Comments on: Social Media & Acupuncture Marketing– Opportunity or Hype?

By: Frank Prieto

Frank Prieto — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:03:15 +0000

Thank you for your comment Renee. You’ve touched on something many acupuncturists fail to understand when marketing their services to the public. You’re absolutely right… People don’t lay awake at night thinking who can do energy work on them. They lose sleep over their pressing health problems and will actively seek a solution that makes sense. There are successful acupuncturists out there who have replaced the term “chi” in their communications with the public with the term “blood oxygen.” This is a perfect example of communicating an Eastern concept with Western lingo. It does two things; It gives the prospective patient a clear picture of the blockage taking place, and positions the practitioner as a health care professional instead of an energy healer. I recommend every acupuncturist read “Dao of Chinese Medicine: Understanding an Ancient Healing Art” by Donald Kendall. Whether you agree with Mr. Kendall or not, you’ll get an incredible insight on a different perspective which ironically will help you in your marketing.

By: Renee Moore

Renee Moore — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:35:02 +0000

I agree with you about the blogs as the main strategy. One thing I see in holistic health is that the public don’t fully understand what they do. Practitioners often talk about energy work and body work. What exactly does that mean? I know as a patient I don’t lay awake at night thinking who can do energy work on me. LOL Therefore I think a blog can help educate the public about the services they offer which in turn brings in more clients. Thanks for this blog. Great information.

By: Kristin Piacitelli

Kristin Piacitelli — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:44:32 +0000

Thanks Frank. Very well put, and my thoughts exactly, even though I’m hardly a marketing guru. I keep wondering who has the time for these social networking snafoos?

By: Frank Prieto

Frank Prieto — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:47:34 +0000

Christopher, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Using social media to build a stronger web presence, while at the same time building equity in your own web property (YOUR blog.)

By: Christopher M Gaunya, L.Ac.

Christopher M Gaunya, L.Ac. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:23:00 +0000

I don’t spend a lot of time with twitter or facebook but I do have my blog set up to update my social media accounts when I post. It doesn’t take any extra work because it is automated. I agree that creating a quality blog and updating it frequently and having it optimized gets the most bang for the buck.

By: Frank Prieto

Frank Prieto — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:36:30 +0000

Adrian, thank you for your comment. If social media works for you then by all means keep doing it. But let me share with you an important point about something you say. You mentioned that you post a weekly article that you write and have posted a video link. Why not install a blog on your domain and write the articles (content) on YOUR blog. You can put a snippet of the articles on Facebook with a link back to YOUR blog.

My point is this– Why give away your content to Facebook instead of using that valuable content (that carries SEO juice) on your own web property. I’m not totally against Facebook as I am against Twitter. All I am saying is that you should only invest time into social media marketing AFTER you have a blog attached to your website that you are adding keyword rich content to on a regular basis. That content will always be there and your domain will build equity.

By: Adrian Melero

Adrian Melero — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:34:59 +0000

I definitely agree that SEO should be the priority as I believe it is now replacing the phone book. However, I have benefited from using social media as one of my marketing prongs. Firstly, I have built my Facebook with everyone I have associated with my previous jobs, activities who do not know what I do now for a living (acupuncture). These acquaintances are now aware that I do acupuncture (I started acupuncture this year. I also post a weekly article that I write and have posted a video link. My Facebook fan page gets on the first page when you google ‘Miami Acupuncture’ and putting my URL on the fan page has also helped my SEO. I use other networking sites almost solely to improve the SEO of my URL and my articles. It is not my main marketing, but it is a useful tool.

By: Justin Mandel, Dipl.O.M. L.Ac

Justin Mandel, Dipl.O.M. L.Ac — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:53:21 +0000

I agree Frank. The format with which social media exists – in particular Twitter in my opinion does not make for a good marketing angle to try to get new patients.

A blog is something that can be loaded with keywords so people can easily find through search engines what you blog about.

As of right now there is no Twitter search engine and who wants to read 140 characters worth of a text message to get explicit information that they can really peruse and get something out of?

Facebook is a little bit of a different animal and personally for me I also prefer to keep it private and not to be used for business.

Blogging for practitioners is where it is STILL at!

Best,

Justin Mandel, Dipl.O.M. L.Ac