Using a blog to spread the word about chiropractic and your chiropractic services is one of the smartest things you can do today online as a practicing chiropractor. By harnessing the power of a blog, you can gradually establish yourself as the expert within the chiropractic field for your local community.
In my previous post, I presented a screencast that demonstrated how a blog should become the central hub for all of your online activities. I also covered the importance of leveraging the power of social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If you haven’t taken the time to view this informative screencast, I highly encourage you to do so.
The power of social media can’t be overstated. Millions upon millions of people are connecting globally through these various networks to not only keep up with their friends and family but also to receive honest input about various products and services. People trust their inner circle more than they do Google when making purchasing decisions.
With this being the case, one of the obstacles chiropractors face is getting their message in front of new prospects who have never visited their blog. A chiropractor’s blog posts may be extremely valuable but if she doesn’t know how to strategically distribute it, prospects may not find it if they only stay within their social media networks.
If you’ve been keeping up with the rapid explosion of Twitter, you should appreciate its potential to make your chiropractic message go viral. Through a simple process known as a “ReTweet”, your chiropractic message can be distributed to an insane amount of people within a very short amount of time.
So, the question remains, how does one automatically distribute a blog post to Twitter?
Enter Twitterfeed.
Twitterfeed is a FREE service that automically updates your Twitter status via a pre-designated RSS feed. Getting started couldn’t be simpler.
1. Create Your Account
2. Add Your Feeds
3. Track Your Feeds
Twitterfeed states it like this:
On the Create New Feed page:
1. Connect your Twitter account to Twitterfeed
2. Copy-Paste your RSS feed URL into Twitterfeed
3. Use the advanced settings to customize how the feed is tweeted. (Optional)Then just click Create Feed and you’re done!
Please note that when you add feeds, it takes Twitterfeed about an hour to initially process them. However once that’s done your feeds should be published within minutes from then on.
Once your feeds are up and running, your dashboard will show you stats on how many people have clicked on each post. You’ll be able to compare posts and see just how Twitterfeed is helping to build your traffic.
So, there you have it. An effortless and automatic way to distribute your valuable content into Twitter’s timeline each and every time you publish a new post.
About Dr. Patrick MacNamara
Thanks Dr. MacNamara ! I already did this when you mention it in the previous post: 10 twitter tips that will transform your chiropractic tweets.
What I would like to know is what time is best to schedule a new post?
And should you re post it more then once on twitter that day ?
Dr. Heins :: To answer your questions:
1. Most professional bloggers recommend scheduling a new post to publish around 8:00 a.m. Their reasoning is because most people are settling into work, checking email, et cetera. Once your post hits, it’ll be one of the first emails or RSS feeds available for them to read which will drive them to your blog more consistently.
2. The jury’s still out on repost. My rule of thumb is to feed it to Twitter via Twitterfeed. Once it hits Twitter’s timeline, wait to see who retweets it. Then, if it does get retweeted, I’ll thank the individual and retweet their tweet which essentially reposts the original.
Thanks Dr MacNamara, for clearing that up. I appreciate that.
I schedule my posts around 8 am, just because, that’s when I leave to got to the office so when I get there I can quickly check to see if all the feeds etc… went out and posted correctly before I get busy.
Glad to hear that it’s what professional bloggers recommend
As far as the re posts on Twitter, right now, I have two more on the day post goes out (one mid day other early evening). I say, ‘right now’ because, it is important to continually check YOUR SATS, change what you do (a.k.a. ‘tweak”), to find out what works best for YOUR AUDIENCE.
“You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.”~Walter Duranty