These days, you have to be active and engaged in social media to grow your practice. One way that you can do this is to educate your patients…offer them information with depth. How can you add depth to your conversation when characters are limited in social media? Through blogging. Here are seven best practices for cosmetic surgery blogs.
Blogging is an effective online marketing tool. While you don’t want it to get too long, you can cover topics in more depth. Plus, you can use snippets from the blog in your social media and other marketing materials. Fresh blog content can also generate more traffic for your website, which helps your SEO. So, let’s think about blogging.
7 Best Practices for Cosmetic Surgery Blogs
- Blog Frequently. It used to be that people recommended blogging every day, but few medical practices need to do it that often. If you are delivering in-depth content about a cosmetic procedure, blogging once a week is usually good. You only have so much time, so you have to consider time constraints. Make sure that you’re a regular blogger to reach your patients.
- Optimize for SEO. When you blog, remember that you need the blog to show up in Google’s search results, so include keywords in titles and throughout the post. This helps draw more attention from the search engines. Don’t forget to link back to a relevant website page, especially if your blog doesn’t reside on your website. A Yoast plugin in an excellent tool to help optimize SEO.
- Connect with Social Media. Take advantage of the multiple ways of reusing blogging information in social media. You can connect your blog to your different social media channels so that it is posted automatically. Or, you can manually add a link. Because many people don’t click on links, share the important information short posts on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc. Engage with the comments to add more personality and energy to the discussion.
- Images Add Visual Interest. Add pictures to your blogs when you can. If you don’t have a picture, you can often find them on free or low-cost stock image sites. I like 123rf.com. Avoid taking images from other sites because those are usually copyrighted. It’s easier to purchase low-cost images or take your own.
- Tag or Categorize Your Posts. As you accumulate more posts, it becomes more difficult for readers to locate past blogs. By categorizing the posts, you create a resource that patients can access frequently. If your blog is on your website, this translates to an increase in traffic.
- Choose Topics About Your Practice. Share information on your specialties, procedures and products. If patients ask you the same question, blog about it and refer patients there. Share your comments on news, reasons to choose Botox, etc.
- Include Your Certifications. In today’s world, there are more and more medical spas and cosmetic surgery practices popping up that don’t have the oversight of a certified doctor. There’s lots of news coverage about the bad things that can happen and why it’s important for potential patients to check certifications. So, make sure that you showcase your certifications prominently on your blog page, your website, and your social media pages.
Blogging takes time, but it’s something that you can do to establish and communicate your expertise. It helps keep your website content fresh. And, it gives you content for newsletters, e-mail blasts and social media. Whatever you do, choose to follow best practices for cosmetic surgery blogs to maximize their reach. If you need help in creating or maintaining a professional blog for your practice, contact PUMC for customized assistance that can help you maximize the benefits of a blog.