While being treated for severe back pain this past weekend, I was talking with my chiropractor about what I do for a living and how stress is affecting my back. As we discussed my social media efforts, the chiropractor made a comment about how she didn’t understand what the fuss was about or how she could use something like Facebook for her business. Having reviewed their website when I first started going there, I was shocked. They have such great content on their website which would easily work for a Facebook fan page — most people would be thrilled to have so much content. How many times have I run across companies who want to get involved, yet all they want to do is push their product or service?! Here there is so much educational content that half the work is already done! Anyway, that discussion led to their website and how a new patient showed up at their office last week, having scheduled the appointment online. They had no idea people could schedule appointments online and were rightly concerned about people showing up and them not knowing about it and being unable to accommodate them. So my question was this — you are open to accepting new patients, you have people scheduling appointments through your website, you ran a new client referral program giving away an iPod touch, yet you haven’t grasped how social media can help grow your business. Perhaps because I do this every day it seems so obvious to me. But how many other small businesses are out there like my chiropractor and don’t know how social media could help them?
So given that she came in both days over the weekend to treat my back issue, perhaps I should return the favor and get them started?
The Daily Krier is running commentary on what's happening in my life on a regular basis. I write about things that interest me -- my family, my hobbies, my career in marketing. The blog was born from my interest in writing, my need to become more involved in all things related to social media, and my desire to start on my personal brand. The blog title is a play on my last name. It's technically pronounced "kreer" but everyone pronounces it as "cry-er". The mis-pronounciation lends itself extremely well to the title, don't you think?
Dr. Patrick MacNamara
April 11th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Michelle,
First of all, I commend you for attempting to educate your chiropractor on the benefits of social media. The simple truth is our profession is lagging far behind other professionals when it comes to this effective and efficient means of marketing. Thus my reason for launching Next Generation Chiropractor and Blogging Chiros.
Secondly, if your chiropractor already has great content, then the battle is halfway won. It’s just a matter of repurposing that content to engage prospects and patients. Obviously, this can be accomplished through both a blog and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Lastly, as long as she realizes that digital marketing is slow (see Mitch Joel’s book titled Six Pixels of Separation for an in-depth explanation of this concept) but benefits greatly from consistent updating, she’ll be well on her way to growing her practice from inbound marketing techniques that’ll eventually replace some of her traditional and more costly forms of marketing.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to push her forward. Maybe you’ll be the catalyst for her change.
Sincerely,
Dr. MacNamara