TeleEMC Step by Step Chiropractor Guide to Social Media Marketing

Even though the first approach offers less growth potential, it is still valuable. The mere act of posting regularly on a social media account – without utilizing any other tools – is still useful for your business, and should be a part of any marketing strategy. And if you find that social media is a tool you enjoy using, you can get more involved and ultimately reap in some of those benefits as well. 

Social media is a highly beneficial tool. In addition to being free and easy to use, it offers a way to reach potentially tens of thousands of local people, all for limited to no cost, and all in ways that are entirely up to you. Some of the benefits of using social media for your business include:

• You Control More of What People See About You – Social media accounts are, in many ways, socially acceptable forms of additional websites. They’re a way to extend your presence online in a form that is entirely within your control. Unlike content like Yelp reviews, Healthgrades, and data aggregators, social media is a free service that is entirely in your control. That means potential patients have more opportunity to learn more about you, and it means that you control what is posted to make sure it is in line with your vision for your practice. 

• You Cultivate Relationships with Followers – Social media is a more personal medium than almost any other marketing method. It is a chance for you, as a practice, to feel almost like a person. Your posts, just like those you might see of friends and family on these social media platforms, provides a humanization that makes people feel loyal and interested in your business more so than the companies they see elsewhere.
• You Build a Brand – Social media is the best opportunity to build your business by finding your voice. You have a logo and a website, but none of these are your *brand*. Social media gives you the opportunity to give your brand personality, whether it’sa funny one, a helpful one, a kind one, or a knowledgeable one.

• You Reach New Audiences – Every marketing method has a limited audience. There is lot of overlap, of course, but the people looking for your services in the Yellow Pages are not always the same people getting recommendations from friends/family, and the people getting recommendations are not always the same people that are searching on Google. That is why, in a similar vein, becoming prominent on social media reaches even more people that you may not otherwise get. 

There are additional benefits too, such as keeping in touch with patients for referrals, potential new business opportunities, and more. Social media is a great tool, and utilizing it professionally has very few disadvantages. 

Common Myths and Concerns About Social Media Marketing

Before we get started with information about how to break into the world of social media marketing, let’s first start by addressing some of the most common concerns that businesses – especially chiropractors – have about marketing on social media.

I Don’t Need It Because I Get My Customers in Other Ways

If you are confident that you can build and grow a large client list without investing a lot of time and attention into social media marketing, you may be right. Chiros have lots of avenues that they can use to find new patients. Some are definitely moreeffective than others. If you haven’t yet, make sure you read our ultimate guide for chiro marketing, that talks about some of these avenues. 

But you should still have, at minimum, an active social media presence. Always.That is because no one makes decision anymore from recommendations alone. People research. The moment someone says“Use Dr. Scratchback, She’s Great!” the first thing that person will do is search for more information on Dr. Scratchback, looking for signs that she’s someone they can trust with their pain. When they find a social media account that is active and has interesting information, they’ll be more likely to call. 

When they find nothing, or they see social media websites that have been inactive for years, they might wonder if you’re closed, unpopular, or otherwise unworthy of their trust. Times are also changing. More and more people are using their social media accounts to search for a service they need. So if you are able to grow your social media presence, you may also find that you’re actually getting new patients from the work you’re putting in to your chiro social media account.

There’s Nothing to Post About

Without looking anything up, you can probably think of 100 interesting facts about back pain, 100 more interesting facts about neck pain, 500 different stretches for the shoulders and 50 or so hilarious patient experiences. There is a lot you can post about, and because chiropractors work in such a unique space, you are not really limited by anything.

One of the best parts about social media is that there are no real rules here, and while you probably shouldn’t be posting explicit science fiction romance novels, you are free to use your social media account as an extension of you, showcasing your personality and helping others get to know you for who you are.

Talk about patient stories. Talk about recovery tips. Talk about how to avoid headaches while staring a computer. Take a picture of your staff and post it with a giant thumbs up emoji. Make a pun about how you hope your patients have “the SPINE to come BACK.” Make another post apologizing for such a horrendous joke. 

Social Media Marketing is Expensive

You can spend as much or as little on social media marketing as you want. In fact, you can maintain your social media accounts for free just by posting once in a while on your own, and even if you choose to pay a service, there are some social media marketing companies that can give you a month’s worth of custom posts for a very reasonable cost.

You can always spend more if you want to. Later in this guide, we’ll talk about some of the ways that chiros can pay for advertising or be more involved in building their brand. Advertising can be expensive, but a great way to build a reputation throughout a local area. But if you want to, at minimum, maintain decently active social media accounts, you can do so for free or a nominal cost. Social media is one of the least expensive forms of marketing available to operate.

And that’s really what social media marketing is all about.

Social media marketing is a chance to humanize your business and connect with the viewer in a way that few other online forms of marketing can manage, all using systems that are free to start and used by millions of people. For some people, social media marketing is their primary and sole marketing strategy, and while that doesn’t necessarily make sense for most chiropractors, it is still a valuable tool no matter how much or how little you use it.

So you’ve decided that you’re going to start marketing your chiropractor business on social media. The first step is to start an account on your chosen social network.

Most social networks serve hundreds of millions of people. Facebook have 2.8 billion active users – not 2.8 billion total, but 2.8 billion active, and even more total users. Because of this, signing up for one of these accounts is notoriously easy. All you need is:

• Name
• Email Address

That’s it. Some may also require a phone number, and a few have some special requirements to make it easier to use, but signing up is designed to be intuitive. You probably have at least one social media account already, and are only skimming loosely through this section.

However, on Facebook, specifically, your personal account is not the best place to manage your brand. Your potential patients probably do not want to know your politics, see your vacation photos, or hear from your wild aunt. So what you need to do is start a Facebook Business Page.These are separate business related accounts that are built around your business or personality.

• Log into your Facebook account.
• Visit http://facebook.com/pages/create or click the + button on the top right corner
• Click on Page
• Answer the Questions

• Profile and Background Photo – The two most important parts of your page are, in some ways, the profile photo and the “Cover Photo,” which essentially serves as a background header. Far too many businesses throw up any old photo, but these photos are what capture people’s attention, and need to be vibrant, high quality, and eye grabbing. High color staff photos, stock photos, and photos with logos are all useful. Profile photos are circles, so make sure that your choice fits clearly within the circle. 
• Usernames – Usernames are custom URLs for your website. When your page is created, you are given a name based on your business name followed by a lot of numbers. It’s considered unattractive and unprofessional to leave it like this. If you go into“Edit Page Info,” you can give yourself a custom username. Assuming it’s available, it will then update to give you a far more professional URL, like https://www.facebook.com/teleemc/. These usernames also have other uses, such as allowing users to “tag” your business (link to your page directly) so make sure you choose one that is relevant. 

• Description and Categories – The description of your business on Facebook is important. Not only is it the first thing someone sees when they visit your page, but Facebook uses it to determine what your page is about. Adding the phrase “chiropractor in [city],” or “back pain” or other useful terms in the description will help you show up in Facebook searches. Just be sure you’renot “keyword stuffing,” which means throwing in a lot of search terms unnecessarily. You still want it to read well and encourage people to visit your page.
• Invite People You Know – We know that many chiros like to keep their personal life and their businesses separate, but you still need some people to *like* your page (follow your page for updates) in order to give the appearance of some type of status. A page with 0 likes is a page with zero business. You can only invite people that you know personally to your page, but it’s worth doing for as many people as you feel comfortable adding. There are ways to invite people you do not know, as long as they interact with your page, but that’s something we’ll get to later. NOTE: It may be a good idea to create a few posts first before you invite people, just so that it looks like your page has more on it that is worth following,
• Give Yourself an Automated Message – If you’re not someone that checks Facebook very often, chances are you aren’t going to notice messages right away, or may be too busy to answer them. That’s where an automated message setup can help. On the left-hand side of the page, go to “Settings,” then click on “Messaging.” Scroll down, and click on activities like “Show a Greeting” and click on “Show a Greeting.” There you can setup a greeting that people will see if they click to message you. Your greeting can mention that the best way to contact you is by phone, and give a phone number. Or you can introduce yourself or say anything you like. There are more advanced options as well if you explore around Facebook.

Facebook makes starting a page simple, but then you’ll be tasked with making sure that it is as professional and complete as possible. Facebook comes with many different features, add-ons, and optional items. Here are a few areas you’ll want to complete, and some tips for doing them well:

These are the most important parts of a Facebook page to set up in order to have the page be in good enough condition to operate, and most of which should be completed before you start creating posts, so that if your post starts to get noticed, the people that find your Facebook page will impressed by what is already there. 

There are so many more things you can do with Facebook. You can operate your schedule with it, you can create Groups – these are, essentially, sub pages that require approval for entry where you can talk about a specific topic, ie, a group where you can talk only to those that struggle with back pain – you can offer live video, and more.

As you continue to get to know Facebook and other social media sites, you are encouraged to try out some of these 100% free services and add ons if they appeal to you. People make entire careers out of social media because of how many free tools are out there. For now, we’re only scratching the surface of how to get started. 

What Makes A Good Social Media Post?

So you have your page ready. Now you have to create posts. Every social media site has a different character, and some have different rules. For example, while Facebook allows for essentially giant posts, Twitter only allows for 280 characters. LinkedIn is similar to Facebook in that it doesn’t have many rules, but the culture on LinkedIn is one that is built around jobs/professionalism, and it often helps to stick within those rules until you’re within your comfort zone.Facebook, which is the one we will continue to focus on, is also perhaps the most versatile. It allows for posts of nearly any length, along with:

• Links
• Images and Galleries
• Polls
• Videos
• Livestreams, and More

You can essentially post anything you want, and – unlike websites like LinkedIn – there are fewer unspoken rules here. Good spelling and grammar are useful. Positivity makes posts more enjoyable for readers. But those are only mild limitations. While you should probably veer away from politics, religion, and hot button issues that may alienate parts of your audience, you are free to create posts that cover almost any topic you want:

• Case Studies
• Helpful Tips
• Useful Links
• Promotions
• Jokes 
• Questions to the Audience
• Videos of Procedures

Many businesses also find professional ways to integrate their personal lives into posts. They talk about volunteering that they may have completed, or they occasionally share some big, industry appropriate personal news, such as a new child. They feature staff member as well, helping people that view the page get a glimpse of other people’s lives.There are so few rules, here, but that opens the door to you deciding what type of brand you want to be.

 In the early stages as you find your voice, it helps to keep posts a bit more generic, but over time as you get more comfortable, you can decide how you want to portray your business.

Growing and Expanding – How to Get New Visitors and Customers

If all you’re looking to do is create and operate some type of social media account for free, you’re already done. That’s how easy it is to have a basic social media marketing campaign – enough that, if someone is researching more about your business, they’ll see that you’re active and have more trust in your abilities. 

You may even find a new patient or two, who use Facebook as their way to find services. And Facebook has a neat feature, where if other people like and interact with your page – for example, if a friend or family member “likes” a post – some people on their own personal friend’s list will see it, and may decide to follow you or call you as well.

If all you want is a mostly passive campaign, you can just post every few days or so and you’re done.But what if you want to be a bit more proactive?Social media, and again especially Facebook, also have advantage there as well – targeted, affordable advertising. For its size, Facebook is especially inexpensive. $20 can net you as many as 500 to 1000 local viewers on an ad or more, more than most magazine ads and Google Ad purchases.

Twitter and LinkedIn are also competitively priced, as are more complex social media sites like TikTok. You get a lot more views for your money.

Facebook, perhaps more than any other type of social media platform, also has additional advantages to certain types of advertisements, which we’ll notate in a moment, that make it especially useful for investing, and can absolutely help you grow your business substantially depending on how much your budget is.

Facebook has several types of advertisements. You can buy static ads that show up on the right hand side of the Facebook homepage, for example. These ads look like ads and rotate regularly. They are very reasonably priced, especially compared to other types of advertising.

But the advertisement that is best suited for building your name and Facebook page is called a “Boosted Post.” Boosted posts are your posts, from your page, that you sponsor to show up in someone else’s feed as if they were your friend.

All social media sites have some version of this, as they’re especially common on websites like Instagram and Twitter (on Twitter and LinkedIn they call them “Promoted” posts). Doing so almost guarantees that the user will see the ad/post, and will have the choice to read it and scroll by.

While not every post you make will be worthy of being boosted, and you will want to make sure that whatever post you boost will appeal to complete strangers, boosting a post has many advantages. On Facebook, these advantages include:

• Branding – Boosted posts are so visible, that you are almost guaranteed to expose someone to your name and brand. Research into the science of branding shows how valuable this can be. For example, if someone is in a car accident and needs a chiro, and they see your name, their subconscious is more likely to generate feelings of trust and familiarity if they have been exposed to you before, even if it was a fleeting ad they do not remember.

• Branding – Boosted posts are so visible, that you are almost guaranteed to expose someone to your name and brand. Research into the science of branding shows how valuable this can be. For example, if someone is in a car accident and needs a chiro, and they see your name, their subconscious is more likely to generate feelings of trust and familiarity if they have been exposed to you before, even if it was a fleeting ad they do not remember.

• Multiple Avenues of Engagement – Let’s say you boost a post that is a link to a page on your website. You now have many ways that the person can engage with the post. They can click on it and visit your site. They can comment. They can like the post. They can click on your user name and visit your page. They can even follow your page. There are many ways that one person can interact with you, and that doesn’t even include free added features like adding a “call” or “Send Message” button.
• Invitations – Finally, Facebook added one additional feature that makes it especially valuable. If someone clicks the like button on your post (or any of the “react” options, which are all variations of the “like” button), you can then click on those likes and invite those people to join your page. That’s one way you can grow your Facebook presence, all from this one same ad.

Boosting a post is also easy. Find a post that you like (a promotional post, such as one that reads similar to an advertisement, is a good place to start, with a link to your website) and click on the word “Boost,” which is right near the bottom.

From there, Facebook will take you to its ad builder tool. Here you can select things like the age range, location, and more of those you want to target. There are also options to narrow down the list further by adding “interests” and similar demographic items. These can be fairly buggy and inexact, and you should consider trying them only when you’ve run a few ads and you get a better idea of how the system works.

Some additional notes about boosted posts and Facebook advertising:

• As you choose your demographic data for the ads, don’t be too concerned with increasing the size of the audience unless necessary. Less is often more. 1000 highly targeted people is better than 100,000 poorly targeted people.
• Facebook does have rules about what posts can and cannot be posted. Facebook does not want anything too negative, anything that sounds like an insult, or anything that might be viewed as unrealistic. If you’re boosting an image, they also do not allow boosts of images with text. You may find yourself with a bit of trial and error here
• Despite how big a company Facebook is, their targeting tools do make mistakes and are imperfect. In the beginning, it is best not to let an ad run without monitoring who is interacting with it and making sure that they look like your target audience. Ads targeting high income earners, for example, are frequently wrong. Basic demographic data, like age, gender, and location, are often the most reliable.

Boosted posts are also inexpensive. $1000 can blanket an entire town with ads for a month. That makes it more cost efficient for local patient targeting, all with the additional boosted post benefits.

Continuing to Grow Your Brand

Entire books have been written about Facebook alone, and we are only able to scratch the surface of all the different ways social media can be used to build your business. All common social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, use similar models, so you can take what you’ve learned with Facebook and try it on other websites as well. 

If you do choose to go a more active route with social media marketing, it also helps to learn from your audience. What do they interact with the most? Who are they? What kind of feedback have you received? Look at other chiropractor social media pages and see what they’re doing, then figure out if you want to do something similar or different depending on you and you brand identity.

Here at TeleEMC, we want to see you succeed, and social media is one of many of the marketing methods that can help you do this. If you’d like to learn how we at TeleEMC can help you profit further with in-house EMC determinations for your PIP patients in Florida, please contact us today for an appointment with our sales team