Here in Highland Park, New Jersey

Three Thursdays at Three Libraries in Central New Jersey

Last night was the “inaugural” presentation of our Social Media Networking Talks with Eva Abreu as our “Social Media Tour Guide.” Annie Boccio talked about the many friends she has made via social networking. We had a presentation by Paul Grzella about Getting Published in Daily and Weekly Newspapers and MyCentralJersey.com. I presented “Twitter, Blogs and Websites” — more about my presentation in a separate post. Adam Wolf showed ways to target audiences in Facebook; he used his wife’s business, Places Everyone, as an example of how one can attract attention to your site using Twitter and other social media. Jessica Levin taught us how celebrities used traditional media like television and magazines to brand themselves; one can now use social media as a way to brand one’s business or organization.

Thank you to Graham Gudgin for his important role in arranging last night’s talk at the Edison Public Library.

Next week at 7 pm: Highland Park Public Library, 31 North 5th Ave.

One woman asked a question about poor spellers. Can one advertise one’s business via social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs) and misspell words? If it’s a small business, what do you do? Suggestions?

In honor of Diana Hakakian, Chiropractor

As a follow-up to my post on Twitter for Local Business, here are some ideas on how a chiropractor can use Twitter to connect with potential new clients.

Step One: Sign up and pick a username. It can just be your first or last name with an initial, or you can choose an alias like this one: DrMommy. As you are working at present yourself as a health professional, you will want to add a photograph of yourself, to show you are a real person. You can poke around on Twitter to see what others are using to get some ideas. You can change the user pic easily later, if you like.

Step Two: Add a few sentences to your bio on Twitter. This is important. Why should people follow you back? You need to provide them some kind of idea of who you are and of your interests. If you have a professional blog, website, page on LinkedIn or Facebook, add the URL.

Step Three: Write your first tweet. Tweets must be 140 characters or less. An example:

“I am so glad I have been able to help my new client with her back pain after her accident.”

You can even phrase it as a question:

How can find others on Twitter who might need chiropractic services?”

Or:

“I’m a newbie on Twitter, but I’m not new to health services. I know a lot about” (fill in with x y and z).

Step Four: Write a tweet with a link to an article. It can be any article, but why not choose one that will show your knowledge of your health profession? To write a tweet with a link to an article, first put in the title of the article. That will help get others attention. Then paste in the URL. If your tweet is now more than 140 characters, and your Twitter application does not automatically shorten it, you can use a URL-shortening service to get a shorter URL.

Step Five: Find others to follow. If you already have a few friends on Twitter, follow them (and ask them to follow you back). That way when you click on new followers, you have at least a few people following you already.

Here are some chiropractors that tweet:

• DrMommy
• chiromama
• HandsonHealth
• drhenderson
• chiroqueen
• dr_jennifer
• WellnessDocAz
• chiromoos
• ClinSigPro
• thespecific
• drrobs
• DrDavayneDC
• matthewloop (social media tips)
• digitalchiro (social media training for chiropractors)

Updated: Digital Chiropractor (digitalchiro) trains chiropractors on how to use social media as a marketing tool for their practices.

For learning more about Twitter, I highly recommend following clydeboom.

Step Six: Follow people in your area. Chiropractors need to have clients that are in their own geographical area. Here are some tools to help you find local people:

• Nearby Tweets
• TwitterLocal
• Twellow: Twitter Directory

You can also look in http://wefollow.com/ for Twitter users in your area. I am listed in the New Jersey section (search for newjersey).

Step Seven: Talk to the people you have followed. You can reply (@username) to their tweets. Or you can RT (re-Tweet) what someone said. Retweeting is an excellent way to show you enjoyed what the person had to say, and you want to pass the valuable information or inspirational thought unto others. I often reTweet good articles.

Step Eight: Learn how to search. Twitter is a great tool for research on anything current. You can try searching for ‘health’ or ‘back pain’ or ‘chiropractic’ or any other keyword. Some search tools:

• http://search.twitter.com/
• http://twitterfall.com/
• Twitter application TweetDeck has search tools built-in.

Question: Do you need to have a blog to go on Twitter?
Answer: No. However, the more web presence you have, the more professional you will appear to potential clients. LinkedIn, Facebook and blogs on Wordpress.com or on Blogger are all free ways one can market oneself. A professional website or a professional blog can be aides in marketing your services to these potential clients.

Want to learn more?

• Jennifer Fong explains What is Social Media?.
• If you live in New Jersey, attend a talk by Eva Abreu about Social Media. She will be at the Highland Park Public Library on April 30 speaking about Social Media Marketing. I will be there, too!
• More links for learning in my recent post: Twitter Twitter Twitter

If anyone has more ideas about how a health professional can use Twitter to reach potential clients and market their business, please feel free to leave a comment. Questions are also most welcome.

On Tuesday I attended my first meeting of a local networking group, BNCJ. I found the other attendees friendly and informative, and I look forward to joining the organization. There was a lawyer, a home inspector, a contractor, a travel agent, a financial services representative and an stock broker. And me, the web designer! Or web builder, as I sometimes call it. Design is only a small part.

At one point I mentioned Twitter, and some of other people had never heard of it. “Twitter? Is that like Facebook?” Actually, it’s much easier to use, I responded. Instead of connecting with people you already know, it’s easy to meet new people. I cautioned them not to use Twitter for direct sales (you will get unfollowed fast if you are too pushy). The people I follow want to have intelligent discussions on a variety of topics.

Yesterday I posed the following question on Twitter:

Shimon responded: “answer (IMO): yes if they have tips and promotions (like make up tips for women or computer coupons). Women oriented should b better”

liajen (aka Jennifer Fong) responded: “I believe it can. You just build your targeted niche through local searches (such as with twellow) & build relationships.”

What do you think? How can a local business use Twitter?

Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.

I took this photo standing in Highland Park looking across the river at New Brunswick last month in early December. I believe that steeple is in Cook/Douglass Campus of Rutgers (Voorhees Chapel?).

These last two photos were taken this morning. Much bluer sky, right? The above shows the contrasts of old and new architecture in New Brunswick.

This is Easton Avenue in New Brunswick, one block from the College Avenue campus of Rutgers University. I was visiting my favorite computer fix-it folks: Cyber Knight Computers.

Some of you like new places to visit, so here are four:

• Einshem (awarded the “I heart your blog” award that I had given to Mrs. S.)
  You may get a laugh (or cry): Banking Mess Explained
• Leda’s Urban Homestead (awarded the “I heart your blog” award that I had given to Mimi)
  A locavore, she writes about local food in New York.
• Baroness Tapuzina (awarded the “I heart your blog” award that I had given to Mimi)
  Gourmet food alert!
• Traditional Jewish Medicine (hat tip: Klara)

Mimi left me a note for my stuffed nose (I haven’t tried this yet, but I’ve got sage growing outside my kitchen):

For your stuffed nose, try making a steam tent out of a towel and a bowl of steaming sage tea. About 1 Tblsp. of sage to 2 cups of boiling water. Simmer the sage for 10 minutes and bring it to a table. Lean over the pot or bowl with the hot sage tea in it. Drape a towel over your head and the bowl. Try to stay in for 5 minutes. Your stuffed nose will start clearing up right away.

And FYI, the homeopathic remedy that my father bought for me from our local chiropractor Dr. Harry Schick (I highly recommend him, especially for allergies) is called “Flu Immune”, by Net Remedies©. It’s either a coincidence, or it worked, because I’m breathing a lot better tonight.

I put four art cards for sale here:
http://www.cafepress.com/leoraw/
This is rather experimental; if I make some sales, maybe I will think about how to develop this further. If you want to offer any marketing advice, I’ll be happy to read. Can’t say I’ll take it, but I’ll read.

Thanks for reading my blog; that’s really what I enjoy most, sharing with the public and exchanging ideas. I don’t expect this to take over my web work as a means of income, but rather a fun, experimental supplement.

Update: Thanks to triLcat, I added two shirts, one 3/4 sleeve, one long-sleeved. With garlic.
Broccoli Update: I added a broccoli t-shirt, especially for nutrition nerds.