Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

I know you might be wondering why people keep harping on having a Facebook page or you might be thinking that it is a complete waste of time.  I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Having a Facebook page for your chiropractic business is worth your time, BUT….you should not spend valuable time and energy making sure you post something on it several times a day, nor should you concern yourself too much with how many followers you have.

This might sound very strange but lets face it; social media is a strange phenomenon, but as strange as it is, social media is here to stay.  However, which site you frequent the most has now become more of a choice for many.  A lot of people are trending (yes, people are trending) with other social media platforms, not so much on Facebook as they were a few years ago.  In fact many more are getting their social media fix on other sites such as Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

You could say the social media sands are shifting.  If so, then why am I writing this post on building up your Facebook page?

Simply because Facebook is still here and it’s still free and a chiropractic business like yours can benefit significantly if you create a business page and let it build organically.

Let’s begin with FREE.  No cost. It takes no cash to create, build and maintain a business page on Facebook.  It will take about 30 minutes to set up.  Then you will send an invite to all of your friends on Facebook and within the hour you will have a business page and followers.

To help you build it’s presence organically, you will need to do just a few more things.

• Add all of your contact information in the “about” area and if you don’t create a tab with a map, at least link your address so when clicked it will lead to a map.  Include what services you offer in your practice; chiropractic, massage, nutrition, physical therapy.
• On your personal profile, in the about section, but sure to show that you are the owner of your chiropractic practice and link that title to your Facebook business page.  Especially if you are known on your personal page as Dr., this helps when you comment or like on other people’s posts or if your in groups, they see that you are a doctor and believe it or not, people do click on names and check out their profile pages, even more if you are vocal on various subjects.
• Populate the cover photo area.  Use your banner from you blog or go out and snap a photo of your office sign or use your logo.
• Populate your profile picture too.  Use a photo of you or your practice logo, something that others will recognize as you.
• Link your Facebook posts to feed to your Twitter.  Kills two birds with one stone.
• Got a website?  Blog?  Put a Facebook like box or at least a link back to your Facebook page so your website traffic will find you.

Of course if all of this is more than you want to deal with, there are those who will do it for you along with building a chiropractic website.  You can have all your social media, blogging and more done for you, even if you’ve already established a page.  You can find out more information about that at HERE.

Now that your all set up and ready to go or even if you’ve tweaked a few things on your existing page, you are ready to post, promote and pose questions to your audience.

Do you offer massage in your office?  This would be a great place to tell people about that.  How about nutrition?  Tell people about it on your page.  Don’t forget you can share your posts to your personal page so your friends see it.

Be bold and go so far as to ask your friends to share your posts, of course people will what to share quality content and great photos.

If you missed it, I wrote a post a few weeks ago on Optimizing Facebook and Twitter Posts in Your Chiropractic Marketing, there are some great tips that work really well.

Forget what the naysayers are telling you about your posts not being seen by all of your followers.  It’s okay, your only concern should be to post content that will help you serve your prospective patients, current patients and your community’s needs and interests.

Remember, your Facebook page is just a marketing tool, not the whole toolbox.

Be sure to let us know about your page, find and follow DC Practice Tools on Facebook too.

Are you serious about management success and developing a thriving chiropractic practice? If you answered yes, then I will assume that by now you have a functional marketing strategy in place.

The whole point of a strategy is to help keep you from throwing away money on something that’s not really going to help your business grow. What do you want to achieve and how much money are you willing to commit in order to achieve it? This is what marketing strategy will enable you to determine – and achieve.

Where will you spend your hard earned money?

Optimization of your chiropractic website is no doubt pretty close to the top of your list. Newspaper advertising should be near the top too. Setting a budget is one thing. It’s also important to work out a plan to spend that money wisely.

I’ve put together a few pointers to help you on your way when deciding how to spend your allocated newspaper-advertising budget – to put your chiropractic office on the map.

Research is a must

Newspaper advertising is only effective if people actually read the publication in question. A little local knowledge comes in useful here. You should have a pretty good idea as to what newspapers and magazines are popular in your local area – and which ones aren’t. You need cold, hard figures though – so ask for a circulation breakdown from the newspaper itself. It’s also worth doing a little research. The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly The Audit Bureau of Circulations) is able to provide not just circulation figures but also detailed social metrics for newspapers with a circulation above 25,000.

 One bad result isn’t the end all

Be realistic, it’s perfectly normal to expect results just don’t base the rest of your marketing on the first ad you run.  It could be a huge success, if so run it again, but at a later date, don’t risk wearing it out. If it’s not successful, try another ad.

Don’t give up if you don’t see instant results; give your marketing some time to grow. Newspaper advertising for a small business is all about raising your profile over time. If your chiropractic practice was recently established, you’re going to have to give it time for people to get to recognize your name. Recognition will come – but you’re going to have to stick with it.

Stay consistent and resist the urge to dip in and out of the market

It might be tempting to decide to splash out on the largest ad you can afford if you have a particular good month – but then not spend anything at all in those months when cash flow is tight. You need to resist this approach. If you simply ‘dip in and out’ of newspaper advertising then quite simply, people are going to forget who you are. Making a solid commitment to placing ads on a regular basis – rather than a big glossy ad once in a blue moon – will prove to be the best strategy.

Don’t be talked into buying advertising space you can’t afford

I cover this topic in the Ultimate Chiropractic Ads kit.  A newspaper advertising sales team can be a pretty persuasive bunch.  Hold off on package deals until you have a few runs under your belt.

But you might receive phone calls sometimes, offering great deals on unused advertising space. This can often be a great value, but not always a great location in the paper.  It’s fine to take the paper up on these offers from time to time, but ask questions and weigh your options, it might not be such a great deal if your ad is tucked away on in an obscure section and not seen. Also consider, unplanned advertising could eat into other parts of your marketing budget. The same goes for seemingly great value advertising space in neighborhood newsletters and start-up magazines. These publications can be great for building up a friendly, community-based profile – just don’t let the spending spiral out of control.

A willingness to commit and the ability to keep a tight rein on your budget: if you get this right then you’ll soon see that newspaper advertising becomes a highly successful part of your chiropractic marketing plan.

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the mobile phone app Instagram. I almost hesitate to say this because some of us already feel a little intimidated and overloaded with social media, but… this one really shows potential for being a great marketing tool.

Believe it or not it will add yet another avenue in promoting your chiropractic business.

As I mentioned Instagram is an app found on your mobile phone. It’s a video- and photo-sharing platform and with different supporting apps, it offers a free means of driving visitors to your chiropractic website and engaging with prospective patients.

You’ll notice as you read this post that there are some similarities with this app and twitter. For instance, you will use hash tags to help promote and find things. If you’re not familiar with hash tags then think “keyword” proceeded by the # symbol that is a hash tag. Example; #chiropracticmarketing.  Also, you can link to others using the @ symbol just like twitter and Facebook.

Here are some ideas to help with using this platform’s marketing potential.

Hash tags (remember, think keyword)

Search this site by browsing for hash tags ( #chiropractor,#yourtownchiropractic, or #sciatica, #neuropathy) that are relevant to your practice and profession. Hash tags help you in find out what individuals are discussing related to certain subjects.

As you post on Instagram, add one or two hash tags associated with your practice and the topic of your photo. People will search for photos using the hash tag, when they do they are going to see your photos pop up in the results and that will lead them to your posts on Instagram and, eventually, your chiropractic business, because you will have your website information in your profile; more on that later

Post Great Pics

Instagram is all about visual; therefore when you’re out, always be ready to snap a pic of interesting things that can be captured on video or in a photo.

Begin by posting various images on Instagram and watch to see  which ones will create the most attention. When you become better at knowing a great photo op from a less interesting one, you can be a little more selective and post the more relevant and entertaining photographs or videos (that are limited to fifteen seconds each).

In order to reinforce your brand, think about including a logo (on a sweatshirt, cup or hat, for instance) or an additional visual signpost of your chiropractic business (like a signature product or your face maybe with an added watermark) within as many of the images posted as possible.

Piggyback upon Other People’s Posts

When you search other Instagram content using hash tags associated with chiropractic or events in your area, you will find photos or videos which will catch your attention, much like the headlines and photos in chiropractic ads. You can request to share that users URL via twitter, post the link on Facebook or share the link with your photo so your followers can view and comment. Likewise, as others share your information, in their posts in order to draw additional traffic.

Comment and Like other Photos

As a general rule of thumb, the more you ‘like’ or comment on other people’s posts, the more other people are going to ‘like’ or comment on yours. At the minimum of one time per month, conduct an Instagram search upon your most used hash tags then ‘like’ all of the best videos or photos you see.

Here’s how to set up your Instagram

Find and download the app on your mobile phone, set up your profile with username and password. People will find you, if looking, by your username or name used in your profile.

You can find mine by searching for DCPracticeTools or Dr. Michael Beck. Once you’ve set up your profile you can get started by pulling photos from you phones photo stream.

Instagram even has an editor so you can crop and edit your photos. Then go into your settings and link your Facebook and twitter accounts. Why? Because you can feed your photos to your Facebook page and twitter page if you want. You can even encourage your followers on other media sites to find and follow you on Instagram.

Love it or hate it….it’s here to stay, might as well get some free chiropractic marketing out of it.

ps.  I just did a search for #neuropathy, 679 results from the word, that doesn’t include all of the hash tags that have the word neuropathy in it.

Before I transitioned into this position of creating chiropractic marketing products for the chiropractic profession, I owned a successful practice just like many of do.  Even though I’ve shared my story several times on this blog site, there are always some details that get left out.

Before you bounce out of here thinking you’ve heard this before, I challenge you to stick with me as I share some great tips for adding extra income to your bottom line each month.  And get this, there is no marketing involved, no ads to submit, just good old fashion supply and demand.

I’m not talking about huge sums of cash, but even if it’s a few hundred to a couple of thousand, wouldn’t you like to know how this could be done?

When I owned my practice I always tried to help my patients outside the office as much as I did inside my office.  Depending on their condition and symptoms when they began their care, I would often provide suggestions for things they could do in their home.   These suggestions would range from lite exercises to help strengthen weak areas, to habits that needed to change like,  reading in bed, sitting incorrectly at their work station, sleeping positions and using the proper pillow. There were also times when I would recommend supplements and analgesic ointments.

My staff would routinely apply an ice pack to those patients who where using the traction table or receiving stim treatment.

After a few patients asked where they could buy the ice packs we used in the office, it occurred to me that if I kept some in stock then patients would probably buy them from my office.   Same thing with the pillows, if I suggested to my patient they needed to change the pillow they slept on, the next question out of their mouth was usually; “what kind of pillow should I use and where can I find one?”

So we began carrying a line of cervical pillows and most of my patients with neck problems were over joyed that they didn’t have to go out and find this special pillow, it was available for purchase right there at the front desk.

There was never any need for a sales pitch, I simply instructed my staff to place samples of the products on the front desk and around the front office area.  The patients who wanted to purchase were able to do so when they were setting up their next appointment or making their payment.

Since those two items were selling so well, I decided to keep my favorite pain relief cream in stock as well, there were weeks when we couldn’t keep it in stock.  What was great about the ointments was our vendors always made sure we had plenty of sample packets for my patients to try, the rest was easy.  A great product will sell itself, all I did was provide a place for it to be seen.

I later added a foam roller to my product inventory, it sold like crazy.  Suffice it to say, if I used a product it in the office and it was something the patient could use at home, then I kept tried to keep it in stock.

Next  I tried supplements, just a small sampling at first.  This was pretty easy to do as I just stocked the supplements that I took daily, like fish oils.

For those who have the Ultimate Chiropractic Ads and use the health reports included in the kit, this is great for you, for as you know in these reports, supplements are recommended.  So if you use these reports with your patient care, it would benefit you and the patient if they could have access to these supplements without having to run all over town to find them.  Plus, when you provide the supplements, you are typically going to use a brand that you know and trust, therefore you are assured that your patient is getting a good supplement.  Some patients, in their effort to find what you suggested, may or may not purchase a pure and effective brand.

One last detail..don’t forget to track your product ROI.  My staff was instructed to keep daily stats on all of the products, this was done along with the daily practice stats.  Just as I suggest keeping up with your chiropractic marketing  return on investment, I suggest you keep up with your product return on investment.

Also, if you have a website you can promote the products you carry in your office.

Did selling products make me wealthy?  No, but it did take my practice to another level, my patients loved the convenience and the extra money was nice to have.

*Some of the links in this post contain affiliate links, therefore I am compensated if purchases are made using the link. I have not receive products for free in exchange for my opinion.  My opinions are based on my personal use or knowledge of these products and services.

Dear Lovely Town Chiropractor,

Our family is new to Lovely Town, we just moved here from a neighboring state.  After spending days unpacking and setting up our new home, you can imagine how much I needed to find a chiropractor.  Since we are new to the area, I wondered how I would ever find a chiropractor that would live up to my expectations.  You see we are a chiropractic family, have been for years.  My children love their visits to the chiro and while we will greatly miss the doctor and his friendly staff we moved away from, my hopes are high that we will be able to find a local chiropractor who will keep our family’s health and wellness in check.

I asked my Realtor if she could recommend a chiropractor.  She said she didn’t know of any off hand. It concerned me that she didn’t have any suggestions for me, she seemed to have many suggestions for shopping, fitness, banking and local eateries, she even had suggestions for car repair, veterinary services, dentists and pediatricians.  I kind of wondered why she didn’t have a list of  local chiropractors.  I have to admit I was a little apprehensive, she assured me that their were chiropractors in Lovely Town, but she didn’t know any to give references for.

I don’t want to sound pushy, but don’t you think it would be wise to be in good standing with all the real estate agents in your area?  I would think this would be one of the first rules of chiropractic marketing; networking with other local businesses so they can recommend you to their clients when asked.

Being that we live in a technology age, I went to my computer to find our new chiropractor.  I Googled “Lovely Town Chiropractor”  and that’s how I found you.  I have to say, I was impressed that you had done your home work when it came to online marketing.  You had a Google + page set up, which allowed your patients to give you reviews ( that helped tremendously when choosing your office) and I even saw your Google Ad off to the side of the page.  Good on you doc!  Good on you!

I also want to complement you on your chiropractic website.  Looking good!  Your phone number was right there on the top of the page so I didn’t have to go looking for it.  Your site allowed me to navigate to different pages by conditions. That was great. And I really enjoyed reading the patient testimonials.  Also, you made it super easy to find and follow you on all my favorite social media sites like facebook and twitter.

I really loved the “new patient” link in the menu bar, it was great to be able to print off all of the forms needed for my first appointment.  And I was able to see if you took my insurance.

One thing I noticed is that area where people can leave their email address so they can receive regular chiropractic newsletters, well that was way down at the bottom of the page.  I’m not and expert on websites, but I would think you would want that where it could be seen without scrolling down.  You are aware that some people use laptops and tablets and those screens are a lot smaller than the desktop monitors.  Just something you might want to be mindful of.

Back to my appointment… I called your office and your staff was so nice, knowledgeable too.  They were able to answer all of my questions, I had a lot, but they were very patient with me.

I am one happy camper now that I know I have found a chiropractor close to my new home.  I can’t wait to meet you and become one of your favorite patients.  And I know I will be because I love to share my great experiences with friends and family, that means referrals for you and great online reviews from me.

Yours truly,

Your newest patient

*this post contains affiliate links

When you hear the word “brand” or “branding” what comes to mind? To be honest my first thought is cattle and the permanent mark of ownership.

But in today’s world of business it’s more than that, branding is a process, a philosophy and a smart marketing maneuver.

Not tracking with me yet? Think a crowned mermaid with long flowing hair, a Gecko, and a profile of the forbidden fruit with a bite out of it. You wouldn’t have to think very long because you can easily associate these things with their respective companies.

This could almost be a fun party game.

According to the folks at Businessdictionary.com, branding by definition is, “the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.”

In the chiropractic profession customers are the patients.

Did you catch that line in the definition?  “advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.”

Chiropractic marketing is a significant and differentiated presence, but only if you practice it on a consistent basis and with diversity.  Print ads, an online presence with a chiropractic website, social media and networking…the list is extensive.  So many ways to get your name and practice out there in front of your target audience.  And get this, you will find yourself using many name brands in your marketing; Google, Facebook, Twitter…

Wouldn’t it be a perfect world if when people think of their health and wellness they immediately thought of chiropractic?

Better yet…you and your practice!

What steps have you taken to brand yourself and your practice?

As you contemplate that answer, take a look at this interesting video on the subject of brands and the art of branding.

Did you correctly identify the brands? Starbucks, Geico & Apple

Five years ago this month chiropractic marketing officially became my primary source of income.  Just four years prior I was a breath away from losing my practice, and now I was selling my practice at a profit and launching a new business.

There is not enough time or space on this blog post to share everything that’s happened in these five short years, but I can tell you that when I started this chiropractic marketing business and this blog we had three children, we now have six and we’ve moved three times.  So as you can imagine, it’s been a busy and blessed five years.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while or listened in on webinars you’ve probably heard my story many times, you might even think you’ve heard it enough.

But understand that I don’t tell it over and over again for my benefit or those who’ve heard it; it is told for those who haven’t heard it.

My background isn’t shared to help promote my business; it’s shared to lay a foundation of understanding and knowledge, and build trust.

Marketing is like that too, there are always those who have not heard about chiropractic and how it can change lives.  That is one reason why you should never stop promoting and marketing, not solely for the benefit of bringing in new patients into your practice.  I understand, I’ve been there and growing your practice is probably the main reason you should invest money into chiropractic advertising and maintain a continuous stream of marketing campaigns throughout the year.   But practice building is only part of why you should be advertising; the other reason is for those who need to know about chiropractic.

You would be surprised to know how many people don’t know about the chiropractic profession and all that it has to offer.

Or maybe they have heard of chiropractic, but what they’ve heard are the opinions of people who have never been to a chiropractor or stories of those who knew someone who went to a chiropractor ages ago and had a bad experience, which may or may not have been true.  Which seems so strange when you consider all of the horror stories you hear about the medical profession and lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies, and yet people still see doctors and take prescription drugs without so much as a thought to what the long term effects might be, but I digress.

Chiropractic marketing is more than promoting you and your practice.  It’s also education for people who need alternative solutions in their health care.

My story also does more than encourage chiropractors; it provides an understanding and a connection.  It creates a trust.

That is the same thing you are doing when you invest your time and money into marketing your practice. When you can make that connection with people they feel comfortable with you and seek to know how you can help them.

Chiropractic marketing also helps build a legacy.

My position has given me an opportunity to meet many chiropractors and hear their stories.  It’s amazing to know that many chose the chiropractic profession because of the chiropractic experience they had as a child or teenager.   You just never know, the child that comes in to see you today because of your ad the parent saw in the paper, might be a chiropractor someday, and you might be the reason why.

When emails come in telling me that one of my chiropractic ads has helped bring in a multitude of new patients, I am happy for those doctors, and I’m honored that they listened to what I had to say, trusted me and my marketing tools, but I am even more overjoyed for their patients who will be receiving chiropractic care and hopefully sharing their chiropractic experience with their friends and families.

In hindsight, I can say it was a blessing to go through those very hard times in my practice.  If I hadn’t struggled, I wouldn’t be where I am today, helping chiropractors achieve success in a profession that I am passionate about. If you don’t know my story, you can read about it here.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.~Dale Carnegie

Let’s be honest.  You can have an awesome chiropractic office, a warm and friendly staff and your chiropractic techniques can be “off the charts” wonderful, but some patients might never experience your excellent care if they never get past the initial exam or the report of findings.

Conversion techniques are not usually discussed here because that is a subject that is handled in chiropractic coaching or mentoring sessions.  So just to be clear, this isn’t a tutorial on how to convert a new patient to care during the report of findings.

You see chiropractic marketing is doesn’t end when the new patient comes into the office.  Instead you will actually be building on the marketing used to get that patient to set their appointment.

We can never assume that any new patient has ever been to a chiropractic office before.  Therefore all of your knowledge and recommendations fly right out the window if the patient doesn’t digest all of the information given in the report of findings.

That’s why it’s important to focus on some very basic fundamentals of communication during the initial exam and during the ROF.

Slow down – Speak slowly so the patient can absorb what you are saying and allow them to take notes if they need to.

No Greek Speak – Medical terminology is a foreign language to most people, therefore words like “subluxation” and terms such as L1 or C2 won’t make much sense until you explain them to the patient.  Sometimes visual aids are great.  Something as simple as a clothes pin and drinking straw can communicate the effects of a subluxation.

Make Eye contact – When you are not looking at the patient’s film during the findings, make eye contact with the patient.  This builds trust and authority.

Be Compassionate – You are a doctor and your diploma on the wall is proof, however you are also someone’s child, someone’s spouse and possibly a parent.  So put yourself in their shoes, how would you like to be talked to if you were sitting where they are?

Be Firm, Kind and Confident – If you think animals smell fear wait until you get in a room with a new patient and their spouse who is not so on board with this whole chiropractic thing or the parent who has brought their child for the first time.  Being kind and confident will calm fears and win over the biggest skeptics.

Build Confidence – A lot of times what has been detected in the exam might not have been the reason people have come in for an exam.  This can be stressful for some people that might not have been aware they had serious health issues. This can cause skepticism, disbelief or fear wondering how or if these issues can be fixed and can they afford to begin treatment for these problems.  Some docs like to share the good news before they share the findings, but how or when you decide to let the patient know that their health issues can be address and treated in your office, is up to you.  Just know that encouragement goes along way when people are faced with making big decisions like spending money and committing to the time to come in for the treatment you have recommended.

Have a plan – Let your patient know that a member of your staff has already worked up their specific care plan complete with several payment options based on your findings and that they will be in shortly to explain all of the options and set the appointments.  Having a timeline gives people the confidence they can get through their treatment plan and enjoy a higher quality of life because of the care they receive in your office.

Allow time for questions – You’ve just laid out a lot of information in a short amount of time, make sure you give the patient time to ask their questions.  You might have encountered those patients that have the “deer in the headlight” stare, but once the fog lifts they will have questions.  Reassure them and let them know you will be happy to answer their questions after they’ve had time to think about what you’ve just gone over in your report.

Check out the ChiroMarketing Academy for more information about conversion and retention strategies for your practice.

If you’ve ever been on sites like eBay, Etsy or Amazon, you are probably very familiar with the meaning of “feedback”.  Sellers on these sites know the value of positive feedback. This value translates into sales and a savvy business owner will use the positive feedback in their marketing.

Buyers also use the feedback system when deciding between two businesses offering the same products or services.  When facing this type of decision, positive reviews are a huge factor in bringing the sales to a business.

Positive feedback and reviews will drive new patients into your office especially when you use those reviews in your chiropractic marketing.

However, people typically do not seek out places to post a positive review, but they will go to great measures to post their unhappiness all over the internet.

Don’t read this the wrong way, people love to share their good experiences in a tweet or on their facebook page, but those who have a bad experiences are more likely to share their dislike about a business in a lengthy review on a business’s Google places page or another site with similar review options.

I myself read reviews of products or services that I research to buy.  Do I take all of the negative reviews seriously?  Absolutely not, because after reading a ton of reviews on a certain product, you can usually tell which reviews are legit and which ones are bitter grapes.

In the end, it’s a judgment call.   But is that what you want those reading your reviews to do?  Make a judgment call on whether you are the chiropractor they want to begin treatment with?

Negative reviews and critiques are part of owning a business.  There will never be a day when you will please all of the people all of the time, but there are a few things that you can do to turn a negative into a positive.

If you do receive a negative review, first of all, don’t freak out.  Grow some thick skin and chew on the review for a day or two.  Sometimes you will see a small hint of truth in the review.  In that case, take what was said and use it to make some changes in the way you do things.

If the review or feedback is unsubstantiated or grossly incorrect, try these suggestions;

Reply if you have that option – there are places where you can reply to your reviews.  If you do choose to share your side of the story, remember to be kind and leave your feelings in another room, a reply will be there for the world to see so your rebuttal should be done in a professional way.  However, if you feel this can’t be done there are some other options.

Disputing reviews – You need to have a few things in place before you put this plan into action.  Documentation is a must.  If it’s a review about an offer in your chiropractic advertising, you will need to have the documentation to support your dispute.  Of course in the case of disputing a service or treatment in your office this could get a bit sticky due to patient privacy issues.  Therefore, you might not be able to dispute all claims, but you can write a personal letter to the person who left the review.  Ask them why they left the review and ask if they are willing to settle the issue amicably.  You can also ask if they would be willing to remove or edit there review.

If that doesn’t work, there is another option…

Submit a request to have a review removed – Yahoo provides an option to request removal of a negative review.  Again, I would suggest you have documentation to support your request. A friend of mine owns a small business; and member of his staff frequently monitors reviews and feedback on several sites where his business information is located.  After reading a negative review regarding service, the business owner wrote a letter to Yahoo explaining his side of the story along with support documents.

Yahoo removed the review, no questions asked.

Marketing by way of social media, is easy for some of us, but difficult and time consuming for others. Although it is relatively inexpensive, except for the time spent setting up pages and accounts, chiropractic marketing via social media has garnered its share of profits for the diligent chiropractic business.

The chiropractic profession has made huge strides around the globe breaking barriers of traditional marketing methods such as spinal screenings and newspaper ads. More than ever before, chiropractic is being discussed in social media circles as are the benefits of chiropractic.

Social media sites are frequented by wide variety of age groups and most of them are familiar with the location based app referred to as Foursquare.  Are you aware that Foursquare boasted 25 million users in 2012 and 5 million checking in on a daily basis with the 1 million listed merchants, how many of those are chiropractors?

Okay, so they’re not going to put Facebook or Twitter out of business anytime soon, but those numbers are nothing to laugh at.

With a vision to help user’s social networking via cell phones or mobile devices, Foursquare enables its users to get connected with friends and family at all times.

With the objective of marketing through competition, Foursquare works like a game where users compete for badges. Badges are named in a way to give an idea of how they should be achieved, e.g., depending upon how often a person visits places mentioned on Foursquare, if the person is new to it, they will be awarded a badge “Newbie,” followed by “Adventure,” then  “Superstar,” “Bender” and goes up to “Crunked” and more.

If visiting a particular location regularly, more often than not they can earn a “Mayor” badge. It does not end here; users can become a “Super Mayor” by becoming a Mayor of 10 different locations simultaneously. As you can imagine, this objective has attracted quite a lot of people who like to be noticed while doing something.

Have you ever considered how this type of practice building would impact your chiropractic practice?

The concept of allowing your location to be seen by millions of cell phone users should entice you. There could be potential patients who might find you while searching for a doctor in your area to help with their neck pain or a headache. If you are still not convinced, just think about listing your place on a site having 25 million users. Isn’t this convincing enough?

I realize that figure might be low in comparison to the number of social media users, but with the number of users increasing each day, and considering the low if any advertising cost.

Foursquare offers a marketing opportunity that could bring in new patients without breaking your marketing budget. By using Foursquare, you can also post attractive discounts, special deals, and reward your frequent visitors.

Having a basic understanding of social media, you can use these types of platforms for free by adding your location and the services you are offering.