Last week I found a surprise in my mailbox. My real mailbox, not email inbox. I know it’s not often in snail mail that we get something that isn’t a bill or waste-of-trees direct mail piece, and I wasn’t expecting a package from anybody, so this flat envelope addressed in Sharpie (complete with a smiley face) piqued my interest, to say the least.

Oddly enough, it was from my dentist, Dr. Patricia McGarry, affectionately known in the area as “Dr. Patty.”

Dr. Patty had seen an article in the local paper about my recent success competing in Toastmasters “Table Topics” contests, and decided to not only cut it out, but laminate it and send it to me. Included was a small “Congratulations” postcard from her office, and a handwritten note on the back.

She wrote:

Dear Stacy -
Congratulations — Toastmasters is a very prestigious organization. It is really exciting — be sure to keep us up on what’s happening!
Dr. Patty

That, boys and girls, is the very ethos of social media. Many a social media evangelist will tell you that it’s all about relationships.

But if you’re like me, you immerse yourself in so much meta social media that you find yourself caught up in the social media echo chamber, wondering if we’re all just a bunch of PR-type folks talking amongst ourselves, trying to learn from one another, sharing best practices, yada yada yada. This cacophony of blogs and tweets and Diggs (oh, my!) has the ability to become extremely overwhelming, and sometimes it’s hard to weed out the core principles for yourself, let alone new people new on the scene.

The Very Official Shannon Paul, cognizant of the echo chamber and its importance among like-minded online communities, also recognizes the need to open it up and make access easier for new people.  By doing so, she offers these basic steps for those who “don’t know where to start” with social media engagement, demonstrating that the #1 thing in social media is not being “that guy,” but instead putting more emphasis on listening.

But getting that piece of mail from Dr. Patty last week suddenly made the echo chamber come to a screeching halt. (Cue the needle-on-vinyl sound here if you must.) I thought about Dr. Patty and I realized that one doesn’t necessarily have to go spelunking the caverns of social media voices to get a good grasp on the idealogy.  Sometimes, all it takes is a step back from the internets to realize that answers and examples are right in front of us. One need not look any further than their local dentist for best practices in social media marketing. Or, my local dentist, anyway.

Dr. Patty gets it. She doesn’t even have a Facebook account, but she puts in practice in the real world what many of us are discussing every day here on the net.

Be seen where the people are, and for the common cause.

Back in June, I was participating in Relay For Life, and Dr. Patty was there walking around the track like everybody else, there to raise awareness and money for cancer research. She had a booth set up that was less “that guy” advertising herself and more providing informational literature on the importance of getting regular checkups, noting that dentists can detect cancer early. Everybody knows who Dr. Patty is, not just by her big U of M tent, but because she’s all of about 4’11″ and in case you have any doubts, she wears a visor that says “Dr. Patty” embroidered on it. She’s definitely seen, and people definitely know her.

I had a long conversation with her and her husband at Relay For Life, just catching up on things while on the track. Later that week I received a “thinking of you” postcard in the mail from her, signed by her entire staff that was similar to this latest one, that said,

Stacy -

Thanks for the Relay walking & stopping by the tent–my husband really liked meeting you!

Dr. Patty

Listening, engaging, and giving props.

This segues into listening, as mentioned above, and along with listening comes engaging in the conversation and giving others recognition. These three things are separate but entwined, you can do one without the other two but you’re better off with a mix of all three.

Not only did Dr. Patty engage in a conversation with me at Relay For Life, she recognized me and indicated that she was listening by following up with that postcard. More importantly, she was paying attention to the local papers (the offline, “old school” equivalent of keeping up with the RSS feeds), by sending me the laminated clipping and the “Congratulations!” note, recognizing me and giving me props.

Give away free stuff.

This isn’t brain surgery, but it amazes me how many people don’t understand this concept. If you have a product to sell, whether it’s a book or those roasted nuts at the mall, your best bet for earning business is to give people free samples. This strategy has been in place by drug dealers since the first time somebody accidentally lit a certain plant on fire, but if you’d like a more credible source, David Meerman Scott is more than happy to tell you about it in his free eBook. It’s even been implemented by the U.S. Government — even though the entire 9/11 Commission Report was available free online, a gazillion people bought the hard copy, anyway.

As a dentist, Dr. Patty obviously gives out free toothbrushes and floss to people. That’s kind of expected, and she’s not expecting to sign people up for appointments every time she gives someone a toothbrush at a community event. But she knows it will lead to future business. At our annual Fenton Business Expo this past March, she held a raffle for three professional teeth whitening kits, approximately a $500 value each.

Out of about 6,000 attendees at the expo who could have entered the drawing, my name was one of the three drawn out of the hat. Winning a $500 professional whitening kit is a pretty big deal (especially when you drink as much coffee as I do), so I told everybody I knew and gave Dr. Patty some mad props all over the county. So of course when my boyfriend, who is afraid of dentists, needed a tooth pulled a few months ago, I dragged him by the ear took him to Dr. Patty’s office.

All of these things that my small town dentist does can and do apply to social media best practices. Listening. Being where the people are. Being for the common cause. Paying attention to the news. Engaging in conversation. Giving others recognition. Giving away free stuff. True, the further you dive down the rabbit hole of the echo chamber you’ll figure it out more, but sometimes you need to look off the court to get in the game. Dr. Patty has established herself in my local community by implementing these ideas and formed strong relationships not just with me but with everybody she meets. In fact, because she’s just that good, she recently had to bring in another dentist to keep up with all her new patients.

I wonder if she knows I’m way overdue for a cleaning.