My Name is Elicia from Fully Booked Without Burnout - I'm a business Coach for Massage Therapists.

I help Massage Therapists and Myotherapists get business - so that they understand how grow their business and impact more people with Massage

One of the reasons I started Coaching was because I saw so many great Therapists who totally rock at what they do but they don't know how to utilize social media to attract more of their ideal clients or have the confidence to promote what it is they do.

One of the big key factors to really growing your business quickly is understanding the web, including social media. Some of these are steps we teach to our clients who are part of our Fully booked Without Burnout program. They are just some of the strategy’s we teach.

When I first started Massaging in the early 2000’s, if you didn’t place your ad in the Yellow Pages, You didn’t have a business. Things have changed radically over the last 15 years and having a web presence is one of the most important factors to any successful massage business. Social Media especially, gives us the opportunity to share our wisdom and help our clients to get what we do before they have even come in for a treatment.

But so many times, we are just not sure on how we should use it. What happens when this awesome platform becomes blurred?

Do we have a FB profile or a business page? What’s the difference? Is it breeching confidentiality if you friend a client?

Awesome questions that I am asked all the time when I’m training Therapists at events so here are 3 things you need to know about Facebook.

1 – There are 2 types of pages on Facebook. A profile which is where you have your personal details and you are “Friends” with people. You can see and access your friends information and they can see and access yours. Then you have A business page – where a business has a profile that shows their customers their location, their contact details, a link to their website and you have “likes”. On this type of page, as the page owner or administrator, you cannot access people who “like” your page information and details and they cannot access yours. If you run a business, even if it’s just you in your home – make sure you have a business page and get engagement on that page.

2 – Should you “friend” your clients? It’s a great question and there is no rules or laws around this at this stage. So at the end of the day, it’s up to you. If you choose to, it means that they can see everything you’re doing and putting on social media. It also means you can see what they are doing. One thing you must never do is to harass them about having a treatment with you. I personally, do not friend my Massage clients. It just doesn’t seem right. I have on occasion bent the rules but for the most part, I don’t friend my clients. However, I know staff who have and have been very comfortable doing it.

3 – Confidentiality and your client.

The Definition of Confidentiality is the protection of personal information. Confidentiality means keeping a client's information between you and the client, and not telling others including co-workers, friends, family, etc.

Does friending a client breech confidentiality? It’s a good question. Because you will see lots of things that you might not otherwise know. A good rule of thumb is to think about it if and when they send you a friend request.

As a Massage Therapist or Myotherapist, we have the ability to treat lots of different conditions and people. While we can treat all of them, we need to get clear on who we really WANT to treat. This doesn’t have to be defined by age or gender, it could be a series of beliefs around self care or a sporting interest, or a wellness mindset. A great exercise you can do for this is to think of your perfect day – who are your favourite clients? Because they are who you need more of.

So when working on your social media strategy, it’s good to look at the big picture. Have a think through some of these issues and questions and consider your values as well.

Remember to always be professional, know why you are on social media and use it to as resourceful as possible.

Cheers,

Elicia