This week’s cool tool recommendation is Unpaywall – an open database of 47,319,268 free scholarly articles.
Access to research articles in academia can be costly, as many scholarly publications hide behind paywalls, limiting their availability to a select few. Unpaywall, however, is dedicated to breaking down barriers and increasing access to scholarly knowledge. Unpaywall locates open access versions of research articles that would otherwise be locked away using data from multiple sources, including institutional repositories, preprint servers, and partnerships with publishers. By installing the Unpaywall browser extension or visiting the website, users can access an ever-expanding collection of scholarly articles.
Note: It is important to note that Unpaywall serves as a guide to open access resources, ensuring their accuracy and legitimacy. It strives to make as many scholarly articles available as possible, but some restrictions may still exist
This week’s cool tool recommendation isVisme – a browser-based design tool that allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics, banner ads, animations, and more.
Want to create a quick presentation? Visme makes it easy. Log in and click Presentations. Choose the template that you like and start creating your presentation right away.
Insert text using Visme’s shapes and icons, images as well as widgets to visualize your data into graphs and tables. You can even add video or record audio.
Similarly, you can use Visme to create infographics, reports, social graphics, and even e-books. You can search through hundreds of custom templates and fully customize each of them to fit your specific needs.
Visme offers three types of accounts, one of which is free. You don’t get everything with a free account, but you get more than enough to start creating content. A Basic account is also a great way to test drive the solution before you buy.
This week I’m recommending Infogram, a free infographic and data visualization tool.
Infogram allows users to create interactive charts, maps, infographics, and other types of data visualizations using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Those who are familiar with Excel can easily create charts with this feature. Infogram’s infographics are also mobile-friendly, making them easier to view and interact with on smaller screens.
Pricing
The Basic plan from Infogram is intended only for non-commercial use, and certain restrictions apply. Basic plan users have access to 37 chart templates and can create up to 10 three-page projects. The Basic plan does not allow users to remove Infogram’s branding.
Infogram’s Business plan is intended for commercial use and includes additional features, such as the ability to remove Infogram’s branding and add your own. Users of the Business plan also have access to a wider range of chart templates and can create unlimited projects.
Nonprofits and educational organizations are offered a discounted price, making Infogram a cost-effective solution for communicating data and messages through visuals.
When it comes to social media, creating visually appealing content is crucial to cut through the noise and grab the attention of your target audience.
A picture can capture people’s attention more readily than text, and in today’s crowded online environment, images can break through the clutter of online content to quickly communicate your marketing message.
In my latest Medium article, I share some essential design tips for creating social media graphics that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Healthcare blogs are an effective tool for medical professionals and healthcare organizations to convey their message, educate patients, and promote their services. However, creating a blog post that resonates with readers and garners substantial traffic and engagement can be challenging, especially in the crowded healthcare industry. In fact, most healthcare blog posts fall short of capturing their readers’ interest.
Thankfully, there are actionable steps that can be taken to craft a successful blog post. My latest Medium article delves into the components of a high-performing blog post, drawing on insights from an analysis of 700,000 posts from blogs with an average monthly unique page view count of 50,000 to 500,000. Although written with a business audience in mind, the insights contained in the article can equally apply to healthcare blogs.
The study suggests that long-form content, particularly those with 3000+ words, tends to perform better in terms of traffic, social shares, and backlinks. In addition, articles with longer headlines (14+ words), and list headlines, also perform better than their counterparts.
The cool tool recommendation this week is Onelook– an online dictionary search tool that allows you to search multiple dictionaries at once.
With Onelook, you can search for definitions, synonyms, and translations of words from a variety of online dictionaries and other reference sources. Onelook also offers a variety of advanced search options, including the ability to search by wildcard, find related words, and search for words that rhyme.
Johnathan Swift once wrote that falsehood flies and truth limps after it. As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, we saw the spread of disinformation on social media as an “infodemic”. An infodemic is when there’s too much information, some of it accurate and some not, that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it. Public health can be negatively affected by confusion and mistrust of health officials.
Although conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 are novel, infodemics are not new and have been around for a long time. Even the term “fake news” was first coined in 1925, when an article in Harper’s Magazine, entitled “Fake News and the Public” mourned how newswires were allowing misinformation to disseminate rapidly.
However, the growth of the internet has enabled misinformation to spread rapidly, causing concern about potential “digital wildfires” of intentionally or unintentionally misleading information. With ideas no longer limited by geography, what was once spread locally can quickly become global.
This week’s cool tool recommendation is Hemingway Editor, an online writing tool that helps writers improve the clarity and readability of their writing.
The app is named after the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway, who was known for his simple and direct writing style. It works by highlighting common issues in writing such as long and complex sentences, passive voice, adverbs, and excessive use of adjectives.
How to use Hemingway App
To use the tool, either copy and paste your text or write directly into the app. The app then analyzes the text and highlights any issues that need to be addressed. The highlights are color-coded to indicate the type of issue, such as yellow for long and complex sentences and blue for passive voice.
In addition to highlighting issues, Hemingway App also offers suggestions for improvement. For example, if a sentence is too long and complex, the app may suggest breaking it up into smaller sentences. If the writer has used a passive voice, the app may suggest using an active voice instead.
With its user-friendly interface and suggestions for improvement, Hemingway App is a useful tool to enhance your writing quality, efficiency, and professionalism.
In recent years, messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Instagram Direct have become increasingly popular. For healthcare, this shift towards private messaging opens up new opportunities for personalized audience engagement.
The original Mad Man of advertising, David Ogilvy, famously stated, “On average, people read the headline five times more than the body copy.” When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” This reminder highlights the crucial importance of the headline.
Headlines still matter in the digital age. A well-written headline can capture a reader’s attention and make them want to read more. In contrast, a poorly constructed headline can drive readers away. This is particularly true online, where attention spans are short and individuals are constantly inundated with information.
Effective headlines take various factors into account that can affect their success. Tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer can help. The tool analyzes headlines based on several factors, including word choice, length, and emotional impact, providing users with a score that reflects how likely their headline is to be successful. Your headline is then broken down by word balance, sentiment, and commonality, helping you identify areas for improvement and adjust your language.
Here’s the breakdown of a title I entered into the tool:
The tool provides a detailed breakdown of the word balance, sentiment, and commonality of your headline, helping you identify areas for improvement and adjust your language to better resonate with your audience.
The Headline Analyzer tool can also help with SEO optimization. The tool analyzes your headline for relevant keywords and provides suggestions for incorporating them more effectively into your headline. This can help increase the visibility of your content in search results and drive more organic traffic to your website.
This is just a snapshot of the many insights you can gain from using CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer tool. You can use the insights and recommendations provided to create headlines that not only grab readers’ attention but also drive traffic, social shares, and SEO value. This can ultimately lead to more visibility for your content and greater success in achieving your marketing and business goals.
The cool tool recommendation this week is Google Scholar – a free academic search engine that indexes scholarly literature across a wide range of disciplines and sources.
It works by crawling the web for scholarly literature, like journal articles, conference proceedings, theses, dissertations, books, and technical reports. After that, it indexes and makes the content searchable. In contrast to other search engines, Google Scholar’s results are primarily academic sources, making it a great tool for scholarly research.
One of the most significant benefits of Google Scholar is its broad coverage. It indexes content from a variety of sources, including academic publishers, university repositories, and scholarly societies. This means that researchers can access a vast amount of scholarly literature from a single search engine, rather than having to search multiple databases separately.
Another advantage of Google Scholar is its user-friendly interface. Users can easily search for articles and refine their search using various filters, such as author, publication, and date. Additionally, Google Scholar provides links to related articles, allowing users to explore further on a particular topic.
Furthermore, Google Scholar’s citation tracking feature is a valuable tool for researchers. It allows users to see how many times a particular article has been cited by other scholarly works, providing an indication of its impact and influence within the field. Citation tracking is also useful for discovering related research and identifying potential collaborators.
In addition to its search capabilities, Google Scholar also offers other useful features. For example, users can create alerts for new articles related to specific keywords or authors. This feature can save researchers time and effort by automatically notifying them when new relevant research is published.
The ability to link to full-text articles is another great feature of Google Scholar. There are some articles that require a subscription or purchase, but Google Scholar usually has free full-text versions, so it’s easier for people without institutional access to do research.
While it has some limitations (most of the content is scholarly and reputable, but some articles may not go through the same rigorous peer-review process as in traditional academic journals), these are outweighed by the significant benefits.
Keeping up with healthcare news is crucial, but the vast amount of information available can be overwhelming. That’s where healthcare newsletters or roundups come in, as they curate the most relevant and impactful news by topic, allowing readers to stay informed about the latest scientific breakthroughs, research, and policy developments without spending hours scouring the internet.
By creating a well-crafted healthcare news roundup, you can establish trust and credibility within your community while positioning yourself as a reliable source of healthcare news. In my latest article for the Patient Empowerment Network, I’ve shared some best practices for creating a regular news roundup that educates, informs, and inspires your readers.
Although most patients trust their doctors, they also look for medical information outside of the exam room. Many resources offer accurate information (e.g., government health agencies, professional groups, and patient advocacy groups), but not all are dependable. Medical misinformation can be found online from various sources, which can have serious health consequences. The wrong information can lead to patients making bad decisions, delaying or avoiding necessary treatment, or even harming themselves by taking the wrong treatment.
The internet and social media have simplified the access and sharing of health information, but this has also led to the spread of false or misleading information. There are various ways in which patients can encounter medical misinformation, including social media posts, blogs, online forums, and videos.
In order to provide high-quality care, healthcare professionals must address patient-held misinformation. Misinformation cannot be effectively addressed by discrediting misperceptions alone. Patients’ misinformation can provide clinicians with insight into their values, preferences, comprehension, and information diet.
Systematically training healthcare professionals to address patient misinformation with empathy and curiosity while acknowledging time and resource constraints will be crucial to reducing medical misinformation in the future.
The past twelve months have brought about significant changes in the way we use digital technology, and these changes continue to evolve in unexpected ways. That’s according to the latest Digital 2023 Global Overview Report, an eagerly anticipated publication each year.
What can you expect to see in this year’s report?
Global internet users have changed significantly
Online activity is declining in a variety of ways
Insights into evolving social media platform preferences
Changes in how people access digital content and services
Changes in online search behaviour around the world
The cool tool recommendation this week is Ahrefs’ Keyword Generator – a powerful keyword research tool.
Keyword research is a critical component of any successful SEO strategy, as it helps us to identify the most relevant and valuable keywords to target in our content.
One of the key benefits of the tool is that it provides users with a wide range of keyword suggestions, including long-tail keywords that are often overlooked by other tools. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases that are less competitive than shorter, more general keywords. By targeting long-tail keywords, you can often achieve higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more targeted traffic to your website.
Let’s see it in action.
Enter your chosen keyword or phrase. You can choose to search across Google or Bing search engines or if you are making videos instead of written content, YouTube. You can also specify a country-specific search.
Here’s a sample of keyword phrases and questions the tool returned.
Note: Ahrefs is not a free tool, although they do offer a 7-day trial for $7. However, if you are serious about search engine optimisation, it’s considered to be one of the most comprehensive and powerful SEO tools on the market. It offers a variety of features, including keyword research, backlink analysis, content analysis, site audit, and more, making it a valuable tool if you’re looking to improve your online visibility and attract more targeted traffic to your website.
Twitter, with its vast network of users, has become an indispensable tool for healthcare professionals seeking to share knowledge and collaborate with their peers. The platform allows healthcare professionals to connect with one another, stay up to date on the latest industry news, and engage in conversations about healthcare issues and trends.
In my latest Medium article, I explore some of the advantages (and barriers) of using Twitter as a medium for healthcare communication and knowledge exchange.
In this post, you’ll learn about some effective ways to discover the content your audience is looking for so you can create that content for them.
Creating healthcare content your audience will want to read is an ongoing challenge. I want to help you solve that challenge by sharing with you 7 different ways you can uncover the content your audience is looking for so you can create that content for them.
Let’s dive in.
1. Look To Your Analytics
Analyzing your website and social media analytics is a great starting point when creating healthcare content for your audience. Use Google Analytics to track top-performing content on your website, and the native analytics tools of each of the social networks you use to discover the type of posts that get the most engagement (shares, comments, likes, click-through rates, etc.) By identifying your most successful content, you can replicate and build upon it in future content creation efforts.
2. Ask Your Audience
Go right to your audience and ask them what kind of content they’d like to see from you. You can conduct surveys through email, social media, or on your website. When creating a survey, make sure to ask specific questions that will help you better understand your audience’s needs, such as what health-related topics they are most interested in, what challenges they are facing, and what types of content they prefer (e.g. articles, videos, podcasts). You can use the information gathered from surveys to tailor your content strategy and create more relevant and engaging healthcare content for your audience.
Tip: You can also create quick polls on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and post a question such as “What content do you want to see more of?”
3. Monitor Social Media
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram can provide valuable insights into the conversations your audience is having and the topics they are discussing. By monitoring social media, you can identify trending topics, common questions, and challenges that your audience may be facing. You can also track engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares to see which types of content are resonating with your audience. To make the most of social media monitoring, it’s important to stay active on these platforms, engage with your audience, and participate in relevant conversations. This can help you build a stronger connection with your audience and better understand their needs and interests.
4. Check Out Competitor/Peer Websites
Keeping an eye on your competitors’ (or peers’) websites can provide valuable insights into what healthcare topics and content formats are resonating with your audience. By reviewing their websites, you can identify gaps in their content and potential opportunities for your own content. For example, if they’re not covering a certain healthcare topic that your audience may be interested in, you can create content on that topic to fill the gap. Additionally, reviewing their content can help you identify new angles and perspectives on healthcare topics that you may not have considered before. However, it’s important to keep in mind that while competitor/peer analysis can be helpful, you should focus on creating unique and valuable content that sets you apart from your competitors.
4. Ask Questions on Quora
Quora is a question-and-answer platform where you can either ask a question about your topic or simply do a search using your topic keyword to find what people are asking about that topic. It’s a great platform for healthcare professionals to engage with their audience and learn about their interests and concerns. By answering questions related to healthcare topics on Quora, you can establish yourself as an expert in your field and build trust with your audience.
Additionally, Quora can be a valuable source of inspiration for creating new healthcare content. By monitoring the questions being asked on Quora, you can identify trends and topics that are of interest to your audience. You can also use Quora to ask your own questions and gather insights and feedback from other healthcare professionals and consumers. When using Quora, it’s important to provide high-quality and informative answers to questions, and to engage with other users in a respectful and professional manner. This can help you build a positive reputation on the platform and attract a larger audience.
Conducting keyword research can be a valuable tool for creating healthcare content that is optimized for search engines and meets the needs of your audience. By using keyword research tools, you can identify the specific words and phrases that your audience is using when searching for healthcare information online. This information can help you create content that addresses their specific needs and concerns. Additionally, by optimizing your content for relevant keywords, you can improve your search engine rankings and increase your visibility to your target audience. When conducting keyword research, it’s important to focus on long-tail keywords that are more specific and less competitive, as these can be easier to rank for and are more likely to attract high-quality traffic to your website.
Google’s “related search” feature can be a helpful resource for generating ideas for healthcare content. When you enter a search query into Google, the search engine will display related searches at the bottom of the search results page. These related searches are based on user interest and contextual words and can provide valuable insights into what topics are related to your search query. By reviewing the related search results, you can identify new angles and perspectives on healthcare topics that you may not have considered before. Additionally, the related search results can provide inspiration for creating new healthcare content that is relevant and useful to your audience. When using the related search feature, it’s important to focus on topics that are both relevant to your audience and aligned with your brand’s messaging and values. This can help ensure that your content is both engaging and valuable to your audience.
6. Find Inspiration at Conferences and Events
By attending industry events, you can hear from experts, participate in discussions, and network with other healthcare professionals. This can help you identify emerging trends and issues that you may not have been aware of before, and can provide valuable inspiration for creating new healthcare content. Additionally, attending events can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field and build relationships with other professionals in your industry.
Crafting healthcare content that connects with your audience can be challenging. However, by following the proven strategies outlined in this post, you can generate content that is both informative and captivating. By aligning your content with the needs and interests of your audience, you can establish yourself as a trusted and authoritative source of healthcare information, and nurture a following of engaged readers who will return to your content time and time again.
I love learning about new tools to make social media marketing more creative and effective, so I’ve decided to share some of my favourite tools with you at the start of each week. This week’s cool tool recommendation is WordArt – a tool for creating eye-catching graphics out of word clouds or tag clouds.
Word clouds are a visual representation of text data, where the size of each word in the cloud is proportional to its frequency in the original text.
Health literacy is an essential component of health education that enables individuals to take an active role in managing their health and well-being. However, a significant portion of the population lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the complex health information landscape. Individuals with low health literacy may have difficulty understanding health information, accessing healthcare services, and making informed decisions about their health, which can negatively impact their health outcomes.
In recent years, social media has emerged as a promising tool for improving health literacy.
Firstly, it offers a platform for individuals to access a wide range of health-related information in real-time, from trusted sources such as health organizations, healthcare professionals, and patient advocacy groups.
Secondly, social media allows for peer-to-peer interactions, enabling individuals to connect with others who share similar health concerns and engage in discussions about their health. This social support and engagement can promote health literacy by increasing motivation, building confidence, and providing a sense of community. Additionally, social media can facilitate the sharing of personal experiences, leading to increased awareness and understanding of health issues.
The cool tool recommendation is Percent-Change – a simple tool to calculate percentage change between two values.
Ever wish you had a formula that would tell you the percentage difference between two values? By entering the two values into this calculator, the tool will display the percentage change along with the actual difference between the two values. I find this tool very useful when I am doing reports and need to calculate percentage changes quickly.
The cool tool recommendation this week is a search modifier that can be used in Google or other search engines to restrict the results to a specific website or domain.
The “site:” operator is a powerful tool that can help you find relevant information on a specific website or domain. It works by narrowing down the search results to only those pages that belong to a specified website or domain. This can be useful in many situations, such as when you’re trying to find information about a company, researching a topic, or locating a specific piece of information on a large website.
For example, if you’re trying to find information about a company’s products, you can search for “site:example.com products”. This will show you all the pages on the example.com website that contain the word “products”. This can be a quick and easy way to find the information you’re looking for, without having to search through multiple pages or websites.
The internet is a vast and ever-growing space, with billions of users accessing an endless array of websites every day. But which websites are the most popular, attracting the highest number of visitors?
With an estimated two billion websites in existence, the internet can seem like a never-ending maze of information and content. However, traffic numbers reveal a select few websites receiving the bulk of internet traffic.
A recent article by Visual Capitalist has delved into the data to reveal the top 50 most visited websites, offering insights into the most popular online destinations and the types of websites that attract the most traffic.
With the internet becoming increasingly central to our daily lives, the ranking of the top 50 most-visited websites provides valuable insights for healthcare marketing. By understanding the websites that receive the most traffic, healthcare marketers can determine the most effective platforms for promoting their services and connecting with their target audience.
Your patients are searching for you online. In today’s digital age, patients are more likely than ever to turn to the internet when seeking health information and medical services. As a result, it’s crucial for medical practices to have a strong online presence in order to attract and retain patients.
With 77% of all health inquiries starting at a search engine, and 72% of internet users looking for health information online in the past year, having a well-optimized website, an accurate Google My Business listing, and relevant, up-to-date information can make a significant impact in attracting potential patients and establishing a trustworthy reputation.
In this post, we’ll explore why and how your medical practice should prepare for the increasing trend of online health inquiries through voice search. By preparing for voice search, medical practices can stay ahead of the curve and ensure that they are easily discoverable to patients searching for health-related information online.
While the majority of patients searching for information on the web still trust search engines the way people search for information online is changing. Increasingly, people are using voice search on their smartphones, tablets or voice assistants to search for information on the internet – yet another compelling reason to make sure that your site is optimized for mobile!.
With the increasing use of virtual assistants and other voice search devices, people are able to search for information hands-free and in a more natural, conversational manner. This shift towards voice search makes it even more important for medical practices to optimize their websites for mobile devices and ensure that their content is optimized for voice search queries, using clear and concise language, conversational tone, and schema markup to give search engines more information about the content on their site.
How people are using voice search
In research carried out by BrightLocal, consumers were asked how they used voice assistants and voice search for local business. The top three most demanded voice search functions involve finding restaurants, grocery stores, and food delivery, with clothing, accommodation, and medicine following closely behind.
The Voice Search for Local Business Study also revealed that 46% of voice search users use voice search to find local businesses daily.
How to optimize your website for voice searches
In essence, voice searches are largely about answering questions, not about focusing on individual keywords. SEO is fast becoming AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). When people talk to their voice assistants, they don’t form their inquiries the same way that they do in typed search queries. Rather, they tend to ask conversational questions, for example, “What’s the closest dental clinic to me?” instead of “dental clinic near me.”
5 ways to optimize your website for voice searches
Use conversational language: People use natural language when using voice search, so it’s important to use conversational language in your website’s content to match this style.
Optimize for long-tail keywords: Voice search queries tend to be longer and more specific, so it’s important to optimize for long-tail keywords that match the questions people are asking.
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly: A large percentage of voice search queries come from mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your site is optimized for mobile and easy to use on smaller screens.
Utilize schema markup: Schema markup is a type of code that provides additional information to search engines about the content on your website. This can help search engines understand your content better and provide more accurate results for voice search queries.
Improve website load times: Voice search users expect quick results, so it’s important to have a fast-loading website that can quickly provide the information they’re looking for.
With the majority of health inquiries starting at a search engine and the increasing use of voice search, having a well-prepared website is a crucial aspect of any successful medical practice’s marketing strategy. By implementing these steps, medical practices can make sure their website is optimized for voice search and easily discoverable to patients looking for health-related information online.
When it comes to attracting potential patients, having a strong online presence is essential.
With the majority of health inquiries starting at a search engine, it’s crucial to make sure your website is optimized for search engines so that you can be easily discoverable to people looking for information related to your medical practice.
One important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) is optimizing for long-tail keywords, or specific, longer phrases that people are using when searching for information online.
In this post, we’ll go over the steps you can take to optimize for long-tail keywords and improve your website’s visibility in search results.
Optimizing for long-tail keywords involves identifying the specific, longer phrases that people are using when searching for information online. Here are some steps to optimize for long-tail keywords:
#1 Conduct Keyword Research
Conducting keyword research is the first step in optimizing for long-tail keywords. By using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush, you can gain insight into the specific, long-tail keywords that people are using when searching for information related to your medical practice. This information can help guide your content creation and website optimization efforts, ensuring that you’re targeting the right keywords and attracting potential patients to your website.
When using keyword research tools, look for keywords with a high search volume and low competition, as these are often the most effective keywords to target. You should also consider the context in which the keywords are being used, as well as their relevancy to your medical practice, to ensure that you’re targeting the right keywords for your audience. By conducting thorough keyword research, you’ll be able to identify the long-tail keywords that will help improve your website’s visibility in search results and attract more potential patients to your website.
#2 Create content around long-tail keywords
Once you’ve conducted keyword research and identified the specific, long-tail keywords that people are using when searching for information related to your medical practice, the next step is to create content around those keywords. This can include blog posts, FAQ pages, and service pages that specifically target the keywords you’ve identified.
When creating content, make sure to include the long-tail keywords in the title tags, headings, and meta descriptions of your pages to improve your website’s visibility for those keywords. Additionally, it’s important to write high-quality, informative content that provides value to your potential patients. This will not only improve your website’s visibility in search results but also establish your medical practice as a trustworthy source of information, helping to build trust with potential patients.
Incorporating long-tail keywords into your content creation efforts is an effective way to improve your website’s visibility in search results and attract more potential patients to your website. By creating content that specifically targets the long-tail keywords you’ve identified, you can ensure that your website is discoverable to people searching for information related to your healthcare practice.
#3 Incorporate long-tail keywords into page titles, headings, and meta descriptions
Incorporating long-tail keywords into the titles, headings, and meta descriptions of your website’s pages is an important aspect of optimizing for long-tail keywords. By including the keywords in these key elements of your website, you can improve your website’s visibility in search results and attract more potential patients to your website.
Make sure that the title of each page on your website includes the main long-tail keyword for that page. Keep the titles concise and descriptive, and make sure that they accurately reflect the content of the page.
Use headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content and make it easier for search engines to understand the relevancy of your page to a specific keyword.
The meta description is the brief summary that appears below the page title in search results. Make sure to include the main long-tail keyword for each page in the meta description to help improve the visibility of that page in search results.
#4 Use variations of long-tail keywords
Using variations of long-tail keywords is an effective way to improve your website’s visibility in search results and reach a wider audience. By using different variations of your target keywords, you can ensure that your website is discoverable to people using different phrasing or wording when searching for information related to your practice.
For example, if your target keyword is “best orthopedic surgeon near me,” you could also include variations such as “top-rated orthopedic surgeon near me” or “best orthopedic doctor in the area.” This can help improve your website’s visibility in search results, as search engines will recognize that your website is relevant to a wider range of keyword searches.
It’s important to note that when using variations of long-tail keywords, you should avoid keyword stuffing, which is the practice of overusing keywords in an attempt to improve visibility in search results. Instead, use variations of your target keywords in a natural, seamless way throughout your content to ensure that it remains high-quality and informative.
Wrapping Up
By following the steps outlined here you can improve your website’s visibility for the specific, long-tail keywords that people are using when searching for information related to your medical practice, and ultimately attract more patients to your website.
The cool tool recommendation this week is Google Drive Research Tool – a feature within Google Drive that simplifies the search and access to academic papers, articles, and other research materials.
With this tool, you can search for research papers, articles, and other academic materials and preview them without leaving Google Drive. You can access and organize research materials using the tool’s simple interface, and save documents directly to your Google Drive accounts for easy sharing and access.
In addition to keyword searches, the Google Drive Research tool integrates with Google Scholar – a search engine for academic and scholarly literature. It allows users to search for research materials based on author, title, publication, and other criteria, making it a powerful tool for students, researchers, and academics who need to access and organize large amounts of research materials.
How to access the tool
To access the Google Drive Research tool, you need to have a Google account and access to Google Drive.
Log in to your Google Drive account.
In the Google Drive main menu, click on the “New” button and select “Google Docs”.
In the Google Docs editor, click on the “Tools” menu and select “Explore”.
The Google Drive Research tool will open in the side panel of your screen. You can start searching for research materials by entering keywords or phrases in the search bar.
Note: The Google Drive Research tool may not be available in all regions or languages. Additionally, it is a feature within Google Docs, so you need to start a new Google Docs document in order to access it.
This week’s cool tool recommendation is Iconfinder – a website and search engine for icons and vector graphics.
Icons are used to make information and ideas more digestible and accessible to a wider audience. They can add visual interest and break up text content, while also conveying information, such as links to social media profiles.
Iconfinder features a large library of icons from various designers and categories, which can be searched and downloaded for various purposes, including website design, graphic design, and software development. It offers both free and premium icons, with the option to purchase individual icons or subscribe to a monthly plan for unlimited access.
Take notes with voice commands and punctuation shortcuts with this week’s cool tool – Speechnotes.
Speechnotes is a powerful and easy-to-use note-taking app that allows users to take notes, record thoughts, and capture ideas using voice commands and punctuation shortcuts. This innovative app is designed for individuals who are too busy or lazy to type and offers a fast and efficient way to take notes on-the-go.
With Speechnotes, users can easily insert punctuation marks and special characters using voice commands. This eliminates the need to manually type in punctuation marks, making note-taking faster and more efficient. Users can also click on the desired punctuation mark with the mouse, making it even more convenient. This feature is especially useful for individuals who are recording a voice memo or dictating a note and want to include proper punctuation.
Speechnotes also offers a variety of other features such as voice-to-text transcription, note editing, and cloud-based storage options. This allows users to easily access their notes from multiple devices and collaborate with others on shared notes. It also has an easy-to-use interface with customizable settings, making it perfect for students, professionals, and anyone who wants to take notes quickly and efficiently.
Starting a healthcare blog can be a great way to share information and educate others about various health topics. It can also serve as a platform to share personal experiences and connect with others who have similar health concerns. Additionally, a healthcare blog can be a useful tool for healthcare professionals to share their expertise and connect with patients. It can also be a way for healthcare companies and organizations to disseminate information and connect with their audience.
Creating a blog is relatively easy; the challenge lies in consistently updating the content. If you are struggling to come up with new ideas on a regular basis for your blog, then this list of 12 content ideas should help get you going again.
#1 Share Facts About A Common Medical Condition
What kind of questions do your patients most frequently ask about a specific medical condition? Compile a list of these frequently asked questions and answer them on your blog.
#2 Curate Content
Curation is the process of identifying and sharing relevant and high-quality information from various sources with a specific audience. It can be an effective way to provide valuable information to your audience without having to spend a lot of time and resources on creating original content. However, it’s important to remember that curation should complement, not replace, your content creation plan. A balance of curated and original content can help to establish your brand as a thought leader, while keeping your audience engaged with fresh and diverse information.
Are you rolling out a new program, product, or service? Write a blog post to introduce it and highlight its features and benefits.
#4 Update Readers on Industry Trends
Healthcare is constantly changing and evolving. Can you predict or comment on the latest healthcare trend? Readers will enjoy learning about it through your blog, particularly if you share your own unique perspective. Stay informed by regularly reading industry-specific news and publications, following thought leaders and experts on social media, and attending relevant conferences and events. Use technology tools such as Google Trends to track keywords and phrases related to industry trends, and to monitor social media conversations.
#5 Create A Poll
There are several online tools you can use to create a readers’ poll. If you have a WordPress.com site, then you’ve got Polldaddy polls already built in. You can create, manage, and see results for all of your polls directly in your WordPress.com dashboard. If you use a WordPress.org install on your self-hosted site, install the Polldaddy WordPress.org plugin. Use it to get a snapshot of readers’ attitudes to health topics like vaccination, screening, complementary therapy, mental health – the list is endless. Publish a follow-on post with your findings.
#6 Write About A Day In The Life
Describe a typical day in your work life as a healthcare professional. You should be careful not to write about specific patients though, or to commit any other breach of confidentiality or privacy.
#7 Plan Posts Around Seasons and Events
An editorial calendar is a valuable tool for tracking and planning content, particularly when it comes to seasonal, cultural, and industry events. By using an editorial calendar, you can ensure that your blog stays timely and relevant and that you are regularly publishing content that aligns with your readers’ interests.
Have you been to a conference recently where you learned about new medical research? Or read about the latest research in a medical journal? Let your readers know about it through your blog. Make sure you provide full references and links to online publications.
Ask a colleague to write a guest blog on an area of their expertise. There are several benefits of guest blogging, including, increased exposure, variety of content, and improved SEO.
#10 Interview An Expert
Choose a respected healthcare professional and interview them for your blog. Interviewing respected healthcare professionals or experts in your field can be a great way to provide valuable insights and information to your readers. Alternatively, you can also contact several experts in your field and have them answer a question. Once you have all the answers, you can turn them into one big blog post. This will provide a broad perspective on the topic from different experts which is informative and engaging.
#11 Write About A Trending Topic
Writing about a trending topic can be a great way to engage your audience and stay relevant in your field. Provide your unique perspective on a trending topic. Find out what’s “hot right now” online by using Google Trends, Twitter.com/Search and Reddit.com.
#12 Provide a Weekly Round-Up Of Healthcare News
A weekly round-up of healthcare news can be a great way to keep your readers informed about the latest developments in the healthcare industry. Categorize the news based on the topic, such as medical research, policy changes, technological advancements, etc. Write a brief summary of each news item, highlighting the key points and providing context.
These are just a few ideas to get you started, but there are many more possibilities. The key is to always be on the lookout for new and interesting topics to cover and to be consistent in your blogging schedule.
Discover related websites with this week’s cool tool recommendation – Similar Sites.
Similar Sites is a Chrome extension that enables you to discover similar websites to the one you are currently visiting. You can compare information from different sources to find the information you need. In addition, the extension comes with a built-in search function for easy browsing and works with most browsers.
Social media success is based on setting goals, but I am constantly amazed at how many businesses give little thought to creating their social media objectives.
When working with clients to create an online marketing strategy, one of my first questions to them is simply “what are you hoping to achieve with social media?” So many times I see businesses jump on board the latest social network without any thought as to what they actually want to achieve there.
Strategy Without Goals Is Putting The Cart Before The Horse
Without specific goals in mind, it can be difficult to measure the success of your efforts and make meaningful changes to your approach. Clear goals will not only propel your strategy forward, but they will also serve as defined metrics when it comes to measuring your progress.
Common Social Media Marketing Goals
Below you will find a list of some common social media marketing goals — decide which of these is most aligned with your business goals.
Attract more patients to your practice
Improve the quality of health information online
Drive traffic to your website
Run a disease awareness campaign
Establish online authority and credibility
Tip: Research shows that writing down your goals increases the completion rate of goals.
How To Set SMART Social Media Goals
For a goal to become a reality, it needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, and realistic, as well as time specific — these are often called SMART goals. SMART goals are one of the longest-lasting, most popular goal-setting frameworks for business.
Let’s take a closer look at what makes a goal SMART
Specific — the more specific you can be with defining a goal, the easier it will be to clearly see what it is you are trying to achieve. Let’s take as an example a goal to increase your Twitter followers by 10%.
Measurable — how will you measure your success? In this case it’s easy to measure 10% growth in Twitter followers when you check your follower numbers.
Attainable — is your goal attainable? Can you realistically achieve this Twitter growth?
Relevant — a relevant goal is aligned closely to your social media objectives. Is this goal relevant to your overall social media strategy? Is Twitter the right platform for your communications?
Time Specific — give your goal a deadline – for example, increase your Twitter followers by 10% by the end of the month.
Wrapping Up
Setting SMART goals to which you can align your social media activity is a good guarantee of online marketing success. Once you have a clear set of goals, you can track your key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics more accurately. It’s also important to note that SMART goals are flexible and can be adjusted as necessary. Continuously re-evaluate and adjust your goals as needed to ensure that they remain relevant and aligned with your overall business objectives. A winning formula is to measure, adjust and then rinse and repeat.
Pharmacist Day is celebrated on January 12th every year to recognize the contributions that pharmacists make to healthcare.
It’s a great opportunity for pharmacists to share their work and experiences with the public, and to raise awareness about the important role that pharmacists play in keeping communities healthy.
If you’re a pharmacist, you can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to share information about your work and to connect with other pharmacists and healthcare professionals. You can also use hashtags like #PharmacistDay or #Pharmacy to join the conversation and find other resources and information about pharmacy.
Here are a few more ideas:
Share a post on Facebook or Instagram highlighting the important role that pharmacists play in healthcare. You could include information about your daily work, the types of services you provide, or the ways in which you help patients.
Use Twitter to share quick facts or statistics about pharmacy and the impact that pharmacists have on public health. You could also use hashtags like #PharmacistDay or #Pharmacy to connect with other pharmacists and healthcare professionals.
Create a LinkedIn post or article highlighting the achievements and contributions of pharmacists in your community. This is a great way to connect with other professionals and showcase your expertise.
Start a live Q&A on Instagram or Facebook to answer questions about pharmacy, medication safety, or any other topic related to your work. This is a great way to engage with your followers and build your online presence.
Collaborate with other healthcare professionals or organizations on social media campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of pharmacy. This could involve creating joint posts, hosting online events, or sharing relevant content on your social media channels.
This presentation I gave in 2020 about how pharmacists can create online impact might also be of interest to you.
Improve your headlines quickly and easily with this week’s cool tool recommendation – Headline Studio.
David Ogilvy, the original Mad Man of advertising, once famously said, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
Ogilvy’s remark reminds us never to underestimate the power of the humble headline.
Even in this digital age, headlines count.
A good headline can grab the attention of the reader and make them want to read more. A bad headline, on the other hand, can turn people away and cause them to lose interest in your content. This is especially true in the online world, where people have short attention spans and are bombarded with a constant stream of information.
Headlines also serve an important SEO (search engine optimization) purpose. Search engines use the headline to understand what your content is about, and a good headline can help your content rank higher in search results.
Headline Studio will rate your headlines allowing you to identify any weaknesses and address them. Additionally, it contains word banks that can assist you in overcoming writing blocks and creating more compelling headlines.
How it works
Just click the Headline Studio button on any website where you want to analyze a headline, such as your WordPress blog post. Headline Studio will open directly in your browser, allowing you to write and analyze headlines simultaneously.
In the “Search” field, enter the term that you want to see trends for. You can enter multiple terms, separated by a comma, to compare their popularity.
In the “Time Range” menu, select the period of time for which you want to see trends. Select a range of dates or a predefined time period, such as “Past Day,” “Past Week,” or “Past Month.”. You can also choose to search “Worldwide” data, or region specific. And you can specify where you want to pull data from, e.g. “News” “Images” YouTube”.
You can also use Google Trends to compare the popularity of multiple search terms. To do this, enter multiple search terms separated by a comma in the “Search” field.
Another useful feature is the ability to see top-related searches, which is very helpful when creating content.
Why you should use Google Trends.
Market research: Google Trends can help you understand how popular certain products or services are, and how their popularity has changed over time. This can be useful for businesses that want to gauge the demand for their products or services.
Content creation: By understanding what people are searching for, you can create content that meets their needs and interests. For example, if you run a blog or website, you can use Google Trends to see what topics are currently trending and create content that covers those topics.
Search engine optimization: Google Trends can help you understand what people are searching for, and how their search habits are changing. This can be useful for businesses that want to optimize their website for search engines, as it can help them identify keywords and phrases to target in their content.
Keeping up with the news: Google Trends can also be used to see what news stories and events are currently generating the most interest. This can help you stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the world.
I hope that gives you a good idea of why Google Trends can be useful and that you are encouraged to try out this tool during the week.
Social media tools provide a unique set of opportunities in healthcare, but with these new opportunities come a number of potential challenges. As health professionals navigate the world of social media, concerns have arisen regarding questions of ethics and professionalism and how the use of social media fits within the social contract between the medical profession and society.
In today’s world of widespread social media use, it is important for healthcare institutions to establish guidelines for the professional use of social media. This can help to maximize the positive effects of social media in healthcare, such as improved communication with patients and the promotion of health-related information, while minimizing the negative effects, such as the risk of the unauthorized disclosure of patient information or the spread of misinformation.
This will become even more important as a generation of individuals who grew up sharing their lives online enters the workforce. Some medical students may view social media as irrelevant to the workplace and may not see it as a factor in evaluating professional abilities.
Organizational worries about social media come from a variety of perspectives, but they may generally be divided into three categories: reputation, privacy, and boundaries. Policies and training for social media can be developed in these connected, yet separate sectors.
Reputation
The ethical standards expected of healthcare professionals do not change because they are communicating through social media rather than face-to-face. However, using social media creates new circumstances in which the established principles apply. Healthcare professionals have a responsibility to uphold the values of their profession and to maintain a professional online presence. They should be mindful of the public nature of social media and avoid inappropriate or unprofessional behavior.
Inappropriate or unprofessional behavior on social media can damage the reputation of both the individual and the organization and may undermine public trust in the profession. Social media conversations can last indefinitely and reach a potentially large and unknown audience. What may be intended as a private joke or a way to decompress by complaining about the workplace or coworkers can be misconstrued when published on social media. This can have negative consequences for both the individual and the organization, as it may be perceived as indicating a lack of professionalism or care for patients.
Privacy
Healthcare professionals have a duty to protect the privacy of their patients and must be careful to not disclose any personal or medical information about patients on social media or other online platforms. This includes avoiding the use of social media for communication about patient care or treatment.
Discussing patient situations on social media, even if the patient cannot be clearly identified, carries a high risk of unauthorized disclosure of patient information. One instance to illustrate this occurred at a Kansas nursing school. Four nursing students were dismissed from their program after one student shared a picture of a patient’s placenta on her Facebook page. Even though the picture did not include any identifying information about the patient, the school regarded this behavior as unprofessional and took disciplinary action. [1]
Boundaries
Online interactions can present challenges when it comes to maintaining professional boundaries. The line between personal and professional content can be blurry on social media, and it can be difficult to determine what constitutes appropriate professional behavior.
It is not uncommon for healthcare professionals to receive friend requests from patients on social media. This can present a challenge in terms of maintaining appropriate professional boundaries while also using social media to improve the patient-provider relationship.
One way to address this issue is for healthcare professionals to consider the nature of their relationship with the patient and the potential risks or benefits of accepting the friend request. For example, if the relationship with the patient is primarily professional, it may be more appropriate to decline the friend request in order to maintain clear boundaries. On the other hand, if the relationship is more personal and the healthcare professional feels comfortable accepting the friend request, it may be a way to build trust and improve the patient-provider relationship.
Professionalism is the foundation for the social contract between the medical profession and society. Healthcare professionals will need to apply principles of professionalism to new settings to establish guidelines and policies for ethical conduct. Ongoing discussion regarding the role of social media in healthcare is necessary as both the technology and our understanding of it continue to evolve and increasingly influence the healthcare landscape.
Notes
[1] Miller LA. Social media: friend and foe. J Perinat Neonatal Nurs. 2011;25(4):307–309
This week’s cool tool recommendation is BrainyQuote – a directory of inspirational quotes.
Despite how long quotes have been doing the rounds of social media, they are still hugely popular and highly shareable. Next time you’re searching for something to fill your social media calendar consider sharing a quote. This site is the perfect place to find just the right quote for any occasion. And if you’re stuck for ideas, check out the quote of the day feature which makes choosing a quote a breeze.
With today’s Thanksgiving theme in mind, I’d like to share ten social media tools that I am thankful for. I’m grateful to the developers for creating such easy-to-use, free tools!
A free suite of apps that allow both web and mobile users to create and share visual content — like posts for social media, graphics, web stories, and animated videos. One of my go-to graphic tools (the featured image on this post was created using this tool).
There is so much you can do with this tool to enhance your visual marketing assets, including creating collages, adding “one-click” photo effects (there are over 300 photo effects and filters to choose from) and an array of graphics (eg speech bubbles). The basic account is free to use and provides users with access to a library of 125 digital effects.
Whether you want a Twitter post or Facebook profile picture, you can create them quickly using Canva’s drag and drop editor. Select from a number of pre-set designs, or create something from scratch. You can also add elements such as custom icons, fonts, charts, and illustrations.
This headline analyzer is a free tool from the Advanced Marketing Institute that you can use to calculate the EMV of your own headlines. It scores the EMV of your headline with a breakdown of why it scored that value.
A free writing app available as a Google Chrome Extension. Adding Grammarly to Chrome means that your spelling and grammar will be vetted everywhere you write on the web. I use it all the time and find it super useful.
A proofreading tool that clears your copy of all unnecessary copy. Just paste your text into the editor and you’ll get an analysis that highlights lengthy, complex sentences, adverbs, passive voice, and common errors.
Want to create a quick presentation? Visme makes it easy. Log in and click Presentations. Choose the template that you like and start creating your presentation right away.
This free video-editing tool is easy to use and has both basic and advanced features. The basic video editing features include adding photos, videos, music, and text. You can choose a custom theme with transitions and graphics, adjust the font, filters and graphics and personalize your story with text overlays and title slides. The interface makes it easy to reorder, trim, zoom and rotate photos and video clips.
A free stand-alone video recorder and editing app. Because the app enables you to record and edit video in one place, you don’t have to use several different apps to create your video. Features include the ability to integrate your favorite songs to your video, add subtitles and noises like applause sounds. You can also adjust video speed to slow or fast, merge multiple clips into one and choose transitions to animate between video clips.
I love learning about new tools to make social media marketing more creative and effective, so I’ve decided to share some of my favorite tools with you at the start of each week.
This week I’m recommending Videoshop a free stand-alone video recorder and editing app.
Because the app enables you to record and edit video in one place, you don’t have to use several different apps to create your video. Features include the ability to integrate your favorite songs to your video, add subtitles and noises like applause sounds. You can also adjust video speed to slow or fast, merge multiple clips into one and choose transitions to animate between video clips.
Here’s what the tool returns for the term “social media”. It’s probably best to ignore clickbait titles, but this is an AI tool, so it’s not an exact science. Once you are logged in as a user, you can filter out clickbait in your search.
Each headline is given a score, and you can click on the option to analyze it, which is a nice feature as it gives you some suggestions on how to improve it.
While these tools aren’t perfect, they can kickstart the creative thinking process when it comes to writing headlines.
One of the most significant developments in communication history occurred in August 1991 when Tim Berners-Lee revealed the world wide web technology he had developed at CERN in Switzerland.
With the advent of broadband internet connections and the inclusion of mobile devices into everyday life, the web has played a major role in revolutionizing our society during the twenty-first century. Mobile devices, which allow users to communicate anywhere and at any time, have greatly enhanced social media’s success. In real-time, we can talk to people we may not have met in person. With social media, we can interact and share information online more dynamically than we could with more traditional means.
The impact of social media extends not only to communication among friends, but also to communication between organizations, hospitals, and medical professionals. This change, along with the growing mobility of data, will result in significant changes in healthcare and will affect professional activities.
One of the driving forces behind a more patient-centric healthcare model is social media. With social media’s highly accessible communication tools, patients and healthcare providers can better communicate about health issues. It has the advantage of making health information accessible to more demographic groups, regardless of age, education, race, or location.
Social media tools give healthcare a unique set of opportunities, but they also present some challenges. Medicine values confidentiality, privacy, one-on-one interactions, and professional conduct. In contrast, social media is more informal and open. Further, social media tools collect, share, and promote unregulated information, so it’s inconsistent and variable.
This week I’m recommending Keyword Surfer – a free Chrome extension that gives you keyword search volume in Google search results.
One of the really cool things about this tool is that it offers tons of SEO tips and advice with a comprehensive knowledge base. It even offers a free SEO Writing Masterclass which can take you from SEO zero to hero.
Conducting a social media audit is a key part of a social media marketing plan.
We can waste time and resources trying to improve things that don’t need improving while neglecting the things that we really need to work on.
A social media audit is a great way to take stock of where you’re at and identify what you can improve on going forward.
List All Your Social Accounts
Create a simple excel spreadsheet and list all your social accounts, including those you set up but haven’t used in a while.
Check that you only have one business profile on each platform.
Make sure you know all the passwords for your accounts and have access to the accounts and associated emails.
Keep your passwords secure and set up a system for changing them regularly.
List all account administrators.
Do you need to change access or permissions for someone who no longer manages your accounts?
Update Your Information
Have you pinned outdated information to the top of your timelines?
Have you fully completed your About sections? Do they contain all the information a prospective customer or client would need to find out about your services?
Do your social profiles include a URL that leads back to your website?
Are your bio details accurate?
Do you need to add or change any of the existing information?
Review Your Images
Are your header images clear and compelling?
Do your cover photos needed updating? Are you still showing that summer picture now that it’s winter?
Is your image resolution good? Are you using the correct image dimensions for each social platform? Find the most up-to-date image sizes here.
How about your bio picture? Are you happy it conveys a professional image? Is it clearly visible on all devices?
Are you consistent in how you use your brand images across all platforms?
Do background colours, logos, and other images follow your branding?
Are all descriptions and URLs uniform?
If you were your ideal customer, would you be able to identify with your brand on social media in terms of image, tone, and voice?
Claim Your Vanity URLs
A vanity URL is the user name that you assign to your social media accounts which uniquely identifies you. Before you create your vanity URL, your social media profile is given a default URL that includes a string of random numbers.
Have you claimed your vanity URLS on Facebook and LinkedIn? For more information on claiming your vanity URL visit these pages at LinkedIn and Facebook.
Dig Into Your Audience Demographics
How well do you know your audience? Finding data on your existing audience will help you identify who you’re currently reaching and if they are within your target market. Use Google Analytics and built-in audience analytics features such as Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics to dig into detailed demographic data, including countries, occupations and interests, and the gender split of your audience.
Social media is all about engaging with the right audience on the right platform at the right time. Are you sharing the kind of information your audience finds useful? Are you sharing at the right time of the day? Audit how often you are posting on each platform and List which times you are posting and the results you are getting.
Schedule posts according to effective times of day:
Determine where you are getting the most engagement and make a decision about whether to continue efforts on all platforms, or to reduce your efforts to concentrate on just one or two platforms. It’s important, especially if your resources are limited, that you’re focusing your social media efforts in places that will generate the most return for your efforts.
How engaged is your audience with you on each of your social networks?
Do your interactions seem to be coming from your target market?
Are most of your conversions coming from one network only?
Study Your High Performing Content
Review your high performing content across all social networks.
Which content worked best for you? Create more of this content in the future.
Compare your competitors’ digital footprint against your own. While it’s tempting to go straight to vanity metrics such as follower numbers, it will be of more benefit if you skip the quantitative analysis for qualitative.
Look at the type of content your competitors are creating. How often are they sharing it?
How have they chosen to use brand images?
Which influencers are they interacting with?
Are they active on networks you aren’t?
Take note of what they are doing well, and where they are lacking.
I recommend you do a comprehensive audit on your accounts twice yearly to consider any major adjustments to your strategy. In the intervening time, keep an eye on your analytics and metrics on a monthly basis. Use a reporting system to keep track of monthly changes and review these when it comes time to do your twice-yearly audit.
Welcome to this week’s social media quick tip. This week I want you to think about whether you are active on the best social network for your particular audience.
Not all social media is created equal. Different platforms attract different audiences.
It’s important, especially if your resources are limited, that you’re focusing your social media efforts in places that will generate the most return for your efforts.
There’s no point in spending your time on a particular social network if your audience isn’t there. Nor should you spread yourself too thin by trying to be everywhere at once. Every additional platform your business is active on means additional time and effort required to engage on and create tailored content for that platform.
Before becoming active on a social network, try answering the following questions to help you choose the platform that is right for you.
1. Will this platform help me achieve my marketing goals?
Setting SMART goals to which you can align your social media activity is a good guarantee of online marketing success. If you can’t explain how a particular social channel will help you to achieve your goals, then it may not be the right fit for you.
2. Is my target audience active on this platform?
The most effective social media strategies are informed by social media data. Refer to Google Analytics for your website to see which social networks are sending the most traffic to your site. Look at existing data to learn where a specific demographic spends their time online. Statista and GlobalWebIndex are good sources of worldwide statistics on Internet usage.
3. Which social networks are my competitors using?
Which social networks are your competitors using? Are they active on networks you aren’t? Use a tool like Buzzsumo to identify the social channels on which your competitors get the most shares. Chances are if these channels match your demographics and are working well for your competitors, they will work well for you also.
4. Will this platform match the content I create?
If you want your content to do well on social media, you’ve got to be strategic about what you publish and where you publish it. You need to create content that aligns with your audience’s expectations on each social channel. Identify how, when, and where your specific audience likes to engage with content. Certain content formats will be more suited to particular channels than others.
5. Can I integrate this platform with another similar one?
It’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every social network. There is a degree of reciprocity between certain platforms — for example, Facebook and Instagram — the key is to choose channels that integrate well with each other to create maximum impact.
Bonus Tip!
Consider broadening your social media horizons. While Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat might be the most popular social networks in the West, there is a world beyond the Big Five waiting for you to explore.
I love learning about new tools to make social media marketing more creative and effective, so I am sharing some of my favourite tools with you at the start of each week.
This week’s cool tool recommendation is NameCheckr – a tool to research domain and social username availability.
Picking a unique and available name can be a challenge. This tool aims to simplify that process by helping you find the best name cross the most popular social networks.
This week’s cool tool recommendation is Grammarly an AI writing assistant to analyze and corrects grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and punctuation errors in written text.
Grammarly works by using AI algorithms that analyze text for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and punctuation errors. The software uses natural language processing (NLP) technology to identify and correct errors in real time.
Grammarly has a user-friendly interface that allows users to upload or copy and paste their text into the app. The software then analyzes the text and highlights errors that need to be corrected. Users can then click on the highlighted text to see suggestions for corrections.
Grammarly is available as a web app, a desktop app, and a mobile app, and it can be used with various browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
This post outlines ten questions you should ask yourself before using social media. Whether you are a social media beginner or a seasoned pro, the following questions and actionable steps will help you achieve success with social media.
1. Who Am I Speaking To?
Before you start planning your social media, you need to know who your audience is. To create an experience that connects directly with your audience, you have to get to know them, from their psychological behaviors to their demographics.
Create audience personas that don’t just describe your audience’s demographics, but also their challenges, dreams, hopes, and fears. You should know where your audience hangs out online, and what communities inform, inspire, and influence them.
You can identify who you are reaching and whether they fall within your target audience by finding data on your existing audience. You can do this with Google Analytics and built-in audience analytics features like Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics.
2. Which Social Media Platforms Should I Choose?
Armed with information on who makes up your audience, the next step is to determine which social media platforms they use and direct your efforts accordingly. This doesn’t mean that you have to be everywhere at once. Do your research to determine where best to focus your social media efforts to be successful.
Use Surveys (e.g. Survey Monkey), Polls (PollDaddy; Facebook; Twitter), and publicly available reports to match your audience demographic to the social networks they use.
Goals and objectives guide every decision and tactic in your strategy. By setting clear goals, you kickstart the process of collecting data and tracking metrics, so your future marketing will be data-driven.
Goals should be as specific and trackable as possible. The more detailed your goal, the easier it will be to see if you’ve accomplished it. Use the SMART goal-setting model, which means specific, measurable, and achievable within a certain timeframe. Also, set benchmarks so you can see what’s working and what’s not so you can put more effort into what’s working.
4. What Is My Social Media Budget?
Social media requires money and man-hours. It’s up to you how you allocate them. There’s a misconception that social media is free. It’s true that all the major platforms are free, but most offer premium features you might want to check out.
It’sa good idea to budget for paid advertising, particularly if you want to make an impact on Facebook, where organic reach has steadily declined over the past few years.
5. How Much Time Can I Give To Social Media?
Time is another cost you need to factor in to the social media equation. To achieve results and credibility you have to be prepared to devote time regularly to producing and promoting content and engaging with your audience.
Ask yourself how much of a time commitment can you afford for social media? Will you concentrate on just one platform and do this really well? Do you need to hire some social media help?
The good news is that there are many ways you can actually save time and become more productive in managing your time online.All it takes is some organization, a few social media tools, and a dash of creativity.
Your answer to the previous question may influence the type of content you will create for social media. Do you have time to write regularly for a blog? Would it be better to make short videos for YouTube or to communicate through a livestream broadcast?
You also need to keep in mind the content that works best on the platforms you have chosen – for example, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest require high-quality visuals (and increasingly this means video) to stand out. Whichever type of content you intend to create, quality and consistency are more important than quantity.
You can learn a lot by taking some time to observe what your competitors are doing online. Which social media platforms do they use? What type of content do they share? How does their audience respond to them? What are they doing really well? What aren’t they currently doing that you could do well?
Take Action! Compare your competitors’ social footprint and content against your own. How have they chosen to use brand images? How many followers/likes do they have? How often do they post? What types of posts do they create? What is engagement like for each of these post types? What aren’t they doing?
When developing your social media strategy, it’s key to clearly define roles and understand who will manage, monitor, and engage on each account. You may wish to take full responsibility for maintaining your social media presence, but if you are giving the task to someone in your organization, or hiring outside help, you need to ensure they are the right person for the job.
There are many different roles which make up a social media marketing job (for example content creation, e-mail marketing, social media management etc.). Clearly define the roles and outline the responsibilities of this position.
From a marketing perspective, social media monitoring will help you determine the impact on your product, service or brand, and if required, make adjustments to your communication, marketing or sales plans. Responding in real time and resolving issues around your brand should they arise, strengthens public perception that your focus is strongly centred on customer satisfaction.
There are many free and paid monitoring tools, with new services being added continually, which will help you track the metrics relevant to your brand across the web. The tools vary in scope and range across a number of sites, real-time or delayed searching, sophistication of analytics, flexibility of data presentation, integration with other applications, and cost. Which one you choose will depend on your budget and the level of analytics you wish to achieve.
10. How will I measure social media success?
How will you know if you achieve your social media goals? To determine how effective your social media efforts are, you will need to measure your results. Understand and track the metrics that matter to the core of the business and the bottom line. Social media metrics should always be tied to your overall business goals. Go beyond vanity metrics which merely serve as an ego-boost. Instead, ask if these metrics make an impact on your bottom line.
Take Action: Use platform native tools such as Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics, third-party tools, and measurement of social traffic and conversion with Google Analytics to track and measure your progress.
Are you struggling to meet a word count requirement for an essay or article? Or perhaps you’re trying to optimize your content for specific keywords and phrases?
Whatever your writing needs may be, this week’s cool tool recommendation Wordcounter.net can help.
This web-based tool helps you count the number of words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and pages in a text. To check word count, simply place your cursor into the text box above and start typing. You’ll see the number of characters and words increase or decrease as you type, delete, and edit them. You can also copy and paste text from another program over into the online editor above. The Auto-Save feature will make sure you won’t lose any changes while editing, even if you leave the site and come back later.
Wordcounter.net also provides additional features such as:
Keyword density analysis
If you’re creating content for SEO purposes, you can use the tool to analyze the keyword density of your writing. This can help you optimize your content for specific keywords and phrases.
Readability
Wordcounter.net also provides a readability score for your writing. This score is based on the average number of syllables per word and the average number of words per sentence. If your score is low, it may indicate that your writing is difficult to read. You can use this information to make your writing more accessible to your audience.
Accuracy
The tool includes a spell-check feature that can help you identify and correct spelling errors in your writing. This can be especially helpful if you’re writing in a language that is not your first language or if you’re prone to making spelling mistakes.
The cool tool recommendation this week wins the prize for the most interesting title!
Lose the Very is a web-based tool designed to help writers find alternative words and phrases to use in place of the word “very.” The tool operates on the premise that using “very” is often seen as lazy or imprecise, and that finding more descriptive words and phrases can help improve writing.
To use the tool, users simply type in the word they want to replace (in this case, “very”) and hit the “Find” button. The tool then generates a list of alternative words and phrases, along with their definitions and example sentences. Users can scroll through the list to find the word or phrase that best fits their needs.
In addition to its main functionality, the tool also features a built-in thesaurus and dictionary, which users can access by clicking on the corresponding tabs. The tool is free to use and does not require any sign-up or login.
It’s a super little tool to improve your writing and I highly recommend you check it out.
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