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Therapist Media Cheat Sheet: Get More Clients By Maximizing TV Interviews

While TV interviews and appearances rarely lead to an immediate increase in new clients, they do raise awareness of your private practice and your specialty areas, expose thousands of people to your practice, and set you up as a credible expert in your field. Marketing experts say that it generally takes 7 exposures to your business brand before a client will actually try your products or services.

In recent posts I share how to get TV interviews and how to present your best self during interviews. Here are some tips for getting the most mileage out of interviews to build your credibility and increase referrals to your practice.

1) Be explicit about how you’d like to be introduced

Reporters aren’t worried about your branding, they’re concerned about their story. It is your responsibility to protect your practice name and brand by being explicit about how the interviewer should refer to you on camera. After having a few interviews where they say my practice name incorrectly, or didn’t mention it at all, I’ve learned to clearly spell out how I want to be introduced. In email correspondence with media contact I request something like this: Read more

Therapist Roll Call: Join The Private Practice Facebook List

Thanks for your fantastic response to my roll call for private practice therapist using Twitter! Therapists from all around the globe have joined the list. I’ll will continue to add therapists to the list so feel free to join anytime by commenting on that post.

I wanted to do the same thing for Facebook Business pages to help you connect to other like-mined therapists to share resources, ideas, practice building tools, and referrals. Only licensed mental health therapists will be listed.

Here’s what you need to do to join the Facebook List…

Post a comment below and include the following information:

  1. Facebook page name &  page link (Facebook business page, not personal profile)
  2. your name & credential
  3. your city & state
  4. specialty areas

As the comments come in I’ll post comments and paste your info in the body of this post below to make it easy to click through and “like” the Facebook pages listed.  I look forward to connecting with you. Feel free to forward to colleagues. Read more

Therapist Roll Call: Join The Private Practice Twitter List

I recently blogged about ways to use Twitter to build your private practice, and encouraged you to tweet your elevator speech/basic practice message in 140 characters or less. Those posts got me wondering, “How many therapists in private practice are actively using Twitter?”

So, I’m taking a roll call to help you use Twitter to connect with other like-minded therapists around the world to share ideas, resources, and referrals. Only licensed mental health therapists will be listed.

Here’s what I’d like you to do…

Post a comment below and include:

  1. twitter handle & link
  2. your city and state
  3. specialty area

As the comments come in I’ll post comments and paste your info in the body of this post below.

Read more

To Tweet or Not to Tweet? Using Twitter To Grow Your Therapy Practice

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a popular social media platform where users can send short updates that are up to 140 characters long.  Twitter is basically the equivalent of a Facebook status update newsfeed. If you have no idea what a “newsfeed” or “status update” is, then you may want to stop reading here and start by setting up a Facebook account.

Facebook is THE social network site and is the most effective way to build your practice through social media because of it’s high number of daily users. Here’s an article on how to set up a Facebook Page for your practice.  If you want to know how to use Twitter, here are a few suggestions on how to effectively tweet to build your practice.

How can Twitter help you build your practice?

Twitter, like all social media platforms, is a forum for conversation and connecting with other people online. It is also a great way to spread the word about your practice, to educate the public about issues you care about, and to share your areas of expertise. The point of social networking sites like Twitter is…uh…the social networking. If your Twitter followers find value in your tweets they will share them by retweeting your information their Twitter followers. Over time you can grow a network of people who are sharing your tweets which helps you get the word out about your private therapy practice.

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Why I ‘Broke Up’ With Managed Care

At times, working with managed care insurance panels in private practice felt like dating a bad boyfriend. I was constantly investing more time and attention than “he” was in the “relationship” and it started to wear me down. I got up the nerve to break it off for good. I’ve never looked back.

I understand that building a practice free of managed care isn’t for every therapist. I am grateful for excellent colleagues who participate on insurance panel because and there is a great need for their services and I frequently refer clients to them. However, if you’re a private practitioner considering building a practice outside of managed care, I share my experience of resigning from managed care to give you the courage to take the leap, and the faith to know that it can work. So here’s my story…

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Facebook Pages for Therapists: Some Benefits and Risks

Some therapists have embraced Facebook and others are hesitant to venture into social networking arena.  Here are my thoughts on the benefits and risks of setting up a Facebook page.

Benefits of a Facebook Page for your Practice

  • Free marketing.
  • Raises visibility of your practice.
  • Allows Facebook users to easily find your practice.
  • Provide education and resources to those who “like” your page.
  • Post links to your website on your page wall to increase your web traffic.
  • Network with other local businesses to increase referrals.
  • You will have the option of posting on Facebook as your therapy clinic page name (instead of your personal profile name) allowing you to network, post on other Facebook pages, and increase visitors to your Facebook  page.
  • People who “like” your page can not contact you directly or message you through Facebook.
  • As the page administrator you have many options to control what content others are allowed to post on your page.
  • There are amazing apps available for pages that will help you build your business.
  • You can set up your website blog feed to automatically post to your page.

Read more

6 Ways To Give Yourself A Raise

You’re in the mental health field because you want to make a difference AND an income. Too many therapists are making a big difference but only making a small income. Here are 6 ways you can make your private practice more profitable within the next month.

1) Cut expenses

Look more closely at your recurring monthly expenses. Can you find a way to reduce any of them? You might want to sub-lease your office on the days you’re not there so you’re paying less rent. Do you pay monthly for a therapist referral listing that rarely sends referrals your way that you could cancel? How about buying bulk printer paper of files online? We recently cut expenses by replacing water bottles that we offered to for all clients with a water cooler in the waiting area. This save $100 a month. The little things add up. Read more