Massage & Bodywork

September/October 2013

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business side Want to get your practice in the best shape? Join us at a "BizFit Live: Successful Practice Workshop" this fall. For dates, visit www.abmp.com/bizfit_workshop. clients here] content already out there that you can share from other Facebook pages and websites (www. facebook.com/ABMPpage is a good place to start). It's easy to do and makes for quick posts. Don't forget, though, that your clients want to hear from you in your own voice. Post your own thoughts, inspirations, and weekly session openings, too. • Schedule those interesting posts. New social media users run into trouble when they don't create a structured plan. If you leave it up to randomly posting when you get to it, it'll probably slip through the cracks. • Sleuth out the best time to post. Think about your clients and when it's most likely they'll be online. If you work with a lot of moms, during the day when the kids are at school is better than at night during homework and bedtimes. If the majority of your clients are business folks, then evening is best. Try posting at different times of day and different days of the week, and do your own little research study. • Build a crowd. Actively ask your clients, family, and friends to "like" your business page. Add a Facebook "like" button to your main website, include links to your business page in your emails, and use Facebook's "invite" feature to invite your current friends and people in your email address book. • Let yourself enjoy it. Here's the thing: therapists like helping people. If used well, Facebook can be an incredibly easy way to get really helpful and valuable information out to your client community. Make it your mission to see social media as an opportunity and not a duty, and your attitude shift just might surprise you! the ones who do are grateful to be able to, and when a check-payer forgets a checkbook, it's a great backup payment option. You plug an attachment into your phone, download an app, pay a small percentage-per-transaction fee, and the money is deposited directly into your checking account. Done. Text Messages The majority of your clients might prefer text messages to phone calls for making appointments and session reminders. Eighty percent of cell phone users use their phone for text messaging (and, in our unscientific poll, 100 percent of teenagers). If you're not text-ready yet, now's the time to jump on board and meet your clients' needs. You might find you prefer it, too. Until Next Time We've given you some easy ways to use technology to keep your current clients happy and attract some new ones. Your homework is to get comfortable and have fun with these. We'll be back with a few more next time. Get Smart More than just a brilliant TV show from the '60s ("Missed it by that much"), "get smart" is a great motto for therapists. It means start using your smartphone for more than just playing Words with Friends. Did you know that 56 percent of Americans own a smartphone? There are a lot of ways your smartphone can help you run your business just that much smarter. Here are two: Smartphone Card Reader This is one of the newer technology tools that some MTs are slow to come around to. Why? They don't know how easy they are to use, and often think the fees are much higher than they actually are. Not all clients pay with a credit or debit card, but Les Sweeney is ABMP's president and resident blogger. Contact him at les@abmp.com and read his blog on www.abmp.com. Kristin Coverly, kristin@abmp.com, is an ABMP education facilitator who teaches workshops for therapists and instructors across the country. Both are massage therapists with business degrees who care about you and your practice. Want more? Check out their ABMP BizFit video tips on www.abmptv.com. www.abmp.com. See what benefits await you. 31

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