Social media is more popular than ever, and chiropractors are certainly as excited about this trend as anyone else. Social media can help you to build relationships with colleagues, and to promote your chiropractic business. And there are certainly plenty of social media “experts” who would be more than happy to advise you (for a fee, of course). But before you get swept away by the hype, read this article to learn the basics about the 3 biggest social media sites.

Facebook: Not Just for College Kids Anymore

Before Facebook hit the big time, there was MySpace. And before there was MySpace, there was Friendster. Both of these sites are still around, as are countless less-popular imitators. If you’re in a rock band, it’s worth your time to create a MySpace profile. If not, I think you’re better off focusing on Facebook. With over 500 million active users, it’s the big kahuna of social networking sites.

You’ll get a personal profile when you join Facebook. However, you can also create a Facebook page to promote your chiropractic website. Once your page has been created, keep it updated with news items and upcoming events that will be of interest to your clients. Anyone who has clicked the “Like” button on your Facebook page will be automatically notified of these updates.

LinkedIn: The Social Networking Site for Professionals

LinkedIn is basically a grown-up, buttoned-down version of Facebook. You can use it to connect with other chiropractors, and with people in related fields. For example, you might connect with medical doctors on LinkedIn as a first step toward getting referrals.

Twitter: Text Messaging on Steroids

If you’ve never used Twitter before, it’s a bit like a cross between blogging and text messaging. You can send a short message to a specific person, or you can send it to everyone who has chosen to follow your Twitter account. Twitter can be a good way to drive traffic to your chiropractic business website. For example, you can use Twitter to notify your followers whenever you have written a new blog post. It is also possible to have your tweets automatically published on Facebook and LinkedIn as wel.

Conclusion

There are literally hundreds of social media sites, but Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have a lion’s share of the traffic. Instead of trying to maintain a presence on scores of social media sites, I believe you will get better results by focusing on using just a few sites to market your chiropractic business.