As a physician, the most critical element to your personal brand success is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In plain terms, when you google your name do you own page one of your results? If no, there’s some work to be done.
I know what you are thinking: I have ZERO time to accomplish this. BUT I promise you, by prioritizing the highest value social channels and creating focused and valuable content for your personal brand website, you can elevate your name I.D. online and continue your momentum to fully owning your page one results.
So how do you get started and what do you prioritize? Here are five steps to start with:
- Maintain an active blog for your website
The biggest value of a blog is SEO. A keyword-driven blog that focuses on FAQs, tips, insights and medical advice are all great ways to drive your personal brand website forward and be a resource for patients. The end goal is to show up in Google searches that your ideal patient audience is making.
Start with a monthly blog and work your way up to weekly as time permits. You can also invite others to participate in your blog content by doing an interview series and enlisting either your team, fellow doctors that you have a personal relationship with or other healthcare experts. This type of content is less work for you but also creates shareable content that drives back to your website.
- Create a YouTube channel
Don’t worry. I’m not suggesting you become a YouTuber and post endless videos on a YouTube channel – unless you are totally up for it! Instead, use it as a resource to house video content you already have.
This can be new content you’ve done for your website, press interviews, or maybe even video blogs for that interview series I just mentioned. Either way, Google owns YouTube and rewards you for having a channel and maintaining it with a new upload monthly. Again, all back to SEO and owning your name online!
*If you do a video interview, make a transcript of it (through a service like Temi.com), add it to your blog and embed the video as well! This will maximize the impact of your content and further drive SEO!
- Monitor sentiment (and ask for reviews)
What are your patients saying about you online? Do you know? Whether you have looked or not, patients are likely online leaving reviews about their experience under your care. Make it a habit to review your sentiment online frequently.
Thank people for positive reviews and use that as great endorsements on your website! For any negative reviews, respond and create an opportunity to take it offline (provide an email address or phone number) to resolve the issue. Sentiment can make or break a positive SEO for your brand so prioritize checking reviews.
- Utilize LinkedIn
Whether you love social media or choose to avoid it, you need to have a LinkedIn page. LinkedIn is an incredible tool to elevate your thought leadership and be a valuable resource to share your expertise with your loyal brand audience — as well as connect with other influencers in your industry.
One note to remember, the highest performing content on LinkedIn is longer form text-only content. You can use parts of blogs, thoughtful pieces of a newsjacking piece or an inspirational post. Remember quality content is better than quantity!
- Engage with the right media on Twitter
Last but not least, use your Twitter account (or the one you will be creating after you finish this blog!) to build organic relationships with media. Twitter’s biggest value is using it to connect and engage with media where you could potentially provide content they need as an expert!
Sources like KevinMD, Verywell Health, or broader media like Forbes and the reporters that write for them are great to follow. Use Twitter to create conversations and share their content online with added expert insight from yourself. Over time this builds your credibility with the journalist and allows for you to be a future expert for their next article.
Download our Twitter playbook here if you need help getting started!
You may feel overwhelmed but just get started and build over time and you will be elevating your personal brand in no time!
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