Social Media is the “hottest” buzz word on the Internet today. For those of you who would like to explore Social Media marketing as part of your overall chiropractic internet marketing strategy, but aren’t really 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 engaged in in the past, but still unfamiliar at the same time. In the “familiar” category, you wouldn’t consider any kind of marketing plan without taking the time to understand what you’re doing and what you want to get from it. It’s important to ask yourself, “What are my goals?” Once you know what you want, you’ll be able to use social media to your best advantage.
When you are ready to begin your social media effort, but before you start, you will need to make certain that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, that is to say, be certain that your name or the name of your clinic is attainable so that you can use the exact same name on each and every one of the social channels you decide 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. 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 secured all of your social media accounts, the next step is to make a decision as to where you would like to be active. Initially only a limited 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 caught up in too many social media sites. So, how do you choose the best sites 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, in other words don’t sell your chiropractic services, don’t sell 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. Sure, inform them about what you do, but do it by becoming a participant. There is actually no difference between social networking offline and social media networking. There is no getting around it, 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 chatting about who they are and what they do, and then someone asks you what you do. Or, maybe you start the conversation by simply stating, “Hello, I’m Dr. ____. The same dynamics apply with social media. “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 let people know who you are and gets them interested in the who that’s you!