The Value of a Comment

After each of your articles, you should engage your patients to leave a comment.  A comment is more than a suggestion box.

The most valuable part of a website is the “comment.”  The “comment” is the key to a blog’s success to engage a potential patient.  Your goal is to create content that may generate comments.

Content is Still King

If you read enough about social media and content marketing, there is a lot of emphasis on the importance of great content.  In fact, content marketing (and therefore SEO) are indeed the only way to achieve and maintain high search rankings.

The rankings get you marketing exposure.  The comments (and your responses) engage the patient.

In other words, your articles get your readers’ attention.  It’s the comments that allow them to interact.

Value of the Comment

In addition to feedback, the value of a comment is to allow your readers to find each other.  Readers can find others with the same problem.  This ability to identify with others is crucial to developing a relationship between you and your next potential patient because this gives your reader an idea of how YOU will respond to THEM face to face.

Your articles certainly must contain relevant and fresh material, but in addition, should be compelling enough to move the reader to leave a comment (or ask a question).

Value of Responding

Your response is crucial.  Your response does more than answer an isolated question.  Your response creates a dialogue to be witnessed by subsequent readers.

The dialogue provides a way for the reader to learn about you, the physician.  This is where you display your “bedside manner” showing bits and pieces of who you are as a person, your practice philosophy, etc.

What Can You Do?

1. Continue to write great articles.  Remember the rules to great SEO.  Keeping your content fresh and relevant is your biggest priority.  This will get you high rankings on the search listings pages (SERP).
2. Write to generate “the comment.”  If you are writing about a particular health topic, stick to one aspect and avoid trying to write an exhaustive review.  Hit the high points…the reader may ask about a more subtle issue!
3. Ask the reader to leave a comment at the end of the article.
4. If you are giving your opinion, avoid trying to please everyone.  Take one side of an argument…and let your readers take the other side when they comment.
5. And no matter what….answer each and every comment your articles generate.
6. Be transparent.

By allowing comments to be posted on your site, you are demonstrating a willingness to engage your patients and are creating visual evidence of who you are as a person.

Social media, blogs, Internet 2.0 are all about relationships.  It’s no different between patient and doctor.

Care to make a comment?

To Your Growth And Success!

Randy

Randall V. Wong, M.D.
Medical Website Optimization
www.MedicalMarketingEnterprises.com