Does your hairstyle look like you walked out of the 1990s? How about your wardrobe? For most people, the answer would be no. Most of us change our look regularly to keep it fresh.However, some physicians’ practices and healthcare institutions and facilities have websites that are from the Backstreet Boys era. Just like you wouldn’t wear neon-bright headbands to work out, you shouldn’t let your PR go out of style.
With constant improvements in the Web, your business needs to stay current. Today, your medical practice might be the same, but your patients’ online habits have changed.
Job-one is to field a modern and dynamic website. It’s the number one point of contact for virtually anyone wanting to learn about you. Is your website up to the challenge? Ask yourself these questions:
Is your website mobile ready?
More than 60 percent of website visitors use smartphones or tablets to access the Web. Your website must be mobile friendly, with all information fitting on the user’s screen and easy navigation using simple touchscreen commands. If not, potential patients will soon tire of pages that load slowly or don’t fit on their screens.
How fresh is your content?
The online brochure era ended before the breakup of Destiny’s Child. It’s time to upgrade your website with fresh content and current information. Remember, each time you update a Web page, Google indexes it, which contributes to your search engine rankings. Treat your website like a living, breathing thing and you will give visitors more of what they want and need.
Are search engines finding your website?
Search engines such as Google frequently update their search rules on a regular basis. Google is constantly announcing new search algorithms with code names such as Hummingbird, Penguin and now, Pigeon. While regularly searched terms help your rankings, fresh and relevant content remains king. Now may be the perfect time for an assessment to see how you are ranking versus the competition.
Do you have an effective PR campaign?
As always, generating earned media in newspapers, television, medical journals and key community blogs is very valuable to building reputation and business. One tool for healthcare professionals is writing bylined articles offering expert commentary, trusted by readers versus what they happen upon on the Internet. With any campaign, you have to plan and focus, enlisting the assistance of experienced PR pros to promote the opportunities throughout your organization and develop the necessary relationships with the media.
Are you using social media effectively?
Many in the healthcare industry have Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter accounts, but make no mention of them on their website. Provide links to these social channels and even consider showing the latest posts on your home page.
Although some use social media to continually push out information and collect Likes of their Facebook pages many are missing one key aspect, engagement. Your social media pages should be managed by knowledgeable pros who can reliably answer basic questions and take the conversation offline when necessary to resolve individual problems.
Research shows that social media users are looking for relevant information, dynamic images and charts, but what engages them the best is short informational videos. Many hospitals and universities have significant video production departments. This talent can definitely be used across your online, electronic newsletter and social channels.
Have you had a brush with one or more online review sites such as Healthgrades, Yelp, Ripoff Report or Vitals?
They keep us Online Reputation Management practitioners on our toes. As you know, review sites cut both ways. Staying on top of your ratings and feedback is almost a full-time job. One thing is certain: patients often make their healthcare decisions based on what others say. One physicians’ practice we work with has implemented tablet computers throughout their office to let patients rate their experience with the physicians and office.
Managing the feedback – good and bad – requires trained customer service and communications professionals who know how to leverage the best references and resolve complaints.
