Like other small business professionals, many chiropractors are interested in social media.
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).
If you want to get started with social media, it's a good idea to learn the basic facts about the three big fish in the social media pond.
Marketing on Facebook Facebook was preceded in popularity by two other social media sites, Friendster and MySpace.
Both sites are still kicking, as are dozens of lesser-known competitors.
If you're a teenager or the manager of a rock band, MySpace still has something to offer.
Otherwise, stick with 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.
But you'll also want to create a Facebook page for your chiropractic business.
Then you can post content to your page, such as notifications of upcoming events.
These updates will show up on the home page of anyone who has clicked the "Like" button on your page.
Marketing on LinkedIn If Facebook is like a neighborhood bar, a place where people go to have fun, LinkedIn is a networking mixer where people make valuable contacts.
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.
Marketing on Twitter If you've never used Twitter before, it's a bit like a cross between blogging and text messaging.
As with text messages, you can send a tweet to a specific person.
But you can also broadcast your thoughts to everyone who is following 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 well.
Easy Does It There are literally hundreds of social media sites, but Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have a lion's share of the traffic.
I believe you'll get better results by focusing on just a handful of social media sites rather than spreading yourself too thin.