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 talk a little 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 still unfamiliar at the same time. In the “familiar” category, you wouldn’t consider any type of marketing plan without making an effort to understand what it is and what you want to get from it. What are your goals? Once you’ve decided what you want, you’ll be more capable of using social media to your best 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 your clinic’s name is attainable so that you can use the exact same name on each and every one of the social channels you desire to use. When you’re ready, there’s a service, which is totally free, that can assist you with your search. That who is knowem.com. This service will check where your name is and/or if it’s available or not on a large number of social media sites.
When you have “captured” all of your social media accounts, the next step is to choose where you want to be active. Starting with only a small number of social media sites is the most beneficial because, let’s face it, you have a clinic to run and patients to see. You won’t want to get involved 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 your social media activity goal should be is to build a real 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 have an addition channel through which to network with the community. Certainly, let them know what you do, but do it by becoming a participant. 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 similar to a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around talking about who they are and what they do, and then a participant asks you what you do. Or, maybe you start the conversation by simply stating, “Hi, I’m Dr. ____. The same kind of interaction applies 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!