Here’s why:
Let’s get into each, but in a roundabout way. First, let’s answer the question, what is blogging?
“Blogging” as anything that you share online in “log” (chronological) form. There are traditional blogs (this is the thing I’m trying to convince you to do), and there are social media websites with blog-like characteristics. Twitter is a kind of blog. In other words, a microblog. In some way, your status updates on Facebook are a catalog of your thoughts, what you’re reading, or what’s been happening in your life. A kind of shared community blog.
In many ways these social media websites offer a “publishing” experience that many people prefer because you can easily share a thought in seconds, join a conversation, and get feedback. Also, you don’t have to spend months building an audience, or an hour on each update like you do on a traditional blogging site. All you have to do is friend someone and you’ve added one more captive audience member. It’s easy.
It’s for educating, reminding, gaining permission, and ultimately gaining authority as an expert in your niche.
They are publishing! These businesses run a traditional blog full of important news and information that is appealing to an audience that they are cultivating inside and outside Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, they are still an authority with enough authority to put something down in writing.
Do a search for chiropractors on Twitter, and chiropractic practices with pages on Facebook and you’re going to find a lot of them. But once you eliminate everyone who doesn’t have a traditional blog site, there are very few that remain. And the ones who are offering great content deserve all the attention that they get.
Yes, you can still be active on your practice Facebook Page, and stay in contact with members of your community. You can announce events, and share links with information that is important for your people to know. There are many practices that are doing just that, and they are successful at it.
But these interactions are not as valuable as the intentional and repeated visit to your website that’s created by your blogging content. Facebook gives you a lot of options for engaging visitors on your page, but they still remain on Facebook (with Facebook chat, Facebook ads, and hundreds of other status updates). They are not fully engaging with your practice brand on your own website.
In this day of social media overload, links to the same websites that everyone else are linking to can feel kind of cheap. (You know…Mercola, Natural News, WebMD, etc.). If you want to set yourself apart from almost every practice out there, you need a home for readers to come back to.
In conclusion, a traditional blog is a perfect place.
This is a great blog post on why today’s climate of social media for upper cervical chiropractors requires a blog, from my friend and colleague, Dr. Zachary Ward. And we couldn’t agree more with him.
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