Build It
Your dental practice can benefit from a Facebook presence. The social networking site has more than half a billion users and potentially thousands of uses local to your office. Here are some tips to follow if you want your business to tap into that audience of potential patients.

First, you need to create a Facebook page for your practice. Once the page is created, you need to configure and customize it. Add a logo or photo, and basic information about practice. At that point, you need to get other Facebook users to "like" your page and start to build an audience.

Attract Customers
The first thing Facebook suggests is that you invite all of your Facebook friends to "like" your new page. That may be fine, but understand that your friends are probably already familiar with your company, or its products and services, and that--at least as a marketing and customer relations tool--there is probably little value in having your friends see the page.

In fact, one of the primary advantages of the Facebook page is that you can interact with Facebook members without letting them connect with your inner-circle of friends. Try one or more of the Social Plugins widgets available from Facebook. You can use them on the company Web site, or blog to promote the existence of the Facebook page.

Inviting your Facebook friends may defy the goal of setting up the page, but if your business has an established e-mail, newsletter, or blog following, those are exactly the audience you want to connect with your Facebook page. Post or distribute an announcement with a link to the Facebook page and invite them to join the community.

You should also add a link to the Facebook page to your standard e-mail signature, and you can cross-link with Twitter - both to promote the existence of the Facebook page and to cross-post content so it appears on the Facebook page and on Twitter simultaneously.

If you have a budget, and want to pursue Facebook members more aggressively, you can purchase a Facebook ad to promote the existence of the page as well.

Engage Customers
There is little point in going to the effort of building a Facebook page and attracting an audience if you don't follow through to engage customers. Now that you have built an audience for your Facebook page, you have to give the audience a compelling reason to visit the page.

The rules of the Facebook page are similar to the rules for effectively building an audience for a blog. Make sure you are adding content frequently - preferably weekly. You want to provide a reason for the Facebook page audience to check in and see what's new.

Equally important as the frequency of posting is the content of the posts. Customers want to be informed and engaged, not pitched and harassed. It's OK to tie in your products and services where they're relevant, but don't simply use the Facebook page as a platform for marketing sound-bites.

You can post news or stories related to your business and provide unique commentary or insight. You can also use the Facebook page to provide tips, tricks, or information content. Rather than just talking at the audience, though, try to incite comments and feedback from the members to foster a sense of community with the customers.

Facebook represents a large opportunity to market your business and promote your products and services. Make sure you take advantage of the marketing tool.

Twitter is fast becoming a leading online community as well as a powerful social marketing tool. The beauty of Twitter lies in its simplicity - it is streamlined, simple, and straightforward.

Twitter is Easy to Join
Advantage: It takes less than a minute to create an account with Twitter and start "tweeting." The rules of the game are pretty straightforward. Registration is instant, and there is no need to follow up with a confirmation email.

Disadvantage: because Twitter is so easy to join, virtually everyone has a Twitter account, so their server tends to get overloaded easily. It's not uncommon to have trouble connecting to Twitter's site.

Twitter is Easy to Use
Advantage: Twitter limits its updates to 140 characters, so there's no need (or temptation) to launch into long-winded prose or to over-explain your thought. There is only one main screen, so you never have to search around for what you're looking for.

Disadvantage: Because Twitter is so simple, there is little sophistication to the presentation. Your profile is lean and mean. You can only have one photo attached to your profile at a time, and little detailed information about yourself. It's not a great way for people to get to know you, unless you are very good at expressing yourself in 140 characters or less.

Twitter is a Democracy
Advantage: You can follow anyone on Twitter, and anyone can follow you. Although there is an option to block someone from following you, unlike with Facebook, you don't have to actively accept someone's friendship in order for them to see your updates. It's easy to accumulate followers passively, and common for strangers to follow your feed.

Disadvantage: Without the advantage of selectively specifying your target audience, your message is in danger of being diluted among the masses. Chances are that most of the people who follow you on Twitter aren't really paying attention to what you have to say.

Twitter Can Be Anonymous
Advantage: Unlike Facebook, which insists that you use your "real name" (while doing a debatable job monitoring whether or not you actually do so), Twitter allows you to choose any available user name you'd like---creative or otherwise. You can fill out a profile at your discretion, without the mandate to share personal information.

Disadvantage: You may not have any idea who is really following you.

Twitter Can Be Automated
Advantage: With the use of such third-party services as HootSuite, you can set your tweets to update automatically without having to log in on a regular basis. This allows you to keep an active Twitter presence with very little effort.

Disadvantage: You can't count on the timely integrity of other tweeters' information either. As far as you know, a robot wrote their tweet.

Twitter Offers Free Widgets and Apps
Advantage: With a flexible selection of free widgets and mini-applications available, it's easy to embed a link to your Twitter feed (or even a subset of the feed itself) into your personal or company web site.

Disadvantage: Tweets are everywhere. It can be hard to weed through all the Twitter updates popping up around the web.