Building and maintaining an online presence can be integral to a practice’s success for a number of reasons – including growing your patient base, building awareness about important symptoms and treatments, and nurturing your reputation as an expert in the GYN space. There are many ways through which you can increase your online presence, including leveraging social media, professional relationships, and partnering with local media for strategic opportunities. In this guide, we’re sharing three ways you can continue to boost your digital presence.
- Interact with fellow providers, followers, and other thought-leaders online
By engaging with followers and other industry leaders on social platforms, like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, one can build their brand as a thought leader and thereby increase prospective patients and professional networks. Positioning yourself as a thought-leader on your social media channels will encourage your audience to keep abreast of your opinions and advice in related discussions. To do so requires social engagement and media coverage, both of which can be achieved through a few simple steps:
- By liking, sharing, and commenting on relevant posts and discussions online, one is able to boost one’s following while also building credibility as an industry leader.
- Utilizing interesting graphics is another way to keep followers engaged. Try to include a mix of images with and without text overlay in your feed, being sure to avoid flat images with basic captions that are sure to be scrolled past when browsing.
- Engaging your professional relationships through tagging colleagues in social posts may spark subsequent tagging in your network. Beginning this trend may quickly lead to gaining visibility in the networks of other professionals and thought-leaders.
- Some suggested social content includes sharing interesting items from your feed on your Instagram stories, posting about patient success stories, and different features you love in a product you often use in your practice, like Acessa® Lap-RFA or the MyoSure® procedure tools.
- Engage local media
If a provider, their practice, or the general industry has exciting news, the next step may be to try and gain media coverage. Breaking into news cycles with your own news hook and story can be challenging at times, but do not be discouraged. Securing a media placement may take several months, as reporters are often flooded with news tips for hard-hitting stories that take priority over the more evergreen human-interest stories, like patient profiles, so keep trying! In the toolkit, you will find important information on which options for press are available, and how to distribute a press release, which can be shared to a paid newswire platform, or shared directly with your local media. For more information, visit here.
- Local media will often give airtime and/or digital space to stories national outlets may not typically cover. Pitching local newspapers, like Patch, and broadcast networks are free and may offer repeat opportunities if a relationship is fostered with the reporter or producer.
- Thinking of creative ways and news hooks for your personal story angle is a great way to grab a reporter’s attention. For example, a good hook in June 2021 may be, “Recently, ACOG updated its guidance in PB228 to include the use of Lap-RFA for the treatment of uterine fibroids….” Think of emergent news, and how your personal angle can be tied to it.
- Keep up with the routine
It is incredibly important to maintain a regular cadence of posting content across social platforms. The key to maintaining followership is consistent engagement with your digital community, and you may lose followers if you post ‘here and there,’ whenever the mood strikes.