From: Dr. Margolies Using a Computer for Chiropractic Public Relations and Community Marketing: Using your e-mail: If you have access to a computer .. a modem .. and an internet server .. you¼re ready to be amongst the few but growing community of cyberspace cadets. Many people use their computer and modem for e-mail. For those less literate of computer jargon .. this is a form of mail transmitted from one computer to another. The modem is a device that transfers your words or pictures and sends it via your telephone line to an internet provider .. such as America Online .. and they in turn send it off to the computer you requested. This is done quickly, quietly and painlessly. All you need is the other party¼s e-mail address and away it goes. No stamps and no extra fees. For almost a year, I¼ve built up a large base of chiropractors and students throughout the U.S. and eleven countries who receive my weekly e-mail message. These range from practice management and public relations to philosophy. It began as a way to keep in touch with my present and past students at Life University and now has grown to a present total of over 800. With a keystroke all 800 get the same message and are able to reply if they wish. This unique service provides the new and established doctor a forum to ask questions and have them answered. If the question is of interest to others, I may post it and ask for other opinions and points of view. It¼s been very useful for everyone. I find that my answers have stimulated my purpose and adds a present time awareness for my class discussions. To create a e-mail address list as I have takes time. First, I gave my address to each of my students and every quarter a handful get aboard. My address is also within my Smart Start text book and has been widely distributed throughout the country with over 1000 printed. From one name, as with chiropractic, word of mouth has added new names. I searched the web and found more names and the cycle keeps on and on. If you wish to get started with the internet and take advantage of the chiropractic information found within .. lets start at the beginning. Your modem speed is crucial. For e-mail only, a slower modem speed of 14400 baud is okay, but to really take advantage of the world wide web .. an myriad of entangled information from a college library in Amsterdam to a museum catalog in Zurich, you¼ll need the fastest modem possible .. as speed is a great asset. Today these modems are either 36000 or 56000 baud, although you can get by with 28800. The reason is clear .. the WWW (world wide web) is also known as the world wide wait .. so cut down your wait time with a fast modem. Getting an internet server is your next step. The largest is America Online .. I use this. They always provide a disk or CD for installation and this comes with 50 hours of free usage. Besides your access to the internet, you¼ll have the ability to join chiropractic forums (a live chat room discussion between various people), check and follow your investments, plan trips and purchase tickets, and use their other „channels¾ for various personal and professional interests. They also allow you a number of screen names with individual passwords so other family members can have their private e-mail address and join in the fun. By the way .. be prepared to eventually have another phone line, as once you¼re hooked, you need a private line just for the modem which also works as a fax. How you can use e-mail for Public Relations: Once you are wired and ready to surf the web begin asking each patient if they have an e-mail address at work and home. You may wish to include this on your case history form. Mention to each of these patient¼s that you send a patient e-mail newsletter concerning chiropractic and health oriented topics .. would they wish to receive it. Also, if they have an e-mail address at work, you can also send them specific newsletters concerning their type of work, either clerical or labor. These newsletters will relate to ergonomics, stress management, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. You can scan articles from the newspaper or off the web and use these within your newsletter. They in turn can copy this and place it on their office bulletin board or better yet distribute copies to each employee, of course, be sure your name is on each one. These e-mail newsletters are cheap and keeps all your patient¼s on an active reactivation program. Second, begin a survey of your community both corporate and social. Gather the e-mail and fax numbers of local companies, centers, churches, so they too can receive your newsletter .. those without access to e-mail can easily be sent a faxed copy .. your modem will do both. With one keystroke everyone on your list is in touch with your practice with no extra fees or stamps. Create .. create .. create .. by being active you can literally create a new and extended practice. Please understand that there are many internet servers throughout the world. American Oneline is one of many. There are a few free e-mail servers .. such as hotmail and juno. Just shop around .. fees vary but they usually come with a standard unlimited package of $20 per month of unlimted time .. with some free space for a webpage .. our next adventure. A Web Page .. Do you need one .. What will you do with it? Does your internet provider allow you a free web page? Most give you limited free space for your personal webpage. This is a perfect method to get your office out to the literate portion of your community. Web creation and maintenance is not as hard as you think .. but it does take time and some knowledge. First you need to decide what to place on your homepage. Second you must decide which layouts .. unique buttons & whistles and color will be on the background. Will you use personal or staff pictures, logos, office location maps, office hours, specialties, health oriented articles, something about chiropractic, your purpose, what qualities you bring to the community, programs and workshops you provide, links to other health oriented sites, latest research and much more? This is a lot of information for a few pages. The more information, especially pictures, the longer it takes to download (get from your server onto their computer) so keep it clean and neat and work from there. Using a webpage can be very beneficial for community awareness. If you are a writer and enjoy creating newsletters and articles concerning various health issues these can be posted on your webpage. Special links to other webpages can attract your community to visuit your homepage first. Patient testimonials, cases of the week, how and why of chiropractic, what makes your office unique, staff pictures and personal information all can be included and copied for those without access to a computer. Once you create your webpage, you can include the address with your promotional material, and have your present and previous patients turn to it for information that they attribute to you ..keeping their awareness of your office and your concerns keen in their mind. Searching the Web: Searching the web for information is fun and time consuming. A frequent stop may be Yahoo, one of many search engines. These programs within the web have access to other websites of variouson topics and names. For instance .. lets say you want to search for information concerning ergonomics (this is a great method to download articles for your e-mail newsletters and workshops). Once you go into Yahoo ... http://www@Yahoo.com (the http://www is the window address for much of the web) the screen prompts you to place the information you seek within a box. With this information (ergonomics), Yahoo will take seconds to give you the information you ask .. it is just amazing. The screen now tells you there are 75 sites to seek information concerning ergonomics. They list 15 or 20 on the first screen with more to follow. The names of specific articles or research centers are shown with a line under the name. The line indicates it is linked to this specific website. All you have to do is double click on the underlined name and the screen changes into a world wide search of information you requested. Before long, the homepage (welcome page) of the company is visible with more underlined or boxed articles or pictures. From this homepage, you can search for more information and copy and/or print it for later reading. In fact, you can „bookmark¾ or keep this homepage address in a special quick find file. Now, let¼s say you want to search the word Chiropractic. Okay .. go into Yahoo, type in chiropractic and before long there will be a wealth of sites. Some concerning schools, specific clinics, as well as articles, etc. There are commercial website and homepages for chiropractic, one very popular one is http://www@ChiroWeb.com. This page has links to various clinics who pay to have their web pages available through these search engines, as well as chiropractic college homepages, information concerning chiropractic worldwide, and information for the lay public and information including vendors for the chiropractic profession. You may purchase a domain name for a fee .. this is a specific name for your website. Lets say your office is called the Savvy Chiropractic Center. If you want your webpage name to be http://www@savvychiropractic.com .. and no one else can have it .. you can own that name. Okay .. sounds interesting but you have limited time .. limited knowledge .. limited resources .. NO PROBLEM .. as always I have a great solution. I twisted the arm of a knowledgeable webpage creator (my son and his friend) to help out. Between he and his friend they came up with a company called Dunwoody Web Page Creators. They are just 13 years old and new at this business .. you can still get them at bargain rates .. so take advantage of them now .. they¼ll be 14 soon. You can reach my son Gil at gil125@aol.com for further information concerning fees, which range from $50 to $100. You can visit their website at: http://members.aol.com/dwpc1 Dr. Joel E. Margolies is an adjunct instructor at Life University. He has a private practice for 20 years in Tucker, Georgia. If you wish to receive his e-mails just request to get on board by sending him a message at: joel3639@aol.com