Using social media to grow your practice

When we get down to brass tacks, there’s really only 3 ways to improve your practice:

1) Get more new patients

2) Raise your fees

3) Keep your patients longer

Traditionally most people gravitate toward what seems like the easiest one, which happens to be surprise, surprise, new patients and “creative” insurance billing; but is it really? Chasing after all the newest, best ways to get new patients is not only overwhelming, it’s energy draining, and dang, but it’s expensive!

Take a lesson from companies that do more business than most DC’s

 According to a recent survey by Linkedin and marketing research firm TNS, 81 percent of businesses with between $1 million and $50 million in annual revenue use social media in hopes of boosting sales. Yet only 61 percent of those same businesses see a payoff.

For all of you old enough to remember the dreadful, low quality of Yellow Page ad new patients, you’re grimacing right now. It’s no different with advertising of any medium, online or offline. Social media is a tool, a vehicle that they is constantly changing, and if properly used, can produce new patients. The real question is; what are you going to do with them when they walk through your door.

Instead of chasing the next bright shiny object, how do you feel about learning the fundamentals of attracting new patients and keeping them in any market, online, offline, with or without insurance? Regardless of how you attract your next new patient: word of mouth, advertising, social media, screening, whatever, they eventually will walk through your door. What you do inside your office will determine how long they stay and whether or not they refer! Without having a system in place that focuses on keeping them and encouraging them to refer, you’ll be stuck on the new patient merry-go-round, maybe forever.

Why not learn a system that works anywhere, anytime with or without insurance? Most DC’s are working harder than they need to. And in this day and age, we can’t afford to waste time on something that doesn’t work. So what are you waiting for? Invest in your practice, invest in yourself, and get ready for some exponential growth!