Image via Wikipedia

I’m going boldly on the record to say that any medical practice without a website in the 21st century is like a rotary phone clunker in the era of sleek smart phones!

Now, some of you may argue that you’re doing perfectly fine thank you, and a medical practice website is a complete waste of time. And I will argue right back that even if your practice is as full as you can be, I bet you’re leaving money on the table, and if money is not your motivator, I bet you’re serving fewer people than you could be if you were doing it right.

Let me explain my thinking.

The best way to do this is to talk about what a medical practice website looks like when it’s done right.

• the website content is written in patient friendly language
• it’s easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for
• the website is constructed on a platform that makes it simple for the physicians and/or designated people within the practice to go in and add content on a regular basis. This should be done by people who are both willing and committed!
• the physicians’ bios are accompanied by recent welcoming photographs, and written in an inviting style, including comments of a less formal nature, perhaps about their interests outside of the practice, their volunteer activities, their Peace Corps years, their passion for cooking, their recent cycle race, etc.
• the practices hours, location, parking, and policies (e.g. payment, handling of e-mail, preauthorization, billing etc.) are clearly described, again in patient friendly language
• there is a blog or article section that is updated at least two times a week with news and tidbits about the practice, updates from the doctors, and timely articles that speak to the issues brought in on a regular basis by the patients. Each article is able to be “liked” on Facebook
• the practice has an accompanying Facebook Page, and every new article that is added to the website is also added to the Facebook Page
• the physicians have trained themselves to take note of what is currently on the minds of their patients, and which are the same old questions that patients keep asking. These items should form the basis of the regular communications and updates on the Facebook Page and the practice’s blog. This not only keeps patients informed, but frees up much of the practice time from being swamped with repetitive questions that are easily answered in a “group communication”

In other words your medical practice website, with its accompanying social media presence, has the capacity to act as:

• your first line of defense against many of those hundreds of phone calls that clog up your telephone system each week
• a communicator about what’s going on
• an educator
• a time-saver for the doctor

… and be doing so at 2 AM while you’re trying to get a good night’s sleep!

When do you plan to put your website to work?

I received this inquiry recently about branding and how to name a medical practice. Since it is a good question, and one that many of you may have, I decided to respond via a blog post.

“What if you’re branding a physicians group where the brand must supersede the individual physician names?

In my area, physicians are known for being in Premier Radiology, Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance, Vanderbilt Medical Group.

Any thoughts on the pluses and minuses of brand versus individual physician name?”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Selling Your Medical Practice to a Hospital – Webinar (physicianlaw.foxrothschild.com)
• The Bureaucratic Doctor (lifescript.com)

As someone who has had success with social media marketing as a big component of my physician coaching business’s marketing plan, I was intrigued to receive a complimentary copy of Shama Hyder Kabani’s book “The Zen of Social Media Marketing” (affiliate link) to review.

Billed as “the last social media guide you’ll ever need”, this eagerly-awaited book from my friend and colleague Shama, had to meet some pretty high expectations (friendship notwithstanding!)

For the uninitiated, social media marketing refers to:

• blogging, with comments enabled
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Sermo etc….

… and the many other networking arenas that encourage thinking out loud, dialog, commentary and feedback.

I am happy to endorse the book not only for it’s lucid conversational writing but also for its encouragement and “take-you-by-the-hand” approach to guiding and teaching.

And since social media marketing is an ever-evolving area, owners of the book get password-protected access to updates.

For the social media marketing novice, it’s a gift.

If you have heard of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, but not dared to dip a toe in the water yet (or not deemed it important to your medical practice or physician business), I strongly recommend the book as your personal coach to getting immersed. And you can download a personal workbook from the companion website to prompt your planning.

For the marketer with some or plenty of experience, you’ll discover there is room for improvement — I found myself tweaking the different components of my social media marketing strategy as I dug into each chapter.

I have also attached a quick document I created some time ago when I started teaching the topic — feel free to download “What IS Social Media Marketing” and share it.

I’m inclined to believe that this book may be the last social media guide you’ll ever need, as long as we can hold the delightful Shama to her promise to keep us updated online!

Happy reading and toe-dipping!

I wrote a post at The Entrepreneurial MD today highlighting ways in which Google Alerts (and their newest cousins AlertRanks) can help you in your physician business’s or medical practice’s online marketing efforts and social media interactions.

Your goal as a physician business owner online is to add value to the conversation, not solely to use the Internet to promote and sell. By keeping a finger on the pulse of your specialty, your local community (yes, you can even set up Google Alerts to monitor your community, using targeted keywords and keyword phrases) and the interests and desires of your “target market”, you can share enormous quantities of information efficiently and helpfully.

Your results enable you the become the “Google”, sorting through the heaps of information, for your tribe!

Check out the post on Google Alerts for entrepreneurial physician practices and businesses here.