The Hottest Buzz: Social Media Marketing (for Chiropractors?)
April 6th, 2010 | by admin |Social Media is the “hottest” topic on the Internet today. If you’ve been thinking about getting on board, but don’t know 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 make a better decision about whether to add Social Media to your chiropractic marketing strategy.
Social media marketing may seem familiar in some aspects to other marketing strategies you’ve considered in the past, but still unfamiliar at the same time. In the “familiar” category, you wouldn’t consider any sort of marketing plan without taking the time to understand what you’re doing and what you want to get from it. What are your goals? Once you know what you want, you’ll be able to use social media to your biggest advantage.
When you are ready to begin your social media endeavor, 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 want to use. When you’re ready, there’s a service, which is absolutely free, that will help you with your search. That who is knowem.com. Knowem.com will find out 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 “captured”, is to decide where you ought to be active. Starting with only a small number of social media sites is preferable 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. 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 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 clinic, don’t sell services or products, don’t sell anything! The objective of social media is for you to have an addition channel through which to network with the community. Of course, let them become aware 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. What might be a beneficial idea to think of social media sites like a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around chatting about who they are and what they do, and then a participant asks you what you do. Or, perhaps you start the conversation by simply 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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