What's All The Twitter About

Micro-blogging, Twitter, is more popular every day and consequently it has become one of the biggest platforms on the web. This means there is a whole new emerging market of potential patients just waiting to be networked. A great opportunity indeed to build a naturopathic practice!

For those a bit unfamiliar with micro blogging and more importantly Twitter, let me explain a bit about how it works. Twitter is basically a service that allows you to update your status with short messages, of up to 140 characters. What makes it so special is that it allows users to befriend each other; in Twitter this is called “following.” Whenever you’re following somebody on Twitter you’ll be able to instantly receive their updates and keep up to date with their status. You can follow Naturopathic Economics on Twitter with our Naturoecon username.  Twitter also provides mobility allowing you to update your status via your web page, IM, mobile phone, blackberry or various other third party applications.

It’s been widely proven that Twitter can be easily used as a promotional tool, to pitch your content, services and products. This is done by broadcasting your message, although short, to your followers. Here are a few reasons why Twitter can become an essential tool to deliver your professional practice message to your patients and friends.

1. Practice Traffic. Although at first glance it might seem like twitter isn’t capable of directing any respectable amount of traffic, truth is, if used properly, it can provide your blog or webpage with quite a “few” new visitors. You can send traffic by entering your blog’s url in your Twitter profile or by twitting one of your post’s url.
2. Practice Branding. Just like any other social network, twitter can be used as a powerful tool to build your naturopathic brand and raise awareness. The thing about twitter branding is that it’s a lot more personal, probably thanks to it’s IM like environment, helping you to thin the line between you and your readers.
3. Promote  Your content. A lot of doctors realizing the huge potential Twitter possess leveraging their content, have begun to publicize and promote their blog posts or web pages on Twitter. This means they post their post url, along with a short description so that their followers can vote them. A nifty little twitter tool available is TwitterFeed, a great twitter application that automatically posts your latest blog titles, along with the respective url of course, without any interference from your behalf.
4. Latest News in Naturopathic Medicine. Because Twitter is so instant and spontaneous you can now find out about the latest naturopathic news in any particular field of activity you’re following, within minutes of the actual event. If you thought RSS feeds are a good way of keeping up with news and new content, wait till you try twitter.
5. Correct Misinformation About Naturopathic Medicine.   Your patients are keenly aware of changing trends and the never ending studies which purport to debunk naturopathic medicine.  Through Twitter you can head off misinformation directly to your patients and followers quickly and professionally referencing correct information you have posted on you blog or website.
6. Networking. Twitter is a great way to get to know new patients and like minded individuals, that share your same passions and area of expertise. Following them truly is a pleasure. This way you can see what your fellow peers are up to, open up to mutual promotional work and build future business relationships.
7. Practice Marketing. As it’s the case with most social media services, you can use Twitter to market and pitch your practice, services and products. However Twitter won’t directly help you market your content, but rather indirectly by helping build your brand name and authority. After you’ve established yourself as an authority to your audience, sales will follow as well.
8. It’s Viral. Anything that spreads quickly and easily across a community is a great social service.  Twitter works in a word of mouth kind of way. You as user may twit about something important, your followers will then take the story to their followers and so on.
9. New Video Feature. Twitter has now launched a new feature allowing you to post videos with your Twitter.  This is very exciting allowing you to provide a video message directly to your patients with your Twitter. You can highlight new treatments you are offering, special discounts on products, or general information in a much more personal manner.  All it takes is a Flip camera and a Twitter account.

There’s something special about Twitter that makes it fun. It’s that kind of fun you find in great social networking and Twitter has plenty of it.  If you are new to Twitter I recommend "Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes."  It's a simple read and walks you through all of the steps to get started.

Domain Names - How to Get Them Inexpensively

As a naturopath beginning a new practice or wanting to expand your practice awareness, how do you jump on the internet highway.  Domains are where it all starts on the World Wide Web.  A unique name paired with domain name extensions like .COM, .NET., .ORG,.BIZ, and most recently .CO, is the first step to carving out a unique space in the virtual world.  These domains are a strong element in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and brand awareness strategy for your practice.

How you choose your domain name extension and the concept for a unique yet identifiable domain name must be taken seriously.  Domain extensions offer alternatives for creating and protecting domain names.  For example the new extension .CO can represent; company, community, or collaboration.  Think carefully before launching your domain name or names.  That's right I said names.  I recommend acquiring more than one name extension when you purchase a domain name thus protecting your unique identity in several of the extension communities.  But how do you afford acquiring one inexpensive name or names.  I personally recommend 1&1 Domain Names .  Domains purchased from 1&1 are as inexpensive as 99 cents.  That's right 99 cents!

So if you are looking to for a new domain name, or want to expand your domain names I recommend clicking on this link 1&1 Domain Names to check out their rates.  They also offer very inexpensive web hosting should you want to transfer your domain name and save even more.

NEXT WEEK:  What's All The Twitter About

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Have a question send it to naturoeconomics@gmail.com we answer your question as quickly as we can, however due to the number of questions we ask you have patience as we answer all questions in the order they are received.

7 Tips to Merge Into the Social Networking Highway

Social networking is all the buzz. If you don't have a Blog and an account on  Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or the latest social networking fad you're considered out of date.  For the naturopath launching a new practice, or the seasoned naturopath wanting to grow their practice, the prudent use of these tools can help build a practice.  Social networking tools help to share information with your patients about yourself, your practice, or general health care tips that can become viral on the internet spreading the good word about what you do.  One of the most powerfull tools a naturopath can use is the Blog.  That't right the Blog, not the web page.  Here are some simple tips from one of my favorite books "Crush It."  to help you get started blogging.

1.  What is your passion - what do you want to tell the world about on your blog?
2.  Make sure you have several ideas for posting ready to go - why you are writing the blog, tips on health care, new treatments, your personal philosophy, etc.
3.  Buy a user name .com, .net, .biz. (More on inexpensive - Cheaper than Go-Daddy domain purchase in the next blog)
4.  Begin blogging.  That's right.  You can begin blogging within 10 minutes of setting up your site.
4. Sign up for Twitter or Facebook if you haven't already.
5. Sign up for Ping.fm and select all of the platforms to which you want to distribute your message.
6. Be consistent in your blog posts, but don't overdo it. Posting every other week when you first start is fine, then once a week after you have built a following.
7. Ask patients for their email addresses so you can notify them when you post.  This is critical to growing your following.

These simple tips should get you started.  I recommend "Crush It". for a simple read on how these things interact to grow any business successfully. 

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1 comments:

Bill Bond said...

IMO, the number one indicator of how successful and ND will be is the return rate after an initial consultation, that is, the percentage of patients that return for a follow up visit after the initial consultation. Very successful NDs have a return rate of @75%-80% and those who cannot sustain a practice tend to have return rates of about 20%-30%. Most NDs fall somewhere in between. Factors such as bedside manner and you skill as a physician are obvious major factors, but the three overlooked factors I see are: 1. Always scheduling follow up visits after an initial consultation. Some NDs think patients will just magically know when they need a follow up. More often, they will just move on to trying something else, especially if what you prescribe is not working as recommended. 2. Have an office that looks like a medical office, not a chiropractors, an acupuncturists, a homeopaths or a massage therapists. 3. Wear a lab coat during initial consultations. I know this is not popular in the ND world but the reality is that people will judge your capabilities and skill level by your attire, especially during an initial consultation, when they are first getting to know you. A labcoat conveys physician while nice attire conveys non-physician and patients will treat you, trust you and pay you accordingly.