How to Start a Doctor Blog

Doctors are in the business of helping people. Blogs are in the business of helping people. Doctor Blogs are clearly a needed union. With help being the common bond, Rule #1 should be to provide your audience with relevant and useful information. Beyond that simple maxim here are some questions to ponder before you launch your Doctor Blog:

·         Workload. How much time do you have to dedicate to your doctor blog? Do you have time to write it yourself or will you need to pay a professional copywriter?

·         Tone. Do you want to have a clinical information first approach? Or do you want to let your personality show? The answer to this question may be heavily influenced by the answer to question one.

·         Specialization. If you are a specialist how deeply to you want to get into specifics? You want to be able to provide relevant information, but you don’t want to alienate potential readers either. Set your boundaries carefully!

·         Fringe Topics. Medicine-adjacent topics such as nutrition and health & fitness are big traffic drivers, but will they enhance your blog or water down its core focus?

·         Sensitive Subjects. Internet users are not shy about posting their opinions. If you discuss issues in the healthcare system you will likely generate a lot of response, but is that the kind of interaction you want with your audience?

·         Getting Personal. Patients often love seeing a softer, personal side of their M.D. But, the internet isn’t the office so you will have to decide if it’s better to reveal information about the man behind the posts or to stay anonymous. 

·         Traditional or Cutting-Edge? Do you want to give tested and trusted advice or do you want to use the blog to venture into speculative territory you wouldn’t consider well-vetted enough for the office?

Consistency and social media is very import when building a loyal repeat audience. Give the questions and suggestions above careful consideration. And good luck!

Are You Ready for Your Close Up Doctor?

The popularity of online videos is unquestioned. And in the medical social media sphere the need for video goes far beyond site traffic. People trust a doctor they can see and hear more than one they know through words alone. You may not feel comfortable behind the camera, but your audience wants to see you there. They need to confirm you to really trust you.

Make Your Face Familiar

People hate switching doctors. They hate it the way they hate moving and blind dates and pushy car salesmen and that sound the dentist’s drill makes. Finding a doctor that seems like a good fit is daunting enough, but it still takes several visits before people truly feel at ease around their new physician. Sharing short video clips via social media lets patients get to know you on their own terms, putting them at ease before they even reach your office.  

It’s Easier than it Sounds

It may be cliché advice, but in this case it’s cliché because it’s true: be yourself. Patients aren’t looking for wit and charm, they are looking for a knowledgeable, friendly and sincere doctor. They are looking for a person they can trust. We know that the little red light on the camera can be intimidating, so here are a few tips to help you shake off the butterflies.

 • Chose relevant topics. Specifically broad, FAQ type queries. The questions patients have in the office are the same questions they have out there in cyberspace. Plus, hot-button topics are the most likely to be shared, retweeted, and even added to your doctor's blog.

• Keep it short but sweet. If it takes more than 2-3 minutes to explain something, you probably need to talk to the patient one-on-one anyway. People have short attention spans when it comes to online video. And besides the more you break up your message the more content you can create.

• Use a script, but feel free to improvise and deviate from it as you feel more comfortable. If the camera makes you uncomfortable have someone interview you, the conversation style makes the process much easier. That someone can be a staff member, or you can work with a local journalism student or video blogger.

Can Private Doctors Compete with Hospitals in Healthcare Marketing?

If you're a doctor with your own private medical practice, I'm sure you're aware how how hard it is to set money aside for your virtual healthcare marketing. However hard it may be though, you have to realize that online advertising will increase your bottom line in the long run and will probably lead to immediate clientele and exposure. that's great, but not only will this make your business more profitable, but it can actually help you to keep up with some of the bigger competition in your area. This might sound surprising, but the fact of the matter is that being a so called "small fish in a big pond" gives you edge in online media, especially in medical social media. If you do a quick Google search for 'medical themed blog' or 'doctor blog', you'll see right away that the top rankers aren't medical universities or even well-known hospitals. KevinMD and Dr Grumpy In The House are just physicians like yourself who have made a point of putting their effort and resources into growing their online clout- and they've succeeded. Over the last decade, the trend is that bigger organizations are always on the trailing edge of online healthcare marketing and medical social media. They are so weighed down by their large, unwieldy bureaucracies that by the time a major hospital finalizes its social media strategy, it’s often already outdated and the next big thing in social media is already in full swing. (Pinterest, anyone?) If you own a small, private practice, you need to make this fact work in your favor! You have the power to make all the decisions about advertising for your practice and you have a great deal of agility and flexibility, so use it! Start your online campaign now, design your first doctor blog, and hop on Twitter. Or, better yet, hire an SEO firm for doctors to do all the dirty work for you.