A blog is one of the best tools to use to express your opinions and get exposure on the internet.
One of the benefits of a blog for a business or practice is fresh content about your business can constantly be spread far and wide at very little cost to you besides the time it takes to think and write your posting. You know the questions that customers or patients are always asking so writing blog posts around them is an easy way to communicate and provide meaningful answers.
Keep your market informed on the latest news in you area of expertise. If you were a podiatrist you make want to teach people who have diabetes about the importance of good foot care and the management of neuropathy. If you are a dentist you could discuss the latest ways of teeth-whitening and implant surgery and the methods and benefits f the treatments.
Health care professionals can use their blog to put out health promotion and prevention messages to patients in order to keep their health in tip top shape or to assist those with a particular ailment.
The blog should also encourage participation by the market and lively discussion to bring a sense of community to your blog. Often people want to tell their own story of how the practitioner helped them and what it meant to them. The practitioner could also use the blog to keep patients informed of seasonal or issue specific events such as flu shot clinics or Open Houses. Before the internet and Web 2.0 my uncle, a prominent chiropractor in the US, used a series of photo albums with letters and pictures from patients as his blog of sorts. It was very popular reading in his waiting room then, just as the same material would be in Web 2.0 blogs.
Posting as often as possible allows you to convey more information, answer questions and build up your content while allowing a fixed time for this purpose. You can always have “evergreen” or non time specific content on hand to provide for those times that you are too busy practising, or preparing client’s taxes to post.
Get in the habit of writing weekly and you will be amazed at how you can easily fit it as a personal marketing effort that yields you great benefits and strengthens your position as a great communicator.
You are so right! This was definitely a “writing ritual!” I enjoyed every minute of it and am just now getting around to visiting more of the blogs. You have a good one here! #blog30