While word of mouth and reputation certainly move a medical practice forward, in today’s world, leveraging the Internet can take it to the next level.Everyone’s on the Net
Information is just a click or touch screen away and one way to make sure your expertise and your practice are at the top of the search engine totem pole is to provide fresh and informative content for people seeking your service. Having an in-depth, well designed and user friendly website is the first step, but there is more you can do to promote your practice. One method that has proven very successful for me is writing a blog.
Blogging to promote your practice
In late 2012, I began to blog regularly about my specialty, hip and knee replacement and revision surgery (http://holycrossleonecenter.com/blog/). Since that time, I have published numerous blog posts with topics stemming from subjects as basic as “The Top Five Questions to Ask Your Orthopedic Surgeon about Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery,” to the more technical, such as “The Pros and Cons of Two Approaches to Hip Replacement: Mini-Posterior and Direct Anterior” and industry buzz-worthy, “Common Symptoms of Corrosion Problems from Metal-on-Metal Implants.”
As my blog gained popularity, not only have I received more comments and more readers asking me questions, my blog:
• Averages several thousand visits per month;
• as of October 2014, there have been more than 40,000+ people sharing my blog posts via email and other social media;
• has had content shared by other medical and industry websites; and
• has driven significant traffic to my website.
Prospective patients, physicians, medical students and other health care industry workers are not the only audiences for blogs. Journalists actively search the blogosphere and the enhanced search engine optimization that has resulted from my blog led a reporter from the national publication U.S. News & World Report to call me for an interview for a feature story.
It Takes Commitment
Blogging requires time and planning. In order to succeed with a blog, you must post regularly with content that is newsworthy and informs the public. One of the challenges I face as a surgeon is making sure that I do not write too technically, yet still give people the facts to help them with their own research or to make more informed decisions about their care.
If you are going to blog, you must make a real time commitment not only to write the blog but to reply to comments. Sometimes, my wife has to take my tablet away at 11 o’clock at night because I’m still writing. However, when I hear from people who are confused and really don’t know what to do, and I can offer advice that just might make all the difference in the world to them, that’s what makes it most worthwhile.
