26 posts. 26 days. 26 letters of the alphabet, one blog post beginning with each letter.

B is for Blog

Want to increase your influence among healthcare consumers? Start blogging.

Blogs written by physicians, nurses, researchers, patients, and allied healthcare professionals add much to the richness and diversity of the online healthcare conversation. Blogs are a super way to educate patients and keep content on your website fresh.

Healthcare blogs vary in content and style; they range from commentary on a topical issue to patients sharing the lived experience of disease and healthcare professionals educating patients on the management of an illness.

Marketing to patients with a blog can be one of the most effective ways a new medical practice can reach more patients. Blogging regularly increases awareness of your practice, as well as help your website rank better in search engine result pages (SERPs) thereby increasing its organic traffic.

Need more convincing? Check out these stats.

• Companies who blog receive a whopping 97% more links to their website.
• Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.
• Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.

What should you blog about?

Creating a blog is relatively easy; the challenge lies in consistently creating fresh content. If you are struggling to come up with new ideas on a regular basis for your blog, then this list of 16 content ideas should help get you started.

How do you attract more readers to your blog?

It’s not enough to write great content and hope that people will find it. You need to actively promote your blog to maximize opportunities for more people to find and learn from your content. In this post, I share 10 tried and tested ways guaranteed to drive more traffic and increase engagement on your healthcare blog and here you’ll find 3 Places To Find Interesting Ideas For Your Healthcare Blog.

You might also like to check out this list of 18 Top Tools For Your Healthcare Blog.

Got questions?

Do you have any questions about starting a blog? Leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

 

26 posts. 26 days. 26 letters of the alphabet, one blog post beginning with each letter.

It’s the tenth anniversary of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge and I only just heard about it today, which means I’m jumping into things a week late, but I’m excited to join in and that’s what counts.

A is for Algorithm

If you are going to take advantage of social media for marketing purposes, you need to understand social media algorithms.

Algorithms now dominate the social media marketing discussion — almost everywhere you engage, within almost every platform you use, machine learning and data sorting is used to decide what it is you see. Social Media Today

Facebook, the first to implement an algorithm feed, is probably the biggest example of a social media platform using algorithms. Facebook’s most recent ‘meaningful interactions’ update, is focused on prioritizing posts that create meaningful conversations, especially those from family and friends.

Unfortunately, Facebook’s algorithm is constantly changing and it now makes it increasingly difficult for businesses to make an impact without paying for advertising.

Expect other social media networks to adopt similar algorithms as time goes on — both Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, though less advanced than Facebook already use their own algorithms.

Want to beat the Facebook Algorithm? Read this.

 

Maintaining a consistent posting schedule on social media – whether it’s writing blog posts, or sharing updates on social media channels – can be a challenge.

When I teach social media classes, I always recommend creating a social media calendar so you can map out in advance upcoming holidays and cause awareness days.   By doing this, you will have a ready supply of things to share on social media.

To help you plan your content in advance, I’m going to highlight some events happening this month which you can add to your calendar.

See which of the following awareness days you could build engagement around. You could write a blog post, create a video or graphic, and then share it on Twitter and Instagram with the relevant hashtag.

Have some fun with these – but do make sure whatever you create and share fits with your brand!

April 2. Tuesday, World Autism Awareness Day #WAAD

April 3. Wednesday, Find a Rainbow Day #FindARainbowDay

April 3. Wednesday, National Walking Day #NationalWalkingDay

April 7. Sunday, World Health Day #LetsTalk

April 10. Wednesday, National Siblings Day #NationalSiblingsDay

April 10. Encourage a Young Writer Day #EncourageAYoungWriterDay

April 11. Thursday, National Pet Day #NationalPetDay

April 12. Friday, International Day of Human Space Flight#InternationalDayOfHumanSpaceFlight

April 16. Tuesday, National Stress Awareness Day #StressAwarenessDay

April 16. Tuesday, National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day #PJDay

April 17. Wednesday, Haiku Poetry Day #HaikuPoetryDay

April 18. Thursday, Get to Know Your Customers Day#GetToKnowYourCustomersDay

April 18. Thursday, National High-Five Day #NH5D

April 22. Monday, Earth Day #EarthDay2018

April 23. Tuesday, National Picnic Day #NationalPicnicDay

April 23. Tuesday, World Book Day #WorldBookDay

April 24. Wednesday, National Administrative Professionals Day#AdministrativeProfessionalsDay

April 25. Thursday, National Telephone Day #NationalTelephoneDay

 

April 25. Thursday, World Malaria Day #EndMalariaForGood

April 29. Monday, International Dance Day #InternationalDanceDay

April 30. Tuesday, National Honesty Day #NationalHonestyDay

April 30. Tuesday, National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day #AdoptAShelterPetDay

April 30. Tuesday, International Jazz Day #JazzDay

I feel sure you’ll find something to share on one or more of these days. Tag me on Twitter @JBBC if you do – I’d love to see what you come up with. 

Findings from a recent study published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal reveals that patients are searching for plastic surgeons online, choosing the first-page results from Google to guide their search.

Over the past decades and into the beginning of the new millennium, aesthetic surgery practices anecdotally relied on referrals, word of mouth, and the surgeon’s reputation and pedigree to attract new patients.

Residents were taught that providing excellent results and taking good care of patients would lead to a good reputation in the community, which would attract future patients.

It is now clear that this practice-building model is being rapidly supplanted by a new paradigm based on social media presence to reach potential patients.

The aim of the study was to analyze the respective importance of physician academic pedigree, experience, and social media presence on plastic surgeon Google first-page search result placement.

Given that nearly all prospective patients seeking cosmetic surgery are utilizing the internet to search for their provider and seek health-related information, these findings present significant support for the importance of social media and online presence in directing online traffic and therefore patient flow.

The study authors conclude:

If we consider the importance of the internet and social media in patients’ choice of providers and the influence of search engine ranking on directing these potential patients’ traffic, it becomes obvious that a strong online presence and search engine ranking can be crucial to attracting new patients to a practice

These findings have implications for all healthcare professionals.

If social media presence influences how patients choose practitioners the risk is that those practitioners most qualified (such as board-certified plastic surgeons) must compete for clicks with the least qualified (non-medical professionals).

To quote the study: “It is therefore of the utmost importance to understand the factors that are key to improving search engine rankings.”

Checking my content calendar this morning, I discover it’s #NationalLetsLaughDay.

So in keeping with today’s theme, here’s a cartoon from the always on-point Tom Fishburne– one with a serious message underneath the smiles.

Last year I posted a mesmerizing graphic on just what happens every 60 seconds online.

I was curious to know how that has changed in 2019.

The annual Digital report by HootSuite and We Are Social reveals that in 2019 the average internet user spends are online an average of 6 hours and 42 minutes each day.

The numbers above equate to more than 100 days of online time for an average internet user. That is more than 27 percent each year.

So what are the world’s 4.4 billion internet users actually doing online for those 6½ hours each day?

As you might expect, Google continues to dominate the rankings of the world’s most visited websites. Every 60 seconds 3.8 million Google searches are performed.

Actionable Tip: If you want your website to rank higher in Google you have to make sure that you’re using the right keywords. Keyword research is vital because identifying the terms people are searching for will determine the kind of content you create and the way you will optimize it. Click here to learn more.

A staggering 4.5 million videos are watching every minute online.

Video marketing can help you tell your story in a more entertaining, educational and inspiring way so if it’s not already part of your strategy, get on board with video this coming year.

With over 100+ million unique users every month, Amazon-owned Twitch is set to be a huge growth platform in the coming year — and not just for gamers. The channel IRL (In Real Life) has people live streaming everyday things from painting to playing music.

Actionable Tip: Aside from patient education, YouTube is a significant addition to your marketing toolkit. Owned by Google, it’s the second largest search engine in the world with added SEO potential due to its Google connection. Here’s how to create a YouTube channel for your practice.

Facebook continues to dominate with 1 million users logging in every minute.

Despite declining trust and recent data which shows that Facebook’s growth has stalled, at least in the North American and European markets, it still continues to be the most popular social media activity online.

Actionable Tip: If you’re struggling to make an impact on Facebook, then this article is for you. In it, I share some best practice tips to help you increase your organic reach and boost engagement.

You can see there are plenty more insights to glean from this graphic. Use these stats to determine where to focus your social media marketing efforts this year. 

Maintaining a consistent posting schedule on social media – whether it’s writing blog posts, or sharing updates on social media channels – can be a challenge.

When I teach social media classes, I always recommend creating a social media calendar so you can map out in advance upcoming holidays and cause awareness days.   By doing this, you will have a ready supply of things to share on social media.

To help you plan your content in advance, I’m going to highlight some events happening this month which you can add to your calendar.

See which of the following awareness days you could build engagement around. You could write a blog post, create a video or graphic, and then share it on Twitter and Instagram with the relevant hashtag.

Have some fun with these – but do make sure whatever you create and share fits with your brand!

March 3. Sunday, World Wildlife Day #WorldWildlifeDay

March 4. Monday, National Grammar Day #GrammarDay

March 5. Tuesday, National Pancake Day #PancakeDay

March 5. Tuesday, Mardi Gras #MardiGras

March 6. Wednesday, Dentist’s Day #DentistsDay

March 7. Thursday, National Be Heard Day #NationalBeHeardDay

March 8. Friday, International Women’s Day #BeBoldForChange

March 8. Friday, National Proofreading Day #NationalProofreadingDay

March 8. Friday, Day of Unplugging #NationalDayOfUnplugging

March 10. Sunday, Pack Your Lunch Day #NationalPackYourLunchDay

March 10. Sunday, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day#NWGHAAD

March 11. Monday, National Napping Day #NationalNappingDay

March 14. Thursday, Popcorn Lover’s Day #PopcornLoversDay

March 14. Thursday, Pi Day #PiDay

(To go the extra mile, post this at 1:59, as Pi equals 3.14159…)

March 15. Friday, World Consumer Rights Day #WCRD2019

March 15. Friday, World Sleep Day #WorldSleepDay

March 17. Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day #StPatricksDay

March 19. Tuesday, National Let’s Laugh Day #NationalLetsLaughDay

March 20. Wednesday, International Day of Happiness#InternationalDayofHappiness

March 20. Wednesday, World Storytelling Day #WorldStorytellingDay

March 21. Thursday, World Poetry Day #WorldPoetryDay

Mach 22: Friday, World Water Day #WorldWaterDay

March 23. Saturday, National Puppy Day #NationalPuppyDay

March 26. Tuesday, National Spinach Day #NationalSpinachDay

March 26. Tuesday, American Diabetes Association Alert Day#AmericanDiabetesAssociationAlertDay

 

March 30. Saturday, Doctor’s Day #NationalDoctorsDay

March 30. Saturday, Earth Hour Day #EarthHour

March 30. Saturday, National Take a Walk in the Park Day#NationalWalkInTheParkDay

I feel sure you’ll find something to share on one or more of these days. Tag me on Twitter @JBBC if you do – I’d love to see what you come up with. 

Maintaining a consistent posting schedule on social media – whether it’s writing blog posts, or sharing updates on social media channels – can be a challenge.

When I teach social media classes, I always recommend creating a social media calendar so you can map out in advance upcoming holidays and cause awareness days.   By doing this, you will have a ready supply of things to share on social media.

To help you plan your content in advance, I’m going to highlight some events happening this month which you can add to your calendar.

See which of the following awareness days you could build engagement around. You could write a blog post, create a video or graphic, and then share it on Twitter and Instagram with the relevant hashtag.

Have some fun with these – but do make sure whatever you create and share fits with your brand!

Feb 2. Saturday, Groundhog Day #GroundhogDay

Feb 3. Sunday, Super Bowl LIII #SBLIII

Feb 4. Monday, World Cancer Day #WorldCancerDay

Feb 5. Tuesday, Safer Internet Day #SID2019

Feb 8. Friday, National Boy Scouts Day #BoyScoutsDay

Feb 9. Saturday, National Pizza Day #NationalPizzaDay

Feb 11. Monday, Inventors Day #InventorsDay

Feb 13. Wednesday, World Radio Day #WorldRadioDay

Feb 14. Thursday, Valentine’s Day #ValentinesDay

Feb 17. Sunday, Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay

Feb 18. 18. Monday, Presidents Day #PresidentsDay

Feb 20. Wednesday, World Day of Social Justice #SocialJusticeDay

Feb 20. Wednesday, Love Your Pet Day #LoveYourPetDay

21. Thursday, International Mother Language Day #IMLD

I feel sure you’ll find something to share on one or more of these days. Tag me on Twitter @JBBC if you do – I’d love to see what you come up with. 

In the era of big data, the presence of cancer in social media is undeniable. 

Last October at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress, a group of researchers from Spain presented findings on how Twiter users talk about breast cancer on the social media platform.

Study author Dr. Rodrigo Sánchez-Bayona of Clinica Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, said: “Many of the patients we see in daily practice use social media to search for information about their disease, so, as care providers, we wanted to know what kind of content they find there. At the same time, the sheer volume of posts on Twitter represents a rich pool of data we can use to assess attitudes and discourses surrounding cancer.”

Twitter is one of the biggest networks worldwide, therefore, it establishes an enormous real-world data field of interest when studying health issues.

The study involved analyzing all tweets posted with the hashtag #BreastCancer over a 7-day period, grouped into four subthemes: diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention.

The data collected included 3,703 original tweets and 2,638 retweets.

The most frequent motive was patients sharing their experiences, followed closely by patient advocacy. The most common subtheme by far was prevention (44.5% of tweets)

“When examining the original tweets, we found that only one in three had medical content,” said Sánchez-Bayona. “However, 90% of this medical information was appropriate, which is likely owed to the fact that 40% of tweets came from institutions and public accounts.”

Classification of Tweets

A total of 1,137 tweets (30.7%) contained content relating to a patient’s experience, while 96 tweets (2.6%) contained an experience from the perspective of a relative of a patient.

Sixty percent of tweets came from private accounts, while 40% came from institutions or public accounts.

The aims of tweets included scientific (17.3%), advertising (15.8%), fundraising (8.3%), and patient advocacy (25.3%).

Leveraging A New Social Media Reality

Commenting on the study, Marina Garassino, MD, of Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, noted the presence of patients in large numbers on Twitter. “We should take that as corroboration of a new reality,” she said.

Patients now use the web to find information, and social media must be an integral part of our communication with them. Academic institutions and key opinion leaders need to be even more active in spreading their findings through these channels to counteract the many ‘fake news’ circulating online.

Dr. Evandro de Azambuja, ESMO Executive Board member, further commented: “Healthcare professionals and organisations really need to use appropriate social media as a way of sharing relevant information – both between them and with patients – because that is where it has the potential to be picked up fastest and most broadly.”

When it comes to bringing the best evidence available in cancer research to the attention of as many people as possible, this platform is as powerful a tool as it gets.

Conclusions

The authors noted that this was part of a larger study on discussion of diseases more generally on social media, in which they found that cancer was the most mentioned pathology on Twitter around the world.

The results of the study may be useful in assisting advocacy organisations to provide information about resources, support and raise awareness.

In particular, advocacy organizations can draw on them to create relevant medical content and counseling about cancer that will be more accessible to patients already using Twitter for information and support.