If you don’t have a blog that you write from time to time and you don’t know how it can affect your practice growth, read on. This is a very simplified series of explanations that even I can understand.
What is a blog?
For healthcare professionals, it is usually a short article that you post on your website and Facebook page that educates both potential new patients and clients as well as your existing ones.
What should it be about?
You can answer questions or pass on info that a person should know about some aspect of your profession, and so on.
Where should your blog be?
It should be available online. This includes on your website on a special page, on your Facebook page for the practice, in Instagram (take a quote out of it for the actual Instagram picture and then provide a link to the full blog post). There are many additional places to post these short informational blogs.
Why are Blogs Important
They are another way to get found by potential new patients. They also increase the Google ranking of your website, and other social media accounts. Google likes answering the public’s questions with good material that it can find online. No presence online means you won’t be found at all. Be there or be invisible.
Examples of use of blog:
- Person wakes up with a major toothache. Goes to computer or on phone and types in “how to get rid of toothache?” Google then runs around the internet really fast looking for answers, finds your blog that talks about killing the pain till you can get to your dentist, and serves it up in the search results. Person reads your answer and decides you are pretty cool (by your care, compassion, and style of writing) and calls you for an appointment.
- Person sits at his desk all day and his sciatic nerve starts hurting like crazy. He types into his browser, “how to get rid of the sciatic pain?” Google searches and comes up with your blog that you wrote giving some exercises to relieve sciatic pain (and your blog refers them to see a chiropractor for the full and permanent handling of this problem).
- Person’s dog is looking listless and her nose is warm and dry. Asks Google, what do these symptoms mean? Your blog that you wrote on this very topic is served up by Google and recommends that he takes his dog to the vet (and why).
Important Tips:
Don’t use a big word or technical word if you didn’t know it by Grade 10 (that is the average reading level of Canadians). You can quickly lose interest in something you are reading if you don’t understand it completely.
Don’t make it a long dissertation. Many people have short attention spans regarding written material.
Don’t be boring – make it amusing or engaging, tell a funny story to illustrate your point.
Do post it on all your social media channels.
Consider using pictures, videos or illustrations to make it more informative and interesting.
Enough said
Get started today and have fun with blogs!
