Today is the 20th anniversary of the first posts by four members of GDPUK, by email.

Yes, that is how we started, unbelievably before Google and Facebook!

I do love telling this story, and I'd like to share it with you. I was online from 1996, in those days it was dial up with those nostalgic modem sounds. The web was much more simple in 1997, and I taught myself, as many of you did, how to write a web page, rudimentary html, including how to upload it and make it display. I was interested in email communication, and before the ease of modern social media, email lists were the best method, using an internet protocol older than the WWW.

I was a member of an American dental group, IDF, which is still going, but it was very US centred, not particularly useful for a UK dentist. In April 1997, I got the idea of founding a mailing list for UK dentists, and thought about how to get a group together. The BDJ was the way forward.

So, I wrote a letter on my word processor software, posted to BDJ that month and carried on with work and my family. This was the pace of life only 20 years ago. Then in June, [only 8 weeks later :) ] I received a postcard [!!] from the editor of BDJ, saying yes, we will publish your letter. So, in the second August magazine, my letter was published, three colleagues replied, and we got started in the September. Here is the Medline link to that letter .... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9293127

I must have the hard copy somewhere, ready for the GDPUK museum!!

We are celebrating the anniversary of GDPUK with our Conference in November. Early bird discounts available here https://www.gdpuk.com/conference/ I am looking forward to an interesting and unique day in Manchester - meeting colleagues old and new... all are welcome.

Looking forward to a celebratory drink with you all at the end of that day… cheers.

Thanks for reading and helping GDPUK grow for 20 years.

Tony

On November 4th 2016, GDPUK hosted a conference for our members in Manchester. The day was a fantastic success both educationally as well as socially and the feedback we received was incredibly positive. 
 

We were extremely proud to host event that was different in style than your “normal” dental event and we believe that was also something that made a difference to the atmosphere on the day. Thanks again to everyone who attended, our excellent speakers for making the day so enjoyable and our sponsors who supported the day and continue to support GDPUK. 
 

We have now made two charitable donations following the event:-

• £600 went to a Manchester based charity, close to the Jacobs family, named Prevent, a cancer research organisation, it used to be named Genesis. www.preventbreastcancer.org.uk
• £400 went to British Dental Association Benevolent Fund, a charity which many of you will know, which supports dental people in times of hardship. www.bdabenevolentfund.org.uk

For 2017, we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of GDPUK, and we are planning a bigger, even more exciting event in Manchester on Friday November 17th – Please put this date in your diary! More details to follow in next few weeks.

GDPUK.com is a social media site for dentists run by a dentist, Tony Jacobs. Established since 1997, there are over 10,000 dental professionals who have joined the community, they use the site to read dental news and blogs, as well as reading and contributing to the GDPUK forum where there have been over 250,000 posts since 2008! GDPUK is a fantastic resource for dentists and a great place to learn about as well as share your own opinion on important matters within UK dentistry.

A number of new features and opportunities on GDPUK in 2017. Get in touch if you have any questions. Contact details below.

Satisfied customers

We have had a number of satisfied advertisers recently, which pleases us immensely. Thanks to all our customers for their continued use of the site and all the new clients we have taken on recently. We wrote about an extremely satisfied client a few weeks ago, you can read it below, their offer was extremely well received and resulted in a number of sales, which is very pleasing to hear.

Blog on a satisfied GDPUK Client.
 

New refreshed website

As you will have noted, our website is refreshed and less crowded which we believe makes it look clearer and hopefully easier to navigate. If you have any feedback or would like to provide feedback - please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
 

20th Year Anniversary

2017 marks the 20th anniversary of GDPUK, something we have mentioned a number of times and will keep mentioning! We are close to putting together plans for a 20th anniversary Party and Conference in November and it is something that we would like as many of our members to attend as possible. Would be fantastic to celebrate with as many people as possible.
 

Super Leaderboard

Our leaderboard banner continues to be extremely popular with our advertisers. It is 728x90px and appears at the top of all our pages as you can see above. A recent option that we added to the site, is the super leaderboard which appears in the same space as the leaderboard but is super sized - 970x90, giving you even greater brand awareness and exposure on every page of GDPUK.
 

Number of banners at once

Via our DFP software, our customers can actually run more than one advert at once in a given month. This means one of our customers can actually advertise two things or more at once. One of our clients MC Dental / Repairs is currently doing using this method to advertise a number of offers at once. Added value from GDPUK!
 

News and Blogs

We continue to publish daily news and blogs, that get read by thousands of healthcare professionals on a weekly basis. Via our daily emails, tweets and facebook posts, we help to educate and inform our readers with the latest dental news and opinion. Something we are very proud of.

Banners are now appearing on the right hand side of the news and blogs. Considering the articles attract plenty of readers on a daily basis, it provides even more exposure for your brand.

As you can see GDPUK continues to evolve and improve, even in its 20th year! Thanks for reading.

About GDPUK

As mentioned previously, 2017 marks the 20th year of GDPUK.

GDPUK.com is for dentists and dental professionals to discuss all aspects of their profession, their practice and their business, centred on the UK. Subjects dissected have been diverse, from tips on simple techniques to guidance on buying major equipment, to discussions on the various practice management software packages, and of ongoing developments in British dental politics.

Moderated in Manchester, England by Dr Tony Jacobs BDS, the Group was started in Summer 1997, and continues to grow rapidly.

GDPUK.com also publishes UK dental news, and has had many exclusive stories, as well as being able to publish the latest news relevant to dentistry before other dental news providers. In addition GDPUK blogs, both editorial and product updates are well read throughout the dental profession and industry. A unique feature is the @DentistGoneBadd visual blog.

The group now has nearly 10,000 members, and attracts interest and sponsorship from major companies involved in the dental trade.

Blog Series

To mark this anniversary, we thought we would put together a 20 (get it!) part series of blogs about online advertising and all the advantages of it. Over the next 19 blogs, I am going to look into detail at the reasons that online advertising is effective and why a medium like an online community can be perfect for your brand …. Especially If you are looking to reach a target audience.

Over the series of blogs, we will explore all the elements of online advertising from how you can be creative, the opportunity to increase brand awareness, plus the adaptability and flexibility of online advertising.

Advertising online can no longer be viewed as a new medium, it is extremely well established but we hope this series can convince the sceptics but also prove useful to anyone who is looking to do some powerful marketing of their brand or product in the year ahead. Please get in touch we any queries or questions.

Hope you enjoy this series of blogs. Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year.

Welcome to our latest blog. Below are 5 reasons that we believe make GDPUK a unique place to market your business and reach your target audience of dentists. G.D.P.U.K.

G = Growing

Established in 1997, GDPUK continues to grow

• 20 years of hosting dental discussion chat and opinion

• The home of dental opinion in the UK

• Just under 10,000 members, who are all part of the profession

• Since beginning of 2014, we have had 3500 new members, the site is constantly growing.

• Approx 1,000 different people contribute to our forum discussions in a calendar year.

• In 2016, we are averaging over 4,000 unique visitors a month to the site.

GDPUK is the home of dental opinion and information.

• The site is proud that it gives a medium for dentists to discuss dentistry in the UK and give their opinion of what matters to them.

• The site can be controversial but we see that as a good thing. We exist because the content in our news, blogs and forum pages is interesting to read. We continue to attract an audience.

• This tradition continued at our conference in November 2016 and our 20th anniversary celebrations in 2017.

Publisher of Daily Dental News and Blogs

• Large audience follow our news and blogs

• GDPUK has a news editor, plus a number of paid content writers

• News stories receive thousands of readers a week

• A range of blogs are published weekly, full of opinion, humour and insight.

• Our news is published instantly, so the site carries the latest stories, no monthly deadlines, no print nor post delays….

• @DentistGoneBadd our comedy blogger attracts around 5,000 readers per week, 100,000 in the last twelve months.

Reach your target audience

• GDPUK offers unique advertising spaces to get in front of your target audience

• Dentists are reading our site every day of the week.

• The site is like a dental exhibition every day!

• Feature on our daily digest email, which gets sent 3 times a day, every day

• Ask us about what we can offer for a 12 month marketing campaign.

K = Kinship

Become Part of the GDPUK Family

• We are a small, close knit group and business at GDPUK

• Work with us and we can help any problems or issues and come back to you instantly

• We can provide full accountability on everything and we are always available to speak or help.

• GDPUK loves to build close relationships, with our users, colleagues and also our customers who help to keep the site running.

For more information about GDPUK and how we can help to market your business, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Thanks for reading.