An Unbiased Look at Biased Doctor Reviews

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Recently Rob Lieber at the The New York Times took an in-depth look at reputation management for doctors and why it will be a contentious issue for the foreseeable future. As stands it is difficult to find accurate doctor review information online. Other business sectors have settled into trustworthy ratings from reputable sources. So, why is the medical community having such difficulty shedding biased reviews. The NYT article highlights some of the many factors that come into play:

• Unhappy patients are more likely to leave a detailed review
• Patients refrain from posting out of (legitimate) fear that they will be sued
• Certain patients refrain from posting negative reviews because of ties they share with their physician in their small community
• There is a demographic that believes doctors are essentially mistake free (an unhealthy view no matter how gratifying from the physicians perspective)

The sum total of this information suggests that unbiased reviews are more the exception that the rule. This may change over time, but until the medical sector settles into trustworthiness the way other sectors have it makes sense to have a professional team managing this issue as it evolves. Let the medical social media professionals manage your online reputation so you can continue to hone your in-office reputation one patient at a time.

Effective Social Media for Doctors is About More Than Likes and Tweets

What tangible benifits will social media bring to your practice?

In the world of social media what you get depends on what you give. You have to be active and you have think beyond the standard practices of posting, linking and commenting. To get a real pulse reading from the local community you need to use more advanced social media practices.

For example, use a social media survey to determine what type of health screening event to host at your practice. A survey could also gain you a head start on the competition. If you specialize in dermatology or plastic surgery social media responses may tip you off to new procedures people in your area are interested in. With this valuable information you could take the steps necessary to add that procedure to your repertoire before the competition even realizes they need to catch-up. If those particular procedures are outside of your sphere of interest you could still offer needed consultation.

What doctors discuss among themselves isn't always what the patient population is interested in. Social media gives you the power of a focus group without any of the logistical headaches. 

Think beyond likes and tweets and discover what social media can do for you.

SEO Tips for Doctors: Part Four

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This edition of Strategic SEO for Doctors focuses on the ways Google gives preferential treatment to users who are loyal to its brand. We are not talking about Googling yourself only to find out that a Hungarian opera singer with same name is more famous than your are. We are talking about Google's +1 system and how it can have a positive effect on your branding and social media efforts.

Google+ is Making Moves

In an earlier post we talked about the importance of social signals. Google loves its own unique signal. When people give your content a +1 Google uses that information to update their algorithms. It may be algorithmic nepotism but Google+ is aiming to be the next big thing in social media. Current top dog, FaceBook is giving them a helping hand by charging busninesses (medical practices included) substantial fees to have posts show up in news feeds of people who have already "liked" their company page.

A FaceBook presence is still important of course, but Google+ needs to be a part of the equation. Not only is Google+ free (for now) they also reward active participants with higher search rankings.

Let Patients Know Where to Find You

As the undisputed #1 search engine Google has a lot of influence in determining what prospective patients will see when they search for a doctor in their area. By setting your geographic location in your Google+ profile the algorithms can use that data when computing which results to show local users. Taking advantage of geography enables you to cast a wider net. Users will find you without having to type an ultra-specific search term like "podiatrist in Austin." And having a higher overall page rank will give you the opportunity to reach non-regional patients who are willing to travel in order to receive the best care available.

To learn more about why Google+ is a prescription for success see what Katie Matlack has to say about medical social media. And then get yourself Google+ updated or have us do it for you!

Don't Let Your Patients Turn to Dr. Google

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A study by MedTera shows that patients leave their doctor's office hungry for more information. Perhaps they don't want to bother their physician with questions they think of as trivial. Perhaps the questions simply hit them later. In any case patients are going online to fill the gaps and unfortunately those gaps are often filled by big pharma companies. And needless to say those companies aren't aiming for unbiased reporting.

The survey shows that in addition to information about their particular treatments, patients are looking for broad topic information such the importance of following up with their physician after tests and lifestyle changes needed to manage a disease.

By being savvy about online medical marketing doctors can provide legitimate unbiased information to current and potential patients. Patients are going to search online anyway. Why let Dr. Google take the credit? Get patients to your site and give them the education they are actively seeking.

SEO Tips for Doctors: Part Three

The previous posts in this series were intended to give you a basic SEO foundation. Now it is time to build on that foundation by discussing some advanced SEO strategies and their ever-changing nature. Social media is the newest measurement to have a major impact on search ranking.

Sharing Matters

Search Engine algorithms have been updated to account for the rise of Social Media. The assumption is that people typically like and share information that is relevant to them and thus of high quality. Naturally people at times repost things in an attempt to be funny or outlandish, but most often they directly support people, organizations and subjects they have a genuine interest in.

Reader actions on social media are considered "social signals." The more "+1" an article gets on the Google Plus platform or "like" on FaceBook the higher the likelihood it will outrank less popular content. With this in mind the minimal amount of time it takes to promote your content via the top social media channels suddenly seems well worth it.

Why the Change?

As usual unethical types have found ways to shortcut the system. As black hat SEO practices become more prevalent the search engines are downgrading the importance of proven techniques such as back linking in favor of organic feedback. Social signals will eventually find their way into the unethical repertoire, by which time the algorithms will a new layer of measurement.This is the nature of the beast. But, as long as you have a reputable SEO firm handling your content promotion you can be confident that your practice will stay abreast of the trends used to build traffic and page ranking ethically and with strong results.

Don't Over-React. Trust in Reputation Management.

As the saying goes, people remember insults not compliments. With this in mind reputation management for doctors can at times require the ability to take a deep breath and walk away.

A couple of years ago a patient's son wrote a scathing review of the neurologist who treated his father. The doctor sued for defamation of character. Legally speaking this was a good move as the posting was removed pending the outcome of the case. In terms of public relations it was a total nightmare. When the online community found out about the lawsuit they laid into the neurologist posting a stream of negative reviews. You can read about the lawsuit and backlash here.

Most of the negative reviews were fabricated, but it just goes to show that cutting the head off the snake is not always the best defense. If you encounter a bad review, no matter how outlandish, the best thing to do is step back and breathe. Don't reply with an angry rant or witty retort. Give yourself time to gain perspective. A lawyer's primary concern is whether or not a case is winnable. Your reputation management partner's primary concern is insuring that you have an excellent online reputation.

Who would rather trust with an explosive situation such as this?

A Funny Look at Marketing, PR, Branding and Advertising

We got a laugh out of this depiction of the differences between marketing, public relations, branding and advertising. But, we have to ask, where is social media!? @great #lover

SEO Tips for Doctors: Part Two

The second installment of our series focuses on off page SEO for doctors. At its core off page SEO is centered around getting links to your site published elsewhere on the web. There are a variety of ways that you can do this yourself:

• Comment on other healthcare blogs and include a link to your site
• Participate in forum posts on medical or doctor websites and include a link in your signature
• Submit articles to "article directories" like Ezine and include a link to your site

These methods are among the oldest SEO strategies. That said nowadays certain forums and blogs prohibit links to weed out spammers. Article directories are also bloated with poor content so they don't have the SEO muscle they did five years ago. The old school methods are still worth the effort but you may get a higher return by placing links on social media portals like Twitter and YouTube.

Self-Promotion Has its Limits

By far the best back links are that ones that are intentionally placed by the site administrators of reputable, high-traffic sites. Unless you happen to know important people in important places the best way to do this is by creating content they feel compelled to link to. In healthcare circles for instance a link on www.mayoclinic.com would give your site a big boost in traffic and search engine ranking. Not to mention reputation!

Make Sure Your Links are Relevant

The anchor text (word or phrase readers click) should include one of your keywords or terms. At the start of this article we linked to 'off page SEO' which is optimized to be relevant to that particular site/subject. If you are doing a link exchange ask the website owner to link to your site using specific anchor text (e.g. cosmetic surgeon in Santa Monica.) It is a common request and one that you should reciprocate.

Quality is the Best Strategy for New Medical Practice Websites

Do a quick search and you will find forums discussing the best way to rank a medical practice for specific geographic locations. Although everyone has tweaks and tricks to offer about off page medical SEO strategies, everyone agrees that the foundation of any campaign is quality content. Back links and appropriate anchor text are important, but without quality content on your site visitors will not come back for more.