Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Chiropractic Practice

LinkedIn can sometimes get a bad rap. We all have had our inboxes flooded with marketing "experts" who guarantee new patients leads every month. This type of marketing is exceptionally annoying and rarely results in a productive conversation.

But, there is a way to use LinkedIn as a platform to market your practice in a way that is effective and professional. 

For instance, LinkedIn is a professional level platform with thousands of other chiropractors engaged. So don't hesitate to connect with other docs. If you are a student, the sooner you begin building the bridge and build your network, the better opportunities will await you down the road.

When you're looking to move back home, or even somewhere entirely new, you might already have a connection there, which will be invaluable as you start your practice. 

Also, be sure to utilize LinkedIn groups, such as the Chiropractic Professionals group that has 20,000+ members. I have found LinkedIn groups are vastly underutilized and can be a great way to distribute your message and content.

Similar to Facebook, the groups offer a place to get more reach for your posts and drive more engagement. 

And remember, LinkedIn is a professional level platform, so don't be afraid to get technical. Topics that are over the head of your audience on Facebook may be just right for LinkedIn. Going deeper on nutrition, adjusting technique, how an adjustment works, radiology,  and advanced imaging and all great topics for LinkedIn posts. 

Connect with me on LinkedIn!

LinkedIn currently has over 500 million active users (up from 450 million just a few months ago).

The reach of over 500 million month active users is why every chiropractic marketing plan needs to have a LinkedIn strategy.

It's highly likely that most of the business leaders and influences in your community on active on LinkedIn. 

Education, entertainment, and engagement. If those three words get you excited, then LinkedIn may be the perfect platform for you to build an audience. 

Marketing Chiropractic with Research

So this is where research becomes a massive ally of ours. If our research sucked, it would be hard to market it! Fortunately,  we have great literature supporting what we do as chiropractors, and it comes out all the time. There is a backlog of terrific research. And if you've never reached out in the past, you may have ten years worth of content before you have to think about trying to find something new. 

But getting out there with it, marketing it, using it, is the critical step. Marketing through research gives you that monthly marketing touchpoint. And in marketing, consistency and focus are key.  If you start sending people 20-page research papers..you are punishing them. You are not helping them. Nobody has enough time to short through a long-form research paper. 

So if you're going to do the outreach, the onus is on you to frame it in a way that matters to them. 

That is why we use a straightforward process. One peer-reviewed piece of research, one time per month. At worst the other physician will see your name in a professional context, becoming a leader in education in your community. At best they're going to take action. Ultimately sending brief, concise, and impactful monthly research updates it's always going to be looked upon in a favorable light. It adds value to them.

How Chiropractic Adjustments Can Help Foraminal Stenosis

If you have had pain going down your arm or leg due to a pinched nerve chiropractic may be one of the best things you can do to get well quickly. 

The discs are located between the bones, or vertebrae, in your spine. They act as spacers, allowing room for the nerve to travel out the holes, or foraminal canals. That is the place where the nerve can often get pinched, and when it's pinched, it hurts. Sometimes that pinching can happen due to a bone spur, due to the disc becoming degenerative and flattening out, or a ligament is constricting and compressing on that nerve. 

Chiropractic adjustments work by helping to open up those holes and take the pressure off of the nerve. The tunnels, or foraminal canals, are "opened" when a gentle adjustment is given, and proper motion to the vertebrae is restored. That takes the pressure off of the nerve, allows the pain to subside, and the function to increase. So if you have been suffering from a pinched nerve due to a bone spurs or ligament overgrowth; do not hesitate to reach out to your local chiropractor to see if chiropractic care may be the best solution to get you on track and feeling great as quickly as possible. 

The Ultimate Chiropractic Marketing Success Secrets Revealed

Marketing a chiropractic practice can be tough. I mean, real tough (think parallel parking in Manhattan). 

It’s difficult to get all the marketing strategies, all the different marketing approaches, and all the experts insights without spending countless hours visiting dozens of websites.  

Also, depending on your practice type (family, sports, rehab) and philosophy (yes, please or no, thank you) you can end up struggling to implement changes. 

A classic case of paralysis by analysis. 

Well…

What if you had the best influencers, from all sides of chiropractic, come together and tell you their top strategies for growth?

I have good news for you. It’s here.

I bribed, pleaded, and blackmailed (ok, I didn’t blackmail anyone) the top minds of chiropractic marketing to offer insight into their strategies for chiropractic success. By calling in a few favors and twisting a few arms, I was able to wrangle up Beau Pierce, Jerry Kennedy, Matthew Loop, Laurence Tham, Bobby Maybee, Tristan Schaub, and Erik Brower. 

So I did what any reasonable man would do, I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.

No one was harmed during the making of this blog post, although we came pretty close (ask Tristan about it sometime).

So without further adieu; here is the Ultimate Chiropractic Marketing Success Secrets Revealed. 

What is the biggest misconception that chiropractors have about utilizing social media? 

“The biggest misconception about social media is that it takes a lot of time. If done in a certain way, the doctor can create systems which feed the office traffic and new patient referrals for years to come. Unlike a postcard drop where you may reap the benefits one time only. Slow but steady always wins the race. Consistency moves mountains. The goal is to get one system in place, automate it the best way possible, then stack another layer onto the marketing machine. And YES, the doctor needs to put some time in. No one that's ever become a wealthy industry influencer online outsourced their entire social media outreach. That's the cold hard truth. You are your brand. Your voice is unique and needs to be heard if you want to build a loyal following that knows, likes, and trusts you”, says Matthew Loop, expert social media marketer and author of Social Media Made Me Rich. 

Also focusing on the SOCIAL aspect is key. Beau Pierce, the founder of Circle of Docs, told me, “Many doctors think of social media as a glorified bullhorn and nothing more than a chance to "show off."  Once they fully grasp the true understanding of Why you should use social media and the ability to build a community of people who are looking for your knowledge, then they rally behind it.”

Tristan Schaub, of ChiroSushi and the ChiroSushiSummit, kept it real by saying, “Chiropractors think that all they need to share is “ChiroContent”. Chiropractic is about Life. Social Media is now Life. Chiro's need to realize that their social media should emphasize the social part of social media and get creative with their content on a consistent basis.”

What is the best framework to market your practice without “selling”? 

“Marketing without selling depends 100% on communication skills and relationships.  Every part of your marketing has to communicate a specific and targeted idea or feeling.  The ideas must be conveyed in a way that tells patients what their implied benefit is when using your services.  When you bring people to your practice that way, then you can focus on goal based, functional planning in cooperation with the patient.  They will come in with a certain expectation that your marketing hopefully set for them (hopefully).  Then you frame their experience around those expectations and specific personalized goals.  When you make those goals measurable, and you manage expectations and work to build relationships, you can easily market without selling.”, Bobby Maybee- founder and admin of the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance

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Exclusive Success Tips from Laurence Tham of Drive Your Practice

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If you want to market without selling, you have to be in the community building/relationship building business. It's a different mindset. You have to start implementing cost-effective tools and systems that are designed to provide value and stay in touch over the long haul. 

Newsletters are a great example. Sending emails to people doesn't cost much, and when done correctly, it can be a great relationship builder. The same can be said for written newsletters. It's a bit old-school to send someone something in the mail. It also costs more than doing things online, but printed newsletters are an excellent way to stay in touch with your existing patients. If nothing else, use them to stay in touch with your VIPs. Your most valuable patients are worth the extra effort. 

“Social media can also be used as a community/relationship builder. It's more difficult to do that it used to be because social media has become a very noisy place. But there is still potential there if done correctly. Unfortunately, most chiropractors don't have a social media strategy that makes any sense, so they are just wasting time.” Jerry Kennedy, Black Sheep 

“The best way for a chiropractor to amplify their message and establish authority is to master the art of Facebook outreach along with social proof marketing. With Facebook, you can flip a switch and target your ideal prospective patient, build your name quickly, hit critical mass in your local community, and create a surge of new patient referrals each month. Some of these strategies are free while others can be implemented on a shoestring budget. On the social proof side of things, review platforms like Google and Yelp can influence opinion instantly. People buy chiropractors like they buy books on Amazon. The first thing the prospective patient does is look at what others are saying about you. If you have dozens of reviews, you look like the obvious logical choice. If you don't have any patient feedback, you don't look review worthy.”- Matthew Loop

What is the greatest challenge in building an audience online?  

“Staying consistent with the audience you have while opening up your strategies to welcome new followers and not alienating the latter”.- Tristan Schaub 

Remember, you don't need to always jump to the next online fad. “The greatest challenge that chiropractors have when building an audience online is knowing where to start. It's easy to get overwhelmed with social media and think you need a new tool or course every week. That's not the case, though. Certain foundational principles have worked for years and continue to be effective. Start with one platform like Facebook and implement one practice growth strategy. Then, as you and your staff get comfortable, you can always layer more on top. Don't get preoccupied with Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, or Pinterest yet. Follow one course of action until successful. Stay away from the shiny objects until you're seeing a steady flow of new patients”.- Matthew Loop

Also, keep in mind the story of the tortoise and the hare. It rings true online. “Consistency.  Flat out.  When you start out, you post all the time, write articles, etc.  but once the glimmer and shine of that new website start to fade, you must force yourself to stay consistent.  My best advice to create a calendar and rhythm.  Schedule out what you are going to post and then do it.  Stay consistent. If you want to write one article a week and do a podcast, then stick to that schedule... force yourself to commit and then over deliver with your content”.  - Beau Pierce 

So there you have it, the best frameworks, action items, challenges to building your online presence, and growing your practice from the top minds in chiropractic. 

To not only survive, but thrive, in the modern healthcare era, we all should be building our audiences and expertise. 

But you don't need to reinvent the wheel. By using a tried and true framework, you can make the process efficient. Then, by knowing where others have struggled, you can avoid those missteps and grow at a faster rate. 

So you made it to the end of the article. Now it’s time to go cause a ruckus. 

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Special Bonus: Check out Erik Brower from Amped in this exclusive video interview! 

Chiropractic is 98% BS- A Response to Joe Rogan

Joe Rogan recently came out with a very very viral and popular podcast and video where he said 98 percent of Chiropractic is BS. Well, I am a chiropractor. I run The Evidence Based Chiropractor which is focused on chiropractic research; as well as working hand in hand every day with Johns Hopkins trained neurosurgeons and more. 

So, I wanted to create a short video for Joe and everyone else out there showcasing where he was right, where he might be wrong, and a few other tip so the next time that he visits a chiropractor he can have a better experience. I think that he had a lot of great points, he just was a little bit misguided. 

Some things that Joe was correct on is that for many medical doctors they don't focus on preventative maintenance of the spine. They're not talking about yoga, they're not talking about proper spinal hygiene, they're not talking about ergonomics and sitting up straight and really strengthening those core muscles around the spine. Joe is 100 percent correct that typically medical doctors don't talk about that. Now ironically, chiropractors are the best health care professionals to talk about exactly those topics. 

So if you are into CrossFit if you are into staying active later in your years; if you want to have the highest quality of life; proper spinal hygiene, flexibility, and taking care of your spine under gravity is unbelievably important. But again, ironically, during Joe's 98 percent of Chiropractic is BS rant, he failed to mention that chiropractors are the best health care professionals to give advice directly on those topics. 

Also Joe was correct that when a disk bulges or herniates, it can create a situation where that disk presses up against a nerve as it travels out of the spine column. This can result in nerve compression. If that happens in the neck it can cause pain, numbness, tingling, and more down into the shoulders arms and hands. Now if that compression, that disc pressing on the nerve, happens in a low back, it can cause pain, numbness, tingling symptoms down into the buttocks and into the legs. 

But again, rather ironically, Chiropractic has been universally promoted and stood behind as the primary treatment option, the first treatment option, that you should explore if you are suffering from a bulge or herniated disc. Groups like the American College of Physicians the American Pain Society, prestigious research journals such as Spine Journal, European Spine Journal and more have all made recommendations that chiropractic care, chiropractic adjustments, are one of the primary options that you seek if you happen to be suffering from a bulge or a herniated disc. 

Now obviously Joe did not have the best experience with his chiropractor. And it's not fair of me to comment specifically on his case because I don't have his medical records in front of me. But there are a few items that I think he can learn, as well as you, that can help you have the best experience the next time you visit a chiropractor. Number one is communication is key. 

Joe said he was treated for over a year and then I got the MRI and there was a bulging disc. He said he knew he had it the whole time. Now if you've been treated for more than six or eight weeks without improvement, if you have muscle atrophy, if you have worsening nerve pain, then absolutely an MRI may be indicated to be able to get a better look at the pathology or the problem that's causing that pain. 

But remember even after that MRI comes back with a bulged or a herniated disc quite often your best first line of defense that the research proves out time and time again is starting your care in a chiropractic office. So if you have any questions about this please comment below. I would love to hear back what you have to say. 

I would also love it if Joe eventually saw this video I would love to have a chat with him and see where I can provide value for him and more education regarding where chiropractic starts where chiropractic stops and what the current data says regarding the usage of chiropractic care. I hope you have a great day and I'll talk to you.