Is Social Media an Important Marketing Channel for Your Chiropractic Clinic?
May 29th, 2010 | by admin |Social Media is the “hottest” topic on the Internet today. If you’ve been thinking about getting on board, but you’re not sure where the platform is, let’s take a minute to talk about the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of social media and you, that’s “Who.” Then you can decide if you want to add Social Media to your chiropractic marketing strategy.
Social media marketing may seem familiar in some aspects to other chiropractic marketing strategies you’ve thought about in the past, but also unfamiliar at the same time. In the “familiar” category, you’d never think of trying any sort of marketing plan without making an effort to understand what it is and what you want to get from it. It’s important to ask yourself, “What are my goals?” Once you’re clear about what you want, you’ll be more capable of using social media to your biggest advantage.
When you are ready to begin your social media endeavor, but before you start, it will be crucial for you to make certain that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, i.e., be certain that your name or your clinic’s name is procurable so that you can use the exact same name on every one of the social channels you decide to use. When you’re ready, there’s a service, which is entirely free, that can assist you with your search. Knowem.com is the who to go to. This service will check where your name is and/or if it’s available for use or not on a substantial number of social media sites.
The next step, once you have all your social media accounts secured, is to make a decision as to where you would like to be active. Beginning with only a small number of social media sites is best because, let’s face it, you have a clinic to run and patients to see. You won’t want to get caught up in too many social media sites. So, how do you choose the best sites for you? The big ones (where most of the action is) are facebook, twitter, linkedin, and Youtube.
What successful social media activity will do for you is build a genuine presence in your community. What you should never do “sell” on your social media sites, that means don’t sell your chiropractic services, don’t sell products, don’t sell anything! The benefit of social media is for you to go out and network with the community. Sure, let them know what you do, but do it by participating in the conversation. Social media works the same way as social networking offline. It is important to be clear on this point, people on social media do not want to be sold to! Social media sites are a lot like a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around having a conversation about who they are and what they do, and then someone asks you what you do. Or, perhaps you begin the conversation by simply stating, “Hello, I’m Dr. ____. With social media marketing, the same dynamics apply. “Work” your social media sites in the same way you’d work your offline networking communities, which is to say, answer the questions and concerns that get potential patients interested in the who that’s you!
Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.