Personal branding for small businesses and small business owners is critical in today’s time when larger corporations are trying their best to corner those markets. That’s why healthcare professionals need to start branding themselves and their practices. Here are some strategies that physicians can use to brand themselves on the internet.
Introduction
Physicians are increasingly using the internet in their personal branding. They use social media to communicate with patients and keep up with current events. Physicians are also using the internet for professional purposes, such as creating online reviews, answering questions, and interacting with other physicians online.
93% of physicians use social media for personal use today. So do nearly 9 out of every 10 other adults in the US. That’s why social media is quickly being seen as a way that business can reach their customers. For healthcare professionals, social media is a powerful tool. Social media is a great way to build relationships with patients, other physicians, healthcare professionals, and organizations.
When you post on Twitter or Facebook about your practice or what it’s like to be a doctor, people will see the content and may reach out if they want to ask questions about your practice. Not only does social media help you get your word out, but it also opens doors to opportunities from around the world.
If someone enjoys what you’ve shared on social media platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat (which many patients do), they will likely follow their favorite physician’s account. Not only does it help them in getting more information about their preferred physician in the future, but it also helps them gain trust in themselves and their work. Not to mention, through social media and its reach, you can also help build brand awareness because everyone knows who all these influencers are!
Physicians are using the internet for professional purposes. In today’s day and age, the internet has managed to amass a tremendous reach. From professionals to non-professionals, everyone has jumped on board on the exciting journey that is being provided by the internet. Like others, physicians, too, use the internet for professional purposes.
For instance, physicians use the internet to find information about their field of interest. It also provides them with a platform to keep a tab on other physicians who are working in that field. Physicians also look out for medical journals, which can help them stay up-to-date with recent advances in medicine.
In a similar way, Physicians often use social media platforms like LinkedIn to connect with others within their profession as well as outside of it. Great network-building professional online mediums like LinkedIn allow them to share ideas and create a network of people who share similar interests or work experiences!
Why should physicians create a personal brand?
Like other professions, brand building is an essential tool that can make all the difference for you and your professional services. Not only does brand building give you and your services a voice, but it helps you connect with people far and large.
Creating a personal brand is a way to differentiate yourself from the competition, build trust with your patients and patient’s families, and build your reputation as a provider and professional.
With social media gaining immense popularity and being used widely across the globe, putting your brand’s best image forward has been the need of the hour.
But knowing why a personal brand is important is not the same as knowing to create your own. Here are some physicians online personal branding strategies that can help you establish your own brand online.
Online reviews from patients matter to physicians
When people engage with your brand, they tend to have their subjective experiences. Reviews are a great way to capture a patient’s experience of your work. Online reviews from patients matter to all physicians, especially for those who want to be known as leaders in their field. Physicians are looking for ways to stand out and get noticed by patients, so online reviews are a great way of doing just that.
Online reviews can help physicians build trust with potential clients or employers. Patients appreciate knowing if the doctor they’re considering hiring will have good staff and give them excellent service – all while providing quality care!
Keep in mind that the more positive reviews a physician has, the more chances of increasing your client base.
Leverage online reviews and ratings
Social media is not only about building a brand for yourself and your services, it is also about how you use your voice to grow bigger and better. There are a lot of opportunities to leverage online reviews and ratings as part of your personal branding strategy.
Reviews and ratings are one of the best ways to build trust with patients, colleagues, employers, and investors.
Reviews help you establish yourself as an expert in your field by giving the audience or the clients an opportunity to learn more about who you are as a person, what makes you unique, and how they can benefit from working with you.
Ratings also provide an excellent way for patients or clients to find doctors who meet their needs by providing specific feedback on how well the physician treated them during their visit (or phone call). It’s important that these reviews reflect true facts about each patient’s experience with the doctor so there isn’t any confusion about whether someone was treated well or not.
Engage with patients online
Once you put your brand on social media, do not think that you have made it. No! There’s still constant work that needs to be done. Public engagement is one of the biggest factors that will decide how successful your social media strategy is. That is right, you need to constantly engage with the public through different means and innovative forms.
For instance, when patients ask you questions, it’s important to respond. You can do this by sharing information about your practice, specialty, and interests.
You can also add a colorful spark to your brand by adding a personal touch. You can also share information about your hobbies, family members, and pets. If you enjoy reading books or watching movies that other people might not like as much as your own preferences (e.g Harry Potter), then by all means let them know! Contrary to what some might think, adding a layer of personal touch will add a sense of reliability and trust for your patients. After all, as physicians, you are trying to reach out to patients in an inviting manner, and not scare them away!
Respond to patients’ questions online
As a physician, you are well aware of the fact that patients often have questions about their health. It’s not uncommon for them to reach out to you via email or social media asking for advice on topics ranging from diet and exercise recommendations to check-ups.
If you want to keep customers happy and repeat business, it is important that you respond to these inquiries in a timely manner—even if it means doing so multiple times over the course of several weeks! This way, your business will stand out among other providers who may not respond as promptly or at all when faced with similar queries from clients.
You will be surprised to find numerous brands that are low on patient engagement. Once their brand is up and steady, they rarely pay attention to what the patients are saying! This is contrary to what you want to do. Therefore, try to respond to patients and their queries online as frequently as possible. This adds to your professional credibility and makes you reliable in front of existing and potential patients.
Create value for your patients online
Create content for patients online, such as blogs, videos, and podcasts that demonstrate your knowledge of a particular topic and how you can help them with it, or even provide some useful information that may help them better understand their health issues. The more words you write about yourself (or anything else), the more likely people will be willing to read what you write about something else in return!
The best part is that this opportunity doesn’t come only once; however many times someone visits your website. But it isn’t just your website, you can also have blogs, other websites, other publishing platforms, and even social media platforms – they’ll see all sorts of different things based on where they land on the screen while browsing around this site (and possibly others).
Conclusion
To recap: social media platforms are great for physicians to share their experiences and connect with patients. If you’re already using these platforms, then you’re ahead of the game when it comes to building a personal brand as a doctor. And if not, now is an ideal time to start—and the benefits will last for years after you put yourself out there!
BraveLabs is an online healthcare marketing service agency that helps physicians establish themselves and their brands online. With our help, you can reach patients like never before. Learn what we can do for your healthcare brand with custom digital marketing solutions today.
