Social Media Brings Change to Killer Chiropractic Marketing
When speaking with the average chiropractor, it is apparent that critical entrepreneurial thinking is still not stressed in school. Hence, why many doctors never make it in the long term in practice. In fact, the chiropractic profession has the highest student loan default rate of any medical profession. Most of the reason for this that the doctors are taught to be great technicians and have good diagnostic ability but that alone does not pay the overhead each month. Many believe they will just hang-up their sign and people will flock through the door. Well, I have news for the dreamers! Times are changing very quickly and the fast learners will profit heavily and grow their practices to astonishing heights while the laggards will be sucked under with the sinking economy.
Marketing has changed rapidly in the past few years. The biggest factor affecting the change has been the advent of Web 2.0 and social networking on the internet. You may have heard these terms used but were not sure what they mean, and perhaps you feel that you can just ignore this new trend. Marketing experts agree that the future of selling is on the internet. Unless you are willing to take on the social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook and YouTube you will continue to flounder in your business.
For three years I have been teaching chiropractors and other professionals how to get the most from social media websites. I have authored and created a system of marketing that has literally transformed chiropractic as a business.
I have had various marketing consultants try to grab my secrets, which I’ve shared with only a select group of my fellow chiropractors. These consultants have tried all manner and method of tricking me by calling from anonymous numbers or posing as potential clients. They wanted to capture and sell my ideas, and I was more interested in making my ideas come to life.
The amazing part of social networking sites is that they are completely free to join and use. Anyone can set up their own profile and begin making new contacts within minutes. However, many chiropractors make the mistake of joining these sites and sending out spam messages. Not only is this irritating to many members, but it will actually get you kicked off the network if you do it enough. Your hard work will be for nothing. If you’ve ever talked to someone who is sour about social networking as a marketing tool, they probably tried this method and failed miserably. The best way to avoid making mistakes like these is to work with an experienced mentor who has already achieved some level of success on social networking sites.
While the profession and 95% of chiropractors are playing catch-up, I’ve been on the cutting-edge discovering new, and even more powerful ways to leverage these Web 2.0 technologies to create a steady stream of new patients and multiple sources of income for me and my hundreds of students. Last month was a great example, as I made over $5,000 in one month from just one video that I posted on YouTube. With returns like this for minimal time investment, many are crippling themselves by not learning how to market the proper way with social media.
A couple tips that I can give you for marketing on MySpace include: 1. Never send a friend request to someone unless you first type a friendly message letting them know who you are and why you want to be their friend; and 2. Keep plenty of videos on your profile page. These can be about chiropractic, or even subjects that interest you personally such as sports, music, or movies. Part of the success of social networking involves expressing your own personality to your contacts.
This is going to be a new language for most doctors since we live in more technologically advanced times. You have a choice though. You can either take a year out of your schedule to learn everything you need to know about social media marketing or you can find a mentor who’s been there and done that. The latter will reduce your learning curve by about a year while the first one will cost you an arm and leg in money and mistakes.
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