DMD Staff

Derek Pearson is the VP of Business Development at Banyan, a company dedicated to improving social media performance for dentists. Here, he describes common errors he sees dentists making with their social media presence.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“The most common mistakes I see dentists doing on social media is they’ll post manufactured content, they’ll post a tooth joke, an oral-health fact. And when it comes down to it, that’s OK to post occasionally, but people don’t pay attention to that. It looks fake. It doesn’t help me get to know you as a person. It doesn’t help me get to know you as a dentist. It doesn’t help me trust you or even really like you. It tells me nothing about you. Posting that stuff is really pointless." 

Using Social Media to Retain Dental Patients

ake Your Dental Practice's Social Media Stand Out

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Video: Common Social Media Blunders for Dentists

Each year, research studies confirm what you may already suspect: Failing health in retirement is consistently among future retirees’ biggest concerns. The latest study, from 

, found that 54% of Millennial men are mostly concerned about their health in retirement—significantly more than the 46% who are worried about how much they’ll have saved when they retire. More than half of women share the same concern. These concerns persist despite that fact that 8 in 10 Millennials consider themselves in good health.

While it’s impossible to predict the twists and turns your health may take as you approach retirement, there certainly are some steps you can take now and throughout your working years to increase the likelihood that your health won’t be a major factor in your ability to have a full and vigorous retirement. Let’s take a look over 2 parts.

Look, none of these strategies is rocket science. But it’s important to remember that all the little things—both positive and negative&mdash;add up over a lifetime. Lifestyle adjustments made now and followed through daily, weekly, and monthly, will give you the best chance to reserve your retirement spending for hobbies, family pursuits, travel, and whatever else you have planned for your retirement years.

Simply put, every analysis shows that if your health deteriorates at a faster rate, it will cost you in terms of happiness and dollars. Your level of health will be a huge determinant of your overall satisfaction. So stay in shape now as best you can. Regular physical activity has physical and mental benefits, of course, keeping cholesterol down, burning fat, and releasing endorphins that simply make you feel better mentally. The older you get, the more important it is to maintain some physical activity. Although the rigor of those pursuits may wane a bit—you might not be playing 5 nights a week of singles tennis like you used to&mdash;the need for activity remains the same.

My biggest weakness in the world is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but of course I don’t. You know what foods are good for you and which ones to avoid. Lean meats, fruits, veggies: good. Processed food, breads, sweets: generally bad. What’s funny about choosing to eat right is that it ends up following the basic laws of inertia: If you find yourself eating right most of the time, you’re likely to continue to do so. If you find yourself eating foods that are not so great for you, you will likely continue to. If eating poorly is a habit of yours, you don’t have to change everything in one fell swoop; that isn’t sustainable anyway. Start by slowly weeding out foods you know are hurting your long-term health. You may find that you don’t miss them that much. As long as you don’t try and go cold turkey on the Reese’s!

In part 2, we’ll look at some slightly less obvious but still very basic ideas for maintaining good health throughout your retirement years. 

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Get in the habit of doing these things now to promote good health later in your retirement years.

Health in Retirement: What Can You Do Now?

Ed Zuckerberg, DDS, is the founder of Painless Social Media, a company geared toward bringi He’s also the father of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Ed Zuckerberg, DDS, is the founder of Painless Social Media, a company geared toward bringing in new clients and bolstering relationships with existing ones. He’s also the father of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In this clip, Dr. Zuckerberg explains how to use social media to give patients a sense for who you are as a professional in order to keep them coming back for care. 

“As we all know, dentistry has become more of a business. Fees are dictated by and large by insurance companies. Profit margins are not great. The old days of waiting 10, 15 minutes for an FMX to be developed, and schmoozing with the patient about their last vacation, or the sick dog, or what not, that kind of personal interaction is gone. Everything in the operatory is real business-like. A lot of people don’t really get to know much about the staff and the dentist who is treating them because it’s so efficient and business-like, and out of necessity.

I love dentists to use social media to really show off some of the stuff to patients that’s not obvious to them when they visit the office, or even prospective patients who want to learn more about the office. We have a chance to portray ourselves as people, to show some of the great stuff that we do for the community: givebacks, what our personal hobbies are. Dentists are people, right? And that often gets lost in the shuffle.

I find that with patient loyalty and allegiance to offices on the wane because of insurance company affiliations or whatnot. People seem to be changing offices in a lot of the cases like they change their underwear. The more the patients know about the dentist, and the staff members, and the people who are treating them, the more likely you are to increase the bond and decrease the likelihood of a patient loss.”

Ed Zuckerberg, DDS, is the founder of Painless Social Media, a company geared toward bringing in new clients and bolstering relationships with existing ones. He's also the father of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In this clip, Dr. Zuckerberg explains how to use social media to give patients a sense for who you are as a professional in order to keep them coming back for care. 

Derek Pearson is the VP of Business Development at Banyan, a company dedicated to improving social media performance for dentists. Here, he discusses what dentists need to do to stand out on social media.

“On social media, dentists need to be different. They need to stand out, and the only way to really do that is to engage with what your audience will want. A lot of dentists think, hey, if I post this before and after implant that I did, and maybe it’s too close up, they think they’ll get a lot of engagement but they won’t.

What they need to do is they need to post pictures of them with their patients. They need to post pictures of people: their patients, their staff, them. They even need to post pictures of their family and what they do, because our patients want to get to know who you actually are, and that is what they need to post.”

Make Your Dental Practice's Social Media Stand Out

We recently looked at the 2016 election result and 

, healthcare, and fiduciary protection. Now, without getting too far into the weeds of the 

, let’s take a look at some strategies you may want to consider if you’re banking on President Trump following through on 

. (And keep in mind, most Presidents try very hard to do what they promised to do during the campaign.)

Although we always include this caveat, it’s particularly important this time: 

This is not meant as tax advice and should not be construed as such. This article is for informational purposes only.

 The future is always unpredictable, and given this particular candidate, nothing is etched in stone. But, if we were to imagine what the tax changes might be, the below moves might be advantageous.

Republicans, in general, believe that lowering taxes and decreasing government spending is good for the economy. While President-elect Trump is far from a traditional Republican, he is considering a reduction in the top marginal income tax rate to 33% (from just under 40% today). Most dentists aren’t necessarily in the top income bracket ($415,050 and higher for single filers), but they certainly can be based on specialty and combined with a spouse’s income; the highest bracket for married filers starts at $466,950. Trump also has plans to consolidate the marginal tax brackets into 3 from the current 7.

So why take deductions now? Because if you pay a lower tax rate in 2017, those deductions will have a higher relative value under 2016 tax rules. Under similar reasoning, you should consider selling depreciated stock in 2016 to offset any capital gains you may have. This is what’s known as “harvesting losses.” It can be a little complicated, though, so if you’re not familiar with the concept, talk to your financial planner or tax advisor.

Avoid Buying Capital Assets for the Remainder of 2016

Under current tax rules, tax deductions for a capital investment must be taken over a series of years instead of all at once. But the President-elect is among those who believe that allowing taxpayers to take the immediately for the entire asset in the year it is bought will spur economic growth. It is possible that this rule will change in your favor as a taxpayer in 2017.

This can be a big difference if, for example, you’re in the market for some pricey new dental equipment of furniture. Under the current tax laws, a depreciation tax deduction would have to be spread over 10 years. But next year, you may be able to take the entire depreciation deduction right away. The overall amount may be the same, but money in your account now is typically worth more than money in the future.

If you can delay taking some income until 2017, you probably should. There is no guarantee that your income will be taxed at a lower rate next year, but there sure is the possibility.

Looking at what may happen in 2017 and beyond.

The Election Result and Your Taxes

The end of the calendar year isn’t necessarily the best time to overhaul your financial plan. It may be too ambitious to think about reconfiguring your entire financial picture while also closing out the 2016 calendar year, reviewing the current year’s financials, holiday shopping, tax preparation, and everything else the end of the year brings. So rather than thinking about an overhaul, instead focus on a couple of simple steps that can be easily accomplished and can set you up for a productive 2017.

, we looked at facing your albatross and maxing out your retirement contributions. If you do only those two things, you’ll be ahead of the game for next year. But think about the following few strategies as well.

Update your beneficiaries on retirement accounts and insurance policies. 

I normally recommend this step as part of “Spring financial cleaning,” but the end of the year isn’t a bad time to address it. Why? Because the end of the year happens only once a year, so it’s a good time to do things you should do annually. If you’ve had a particularly busy year of changes, you’ll want to make sure the beneficiaries listed in your will and trusts are up to date. Now is also a good time to consider your overall health and any changes you might consider, such as looking into long-term-care insurance or a health savings plan.

 If your life situation has changed, either through marriage or divorce, or the birth of a child, or even if you’ve simply had a significant adjustment in your practice’s revenue, you should probably update how much you set aside for Federal and State taxes. Though you may not wish to think about 2016 taxes until April, employers are required by law to provide tax statements by January 31. The sooner you can get a sense of what you paid last year versus what you owed, the sooner you can make adjustments.  

It’s easy to fall into the pattern of paying all of your current bills and day to day expenses, and then using the “leftover” amounts to save and invest for your future. Paying yourself first means setting aside retirement investments as if they have as much urgency and utility as any of your current bills. As much as you may want to reinvest earnings from the practice back into the practice, you should strongly consider doing so only 

 future selves. We’ll cover this concept more fully in a future column.

Take a fresh look at the technology you use in your practice. 

The pace of technological change has never been faster than it is right now. That means improvements, for sure, but it may also mean that the “new” electronic health record solution you purchased last year may already need an update. Talk to your technology vendors about how often you should evaluate, reassess, and potentially upgrade the tools you use to schedule and manage patient records and billing. It may be more often than you think.

Some of these strategies are more “nice to have” than “need to have,” so don’t add unnecessary stress if you’re not able to get to all of them. If you met some goals this year, you know you can do it. Set some more aggressive ones for 2017. If you didn’t meet as many goals this year as you wanted, a fresh start is less than 30 days away.

Rather than thinking about a financial overhaul at the end of 2016, instead focus on a couple of simple steps that can be easily accomplished and can set you up for a productive 2017.

End of Year Strategies: Back to the Future, Part II

Dr. Zuckerberg explains how early exposure to technology and internet access in his home dental office laid the groundwork for Mark’s successful career.

In Zuckerberg Family, One Tech Pioneer Leads to Another

Ed Zuckerberg, DDS, is the founder of Painless Social Media, a company geared toward bringing in new clients and bolstering relationships with existing ones. He’s also the father of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In this clip, Dr. Zuckerberg explains how early exposure to technology and internet access in his home dental office laid the groundwork for Mark’s successful career. 

“I had the unique situation of practicing in my house. Being tech savvy, that kind of passed on to the house too. I wanted to get computers in my kids’ hands at a pretty early age, so I think Mark had his first computer when he was around 8 or 9, and Randi was about 2.5 years older, so she got one around the same time. And it didn’t take long—fast-forward to like 1995, ‘96, when this thing called the internet came around.

The internet in 1995 meant AOL, America Online, dial-up internet access. Having my office in the house meant that after 3 o’clock when the kids came home from school. First of all, understand back then that there were limited business internet uses back then. I was doing some dial-up electronic claims transmission back then, and maybe some patient benefit verification online. I worked with a company called Trojan Dental since my early days of practice in the 80s. They went from microfiche to desktop, to actual internet download. And so there was some need for the office to have an internet connection, although not a steady one. And after 3 o’clock, it became brutal.

We kind of had to set up rules: a half-hour for everybody. But the kids’ access didn’t start until after the office finished for business at 5. It didn’t quite work out too well. So in ’96 I looked into other options and I decided to have the entire house wired for broadband. That was kind of a trip. And then we brought a T-1 line in, which was outrageously expensive in those days. I think it was like $150 or $200 a month. And there were times that I doubted if it was going to pay off financially. It obviously has.

But when you talk about advantage, whereas Mark was 12 years old, and most kids were fighting for their half-hour of internet, Mark had full-time internet access, and also the ability to talk to other computers in the house. He learned the meaning of people being social and interacting with each other at a very early age. In fact, the world’s first social media network, theoretically, was something Mark built for our house called Zuck Net, which I utilized back the ’96 to have the front desk send messages to me when my next appointment arrived, my hygienist to send me a message that she’d be ready for an exam in 5 minutes. And oh, by the way, Mrs. Jones knows that number 30 needs a crown.

That was kind of an early, cutting-edge advantage for him, and certainly he took great opportunity of the edge.”

Ed Zuckerberg, DDS, is the founder of Painless Social Media, a company geared toward bringing in new clients and bolstering relationships with existing ones. He's also the father of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In this clip, Dr. Zuckerberg explains how early exposure to technology and internet access in his home dental office laid the groundwork for Mark's successful career. 

The old adage is that you can’t know where you’re going unless you’re very clear on where you’ve been. This is as true for dentistry as it is for your financial pursuits. We write often about the importance of measuring actual spend versus what you budgeted, and viewing investment returns versus what you projected. But there’s more to an end of year review. Let’s take a look at a few additional things you should be considering as we near the end of the calendar year.

	Let’s include this caveat, though: No matter how well you did in pursuit of your 2016 goals, don’t let that affect your goal-setting for 2017. Certainly, your progress from this year—or lack thereof&mdash;should inform your pursuits in the New Year. But just because you didn’t meet all your financial goals in 2016 doesn’t mean you shouldn’t set aggressive goals for next year, and then do everything you can to meet them. 

We all have that one thing that we know we don’t do well. For me, it’s sticking to my budget. For you, it may be impulsively moving investments around, or not putting enough aside for your future self, or not addressing your debts head on. Whatever your biggest issue is, identify it and look it right in the face. Chances are, the fear of tackling that one albatross may have reverberations across your financial planning goals. 

	You may not kill the albatross on the first shot, but you also may not necessarily need to. Sometimes, just the act of acknowledging your biggest financial weakness can be an important first step. Solving the issue may be less important than simply making progress toward solving the issue. Don’t let the size or severity of the albatross fill you with fear. 2017 is a new year. You’re the same investor, with more experience!

Plan to max out your retirement plan contributions next year. 

If you are a dentist at a large practice or are running your own practice, chances are you have some sort of retirement plan established, or at the very least, you are contributing to an individual retirement account. If you do absolutely nothing else during the end-of-year season or in all of 2017 to take control of your finances, set up your payroll deductions to max out the contributions to this plan. If you don’t have a retirement plan set up for yourself or your employees, that should be your albatross!  

	In part 2, we’ll look at two more must-dos for your personal finance, plus one for your practice.

No matter how well you did in pursuit of your 2016 goals, don't let that affect your goal-setting for 2017.

End of Year Strategies: Back to the Future, Part I

, I mentioned the generally inverse relationship between risk and return, and cautioned that a portfolio without risk will also be generally devoid of potential return. Now, let’s have a little fun with the concept of investment risk. Please note: I am not “recommending” any of these vehicles. But that’s also not to say that they’re all inherently “bad.” Let’s take a look at some speculative “investment” vehicles, along with a brief thought on the 

Winning tens of millions of dollars. Losing friends who only like you for your money.

 An almost perfect possibility of losing your entire investment. I cheated a bit here, because playing the lottery isn’t really an investment. It’s a gamble with a house edge so large that not even the greediest casino owner would offer one. The odds of winning one of the big Powerball-type lotteries are somewhere around 1 in 200 million. Whatever you spend on lottery tickets could be better invested in … just about anything else.

 With term insurance, you pay a premium, and upon the death of the insured person, you collect money. With cash value insurance, money paid for premiums is placed into an account that is designed to earn income.

 Your payment does twice the work, protecting you in case you die, and earning money you can ultimately withdraw.

 These policies aren’t inherently bad, but they’re complex. And they come at a cost—sometimes as high as 5-10 times the cost of term policies. They may come with management fees as well. Do your homework before you delve into a cash-value plan. Life insurance is complicated as it is, with lots of contract language in fine print. Read all prospectus language carefully, and find out what the insurance will cost over the term of the plan, exactly what is covered, and under what circumstances you can take money out.

 A fun hobby, with the potential for turning into a fortune or a 3-minute segment on television reality show “Pawn Stars!”

 Collectibles sometimes increase in value, and searching for that long-lost, mint-condition Babe Ruth rookie card can be a fun diversion.

 The few true stories of fortunes made through serendipitous discovery drown out the millions of mundane situations in which the found Rembrandt, the immaculately kept antique car, or the really old coin don’t appreciate much in value or have much of a market. Collect away, by all means, but do it for the entertainment, not for the investment.

 Wait, what’s this doing here? An interest-earning savings account isn’t risky!

 Savings accounts are fine, even admirable, as a 

 tool. Inflationary risk—the risk that your investment will not keep pace with inflation and will therefore be devalued&mdash;makes a savings account a lesser evil than some of the other items on this list, but a potential evil nonetheless.

Many of the vehicles covered here fall under a similar category; they are more “pursuits” than genuine investment strategies. Treated as such, it may be fun to drop a dollar or 2 here and there on a lottery ticket or to buy a coin collection. Just don’t treat those items as investments, and don’t ignore the potential opportunity cost that comes from putting money into a risky hobby that could be better spent on securing your future.

A look at some speculative investment vehicles, along with a brief overview of the upside and downside of each.

Investment Vehicles: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Golfers and gamblers know well the inverse relationship between risk and return. After a good drive, you may be able to reach that par 5 in two and try for birdie, but that creek in front means that leaving the shot short could put you in range of double bogey or worse. Any craps player will tell you that if you want to win or lose fast, play big money on the hard ways.

A Reading List for Increasing Your Financial Literacy

These ideas seem natural when talking about such pursuits, but the idea of introducing risk into our investment portfolios seems a little stranger. Investing for your retirement is clearly not golf or gambling, but the concept of risk and how to manage it is very much in play. That’s because risk and return go hand in hand in your investments. Generally speaking, the bigger the risk of an investment, the bigger the potential return.

No investment is entirely without risk, although some investments—like government bonds, certificates of deposit, and money market funds&mdash;come close. But the truth is that even those vehicles, many of which are considered savings options as opposed to investment options, bring a different kind of risk: inflationary risk. Because low-risk investments earn only modest returns, inflation can erode the purchasing power of the funds invested. Your investment 

So, don’t think of your investments in terms of avoiding risks. Instead, think about how to manage that risk and use it to your advantage in your investments. Here are a few ways to do that.

Set—and stick to&mdash;your investment goals.

 We often start at this concept and then work our way around to it again, because it’s that important. Once you’ve established your goals, you can map out a strategy and a timeframe to get you there. This will involve knowing your risk tolerance and your investment window. Work with an advisor or your spouse to create a detailed investment plan. Actually write down your goals, your investment objectives, and your plan for meeting those objectives.

Trump's Potential Impact on Retirement Savers

Understand the relationship between risk and time.

 How many years you have until the finish line for your investment goal should and will dictate how much risk you can take and how much you can bear. If, for example, your investment goal is for your freshman in high school to be able to afford college out of state, you may think you need a big return. But you also won’t be able to lose a big chunk of that investment in a short-term market downturn. If you have a longer time window, you’ll be able to bear short-term market volatility, and your ability to withstand volatility will increase as well. Sometimes, the best investment adjustment is to make no move at all and wait for the market to cycle again.

One of the best ways to mitigate risk is to have balance in your portfolio. This doesn’t just mean investing in growth stocks alongside blue-chip stocks, although that is part of diversification. It may mean investing in completely different kinds of investments, such as a portion in stocks, a portion in bonds, some in mutual funds, and some in real assets such as real estate.

Once you’ve set up your portfolio, the work isn’t finished. As your life changes, your goals and strategies are likely to change as well. The birth of a child, the death of a parent, a divorce, or a career change are just some of the life events that may necessitate a fresh look at your portfolio and may mean a different strategy with a different level of risk.

The key is to understand that as an investor, risk isn’t your enemy. In fact, it can be what drives growth. That doesn’t mean always going for the green on the second shot of a par 5 or betting the hard ways every time. But it does mean accepting risk as part of any investment strategy. 

Risk and return go hand in hand in your investments. Generally speaking, the bigger the risk of an investment, the bigger the potential return. 