How to Improve Social Media Marketing for Your Chiropractic Office

As a chiropractor, you wear many hats. Even if you employ a team, your vision and leadership is crucial to your practice’s success. When it comes to marketing, it’s easy to wonder whether you’re using the correct strategies or wasting your time on tactics that ultimately won’t work. You may be harboring the dreaded “fear of missing out” (or FOMO) when you hear about the latest and greatest marketing miracle. 

When you’re running small business, you want to use the best and most effective marketing tactics that require as little effort as possible to give you the results you want. Your use of social media falls in this category! Social media is perhaps the most easily misused marketing tool in your toolbelt, if for no other reason than making several hours per day disappear! To help you maintain your focus, in this article we give you a few mistakes to avoid and twice as many “do’s” as you engage in social media marketing for your chiropractic practice.

7 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid in Your Chiropractic Practice

DON’T…

1) Don’t join ALL the social media channels.  Generally, for a chiropractic office, Facebook is going to be your greatest social media ally. It’s especially suited to brick and mortar businesses marketing to a local clientele. In fact, according to our recent survey, more than 90% of you use Facebook most often to promote your practice.  No matter which social media channels you choose, choose only as many as you can handle well.  There’s no point in having four channels and not using any of them consistently or effectively.

2) Don’t post inconsistently. Decide on a posting schedule and stick with it. It doesn’t matter if it’s once a week or four times a week, a schedule will keep you and your social media plan on track. It will protect you from both over posting and under posting.

3) Don’t ignore comments and questions. It’s almost the equivalent of ignoring a person who’s talking directly to you. If someone comments on what you posted on social media, make sure you reply. If people go to the trouble of reading your posts and making comments, you should acknowledge them. Even if it is a simple thank you. And definitely answer any questions.  Answering questions is even better, because everyone gets to see a bit of your knowledge and how great it is to work with you.

4) Don’t forget people are involved. There are automation tools available for social media but using an automated tool will detract from the experience of interacting with your business. People are not dumb; they can tell if a robot is answering them back.

5) Don’t use jargon. When you know a lot about a subject it’s easy to slip into jargon or speech that is familiar only to those in your line of work. No matter what business you’re in, you want to focus on the benefits available to your patients. This will help you steer clear from jargon and focus on your ideal patients and their needs.

6) Don’t violate HIPAA regulations. Never use a patient’s picture or refer to a patient’s case in your posts unless you get written permission. (Even if you don’t use names or any other identifying information.) Beware of inadvertent patient “cameos” when you’re taking selfies in your waiting room or taking pictures with other patients who have given their permission.

7) Don’t engage in a war over social media. Be professional at all times! If the criticizer becomes unreasonable or combative, it’s best to give your phone number and ask the person to call your office directly.

14 Definite “Do’s” For Improving Social Media Marketing in Your Chiropractic Office

DO…

1) Create your marketing plan first. Social media should support and supplement your overall marketing plan. Since your target audience and business goals are baked into your marketing plan, it serves as a guide for the actions you take on social media.

2) Assign a team member to post and monitor your social media channels. Your posting will only be completed if you assign responsibility for it! If you’re doing it yourself, mark out time on your calendar. Respond quickly to both negative and positive feedback alike.  Some social media channels, like Facebook, actually note how long, on average, your office takes to respond. 

3) Choose the appropriate channels. As we stated, Facebook for chiropractors is a safe bet. If you want to become a thought leader and get booked for conferences, post articles on LinkedIn and make connections there. If your ideal patient spends a lot of time on Instagram, you should be there as well.

4) Collect intel from conversations and questions and look for opportunities. You never know where an idea for a new product, service or package can come from. You may get an inkling of a new trend by paying attention to frequently asked questions or requests.

5) Set goals for your social media. Since you don’t want to waste time or resources, align your social media goals with your overall practice goals and marketing plans. Which goals can social media help best with? Results are often hard to quantify, but if you and your staff routinely ask, “How did you hear of us?” you may get a general idea.  If you are technically savvy, create trackable links.  Or, decide to offer something only on your social media channel to see how many “takers” you get.

6) Be consistent with your brand. The tone, topics and imagery that you use in your posts should reflect the personality of your practice. If a team member is making posts, make sure that person understands how you want your practice to be represented.

7) Show your practice behind the scenes. Post about fun things going on in the office and snap pictures once in a while. This allows your social media followers to get a sense of the story of your practice and what it’s like to work with you.

8) Use social media to educate about health. As a chiropractor, you know that when you educate about health, you are assisting people with prevention and giving them information they probably won’t get anywhere else. Posting interesting information about health topics shows off your knowledge while helping people. Use your ChiroTV Network slides for ideas about quick posts, a best practice which also provides consistency for your marketing.

9) Use social media to grow your email list. You can offer something for free, like a health guide, on social media in exchange for signing up to receive your newsletter.

10) Test new marketing ideas. You can use social media to test headlines that work best by gauging the number of shares, comments and re-tweets.

11) Repurpose content. Whether you have created a new product or service or have written an article, you can push this content out with social media. It is a way to expose more eyeballs to the content that you have created. You’ll also reach patients and prospects that might not have visited your website or become members of your newsletter list yet. Social media is great for posting teasers about interesting articles and generating traffic to your website blog. Remember to customize your content to each social media channel.

12) Add social media buttons to your website and emails. Let people know all the channels where they can find you.  Your website and newsletters are good places to start since a simple click gets them there. Your website visitors and newsletter readers can then select their preferred channel to stay in touch with you!

13) Add social sharing buttons to your website blog. If people love your content, make it easy for them to share it with others in their network. After all, if they think it will be helpful to a friend, that could mean a new prospect for you!

14) Create a social media calendar. Once you decide how often you’re going to post on your social media channel, start generating ideas for posts. Buy or print out a yearly calendar and start mapping out events of interest in the community, holidays, the launch of your new product or service, tradeshows or conferences you plan to attend, and other office happenings. Get creative. You will never be searching for a social media topic if you plan ahead.

We hope you enjoyed these tips for social media marketing for your chiropractic practice.  What is the biggest success you’ve experienced when marketing with social media? Share your story here. 

ChiroTV Network is a family-run business built exclusively by chiropractors, for chiropractors. Our patient education system helps chiropractors seamlessly market and sell more of their services and products to patients while they wait. For a demo and a free 30-day trial, call Steve Madnick at 888-480-1350 or go to www.ChiroTVNetwork.com