I am a member of a listserv of chiropractors in California.    When someone writes an email post, everyone can see it, and anyone can reply to the “thread”.  Topics discussed include all matters on chiropractic, health topics, humor, political issues, and others.

Yesterday someone started a thread on Yelp.com, the business review site that is catching on like wildfire.  I wrote a post on it earlier that explains how it works, and I make no secret about how important I think it is to attracting new patients.  But get this, the person on the listserv asked if it was possible to not get listed in Yelp.  Apparently, he was concerned that someone could anonymously write a bad review of his clinic.  Then, another chiropractor chimed in and said she got a bad review from someone whose name she didn’t recognize.  A couple more chiros chimed in and basically expressed their negative opinion of Yelp.  I thought to myself, what the heck are these people thinking? Didn’t they read my post saying chiropractors must move towards modernity?

This attitude is precisely what I am warning against.  Fellow chiropractors, people are living and breathing the internet.  They spend more time surfing the net than watching TV.  This is where a lot of your potential patients are, and this is where YOU need to be in order to get them.  Don’t get stuck in the 80′s and even 90′s chiropractic marketing model of lousy spinal screenings and spinal care class with free chicken dinners.  Times have changed, and you don’t want to miss the boat.  Roll up your sleeves, familiarize yourself with the web’s many communications veins, and use it yourself to communicate and reasearch information.  As your comfort level increases, you’ll seamlessly integrate it into your business’ marketing activities.   You don’t have to be an internet junkie.   After all, this isn’t the first time big change has happened– we had radio, TV, satellite, cell phones long before FaceBook and Twitter, and people managed to figure them out, too.

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I replied to the Yelp thread on my listserv, and basically urged my colleagues to reconsider their attitude towards Yelp.  It would be foolish to ignore such a mass-utilized and free medium to market your business.  If a lot of people use Yelp to search for businesses it means they find it useful, and they LIKE it.   The people have spoken.  It’s no longer an issue of your feelings, it’s a matter of whether you want your business to grow or not.