Your Chiropractic Internet Marketing blog on using Social Media

Google announced back in May its future release of Google TV. Combining the awesomeness of your home entertainment system with the power of Google search, this technology is poised to change the way we watch TV forever. Opens up the door to watching anything you want at any time you want. From a marketing or small business perspective this further segments an already segmented marketplace.

If you are entrenched in outdated strategies towards marketing and have trouble getting your head wrapped around Twitter, wait until you see this. If you have some vision then you can see how getting your message affordably to the right market is becoming easier and easier.

Pundits may laugh at this technology, but savvy marketers will laugh too…all the way to the bank. Remember how they laugh (and still do at Twitter, now at 75 million users strong) because only 17 percent of the people who signed for accounts use twitter regularly. That’s 12 million plus users! What better way to reach a focused and targeted audience than using Google TV? I can’t think of a better way to market a small business. Can you?

Google is lowering the price for small business owners

Google is lowering the price point for small business owners to step into the arena of marketing on television, just like they lowered it with pay-per-click ads of Google Adwords. Now before you hit me with questions about how much it will cost and how I can know such things, I’m only predicting. The technology is too new (to be released Fall of 2010). Honestly, I’m still getting used to my Google Voice number and functionality. (Please don’t ask for an invite mine are all gone)

What’s the point?

“On the web you are what you publish” this quote courtesy of David Meerman Scott via James Duthie’s blog post “Letting go of outdated marketing tactics“. What you say, how you say it and how available you make it are factors to a successful business. Used to be in the 1990′s this only applied to online business.

Today with local Google searches occurring more and more, small businesses stand to gain or loose accordingly. Trying to withhold some key piece of information in hopes of enticing someone to do business with you is a thing of the past. Customers, clients and patients want to know who you are, what you do, what makes you unique to the other choices they have and how can you best meet their perceived needs. It’s the content you create and provide that bridges this gap of understanding. Is your business ready for that?

Content creation.

I see it as the single biggest weakness in small businesses today (especially chiropractic offices). Who has time to create compelling video’s, pictures, websites and blogs choked full of witty and insightful prose, all search engine optimized to reach a target audience? The simple answer is you don’t. You have have to make the time to find a way to make it work.

But, here are some things I have learned doing online marketing that may comfort you.

Consistency sells

Even if you don’t do everything right, even if you make mistakes the single best way to get a return on your online marketing investment is to be consistent. Think of it this way, “Consistency sells”. Just becuase you don’t see an immediate response by way of comments doesn’t mean people aren’t checking out your website.

Transparency is key.

Twitter has been having trouble meeting the bandwidth demands of users. Rather than try and hide behind a veil of secrecy they came right out and told people they made some mistakes and weren’t prepared enough for the amount of traffic they have had to accommodate with their servers. Twitter calls it a A perfect storm of whales.

Now, contrast this with the issues facing British Petroleum. BP is having transparency issues.

“We are committed to providing the American people with the information they need to understand the environmental impact from the spill and the response steps that have been taken,” said BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward.

Read the entire press release, sounds like insincere drivel contrived by some focus group of BP PR executives too bothered by cricket outings to deal with such issues.

Who do you want to emulate in business, Twitter or BP?

UPDATE: Tony Hayward BP CEO did make a formal apology on Youtube as of June 3, 2010. But, that was over a week after this insincere sounding press release. Take note, the timing of your responses plays a roll in how they are received.

Honestly, some of the best blogs I read do not have more than the occasional comment (worth any thought or mention). Plenty of “adaboy/girl” comments but rarely something of great merit. If you want a better way to measure your online success, pick a different metric for viewership such as Google Analytics stats.

More people are using the internet than ever before. And according to Nielson Ratings via Mashable.com:

Average Internet User Now Spends 68 Hours Per Month Online

Although significant it trails behind the number of hours people watch television, which averages around 140 hours per month. What happens when Google TV merges the two technologies? It creates a whole new user experience and a whole new marketing opportunity.

What are your thoughts on Google TV and how it will change your small business?

If your first question is, “What’s a Firefox?” Then check out the link.

Web search is so personal we find it hard to step out and make broad recommendations. But, if you need a better way to manage your time on line, then these tools are for you. I have been testing and using multiple Mozilla Firefox add-ons for over 3 years. The ones I list below have stood the test of time and have found them to be beneficial for saving time online. Don’t know what an add-on is all about? Check out this link: Firefox add-ons. Basically, they are functionality programs designed to work directly in your Firefox web browser (hence the need for using the Firefox browser). Google recently got into the browser game with Chrome Browser, however the add-on market has yet to mature.

It takes time to learn and adapt a new web technology. Using any of these add-ons should take than than an hour each to learn. Here are some suggestions to help you speed up the process:

1. Upload and install Firefox.

It’s no more difficult to use than any other browser. You can download it here. The add-ons are great for helping you save time on common we activities.

2. Warning: Don’t upload a bunch of add-ons to your browser.

It will slow down the speed of your browser (there’s an add-on for browser speed too, but keep reading). A browser is your window to viewing and interacting with the world wide web. Add-ons help this functionality. Use the add-on tool function to manage your add-ons. Hint: Customize your add-ons for the type of web searching you are doing. For example, if you are doing SEO work, only use the SEO add-ons you need. Same for web search activities. As of last count, there were over 12,000 add-ons to expand the functionality of your Firefox web browser.

3. Invest some time searching for add-ons that will save you time.

Evaluate them and read the reviews on more than just the add-ons website.

4. Every few months purge your browser of unused and unwanted add-ons.

Even if they are not active, they suck up browser speed.

Here are my top Firefox add-ons for the busy chiropractor:

1.Fasterfox lite: Read about the add-on at their website. In our opinion the best of many web applications and programs seem to work seemlessly and in the background. Take for example All in One SEO. It is a plug-in you install on your WordPress site, set it up and then generally forget about it, it works in the background to acheive a desired result. Fasterfox is just that, a faster Firefox browser. Read through the add-on thoroughly as certain settings may piss off your internet provider as it placers an extra strain on their servers, but other settings are just as beneficial too. Check it out.

2.Surf Canyon: Also a search engine. Don’t know how I ever got along without this before. It aids in web searches by offering more information on the related web link provided by Google. Click the Surf Canyon icon next to the Google search result and presto a bunch of cl;osely related content shows from lower pages on Google. Could’t tell you how much time this has saved. It is especially useful if you are trying to find all the related information on a small group of websites. Here is a sample of what Surf Canyon looks like:

3.X-marks: This is a backup and syncing program designed to manage your bookmarks. Found a great website, be sure to place it in your RSS reader if you have one. And you can save the URL for the website into one of your bookmarks folders. If you should ever be away from one of your computers and can still get internet access login to the X-Marks website and you can view all of your bookmarks.

4. Shareaholic is the simplest way to share, spread, and save interesting webpages via your social networks, email, blogs, IM, and more. Once you install this add-on you can easily share what you have found with your other social media sites. You don’t have to login in every time, or even go to your account page, it is all done while you are browsing.

Bookmark management:

If you are into sharing your bookmarks then check out Delicious. Delicious (formerly del.icio.us, pronounced “delicious”) is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks, also has a Delicious Firefox add-on for easy sharing of your saved websites and bookmarks right from your browser. You can check out my bookmarks here and link to me.

Stumble Upon is similar to Delicious, except it is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is a personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles. Web pages are presented when the user clicks the “Stumble!” button on the browser’s toolbar. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user’s ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests.

Shareaholic is the simplest way to share, spread, and save interesting webpages via your social networks, email, blogs, IM, and more. It’s a great ways to manage and share the content you find online. The add-on works as an icon in your browser that lets you save your current webpage in a multitude of ways. Everything from bookmark saving, social media sharing, to saving the page to your Amazon “wish list”.

You may ask what good is it to share my websites?

1. It’s good for expanding your social influence. You patients may want to know what health related sites you like and recommend. This will save with their own searches.

2. Another great reason is to reach out and save the blog posts of your peers and other local business owners. Saving their pages helps their SEO pagerank just a bit more every time you do it. And it beats doing directory submissions.

Do you see the Bookmarks below “Sahre the Knowledge”? If you enjoyed this article share it with one of the sites listed below to get a feel for how all of this works. What add-ons have you found most helpful?

WordPress comes out of the box with so many great features already built in. Continual improvement and updates continue to make WordPress a strong player for any blogging web platform and is quickly evolving into a great content management system (CMS). But, what would WordPress be without your own personal touches using plugins. Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. In the plug-in directory you can find, download, rate, and comment on all the best plugins the WordPress community has to offer. Here are my top 7 recommendations to be you started with your chiropractic blog site. Keep in mind plug-ins can become an addiction of functionality. Each new plugin you see can become a constant effort to implement and use its functionality on your web site. Here are 5 tips on how to most effectively use your plug-ins:

1. Keep it simple.

Pick, use and evaluate one plugin at a time. There are thousands to choose from. You don’t need them all, you can have a successful blog using only a handful of essential ones.

2. Test the plugin

Before you get used to your shiny new plug-in, be sure to fully test its functionality on your website. Make sure it doesn’t disrupt your theme or other plug-in functions. Not all plug-ins are designed equally, nor to work together. If you found a plug-in you’ve fallen in love with and just can’t live without, but have found it doesn’t play well with others. Don’t lose heart, you can reach out to your webmaster and have them tweak the code so it works for you. Don’t have a webmaster yet? Consider using us.

3. Be aware of the Warnings

Upon installing your plugin to your theme you may be confronted with a warning (picture to the left). If you see this warning it typically means the plug-in has not been fully tested using the WordPress version you are currently using. Fully investigate the themes homepage. If the homepage is gone, sure bet the plug-in may not work, or if it does you will not be able to find support for it. I’d suggest you consider another plugin with similar function. If the homepage is present search around on the support page or comments page. The comments from other users will give you an indication of the problems others are having using the plugin. Check out the dates of the responses from the administrator of the plugin compared to when the comment was posted. This will give you an idea of how long you will have to wait if you have a question on the plugin.

4. Rate the plug-in

You have found the “Holly Grail of plugin rock stardom”. It does everything you desire and has just completed your WordPress site Zen layout. Be kind enough to let the plugin designer know. It means a lot to many of these plugin designers and it is a great habit to get into as a manner of socially acceptable and encouraged web etiquette.

5. Pay for the plug-in

I know, WordPress is free and most plugins are free. But hey, it doesn’t mean there wasn’t a cost to put it together. It takes time to put this stuff together. If you benefit, consider a small donation to keep their project going. Set some of your web budget aside for this purpose. Many plugins have a free version and paid premium version with more functions and/or support, etc. It’s good business practice to pay for what you use and considered polite in the online world. In an environment of hackers, spammers and thieves a small donation is a kind gesture and goes a long way towards improving your online karma.

Compared to other blogging platforms, WordPress arguably possesses the strongest and most generous community of all. Despite this however, WP plugin developers receive very little compensation for their efforts to supply the WP plugin repository with quality free plugins.

Summary of 6 essential Plugins:

The first four plugins are “behind the scenes” work horses. Designed to improve your sites overall performance or keep track of it. These plugins won’t really come into play until you have content on your site and start to have users interact with your website. All considered, go ahead and install these plugins. The final two plugins are directly related to writing and managing content on your site. They help to streamline the writing process and also how you keep track of blog efforts. Optional? Yes, but I include them here to help you with streamlining your blog writing process. Give them a try. If you don’t like them you can always uninstall them from your website.

1. All in One SEO pack- Made by Semper Fi Web Designs, Here is the Free plugin vesion of All In One SEO Pack, here is the premium paid version of All In One SEO Pack.
2. Google Analyticator- Here is the plugin for Google Analyticator, here is the donation page.
3. Google SML Sitemaps Generator- Site maps are a way for search engines, like Google, MSN’s Bing and Yahoo’s search to find and index your website. Sitemaps are “maps” of your site presented to the visiting search bots to your site. They help your site and the information you post get found by search engines.
4. Automatic WordPress Backup- Let’s hope you never need this plugin, but when you do you will be glad you have it. Could you imagine putting in hundreds of hours into a website and then it’s gone? Unfortunately it happens. I host with Godaddy.com. they recently suffered an attack from hackers intent on doing malicious harm to their servers. Thankfully my site was not affected. Your hosting service provider will typically back up their own servers in an effort to protect their own business. However, they are under no obligation to back up your website. If it gets backed up in their own server backup process, great, you benefit. However, if for some reason your site doesn’t get backed up and get’s hacked, you could loose your website. I use this plugin and Amazon’s S3 server service to keep my site backed up.
5. Cleverness To Do list-I considered not including this plugin because it is so closely related to time management and to do lists more than WordPress blog writing. But, I have found it to be immensely helpful in keeping track of to do’s related to my web site. The plugin inserts a window onto your WordPress administrators Dashboard. It’s great for jotting down quick notes about blog ideas, upgrades you want to make to your site, or even simple reminders to edit your blog post before you publish. Not a complicated plugin, but helpful in too many ways not to include in this list.
6. Insights- For what it does this is my most commonly used plugin. It can search in 8 specific areas on the web without leaving your WordPress Edit Post page. It will even search your own site for related links, so you can create deep links on your own website. LOL I just used Insights to get the definition of Deep Links in the previous sentence. It took me 5 seconds to do it and my readers can now click on “deep links” if they want to know more about them. What can I say this plugin rocks. I use it to fill in the gaps of what Zamanta leaves out.

Installing plugins using WordPress 2.7 or newer. Great video on how to use the install plugin feature included on your wordpress dashbaord.

How To install All In One SEO Pack using FTP. this is an older video tutorial but it covers the basics. You can also use the plugin uploader directly on your plugins admin page to upload the plugin.

If you are looking for other analytic plugins for your site check out this post on the Top 10 Analytics plugins.

Here is a post about using the All In One SEO Pack that I found helpful. Here is a helpful video on using the All In One SEO Pack.

For installing your WordPress Backup using Amazon s3 check out this video.

Use this video to learn more about Google Sitemap XML Generator WordPress Plugin.

What WordPress plugins have you found to be indispensable?