How Important is Social Media Marketing to Your Clinic?
Social Media is the “hottest” buzz word on the Internet today. For those of you who would like to feel out Social Media marketing as part of your overall chiropractic internet marketing strategy, but aren’t quite sure what all the buzz is about, let’s take a minute to talk about the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of social media and you, that’s “Who.”
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 wouldn’t try any type of marketing plan without making an effort to understand what it’s about and what you want to get from it. What are your goals? Once you know 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, you will need to make certain that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, which is to say, make sure that your name or your clinic’s name is available so that you can use the identical 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 entirely free, that will assist you with your search. That who is knowem.com. This service will check where your name is and/or if it’s available for use 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. Because you have a clinic to run and patients to see, starting with only a few social media sites is preferable and may well be all you’ll need. That way you won’t get caught up 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 successful social media activity will do for you is build a real presence in your community. What you should never do “sell” on your social media sites, which is to say 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. Sure, let them become aware 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 a lot like a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around chatting about who they are and what they do, and then someone asks you what you do. Or, maybe you start the conversation by (just) stating, “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 let people know who you are and gets them interested in the who that’s you!