August 2009

Have you 'YouTubed' today?

by Dr. Stephane Laverdiere

According to Comscore, a leader in measuring the digital world, the Internet registered 14.8 billion viewings of online videos in January 2009 alone.

Recently, the company revealed that the popular social network YouTube has reached 100 million viewers: "YouTube led the growth charge, accounting for 91 percent of the incremental gain in the number of videos viewed versus December, as it surpassed 100 million viewers for the first time."

Google continues to surpass others in terms of online video viewing with a 43 percent market share. Of that, YouTube accounts for 99 percent of the videos viewed. Fox Interactive Media account (3.7 percent), Yahoo! Sites (2.5 percent) and Viacom Digital (1.9 percent) are trailing behind by a wide margin.

We can thank shows like "Survivor," and other reality TV pioneers for fueling the desire for millions of viewers to post their life stories on the Internet. These mini-movies are now mainstream entertainment. In January 2009, 147 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 101 videos per person.

Obviously, we're hooked on Internet videos and online TV watching and were going to see an even bigger shift in that directly over the next 10 years, with the new generation born and raised with the Internet.

Web video may not completely displace television anytime soon but it has caught the attention of big media giants like NBC, News Corp, CBS and Viacom. At a 50-plus percent growth over the last year (as announced by Neilson in May of 2009) it isn't something you can ignore.

The real question is: How can you -- the practicing chiropractor -- benefit from Internet video technology? You could become one of the million or so people and businesses to post your videos on YouTube, but the chances of potential patients in your area viewing them are next to none. There's simply too much "clutter" on that site for you to get the attention you need.

The best way to benefit from videos is to distribute them via e-mail directly to your patients. That's why collecting e-mail addresses is critical to your marketing efforts and should be a routine part of your office policy. Once you have e-mail addresses for your patients, you can send them videos on a regular basis.

In-office videos on topics such as chiropractic and children or the effects of adjustments on asthma or headaches are prime marketing tools. With modern technology built into some chiropractic software packages, you can expand the usefulness of that tool and e-mail them videos they can watch over and over again and even send to friends and family.

Interestingly, when patients receive a video about chiropractic, they're far more likely to share it with someone than they would a brochure. They'll toss or file away a brochure, but they'll forward an e-mail to others and that forwarded e-mail will contain information such as your phone number, hours of operation, website URL, and e-mail address. This is pure genius marketing -- it's coming from your patient and going to someone else but it has your info all over it!

E-mailed videos are also a great way to reactivate old patients at an extremely low cost. In fact, having a complete patient management system that incorporates a video e-mail marketing system can revolutionize your practice.

Get busy and start collecting e-mails and make the most of this video phenomenon.

(Dr. Stephane Laverdiere is a 1995 graduate of National College, is a highly respected expert in the use of technology such as e-mail for chiropractic marketing and patient communication. For more information about the newest features available in today's chiropractic office software, call 877-602-8527, e-mail acs@atlaschirosys.com , or visit www.atlaschirosys.com .)