Bully Your Marketplace

Guess what.

Patients are talking about you behind your back.

What???!?!?!

Yeah but that’s a really good thing.

“How is that a good thing Ben??!?”

I’m glad you asked. It’s a very good thing because you can use Reviews and Ratings sites like Google Maps, Yelp, CitySearch et al to drive in a lot of traffic to your practice if you know what you’re doing.

Let me explain what’s happening with Google and the future of how patients are going to find your chiropractic offices.

The Next Evolution of Social Media: YOUR Vote Finally Counts!

I used to HATE this social media stuff.

“Is anyone paying attention to my Twitter messages?” I’d ask myself.

Be honest.

Do you ever feel like all this social media stuff like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc., is just a total waste of your time?

I gotta admit. I used to feel the same way.

But then something really cool happened.

I started observing how Google (the Big G) was starting to “weigh” social media and in particular what I am calling Social Media Voting via Ratings & Reviews.

Boy oh boy. Google is taking this stuff very seriously.

Want proof?

Take a look at a chiropractors listing in Google Maps and what you’ll find lately is the D.C. with the most positive reviews and ratings is almost always featured in the Google Maps box.

Google is sending a message:

We take social voting (eg. ratings and reviews) very seriously and will reward businesses who get great marks.

Want another example?

Have you ever heard of Digg.com? You should go check it out.

It’s one of the most influential sites on the internet right now.

All it is a collection of people who socially “vote” on a sites popularity. Lately I am seeing Google respond (within literally minutes) of a story posted on Digg and it shooting up the search rankings.

Again, Google is loving the social “voting system.”

Why?

Because us marketers can’t “game the system.”

Back to Google Maps and chiropractic offices.

I have been doing some testing and there is clear evidence that the chiropractic office with the most ratings and reviews in Google Maps gets featured at the top of the Google Maps box.

This can be a free and massive way to get new patients.

It is all centered around social “ratings and reviews.”

Yelp is a great example of social voting and how it can get a chiropractor loads of patients.

Yelp.com is hugely popular and is nothing more than a Rating & Review site.

See my recent Video about my Chiropractic Marketing Yelp Experiment here:

Chiropractic Marketing – Video on How to Use Yelp to Get Patients

Heck, Google just introduced a “social voting” tool in their own search engine as shown here where searchers can “vote up or down” a site:

So where am I going with all this?

The trend is clear:

Social media is being given increasing “weight” by Google and that is because: the seo guys and gals can’t “cheat the system” with social voting and reviews.

This is why the future of the internet is moving towards the “social media” rating and reviews system because it can’t be tricked.

Mark my words… this is where all the action is headed.

Social media voting with Ratings and Reviews!

By the way.

Do you still think social media is largely a waste of your time?

Well let me conclude by giving you a slightly different point of view.

See, the really cool thing about all this social media marketing stuff is that it is (usually) a completely free source of new patients.

My friend Dr. Matthew Loop wrote this great blog post called
Chiropractic Social Media Marketing Myths and he gave this example:

Imagine this…. What if you sent 20-30 friend requests per day to this list accompanied by a warm introductory message? Do you think you might meet and connect with members of your community at an accelerate rate? Of course you would! Try meeting 30 each and every day offline and see if you can keep it up day-in and day out. This “friend adding” can be accomplished in a few short minutes and the benefits, exposure, and traffic can be incredible. All social networks (including Facebook) have these search / browse functions or something similar.

Every day, I would send friend requests to lists like this with a friendly message attached. I found that between 30-35% of those individuals would accept my friend request WITHOUT even knowing me before. They saw my profile and I appeared as someone who was interesting that had value to contribute to their lives to they accepted my friend request, subsequently opening the lines for further communication and trust building.

The bottom line is that social media marketing is another marketing pole in the water, and if you’re serious about the long term ramifications about sites such as Yelp, Google Map Reviews, Twitter and Facebook, you’re very well advised to develop some skills.

Because… well… they can all be used to get you loads of patients.

Ok, let me have it. Post you comment below and let the fun begin.

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