Social media is an often debated topic with professionals, with many thinking it's solely for millennials. While often debated, many others are taking action and using it to harness the power of media to grow their professional practices and footprint in their communities. This article will provide a quick overview of the challenges facing many professional practitioners with social media and how to overcome them to start growing their practice using free media.
Let's face it-business is about solving problems. It's about creating options for people who either need to fix something, improve something, or avoid something. All of this is focused around your customers, clients or patients, and what they need. What's interesting about the social media debate with professionals is that they're overly focused on their personal opinion about it, rather than focusing on their clientele-and the FACT that they're using it, daily.
One of the most difficult concepts to move past for many professionals, especially those in highly specialized fields, such as Chiropractors, Medical Doctors, Optometrists and Dentists is that they don't understand social media. You've spent so much time becoming a master at your craft, learning patient care, then how to run a business, manage employees, etc, that the last thing you've learned to figure out is how to use SnapChat or Instagram.
As with all things in life, what you don't know can hurt you, or certainly hold you back.
That's why education is key, but ACTION is imperative!
Following is a brief description of snapchat and instagram and how to incorporate into your day as a busy professional:
Snapchat provides the ability to tell a virtual story, taking pictures and videos throughout a 24hr period, on an ongoing basis. By taking pictures and videos and posting them to your "story," viewers get to see what a "day in the life," is like for you. The simple benefit is showing people that you too are human, you have children, a family, you go to the gym, etc. You also get to broadcast your passion, your profession, IN MOTION, as you help and serve your patients/clients and work with your staff.
The benefit to this is massive. People watching-if grown properly from not only your community but from all over the world, FEEL like they know you. They feel like they've been to your office before. Let's say you're a Chiropractor or Dentist, and you show pics of happy patients and videos of people receiving procedures (quick or longer videos) that de-mystify what's happening. Do you think there are people in your community that have often wondered what it's like to have that procedure? Do you think that there are people that don't yet have a Chiro or Dentist and would love to go to one that they KNOW?
Exactly. You're developing relationships with your future patients BEFORE you ever meet them.
Now, Instagram is essentially the same with instastories, however instagram also provides the opportunity to post pics and vids to your profile which don't disappear after 24hrs. This allows you to create a personal brand, which years ago would have cost thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to do.
SocialHack-Quite possibly the biggest tip you could have for social is to NOT just post your highlight reel. Where I've had great success is by showing people parts of my real life-waking up with messy hair, going to yoga at 6am, having date night with my wife, basketball games with my son-it makes you HUMAN.
And people want to do business with people they like and trust.
Social media is about establishing trust before they ever meet you. Exactly like a referral patient.
I hope you begin using social media today, and remember, if you want to see what my day is like, come find me on social and I'll follow you back.
Follow me here:
And if you're serious about using social for your practice growth, I've put together an amazing online training course that shows exactly how we've grown to thousands of followers and leveraged the power of social media to bring new patients into our office that need our services. Check out InstaPracticeGrowth and take your practice to the next level through social media.