Build Your Health Practice Using Twitter

It seems the whole world is talking about Twitter, but how relevant is it to you when you want to attract new patients into your health clinic?

As with all social media, Twitter is about establishing and building relationships with people. As a health professional you have information and opinions that many people in your community would be very interested in. By starting to "tweet" short (less than 140 characters) messages with interesting content you will start to make a name for yourself and will slowly attract followers.

What do you need to do then?

First of all, join Twitter and set-up your free account. Choose a name that is simple and not too weird - I am not sure I would want to be in contact with a chiropractor called "backbreaker"....

Now try and find a few people that know you (friends and family are a good start) and who are registered with Twitter themselves. You can do this in the search function on your home page.

Now you are ready to let the world get to know you!

So what should you "tweet" about? Experts say you need to vary your content; perhaps your first tweet may be sending a link to an interesting news article that you feel your audience may be interested in. For example, if you are a masseur and a new piece of research suggests massage may be fantastic for stress relief - send the link out to your followers. Don't ask for clients, just provide the information - remember this is about relationships!

Next you might have had a fascinating conversation with a friend about a current film - go ahead and "tweet" your opinions. Or perhaps you have planned a great meal for the evening - let people know what you are planning.

By varying your message you are doing a very worthwhile thing - you are showing yourself to be human, to have a life away from your work, and people love that! Also you are providing content of interest to people - again this is great; who wouldn't like free, high quality content sent to them.

As always, this shouldn't be seen as a short-term business-boom strategy. Building relationships is about first getting people to know who you are. As the relationship grows they will come to like you and eventually to trust you enough to recommend you to friends and family.

Using social media is a great way of building trust and Twitter is no different. If you are after hard sell marketing then you are in the wrong place. Today's audience doesn't want to be sold to; they want to be valued and respected.

Use Twitter as a tool for growing relationships and soon you will be contacted by your first prospective client, who has come to trust you simply because she had followed you for a few months on Twitter. How great would that feel?

Good luck!

Andre Duquemin works with health professionals to help them fill their practices with patients. He also writes "Practice Builder", a free weekly newsletter, which you can sign-up for at http://www.attractpatientsnow.com/ As an extra gift you will also receive his free e-course "5 great tips to help build your health practice".