Dr. Lavonne K. Fore is one of Rome, Ga.’s most popular orthodontists. As tech geeks, we were impressed by her state-of-the-art practice on North Fourth Avenue. Did you know Fore Orthodontics uses a fingerprint sign-in system? Or that patients can play video games while they wait? It was clear after visiting Dr. Fore’s office that her website should be as fun and modern as she is.

The website we created for Dr. Fore is bright and cheerful, in shades of blue that complement the newly-updated Fore Orthodontics logo. The design focuses on letting prospective patients know why they should choose Fore Orthodontics, while also making it easy to find resources about orthodontic treatment. From the front page of the website, it’s easy to learn about Dr. Fore’s qualifications, see examples of common bite problems and read about treatment options for everyone from kids to adults.

After the design was complete, we optimized the site for search engines, so Dr. Fore will appear as high as possible in search results from sites such as Google and Bing.

But our work with Fore Orthodontics wasn’t limited just to forebraces.com. We also helped them launch a YouTube channel, where they have been busy adding videos of their patients talking about their braces. We customized the Fore Orthodontics YouTube page, got them started by uploading some videos and taught the staff how to add videos and optimize their tags and descriptions to be easily searchable. In the short time the page has been active, it has gotten nearly 2,000 video views.

The patient testimonial video on the Fore YouTube channel was created by SAI Digital, with music and title screens. We edited lots of footage of patient interviews to best highlight why patients should choose Fore Orthodontics.

On the other side of the social media realm, we created custom tabs on the Fore Orthodontics Facebook page. Dr. Fore and her staff were already active on Facebook, but they wanted to include information about the practice for those not familiar with them. Now, when non-fans visit Facebook.com/ForeOrthodontics, they see a custom page that explains the benefits of Dr. Fore’s practice, along with contact information and easy access to a map to the office. Other tabs we created include a before and after photo slideshow of several Fore Orthodontics patients, and pictures of the types of braces Fore Orthodontics offers. We also integrated their YouTube account, so new videos automatically display on their Facebook page.

Working with Dr. Fore and her staff was a real pleasure. They were excited about learning to update their new website, and enthusiastic about working with social media like Facebook and YouTube.

So if you’re looking for a great orthodontist with a passionate staff, visit ForeBraces.com. And tell ‘em SAI Digital sent ya.

Yesterday, a friend had this kind of outburst about old classmates from high school – it had been more than twenty years since he actually talked to many and yet he learned factoids and status updates about them every day.  There was something unsettling about the past rushing up and joining the future so quickly.

There’s a way to control what you see when you log in.  It’s just a little hidden, but here’s how:

1. Move your cursor to the top right area of the person’s information block as depicted in the picture.
2. When you hover there, a box will appear that says “HIDE”.
3. Click this and you will be given the option to either hide the person’s news altogether or to hide the application that is publishing the information (quizzes are the most popular thing to hide from my informal polling).
4. You should see a pop-up box that tells you that the “hiding” has happened and that person’s information should disappear from your screen.
5. That’s it! Facebook remembers your preferences and will either pull less information from your network or pull information from people you actually want to know about.

NOTE: The folks listed in my screen shot to the right are all folks whose updates I actually enjoy.

So why does Facebook have this function anyway?!

Facebook is all about connecting people to one another -  the best way to do this is to allow people to hear and see new things that others are doing or posting.  Ideally, that sort of “ambient findability” means that you can participate in someone’s life meaningfully by commenting or continuing the conversation — hopefully in “real life” too.  However, in “real life” we simply have preferences. So, Facebook gives users the option to shape the experience they have and the conversations they “overhear” or information they come across.

Next Up: How you can control the information that is distributed about you.