Chiropractic Social Media – 2018 Guide to Success
Last Updated: May 3, 2019
In this article we are going to walk you through the different areas that make up Chiropractic Social Media. There's nothing more exciting to the profession than the idea of social media marketing. It sounds like a place where you can finally pay someone else to do the work for you while you enjoy the new patients that flow in. The problem is that it doesn't work that way.
This article will help to walk you through what's working and whats not working. We hope it helps you avoid the pitfalls that so many chiropractors are falling into today.
Also if you're looking for a ton of Free advice about how to do Facebook advertising check out the link we have here. It's everything you need to do your own paid Facebook Advertising: Chiropractic Facebook Marketing.
Chiropractic Social Media MISCONCEPTIONS
There are many misconceptions that we have seen across all social media channels. Most of these are common ideas that doctors have been led to believe, or concepts that companies are touting as truth to people.
The biggest misconception that we see is the idea that posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., will get you more patients. Let's think about that for a second. When you post on any social media platform, who sees it? Most of the time it's your current patients that have liked your page.
If someone is already your patient, and they like your page, how will posting on Facebook drive in more patients? It won’t. The only way that posting on Facebook can help is through increasing patient retention and by posting content that your patients will share with their family and friends. Most of the time, a chiropractor’s posts are not content that generates a lot of shares, likes, retweets, etc. There is a point to posting, but it's more for patient retention and SEO.
People also ask is if posting a lot will give you an SEO benefit. Posting one quality post a month and getting comments and shares (interaction) with your post is better for SEO purposes than posting an inspirational quote that gets 3 likes daily. Like I said earlier, the only way to get an SEO benefit is by having interactions on your posts. One thing I want to note is, just getting a lot of interactions on your posts, you won’t automatically jump to the top of Google search rankings. It is only one part of Search Engine Optimization, and trust me, there’s a lot more that plays into it.
Another misconception in chiropractic social media that we see is the idea that everyone who likes your page will see your posts. Most people, not only chiropractors, tend to believe this about Facebook. However, only about 35% of the people who like your page will see what you post on Facebook. So most people will never see your posts.
Since SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a part of our services here at Inception, we naturally receive a lot of questions related to social media and its SEO benefit. A common misconception that people believe is that getting a lot of ‘Likes’ on their Facebook page helps their SEO.
The SEO benefit that can come from social media posts comes when people interact with the message. What that means is that they need to comment or share the post for it to have an SEO impact.
Chiropractic Social Media Hype
Social media marketing for chiropractors is kind of the ultimate silver bullet. On the surface it appears as if it satisfies all the greatest desires that we have as chiropractors. It sounds like it's going to bring you all the new patients you need by simply paying someone else to do it for you.
It seems like the greatest thing ever but there's a problem - it's not working for most doctors. At least it's not working the way we want it to.
Since 2013, I've had phone conversations with over 6,000 chiropractors. That means I should know hundreds of chiropractors that are generating tons of patients with social media, but I don't. In fact, out of the 1,200+ chiropractors we work with today I can't name 5 that are doing well with social media marketing.
So, there are only 2 possible explanations:
- I am the unluckiest person in the world. Somehow out of the thousands of conversations I’ve had, I’ve missed out on talking to all the successful social media marketing chiropractors.
- It's not working anywhere near as well as you're being led to believe that it is.
Number 2 is the correct explanation. It's not that social media can't work, it’s that for it to work you're going to have to put time and effort into it. Paying a guru to do it for you each month is not going to generate long-term success even if it works in the beginning.
Facebook is obviously the platform that receives the most attention today. That is why we went out of our way this year to give away everything we know about how to effectively market your practice on there. This link will take you to all of that information: Chiropractic Facebook Marketing
Use Social Media as a Chiropractor to Describe Yourself (Tell Your Story)
The best way to utilize social media for your chiropractic office is to tell your story. This will help you build a relationship with your current and potential patients.
Most people don't care about the services you offer, or what your degree is in. Potential patients want three things. They want to know who you are and what your story is. They want to be able to like you, and they want to be able to trust you.
The best way to do this on social media is to let your patients know a little more about you and your office instead of your services and techniques. To be honest, most patients don’t care about the specific services or techniques you offer, they care about feeling good and knowing whether you can help.
Social media is all about portraying yourself and your office. If you are constantly posting about your services and techniques, patients will not be able to connect with you and they won’t choose your practice. You need to tell the story of your business. Let the patient know where they come into the story and show them how you will help them.
Most chiropractors are not telling their story or their patient’s story on social media. They are just blasting out information about their services and pricing. Your potential new patients (the people who are seeing these ads) probably don't care about this information. They want to be helped and they want to know how you can help them.
Importance of Videos for Chiropractic Social Media Advertising
As videos on social media are become more and more popular, they also become more important for marketers. Many chiropractic marketing companies will tell you a lot of different ways to use videos on social media. The biggest thing to make sure of is to be transparent with your patients. Make sure your patients can relate to you in your videos.
The most popular type of video that we are seeing chiropractors do on social media is where they record themselves talking about how awesome their services are and that you need to sign up right away. This does not work well.
A successful way to make a video for social media is to explain you and your story. An example of this could be: “5 Tips for Better Posture at Work” or “Best Home Remedies for Back Pain,” where your videos are explaining these ideas. This can build a following for your office because you're providing information that's helpful to them without asking for anything in return.
By creating a tutorial-like video, you are not selling them anything, you are simply building a relationship with a potential new patient. And, if you keep creating videos, they will continue watching them. Then the next time they need a chiropractor, or are experiencing back pain, they are likely to choose your office.
How to Use Facebook as a Chiropractor
Facebook is the most popular social media channel today with over 1 billion users worldwide. This means it should be easy to market your office and get a ton of new patients, right? Wrong. Many offices struggle to use Facebook properly for marketing and patient interaction.
These days there are many different companies explaining how they can help you dominate on Facebook. However, most of them will simply have you run an ad campaign that describes your services alongside a price or a special offer. We have found that this does not work well especially in the long term.
The most common type of Facebook ad that we see today is a discount offer ad. These can work, but we often find that they do not generate high quality new patients. Also, this strategy tends to flat-line after a month or two.
Think about this: would you rather have a new patient come in because they saw your ad for a $15 one-time adjustment or have them come in because they have been following your page and they trust you to help them with their pain? If you’re like me and would prefer to have a higher quality patient, check out our information on Facebook Advertising for Chiropractors.
Does Twitter Provide Any Benefit for Chiropractors?
Twitter for chiropractors is a tough one. It is hard for a chiropractic office to gain new patients using Twitter. The main reason for this is because no one goes on Twitter in search of a chiropractor. They go to Google. So, the only way to truly gain new patients on Twitter is to first gain a following. And even that is tough to do for a chiropractic office.
There really is no good way to get new patients by using Twitter. I don’t recommend using Twitter as a main advertising channel. The best thing to do for Twitter is to set up your account, add a link to your website, put a nice doctor image and graphics, and then stay active. That is my best advice for using Twitter. Other than that, you can ignore Twitter as a chiropractor.
What Should a Chiropractor do on YouTube?
YouTube is the most popular video sharing site on the internet. It has been for a long time and it most likely won’t be going anywhere. Many people go to YouTube for a variety of reasons; tutorial videos, educational videos, entertaining videos, etc. So, the question I ask is, would someone go to YouTube to watch a video about a special offer in your office? No, they wouldn’t. So then, what should you be posting on YouTube?
Well, like I mentioned before, tutorial videos, educational videos and entertaining videos. For tutorial and educational videos, I recommend something along the lines of “Ten Everyday Tips from a Green Bay Chiropractor for Back Pain” or “How to Improve Your Posture at Work by a Green Bay Chiropractor” or “5 Workouts Recommended by a Green Bay Chiropractor.” Now for entertaining videos, I would recommend an office tour or a video about the doctor - something that your patients would like to see. Testimonial videos are another great idea for YouTube.
These videos should be recorded in good quality, a cellphone is usually good enough. Another important thing to note is keywords. Adding in the right keywords to your videos will help them show up. Also, you want to make sure to include a link to your website in the video description which will provide you with a small SEO benefit from YouTube. However, posting 100 YouTube videos that get no views will not get you to the top of Google. Quality over quantity is a good thing to keep in mind while using YouTube for your chiropractic clinic.
How a Chiropractor Can Use Google My Business
Google My Business is the business version of what Google+ was. As you may know, Google+ has fallen by the wayside, which makes Google My Business all the more important. Google My Business is your maps listing that shows up in the organic or local (map) search results. An important thing to make sure of is that your name, address, phone number and website are all 100% correct for this listing. This will ensure that Google is receiving the proper signals from your listing and that the information is reflects what is on your website.
There isn’t much that you can do with your listing to help you gain new patients, but there are some things that you want to make sure you are doing. First, like I mentioned before, your name, address, phone number and website should all be on your listing. Second, you should add the correct office hours for your clinic. Next, you should update your service area. For chiropractors, you should ensure you select the option that denotes you serve your customers at your business address. This will ensure that Google is showing your full business address for your office and make it easier for your patients to find you. Additionally, you’ll want to add keywords to your listing’s description. These will be anything along the lines of “Chiropractor Green Bay” or “Green Bay Chiropractor.” This will help your listing show up for these searches.
A few more things that you can do to make sure your listing is completely optimized are adding photos, managing reviews and posting. For photos, there are two things that you can do. First, you want to make sure that you have your business logo on your listing, along with a cover picture. Second, Google allows you to post images of your office. We recommend 30 total pictures: 10 inside of your office, 10 outside and 10 of your staff. This will give potential new patients an idea of what your office is like and help them know, like and trust you.
Managing your reviews is an important thing to do on Google, as it can help with patient retention. One of the best things you can do with your Google My Business listing is to respond to your reviews. This will show your current and potential new patients that you value your patients. This can be as easy as saying “Thank you for the positive review Sue. I am glad you chose us as your chiropractor in Green Bay. We enjoy having you as a patient and love hearing your stories of your grandchildren.” Two things I would like to note here. One, make sure you include a keyword in there. For this example, it’s “chiropractor in Green Bay.” Two, make sure to add a personal touch. Avoid making it sound like you don’t care and aren’t putting in any effort. Another thing to note is, don’t go into detail about their care or their symptoms. The review is on Google, so anyone can see it, and most patients don’t want to broadcast their care plan.
Lastly, Google allows you to do posting on your My Business listing. This can provide some SEO value. I recommend using these posts to give updates about your office. This can be updates about office hours, special offers, new staff members, etc. This feature is best used to show Google that you are active and have new information. Tip: try to incorporate your keywords into these posts.
Chiropractic Instagram Advertising
Instagram is a social media channel that is becoming more popular as time goes on. It is owned by Facebook, but Instagram’s focus is pictures. You can run ads on Instagram through the Facebook platform. With over 800 million users, it seems like the perfect tool to market your office, right? No, not exactly. Instagram should be treated in a similar fashion as to how you market on Facebook, because just like Facebook, no one is going on Instagram in search of a chiropractor.
Something that could work for chiropractic Instagram advertising is the community expert approach from Facebook. This is done by starting with videos that give tips and tricks about various topics. For example, “5 Tips for Better Posture at Work.” Continuing to post these types of informational videos will help you build a following and get quality patients over time. Once you have a following, you can make an offer to your followers and attempt to attract a new patient who is already familiar with your practice.
We have also seen another effective method for using Instagram which is a type of health-screening. Instagram allows you to message different users through the app. So, if you have someone reach out to you about your services through the app, you can talk to them directly through there. This allows you to figure out before they come in if your services can help them.
One last thing I would like to point out for Instagram is that it shouldn’t be your first option, try Facebook first if you are wanting to do chiropractic social media advertising.
Chiropractors to Follow on Social Media
With all this being said, you might be thinking about starting to use social media to market your chiropractic office. If you are, there are a few chiropractors I recommend following that offer good information on social media. Now, keep in mind some of these doctors are trying to sell you their information.
I know everyone spends more time on social media than they’d like, so I think the best thing to do is to follow some of these doctors. That way, when you’re on social media, you can make the best use of your time and learn a little bit about chiropractic social media marketing along the way.
ChiroSushi - https://www.facebook.com/chirosushi/
Dr. Chad Woolner - https://www.facebook.com/drwoolner/
If you are a chiropractor and are considering social media marketing, use this article as a guide. We work with over 1,200 chiropractors, so we’ve heard of every strategy in the book. If you have any questions about what you specifically can do to manage your social media, give us a call, we are happy to help.
And, if you are one of the many who are wanting to start Facebook advertising, check out our Chiropractic Facebook Marketing page. It has every bit of information you need on the page, free of charge.
