Social Media Marketing, Your Chiropractic Clinic, and You
Social Media is the “hottest” buzz word on the Internet today. For those of you who would like to explore Social Media marketing as an adjunct to your overall chiropractic internet marketing strategy, but aren’t quite sure what all the buzz is about, let’s talk a little about the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of social media and you, that’s “Who.”
Social media marketing may be very much like, and entirely unlike, any chiropractic marketing strategy you’ve thought about. In the “very much like” category, you’d never consider trying any sort of marketing plan without making an effort to understand what you’re doing and what you want to get from it. What are your goals? Once you’re clear about what you want, it’ll be easier for you to use social media to your greatest advantage.
When you are ready to begin your social media venture, but before you start, you will need to make sure that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, that is to say, make sure that your name or the name of your clinic is available so that you can use precisely same name on every one of the social channels you decide to use. When you’re ready, there’s a service, which is totally free, that will help 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 or not on a sufficient number of social media sites.
The next step, once you have all your social media accounts “locked up”, is to decide where you would like to be active. Because you have a clinic to run and patients to see, initially only a few social media sites is preferable and may actually be all you’ll need. That way you won’t get unduly busy in too many channels. How do decide which sites are best for you? Choose the social media site where the most action is, which are facebook, twitter, linkedin, and Youtube
What your social media activity goal should be is to build a genuine presence in your community. What is definitely a no-no is for you to try to “sell” on your social media sites, in other words 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. Of course, let them know what you do, but do it by participating in the conversation. Social media works the same way as social networking offline. People on social media sites don’t want to be sold to, plain and simply. 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 a participant asks you what you do. Or, maybe you begin the conversation by (just) saying, “Hello, I’m Dr. ____. The same dynamics apply with social media. Social media sites should be handled the same way you’d “work” offline networking opportunities to promote yourself, i.e., answer the questions and concerns that get potential patients interested in the who that’s you!
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