Why Doctors Should Blog

In Search of Excellence author and renowned business consultant Tom Peters says,

"No single thing in the last fifteen years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life. It has changed my perspective. It has changed my emotional outlook. And it's the best marketing tool by an order of magnitude I have ever had."

Despite that ringing endorsement, health care organisations continue to lag behind. Blogging is an important tool for building your influence as a KOL.

Here's some tips:

Health care practitioners and administrators should be blogging to:

1. Build loyal relationships with your community. Regularly blogging useful, interesting information practically guarantees that readers will return to your website again and again. Blogging as a publisher often allows you to start the conversation across the social ecosphere, see the above chart
2. Humanize your organisation. Blogging adds a personal touch to your practice, hospital or clinic.
3. Give your leadership, staff, patients and community members a voice. Speak out about campaigns, issues relevant to your community.
4. Boost your google rankings. Google search loves fresh content and blogging is a powerful way to accomplish that.

True blogging requires more thought and preparation than short Facebook posts or tweets for Twitter and to be successful you need to post at least once a week. If you can post two or three times a week you will be even more effective.

Here are four tips to streamline your blogging activities:

1. Develop an editorial calendar and stick to it

2. Recruit a team of bloggers: dieticians, educators, pharmacists, cancer survivors, grateful patients and more.

3. Keep your posts short - under 400 words and on topic.

Some tips:

1. Be friendly, conversational an interesting

2. Write with patients and caregivers in mind

3.Avoid medical speak - be human

4. Don't be discouraged if no one is reading your blog, it takes time to build a readership

5. Make sure you offer an RSS feed so you are easy to follow

Give it a go, try to stick with it. When people, your patients, start to give you feedback and comment or mention your educative outreach you'll know it is working. Nothing builds your reputation like word of mouth.