Why other hypnotherapists are using social media, and you should too

When we discuss social media in the business building module of my Hypnotherapy Practitioner course, I get pretty extreme reactions from my students. They may love it or hate it, but they rarely feel neutral about it.

If you love it you are probably already out there. But I thought I would put together some ideas for you to consider if you are still avoiding the whole subject.

Social media is free

You can sign up for a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or other social media account for free. They may have paid services as well but you don’t have to use them. Initially, this gives you a web presence with no outlay, a valuable thing if you are just starting out in practice (or even if you’re not).

Social media sites are more established than you

You may have a website, and that's great, but posting links to your website from your social media pages (and hopefully getting others to do the same) can help Google to find, and list it in their search engine.

Your customers are there

The very thought of social media might give you nightmares, but many of your customers love it. It’s a great way to contact and interact with them, and another way for them to find and contact you.

Your competitors are there

Speaks for itself. Lots of people search social media now for businesses and services; if you’re not there and your competitors are, clients will find them first!

It's a good source of information and support

You can keep in touch with others in the same job as you, or related topics. For hypnotherapists, for example, there are lots of groups and pages on social media which will point you to useful articles and information, supply you with hints and tips or just offer support from other therapists.
Following or liking others in related lines can be useful, for example on Facebook I follow the council which looks after the area where I practice. They post about local events and road-works etc so I can warn clients if their travel is likely to be disrupted.

A few tips about promoting hypnotherapy via social media


1. Don’t start using all the types of social media at once, you'll be overwhelmed. Choose one, probably Facebook, then gradually add others as you get the hang of it.

2. Written communications can be misunderstood more than spoken ones. Be super-ethical in what you post and (especially) be careful of confidentiality.

3. Your clients may lose faith in your professionalism if they can see you at your birthday party drunk, dressed as a pixie and throwing up into a pub dustbin. (Actually, you may not want your family to see this one either!) Learn how to use the privacy settings and check the settings on each post before publishing.

4. Ask everyone you know to like, share, or follow your new page to help spread it around. Link all your social media pages together, and cross-link these with your website if you have one.


Inspired?
Helen Kitchen, a specialist in social media-based PR, has written an article giving therapists tips on what to post on their Facebook pages. Check it out here.

--------------------------------------------------------

Author: is Senior Tutor At Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training, which offers multi accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training in Wakefield and York, along with taster days and foundation levels. Debbie has written a chapter on working with IBS in The Hypnotherapy Handbook, aimed at students and newly qualified hypnotherapists and also offers supervision and continuous professional development (CPD) for those in practice. Please contact Debbie to find out more.

Comments