Doc, Are You a Social Media Holdout? Your Future Is Now

Whether you like it or not, to compete in any business, even chiropractic, you really should know and consider using social media. It is no longer a small, sleepy, local world we live in; it has become a far-reaching community. We are connected with everyone else on the planet and can communicate with anyone, anywhere in seconds.

With the tools of rapid and effective social media communication in hand, practices that are using them are leaving those that don't in the dust. Doctor, you should learn this to survive and thrive – not in the future, but right now.

Social Media 101: Multiple Effective Means of Communicating

With the miracle of the Internet, the innovations in terms of ways to communicate is so overwhelming to some that they simply refuse to learn how to use any of them. But learning even one or two can change one's viewpoint of the world to a broad perspective that opens the mind to possibilities in business and personal connection that were never possible before. And it is easy. Just start at the beginning and learn, step by step, how to use them.

Six Top Social Media Vehicles

This two-part article is for the novice doctor, the social media holdout – to give you a broad brush of the six top social media vehicles so you can understand generally what they are and then decide which of these would be the better to use in growing your practice. After you see what they are and how they may be used to enhance your practice, you can select which one (or more) is right for you:

• Email
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

Email

Email is not classified strictly as social media, but it utilizes the same cyber highway to the potential prospective patient, so I put it in the same category to show how you can use the Internet as a viable marketing vehicle.

Email marketing is simply sending emails to prospects and existing patients. Done right, email marketing converts prospects into patients and turns one-time "shoppers" into loyal, raving patrons of your practice.

There are four primary reasons email is still so effective and has distinct advantages over other modern media:

1. It is direct. Every person on your email list receives an email the same way they would receive an ordinary piece of mail in their physical mailbox. It is highly personal. What an amazing way to instantly reach out to communicate with someone.
2. It is necessary in many people's lives. You can go for some time without checking social media. However, most people check their email several times a day. Email is the No. 1 communication channel. Did you know that at least 91 percent of consumers check their email on a daily basis?
3. It is customizable. You can create a campaign on any subject, and add all of the bells and whistles you desire. And it's inexpensive. Imagine a short three-part series on a topic you love to talk about – what would you share?
4. It makes money. People who buy products marketed through email spend 138 percent more than those who do not receive email offers. In fact, email marketing has an ROI of 3,800%. That's huge! And if you are wondering if social media converts even better, think again: The average order value of an email is at least three times higher than that of social media.

Email is simply the best way to make sales online. This fact may or may not apply to you, but consider anything you sell over the counter in your practice – if you don't promote it this way, then you are missing out.

There are innumerable variations on turning the humble email into a firecracker of a sales device that yields the results indicated above. Of course, as in any art or craft, an email's effectiveness depends on execution and know-how.

Facebook

In its simplest and basic form, Facebook is a digital gathering place of friends who have a commonality of interest. Friends are accumulated on a list, and when a message is sent out, it goes to all of them at once. One can have up to 5,000 friends at one time under a single listing.

Facebook is a highly effective means of staying in contact with family, friends and business associates. It can be used as a kind of newsletter of one's life and activities, and everything can be shared – from announcements to news to interesting events.

Used as a business tool, it can be used as a highly effective means of reaching thousands of potential patients. Facebook has the facility to set up a page much like a website exclusively for your clinic/service or product, together with images, animation and videos, that can be implemented just by following directions. There are countless highly effective marketing tools available to convert even the most wary and cynical prospect to raving fan. With a dialed Facebook ad, you can reach any target audience according to age, income location or any other desired criteria.

In short, Facebook is an ever-increasing marketing tool with a potential that has the sky as the limit. Just consider that the worldwide number of monthly active Facebook users has steadily increased from 2008 to 2018. As of the first quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.19 billion monthly active users. There has never been such a pool of potential clients and customers in one place (yes, a digital cyberplace) and who will buy if given the right motivation and bait.

You are the fisherman who can find the right bait and motivation. Welcome to a wonderland of possibilities. If you are a true social media holdout, the first step is to simply claim your own personal Facebook page.

Twitter

Twitter is an online news and social networking site where people communicate in short messages called tweets. Tweeting is sending short messages of the maximum of 280 characters each to anyone who follows you.

How does Twitter work? You join with a free account and Twitter name. Then you can send out short "broadcasts" or messages as often as you wish. Go to the "What's Happening" box, type 280 characters or less, and click "Tweet." That's all there is to it.

As you accumulate followers, and follow others yourself, you build your network of people you wish to communicate with instantly, whether it be friends, family or business associates. If you find someone or something interesting, "follow" them and subscribe to their tweets (some call them "microblogs").

Why do people tweet? For any reason you can imagine: to get attention, vanity, self-promotion, recreation. Some people send out incredibly useful content. And that's the real value of Twitter: It provides a stream of quick updates from friends, family, scholars, news journalists, and experts. There is a growing base of really useful news and knowledge content on Twitter.

Twitter is a way to learn about the world through another person's eyes. You can read someone's viewpoint of something happening in Mongolia about a flood or earthquake, or what your sister is doing in her trip to Paris and what she is seeing as she writes it. Journalists use it to maintain up-to-date reports across the world in a constant stream of news as it happens.

Why should you use Twitter? Simple: Because it can be used as a marketing tool. Thousands of people advertise their recruiting services, their consulting businesses, their retail stores by using Twitter. And it does work.

The modern, Internet-savvy user is tired of television advertisements. People today prefer advertising that is faster, less intrusive, and can be turned on or off at will. Twitter is exactly that. If you learn how the nuances of tweeting work, you can get good advertising results by using Twitter.

How effective is this tool? Twitter is used effectively by people at all levels of society, from the president of the United States to teenagers tweeting about the newest computer game. You have probably heard in the news how President Trump favors going to Twitter to tweet about his immediate views – usually in an attempt to get massive publicity (which it always does).

Step one is to go in and claim your Twitter account. Once you open the account, just find a famous person you look up to and "follow" them to get accustomed to how it works.

Editor's Note: Part 2 of this digital exclusive appears in the September issue and covers YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn, completing the social media holdout's introduction to the practice marketing vehicles they're ignoring