on all the keywords that you're targeting at the same time. (This can be pretty difficult if you don't have a system in place.)

If you've got any website SEO efforts in place, you'll do better with just adding your local city or zip code to your normal process.

Where to start

OK, here's the plug; you should run a free SEO website report on your domain name. We offer this service (and it's a valuable one) so that you can see exactly how your site's performing at any given time.

Groupon & Medical Spa Offers

Groupon is gaining traction in a number of cities and doing a fair amount of business if their testimonials are a real indication of what's going on.

I received an offer last week from one of the local medical spas in the area for 50% off of some general day spa treatments (facials and massage).

I can see that you might generate some real traffic by offering high demand services like laser hair removal, but they might end up loosing you money since Groupon also takes half of all sales generated by the offer.

Is ayone having real luck generating traffic with services like groupon? Has anyone tried it?

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Medical Spa MD Members get a Podium patient review marketing account and save $1,257

Protect your reputation. Get new patients. Medical Spa MD Members receive a special, full service Podium account that includes: no setup fee (save $300), a 10% discount forever (save $330/year) and on-demand patient review marketing training for your entire staff ($597 value).  This offer is not available anywhere else.

Do-It-Yourself & Outsource Search Engine Marketing (SEO)

Frontdesk SEO is Medical Spa MD's newest Select Partner.

View the announcement here.

Frontdesk offers do-it-yourself SEO software that lets you use your front desk staff to market your business. (They offer outsource SEO as well.) You can start for as little as $59 a month which is killer.

If you haven't already, run a free SEO report on your website and see where you rank according to the major search engines.

This is the same system that we use at Medical Spa MD to keep our #1 rankings in all of the major search engines and I can't say enough about the back end and how easy it is to use and works eaqually well for any business or web site. And, if you want to kick it up a notch, the have outsourcing options that use their SEO experts to do the work.

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Medical Spa MD Members get a Podium patient review marketing account and save $1,257

Protect your reputation. Get new patients. Medical Spa MD Members receive a special, full service Podium account that includes: no setup fee (save $300), a 10% discount forever (save $330/year) and on-demand patient review marketing training for your entire staff ($597 value).  This offer is not available anywhere else.

Protecting Your Medical Spas (And Your Own) Reputation Online

Medical Spa MD has been threatened with lawsuits on more than one occasion for something that someone posted in the forums.

If you're running a laser clinic or medical spa you'll have some unhappy patients from time to time as well.. and very soon every one of your patients will have a Facebook page, Twitter stream, or personal blog that provides a public platform for them to voice their displeasure.

In fact, more than 85% of your potential clients who are looking for a medical spa or elective plastic surgery proceedure are doing research online. And it's not just kids. People between 35 and 60 are the fastest growing group online. If you're not the most prominant voice, you're loosing patients, revenue, and reputation.

There have been a number of medical spas and physicians who have literally gone out of business because they were unable to manage their reputation online when it was attacked. (Look at American Laser Clinics reputation.) Trying to 'fix it' with underhand tactics can make it worse.

And there's nothing you can do about it.

Here's a story on CNN about a student who created a Facbook page about a teacher:

A former Florida high school student who was suspended by her principal after she set up a Facebook page to criticize her teacher is protected constitutionally under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate ruled.

U.S. Magistrate Barry Garber's ruling, in a case viewed as important by Internet watchers, denied the principal's motion to dismiss the case and allows a lawsuit by the student to move forward.

"We have constitutional values that will always need to be redefined due to changes in technology and society," said Ryan Calo, an attorney with Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.

"The fact that students communicate on a semi-public platform creates new constitutional issues and the courts are sorting them out," Calo said.

Katherine Evans, now 19 and attending college, was suspended in 2007 from Pembroke Pines Charter High School after she used her home computer to create a Facebook page titled, "Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever met."

In his order, Garber found that the student had a constitutional right to express her views on the social networking site.

"Evans' speech falls under the wide umbrella of protected speech," he wrote. "It was an opinion of a student about a teacher, that was published off-campus ... was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior."

Matthew Bavaro, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who is representing Evans, was pleased with the ruling.

"The First Amendment provides protection for free speech regardless of the forum, being the Internet, the living room or a restaurant," he told CNN.

So, while there's nothing you can do to prevent an unhappy patient from broadcasting their displeasure, there is a way to keep that unhappyness from being the first thing that comes up when someone searches on your name or the name of your medical spa or clinic. That's to be the dominant 'voice' that's heard when someone is looking for information about you, your practice, or your services.

So what can you do to protect your personal and medical reputation?

In effect, you need to have a bigger microphone. That means that means that you're going to need to do some heavy lifting online to make absolutely sure that when someone is searching for information on your medical spa, dermatology practice, or plastic surgery clinic, the information that they find is about your practice, not negative comments from disgruntled patients.

And since this is such a problem for every medical practice and physician, we've been looking to help address this need. We're about to launch two new Medical Spa MD Select Partners to help.

The first, Freelance MD, is a creative agency specializing in marketing and advertising outsource services for medical spas and plastic surgeons. The second will be announced later this week.

Freelance MD will be hosing a free webinar on social media marketing this week. (You can see details and register in the previous post.)  If you're not an expert at using search engine marketing, social media, special events and local PR, you'll want to sign up and learn how it's done.

Social Media For Cosmetic Surgeons & Medical Spas.

Social media is a major reason why traditional forms of media are collapsing across the country.

Major newspapers and tv stations are cutting staffs in half or closing up altogether, in the face of declining audiences and sagging ad revenues. Social media gives people the chance to create their own virtual newspaper, completely comprised of what they're interested in. If a topic is boring or irrelevant, it's gone. Social media groups and pages make this possible, because no matter what the topic, there's a social media group dedicated to it.

A 45 year old mom in Sacramento, for example, might not be interested in sports, but she likes California politics, wine, the TV show Lost, the actor Antonio Banderas, and beauty.  On Facebook, she can be a Fan of "California Senate Democrats", Red Red Wine - Sacramento, Lost, and Antonio Banderas. On Twitter, she can follow @CAPoliticsRSS,@thegrandwinebar, @Lost_initiative, @oficialantonio, etc. When it comes to beauty in Sacramento, she can follow her hair salon, favorite spa, plastic surgeon, etc.  Every day when she logs in, she'll see what's going on in the state senate, hear about last night's Lost episode, read about Antonio Banderas' upcoming movie, and see all of the specials, before/after pictures, and upcoming events at her favorite local beauty providers.

These are all examples of direct social media exposure. Someone knows who you are, they become your fan/follower, and whatever you post will be seen by them. We've already covered how to start and sustain this attention in previous blog posts. Once you're established with existing customers and patients, the next step is to get random local consumers who are interested in you to find you.

One extremely cost-effective method is to buy pay-per-click Facebook advertising for your fan page.  These 160-character ads with a small JPEG and link to your Fan Page will run down the right side of certain certain people's web browsers while they are on Facebook.

The beauty of PPC Facebook advertising is that it can be extremely targeted, and you only pay for the local people who click on the ad and check out your Facebook page. If you have a promotable event coming up, such as a giveaway day or a live procedure that you are performing on Facebook, they are highly recommended. 

For example, you can specify that you only want the ad to be seen by women between the ages of 18 and 64, within ten miles of Sacramento, who list an interest in any of the following: beauty, shopping, tanning, travel, jewelry and spa days, the TV shows Nip/Tuck, Real Housewives, Glee, and Jersey Shore.  You can add as many keywords as you like, and remember that due to the public nature of Facebook profiles, few people are going to brazenly volunteer to the world that PLASTIC SURGERY, BREAST AUGMENTATION, AND INJECTABLE FILLERS are their interests. But they will say they like beauty, or the tv show Nip/Tuck. 

According to Facebook, this ad will be seen by 14,200 people, and there will only be a charge of about 60 cents every time someone clicks on it to go to your page. The odds are pretty good that if someone lives within ten miles of your practice, likes the keywords above, and clicks on an ad that says a local med-spa is doing a live cosmetic surgery procedure on Facebook or is giving away beauty products, that they'll want in on the action.  You can set a minimum budget of $10 a day. If you are investing money in advertising, you have to promise yourself that you will keep the Facebook page updated with good content, or else it's a waste of money.

Be creative! Valentine's day is coming up. If you have some sort of spa day or gift set special that you'd like husbands to get for their wives, put up a detailed post with pictures and video on your fan page, and then create an ad that targets local men over 30 who mention having a wife in their profiles.

Just like with traditional media, there's paid PR (advertising), and earned PR. You have to convince third parties to cover you. Our next social media post will cover this! 

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Medical Spa MD Members get a Podium patient review marketing account and save $1,257

Protect your reputation. Get new patients. Medical Spa MD Members receive a special, full service Podium account that includes: no setup fee (save $300), a 10% discount forever (save $330/year) and on-demand patient review marketing training for your entire staff ($597 value).  This offer is not available anywhere else.

What Should Your Medical Spa Post On Facebook

We started with what to do if your medical spa doesn't have any Facebook fans. But 'content' that your patients want is what will drive readership.

Once your medical spa or plastic surgery marketing page is built and you've have a kickoff to get local potential patients aware of you, you should have at least several dozen people on your Facebook and Twitter pages.  The next step? Engaging them.

Always keep in mind the kind of in your face exposure this is going to bring.  When people are your fan or follower, whatever you write is going to appear in their "feed."  When people sign in to Facebook and Twitter, they are presented with a list of posts from everyone they have opted to follow. 

For example, when your made-up cousin Sally logs in to her Facebook account, she sees a post from her college boyfriend, a note from her mom, an invitation to a Tupperware party from her neighbor, and if she is a fan of your practice, your latest post.

If you are posting things that don't interest her, it is extremely easy for her to delete you from her account.  If you are posting things that interest her or add value to her Facebook experience, it is extremely easy for her to recommend you to her friends. If you don't have something good to say, don't bother! 

Facebook is great for embedded multimedia like pictures, video, and links, so simply writing text like "Come in and get Restylane for your lips, everyone is doing it!" is like buying a Ferrari and keeping it in first gear.  Instead, show people why they should come in and get Restylane injections.

An easy to digest mix of entertainment, usable tips, and reality content that shows off what you do best is a winning formula.  For example, over the course of a week, you could compare "The Octomom" Nadya Suleman's "trout pout" lip filler results with your own before/afters, have your aesthetician give ten winter makeup tips, and post a hand-held video (using a FlipHD video camera) that one of your assistants shot of you performing a procedure.

Posting your own reality content can even garner local media attention, just for the novelty that you are performing cosmetic surgery or injecting Botox live on Facebook. 

Any of this content that showcases your expertise in a fun and interesting way provides you with easy exposure.  Keep your website URL and phone number in several places on your fan page, so if someone sees something that sparks their interest, they can get in touch with you.

The biggest follow up question many doctors ask after this is, "How often should I post?"  As it says above, if you don't have something good to say, don't bother. Just posting endless plastic surgery liposuction ads or touting your laser hair removal treatments is a short trip to the off-list. But, if you have quality content, then set up a schedule and figure out what you'll do for the next month. 

Give your patients a feeling that they know you. A post every other day is fine to start and the more personal the content is, the better.

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Medical Spa MD Members get a Podium patient review marketing account and save $1,257

Protect your reputation. Get new patients. Medical Spa MD Members receive a special, full service Podium account that includes: no setup fee (save $300), a 10% discount forever (save $330/year) and on-demand patient review marketing training for your entire staff ($597 value).  This offer is not available anywhere else.

The Worst Plastic Surgery Billboard Ever.

Wow. This may well be the worst plastic surgery billboard I've ever seen. In fact, it may be the worst plastic surgery ad too.

This is what happens when someone in the clinic thinks they know marketing and advertising.

I've actually seen this billboard. It's along I-15 in Utah and I've driven past it a few times. Each time shaking my head in utter disbelief that anyone describing themselves as an 'aesthetic specialist' could be attached to such bad taste. (And the actual design is worse. Quite obviously the work of a $6 an hour kid that's still in high school.) How could anyone think that this would move a woman to get plastic surgery?

The Gateway Aesthetic Institue & Laser Center is the cosmetic dermatology practice of Dr. Mark Taylor but there's usually a plastic surgeon to be found. I guess now it's 'Dr. Heidi'. According to the Gateway Aesthetic Institue's web site, Dr. Heidi is actually:

Heidi Regenass, M.D., a board certified plastic surgeon who comes to Gateway Aesthetic from Phoenix, Arizona, where she owned her own successful practice.

Dr. Regenass brings an international flair to cosmetic plastic surgery. Dr. Regenass specializes in plastic surgery procedures that rejuvenate the face and body, enhancing one’s natural beauty.

It may well be that this as was designed by Gateway Asesthic Institue and Dr. Regenass didn't have anything to do with it. In that case I feel sorry for her. It's got to be embarrassing to have your name attached to something this crass and trite.

What the Bad Billboard Project says about Dr. Heidi's boob job billboard:

My business used to be housed in an office a few feet from this billboard. Only it was a different billboard back then. I was driving by, saw this, and felt like I couldn’t pass it up. It is poorly designed, to be sure, but I’m not sure that matters so much, at least as far as getting your attention. Whether it would actually result in increased sales, I’m not sure. Probably, since many people don’t appreciate good design, either consciously or subconsiously. As for me, I’m thoroughly offended and would certainly never let Dr. Heidi get her dirty paws on me.

Why Doesn't Your Medical Spa Have Any Facebook Fans?

Marketing your clinic via social media is a bit different from what many medical spas are used to.. but as more plastic surgeons, dermatologists and medspas add Facebook and Twitter that's going to change.

Taking out a half-page ad in the local paper, buying radio time, or getting a PR placement showing off your latest procedure, are all one-way forms of communication. It goes out, and people will either take action, become aware of you, or do nothing.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, are a two-way form of communication that requires people to opt in. Besides some nominal SEO benefits, they are only as effective as the number of local Fans and Followers you have who are interested in what you do. You are still sending out messages at your discretion, but people can choose to receive it, and even send instant feedback.

If you’re paying someone in your office to log into Facebook every day, post your latest Botox special, and there are only 10 people receiving that message, you are wasting time and money. No one is receiving the message and, no offense, people will not “opt in” to hear about your Botox specials every day. If people wanted to see advertisements constantly, TiVo wouldn’t exist.

The key to social media marketing for your medspa is finding a way to break through the protective barriers that people have. TGI Fridays certainly did.

TGI Fridays is a restaurant chain that in September, started a big social media push. They created a fictional character named Woody, gave him a Facebook fan page, and started an ad campaign: everyone who becomes Woody’s fan on Facebook will get a free burger on October 1st.

They did some advertising, got some press, and most of all, it was an event that gave people reason to tell their friends about it. The oft-used buzzword “viral” applies here… word of the promotion spread like a virus. With social media, it takes about three mouse clicks to tell all of one’s friends about something you found.

Woody garnered about a million fans, and on October 1st, TGI Fridays dutifully gave out the free burgers.

Today, in January, 2010, Woody still has 945,000 fans. Whenever TGI Fridays wants to market to a large number of people who already have a positive impression of them, and have demonstrated that they enjoy eating hamburgers, they have instant exposure.  For example, on November 17, TGI Fridays got massive exposure for a new happy hour promotion.

We’re marketing cosmetic products and treatments, and not hamburgers, but it still applies. Using a giveaway model on the local level can make yourself the talk of the town, and get hundreds of people to “opt in.”  If you are giving away beauty products and treatments, local people will sign in if they are interested in that sort of thing.  After the giveaway, you can market to them however you please.

It clearly doesn’t cost TGI Fridays a lot of money to give away a hamburger; and when people got their hamburgers, they also probably got fries, a drink, and some dessert.  A giveaway winner in your office can potentially get other products and services.

What could your medical spa be giving away?

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Medical Spa MD Members get a Podium patient review marketing account and save $1,257

Protect your reputation. Get new patients. Medical Spa MD Members receive a special, full service Podium account that includes: no setup fee (save $300), a 10% discount forever (save $330/year) and on-demand patient review marketing training for your entire staff ($597 value).  This offer is not available anywhere else.