If you still think “twitter” is the sound a bird makes, put on your seat belt. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networks. According to Compete, a firm that tracks Internet usage, Twitter has grown 1,928 percent from June 2008 to June 2009. The site has 21 million unique visitors each month.

If you know nothing about social media and have no clue as to how it works, here’s a quick explanation: Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows you to post updates that are 140 characters or less. That may sound like too few characters for an effective message but look at these examples:

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If you’re doing regular email newsletters, good for you! It’s an inexpensive way to keep in touch with your patients and educate potential patients about what you do as a chiropractor.

However, are you getting the best response and open-rate that you can?

If not, you might want to look at your subject line — arguably, the most important piece of an email. Why? Because it’s the first thing your recipient sees when they receive your email.

The subject line can make the difference between the patient opening your email — or sending it to the trash.

Here’s an example of a bad email subject line that I received in my Inbox today:

September Newsletter - Week 1

The only thing worse than this, I suppose, would be “September Newsletter.” While the subject line is descriptive of the content in the email, it sure isn’t going to get the patient excited about opening it up and reading it.

Here’s a subject line from one of our chiropractic emails we sent out for our clients:

Chiropractic Effective Treatment for Fibromyalgia

This is a far better subject line, because it:

1. Reinforces the benefits of chiropractic
2. Immediately grabs the attention of any recipient who has or knows someone with fibromyalgia

So, the next time you’re sending out your patient newsletter, take a bit of time to think about the subject line and give it that extra pizazz that will get people to open it and read it.

If you have any questions about our chiropractic website service or our chiropractic email marketing, feel free to contact me at (800) 295-3346 or at mike@chirohosting.com.

Mike Melton

Most chiropractic marketing focuses on reaching patients. That’s obviously an important strategy, as most health care decisions are made by patients.

But don’t forget marketing to other professionals, like attorneys, medical doctors, physical therapists, and massage therapists. Attorneys need to refer patients for care, and many patients need to see a medical doctor before they can be referred to a chiropractor.

We provide two different ways to educate professionals about the work you do as a chiropractor with our print chiropractic newsletter service and our chiropractic email marketing.

Both systems have their advantages. Print newsletters cost more, but some professionals like to have physical copies that they can store in a binder. Email marketing is much less expensive and more direct.

When reaching out to other professionals, you want to be as credible and professional as possible. That’s why our newsletter service uses articles that based upon the latest science of chiropractic, and each article includes a complete reference to the medical study. By citing the literature, you give yourself (and chiropractic) extra credibility and validity.

If you have any questions, email me at mike (at) chirohosting.com or give me a call at (800) 295-3346.

Mike Melton

Press releases are a great way to get free publicity. You may have used them when you opened your business. You likely sent it to your local media. Online press releases can also get you more and better coverage for your special event. Here’s how they work:

• When writing the press release (or having someone write the release), think about keywords that relate to your practice. For example, you may want to use “Atlanta chiropractor” or “Georgia chiropractor” to attract media in your area. If you have a new technique or service, incorporate that as a keyword.
• Submit it to an online press release service such as www.prweb.com. These services charge a fee but draw attention to your site. You will have to pay a fee to these sites depending on the type of exposure you want.

You can also submit and post the press release yourself. Add it to your website, or post it on your blog. Many online sites offer free press release submission. And just because you are submitting the press release online, don’t forget to send it to your local media. You want to have a good relationship with the local press to give you a better chance of getting your release published.

If you have more questions about how to optimize your website, download our free Chiropractic Marketing Ebook.

If you are interested in our $30 chiropractic website service, write me at mike@chirohosting.com or give me a call at (800) 295-3346.

Mike Melton

Here’s a recent article on building your web presence, affordably:

Chiropractic Website Design

If you have a website, you know the power of Google! Over 60% of all Internet searches occur through Google, and it’s critical that your site is optimized for good placement. In fact, if your site doesn’t appear on the first few pages, you’ll get very little traffic to your chiropractic website.

In the search for the coveted #1 placement on Google, it’s easy to overlook another service of Google: Google Local.

If you go to Google and type in “chiropractor Olympia, WA,” the first thing you’ll see is a map of Olympia with little red markers showing the location of chiropractors. Getting your site on the map is critical–and, fortunately, really easy!

First, just go to the Google Local Business Center. You’ll be asked for your Google login; if you don’t have one, it’s easy and free to get signed up. (Plus, Gmail is awesome.)

Once you’re logged in, you’ll want to click, “Add New Listing.”

You’ll then fill out basic information about your practice, including your website address. After you’re finished, Google will need to confirm your listing (just to make sure that you are who you say you are). The easiest way to do this is by phone. Google will call you and request a PIN.

Within a few days, your listing will be live and show up on the map when your patients search for a chiropractor. Plus, if they click on your marker, they’ll see information about your clinic and be able to go directly to your website!

If you have any questions about optimizing your website for Google (without paying someone a ton of money), download my free Ebook on Online Chiropractic Marketing.

Mike Melton

Press releases can a great way to market your chiropractic practice.

Read more here: Using Press Releases in Your Chiropractic Marketing

Chiropractic Website Design

Here are some free tips to help you when designing your chiropractic website:

Chiropractic Website Design

It’s important to have a website that your patients can find online, and that’s where search engine placement becomes so important. Ideally, you want your chiropractic website to be the first to appear in the Google or Yahoo listings.

The most powerful way to get to the #1 position is through inbound links. Inbound links are when another website links to your website. When other sites link to your site, it tells the search engines that your site is important and relevant. The more links you have to your site, the more important you are, and the higher your page ranks with the search engine.

The marketing experts at HubSpot have put together a fantastic guide to building links to your site. Here are some highlights:

First, add your website to online directories. This is an easy way to get some quick links, and it doesn’t really take much time.

Second, a very powerful way for chiropractors to build links to their website is to ask for them from other businesses in your community. If you work with attorneys or other doctors in your city — or any local business — simply ask them for a link, and offer them a link to their website in return.

Another great way to get people to link to your site is to create a blog. A chiropractic blog can be a simple way to add new pages to your site. Say, for instance, that you see a news article about back pain. Just sit down at your computer, write a short piece about the news article with your thoughts, and hit publish. Voila! Instant content for your site.

These simple blog posts are also set up so that it makes it easy for people to link to them, adding more credibility to your website.

If you have questions about how to get the most out of your chiropractic marketing, please feel free to download our free e-book, Chiropractic Marketing Online.

It’s a competitive world out there for everybody, including chiropractors. So, it’s important to make your practice stand out from the crowd.

Here’s a really great article about making your site personal. Here’s the key point:

We all want to do business with other humans. We want to know there’s a breathing person behind the Web site or blog that we’re reading. And we want to know that those humans on the other side understand and want to help us. A great site or blog or YouTube video, created especially for us, drives us to action. We want to do business with people who understand our problems.

Giving your website some personality can be a great way of connecting with your patients.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to discuss easy techniques that you can use to accomplish this with your website.