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Tag: content strategy

Once Upon a Time… The Power of Storytelling in Content Marketing

Once upon a time, there was a lonely copywriter. All day long, he wrote blogs and web content, press releases and social media posts. He spent hours toiling away at his computer, but no one ever seemed to care about what he wrote. Saddened by this, yet hungry to improve his plight, he set off on a perilous journey across the mysterious internet to find greater purpose in his writing.

His journey brought him far and wide–from the slippery slopes of search rankings in the north to the massive backlink mines in the south. Along the way, he fought the bloated keyword stuffing behemoth and the two-headed monster of duplicate content, but he never felt any closer to his ultimate quest. Dire and lost, he thought he would never find the answer.

When he had all but given up hope, the Content King appeared to him. Impressed by the copywriter’s perseverance and quest for knowledge, the Content King gave the copywriter one final test to prove his worth.

The Content King asked the determined copywriter to describe his long journey and all that he had accomplished so far. Bolstered by his newfound experience, the copywriter recalled his voyage with great energy, weaving a cohesive narrative sprinkled with all the right details. The Content King ooh-ed and ahh-ed and gasped in all the right places.

When he was done, the copywriter felt confident and proud. He knew this was just the boost he needed to continue his quest. He thanked the Content King and told him he was ready to set off again. The Content King chuckled and told him there was no need. He had already found the answer—for the power of storytelling is the true key to writing amazing content!

Everyone loves a great story. We learn from them. Stories can convey a wide range of emotions. They pique curiosity and are meant to be shared.

From a marketing perspective, stories are also more interesting to read than standard copywriting. They also help garner trust between the storyteller and reader. With a story, a reader can establish just how much your business matches their needs and interests.

Ultimately, your goal is to sell your audience something. But first, focus on having a conversation with your audience—that will open them up more to the sale. Telling a story adds humanity to any sales pitch, and the overwhelming majority of purchase decisions are influenced by emotion.

Storytelling can be applied to any form of content writing—from blog posts and social media to newsletters and videos. The key is knowing your audience and appealing to them. Think about what emotion you want to communicate and plan to how to bring that out on paper (or on the screen).

Knowing this, how do you translate that into writing better content? Here are 5 ways to incorporate storytelling into your content creation:

Create Characters, Structure, and Drama

It is said that there are only 7 basic story plots (the quest, overcoming the monster, rags-to-riches, etc.). Every story must have a beginning, middle, and end—or in literary terms, an introduction, rising action, and climax. So, how do these basic plots and the traditional 3-act structure fit into content marketing?

First, you set your scene and introduce your main character. In marketing, this character is the main connection between you and the target audience, aka the customer. Because of this, it must be compelling and relatable.

Next, create conflict (physical, emotional, psychological). Your audience needs to empathize with your story. Drama makes everything seem more real. For this, you really have to know your audience and their buyer’s journey.

And finally, you’ll have to read to the end of this post for the third act….

Personalize and Relate to Your Audience

To get a reader to identify closely with the story, personalization and parallels are key. Telling the story from either your perspective or a related person’s point-of-view will help provide that connection and evoke empathy by sharing experiences, problems, and concerns. Being authentic is another important factor in making this connection. Without authenticity, you lose credibility.

Get Emotional

Storytelling is an imaginative and clever way to get people to feel something. Stories spark emotions. People can feel happy, sad, afraid, and angry, as well as multiple layers of each, often overlapping another. This complex nature of emotions is what makes storytelling so effective in marketing.

Studies show content that evokes emotion is more popular, and those that leave the reader happy (as opposed to sad) are more likely to go viral. What people share on social media proves this every day When crafting a story, decide what emotion you want to arouse and then provide the necessary information and support for the reader to arrive at that emotion.

Don’t Just Tell Something, Show It

You want your targeted audience to know about the benefits and advantages you are offering. Do not just tell them matter-of-factly, but rather show them with a story. Integrate these crucial tidbits into the story and fill it will examples, details, and data so that your audience can experience and connect with these elements, and hopefully, make decisions based on the experience. Blankly stating a benefit or advantage will not cut it—they need to be shown how and why.

Give a Resolution

Finally, in Act 3, you resolve the conflict. The resolution should be your company and the products/services that you offer coming to the rescue. It fulfills the purpose behind the story. To seal the deal, the resolution should also include a clear call-to-action for your audience. And don’t forget, everyone likes a happy ending!

August 11, 2017
#FreelanceFriday: How to Remove Unnecessary Filler and Fluff From Your Writing

In digital marketing, it used to be good enough just to write content—about anything and everything. But now, and rightfully so, it is not enough for you to just have a well-written website. It needs to be one filled with original and high-quality content. What you write is important, but how you write it is equally critical.

So, with the ever-increasing demand for top quality content creation, how do you make your writing even better? How do you make your content stand out in the crowd of competitors?

One of the best (and easiest) ways to make your content more valuable is to remove any and all unnecessary filler and fluff from your writing. In general, filler is part of a sentence, whereas fluff refers to whole sentences in a piece of content that exist just to pad the word count, which ultimately dilutes the nutritional value of the overall content.

By focusing more on substance, your content becomes richer and more beneficial to the reader. Don’t pad your content with the superfluous; it just isn’t necessary. Visitors to your site come for information about your business, don’t allow them to get lost or bogged down sifting through content that is redundant or pointless.

Here are 6 ways to make your blogs better by removing unnecessary fluff and filler:

1. Create a Plan and Outline First

Your writing should always be clear and concise. When it comes to fluff, rambling is often one of the major culprits. Organization and planning (which can include creating an outline), will help you stay focused and avoid fluff even before it happens. It can also help to strategize any necessary research before writing.

2. Avoid Redundancy

Redundancy makes your writing dull and laborious to read. It can also reveal gaps in your knowledge of the subject. Required high word counts unnecessarily force many writers to say the same things over and over again instead of expanding on the topic. More content is worthless if it is redundant.

3. Nix the Common Knowledge

Removing fluff is not just about having a succinct and smooth writing style, it’s also about creating content that adds real value. Trying to make all content accessible to everyone is not only nearly impossible, but it also increases the risk of fluff. You cannot explain everything to everyone. Know your target audience going in and gear the writing toward them.

4. Remove the Unnecessary

You might be surprised by how many words you can easily cut from your writing. Focus on word economy over exceedingly descriptive or unnecessary exposition–which includes excessive adjectives, most adverbs, and qualifiers that can weaken your writing. Unnecessary words and phrases are easy to find and remove because they don’t change the meaning of the sentence when deleted.

5. Eliminate Complexity and Density

Unless you are writing content for a highly technical client or industry, overly complicated sentences with jargon should be avoided. If a reader has to reread a sentence to understand it, then it needs to be rewritten.

The same goes for overtly flowery language—it may seem well written, but it will make it harder to comprehend the meaning. The goal of your content should be to make it easy-to-read so that you can get through to the reader. Don’t bury your point in decorative language.

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Edit Yourself

When editing, it is essential to detach yourself—and be merciless even. When giving your first draft a close second read, you will almost certainly find words and phrases that are completely unnecessary or misleading. Write, edit, repeat until your final draft reveals itself. Getting your point across should be your primary concern, while style remains secondary.

Improving your writing this way takes practice. First, you have to learn how to identify fluff and filler, and then you have to force yourself to remove it. The better you get at recognizing the unnecessary from the start, they less you will have to edit later, thus making you a better and more efficient writer.

Images:

Fluffy Unicorn

Holmes

Alan

July 14, 2017
AI and How It’s Affecting, and Enhancing, Voice Search
If 2016 was the year of the Internet of Things, 2017 has become the year of AI, and, in particular, voice search. The way people search on their phone, tablet, or computer is changing thanks to devices like Amazon Echo, Siri, Cortana, and Google Home—as of May 2016, 20% of mobile queries are through voice. You can now search for a business, order pizza, turn on your home’s lights, ask for movie reviews, and more just by asking a question or stating an instruction. According to the 2016 Internet Trends Report, by 2020, at least 50% of searches are going to be through images or voice, whereas in 2015, only 1 in 10 search queries came through voice. Understanding how your content is optimized for voice search can help your business succeed in the near future.

AI, RankBrain, Machine Learning, Deep Learning…What’s the Difference?

With all of the talk about AI these days, it’s best to separate different terms that get tossed around, like RankBrain, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. The easiest way to understand their relationship is to think of them as smaller parts of a larger whole. AI has been around since Alan Turing first started trying to decode the Nazi’s Enigma in WWII. In the 1980s, we started to see more advancement with machine learning, which provided computers with the ability to learn predictions and statistics without being explicitly programmed. In the current decade, we have begun to see large advancements in deep learning.

Deep Learning

Also known as deep structured learning or hierarchical learning, deep learning uses neural networks with many hidden layers of processing and information. It mirrors the way the human brain works, learning from mistakes to come up with the best, new solution to an input, not one that it was given with code. For instance, Marie Dollé from SocialMediaToday explains how it recognizes your face in a Facebook photo.

“For a face, it will first correlate pixels on a photo, then group them and conceptualize its features (eyes, nose, mouth). Finally, it’ll group all these concepts to recognize the unique collection of features as a single face.”

It’s also how the world’s best Go player, Lee Sedol, got beat by Google’s DeepMind AI dubbed AlphaGo. Go is an ancient game of immense complexity—there are more possible positions on the game board than there are atoms in the universe. This is precisely why we never thought a machine could master a human in this game; it’s more about intuition and instinct. Wired Magazine said that the pivotal play in the game was also the moment that “machines and humanity finally began to evolve together. While the move that set up the machine to win was puzzling to humans, it opened Lee Sedol’s eyes to strategies he hadn’t considered before.” We’ve come a long way since the first game mastered by AI in 1952—Tic Tac Toe.

What About RankBrain?

It’s best to think of RankBrain as a facilitator for deep learning. Unveiled by Google in 2015, RankBrain converts words and phrases into mathematical vectors that can then be used by deep learning. One of the more interesting things about RankBrain is that it searches for phrases that have never been used before on Google and then attempts to find similar words or phrases that may relate, i.e. your rich content that may not match up perfectly with a user’s search but is close. To put it simply, Greg Corrado, a senior research scientist at Google involved with RankBrain states, “If RankBrain sees a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with, the machine can make a guess as to what words or phrases might have a similar meaning and filter the result accordingly, making it more effective at handling never-before-seen search queries.”

So, why are we getting these never-before-seen queries? Well, in some way or another, this will always happen. New products will be released, and people will want to find them. However, the introduction and evolution of voice search as a viable tool has transformed the way we talk to search engines.

The Importance of Semantic Content Marketing in the Age of Voice Search

Gone are the days of planning your content marketing strategy based on one or two keywords. Sherry Bonelli from SearchEngineLand posits, “Now keywords are no longer just keywords. Keywords in the voice search world are long-tail+. The ‘plus’ refers to the conversational phrases that you need to add when optimizing for conversational voice search.” Because people speak things differently than typing, we have to start adjusting marketing strategies accordingly. In comes long-tail+ keywords and semantic SEO.

Long-tail+ keywords should mimic the way people actually talk. Think about what types of questions people ask when they call your business, and then think about any follow-up Q&A you have with them. Also, in addition to thinking about what people might be asking or searching, it’s time to start thinking about all of the synonymous and relative topics to that search. The age of the “best digital camera” keyword could likely fall away. Instead, consider the question, “Google, where can I find a digital camera that is waterproof and can also sync w/ and stream Facebook Live?” Look at everything that’s in that question. It mentions streaming and Facebook Live capabilities, it specifies waterproof, and the whole thing is rooted in a local question: the “where.”

So, if you were to then take a hard look at your content, does it mention syncing devices with live streaming, have you written a blog about waterproof devices that you offer, are all of your physical location pages up to date, and have you claimed your Google My Business listing? Or, have you made the mistake of optimizing for “best digital camera” and called it a day? We’re starting to get to the point wherein Google’s AI technology is becoming as quick thinking, on-the-fly, and complex as us. So, we need to optimize accordingly.

Optimizing for Voice and Conversational Searches

Using long+tail keywords is a good first step to optimizing your content for voice search. Try to understand and predict the user’s next intent or action after finding the answer to their first query. For alternate words or keywords, instead of trying to go for the “be all end all” keyword, think, “tell me how to get to the store,” alongside, “directions to the store.” Experiment with different versions of the same idea.

Local is going to continue to be a big part of success for a business. Research what interests customers in a targeted area and optimize all of your physical location pages by making sure they’re marked up with schema. Structured data markup from schema.org is crucial because it makes it easier for search engines to parse your site and understand your content within context. Here’s a helpful list of additional best practices that can help with showing up in voice search:
- Claim Your Google My Business Listing: A large part of voice search is based around local. By claiming your Google My Business Listing, you provide Google with more rich information about your business, giving its AI more tools to serve your potential customers with rich, accurate answers to their questions.
- Use Conversational Keywords: This goes without saying, but if people are searching more naturally, then you should be writing more naturally in your content.
- Make Sure Your Content Is Trustworthy: Just as AI can evolve to find us the best possible answers to our queries, it also has the ability to learn from and reject black hat SEO practices. Steer clear of link spamming, keyword stuffing, and untrue statements in your content.
- Set Up a FAQ Page: This may seem like a minor addition to a website, but it’s a simple way to get a lot of good answers to questions, providing content for a vast amount of subjects about your business that could then make it easier for Google to find you.
Because RankBrain plays a big part of voice search, finding never-before-used phrases and pairing them with trustworthy, on-topic content, it’s worth remembering some advice from a former Influencer: “If your content is written in accord with Panda and Hummingbird, meaning it is rich text, educational, and really on topic, RankBrain should not be a problem for you.”

How Google’s Cloud Video Intelligence Is Changing Video Search

Ever wish you could search for a video online or in your cloud library just by asking certain words? Like, “Hey, Google, show me videos with fun cartoon animals,” and getting a result of Zootopia from your library. With Google’s Video Analysis, we’re getting to do just that. This can have a large impact on more than just personal queries. Pretend you’re a Realtor in your local area. By using this tool, you can make your videos more discoverable for potential clients. It’s just another way AI is changing the way we search.

The Future of Google AdWords

Google recently held their Google Marketing Next event. One of the features that they mentioned talks about Life Event Targeting. In the past, Google’s AI had been able to run basic “if, then” scenarios for target buyers. Now, they’re able to parse through multiple languages to predict a similar response for the same event. For instance, they gave the example of those recently engaged. They were able to recognize the different but similar terms and phrases that cultures use when people are in a wedding life stage and then provide them with solutions to queries.

Also, Google is learning to adjust ads and tailor them to each user’s preference. Instead of three people doing the same search getting the same ad display, there will be advertising that suits each person’s preferences for style, graphics, tone, or display. They may have alternate text that is highlighted, one focusing on price and another on the value of a product or service.

Where Have We Seen This Before?

Whenever I used to think about artificial intelligence, I would typically conjure images of a Terminator landscape, or a young Haley Joel Osment sentient robot in A.I., or the philosophical complexities that Harrison Ford faces as a replicant (or not?!) in Blade Runner. There have always been predictions about future technology that we can find in pop culture, from space invaders to complete AI domination. However, I think one that best represents where we’re currently exploring and where we may end up being is seen in Spike Jonze’s film, Her.

There’s no dominating technology that overtakes our lives, no artificial intelligence that turns evil. Instead, it’s a future in which technology is doing what we’re trying to teach it to do now. An operating system’s AI is learning from conversations and adapting and adjusting accordingly. The OS can also see people and judge their facial reactions, something we can already do with facial recognition. Mark Zuckerberg even implemented it in his home.

To quote the film’s production designer, K.K. Barrett, “This is not a future of harshness, but of bespoke details.”

What Does the Future Hold for Search and SEO in Its Relation to AI?

Voice should continue to rise in use; there’s nothing to suggest otherwise. And while this is a bit of a“Wild Wild West” time of development, there’s one nice thing that should placate marketers’ worries—the relationship between the marketer and the client isn’t going to change in some cosmic or complicated way. In fact, it’s the opposite. It gets more personal. Ideally, we’re headed for a future in which our old anxieties about technology are gone—a future in which we no longer worry about technology ruling or destroying us.

Instead, it may be like what we’ve seen in the movie Her. It’s getting more intuitive. More seamless. More subtle. More adaptive. More inseparable from who we are. It may not be too much longer before voice commands aren’t even necessary—Deep Learning may evolve to where simply walking into a room turns on the lights, and those lights then adjust to a brightness or dimness reflecting your facial features and mood…maybe.

Instead of a future of wild advancements of technology, of jetpacks and holograms (well, kind of not those), it’s more a future of subtlety. One where we’ll hopefully be able to teach a program to learn from us so well and so naturally that it doesn’t even feel like teaching. To quote a reaction from those watching Google’s AlphaGo win its matches of Go over Lee Sedol, “The machine did a very human thing even better than a human. But in the process, it made those humans better at what they do.” So, instead of tech moving to the forefront of our lives, in front of our faces on the ride home from work, disrupting family dinners with scrolls and feeds, it could dissolve to be part of the background, one that not only knows when to talk to us but also when we can be left alone to be better at what we do.

Images:

Math

Brain

Ok, Google

Google AdWords

Her
July 11, 2017
Growing Your Practice on Facebook, Part 5: Patient Confidentiality Considerations

In our last blog, you learned how to capture your audience with engaging content and analyze the results. Now that you understand what it takes to connect with your patients, we’ll take a look at common obstacles medical practices face when posting on Facebook.

Social media and the healthcare industry can seem in opposition at times. One is about sharing and transparency, while the other hinges on patient confidentiality and privacy. But the irony is that the medical industry is not immune from the benefits and trends of platforms like Facebook.

Facebook is a wonderful resource for any industry looking to grow their business. Potential clients and patients desire access to the goings-on of a medical facility or hospital, and similar to peeking in on the page of a friend or associate, patients expect to see their doctor’s office online, too. Uploading staff happenings or posting about a new procedure is invaluable to the cause. But what happens when patient confidentiality is violated? In the era of “clicks,” the two opposing parties of health care and social media must become friends. Although there’s a fine line to walk when working within HIPAA rules, here are some helpful tips to consider when using Facebook for your medical office.

Get Written Permission Before Posting

Nothing can replace the power of pictures on your Facebook page. According to a Hubspot survey, Facebook posts with images receive 53% more Likes than those without. Images serve as testimony to what your practice can do and how you can help other patients achieve their desired results. They are also a way for your patients to discuss and identify symptoms that may need a doctor’s immediate attention. However, posting photos without explicit consent from all parties can lead down a very hairy path—even if the image isn’t of someone’s face.

According to Privacy Rule requirements, physicians must obtain a signature from the patient that specifically spells out the what, when, and where of the shared item. Some medical facilities have recently opted to send out a blanket consent statement, but this is not best practice. Be sure the statement includes details such as a full description of your purpose in using the image, an expiration date on the image consent, as well as a note describing the patient’s right to revoke consent. Send a copy of the signed document to the individual and keep one for your records as well. Working this into your protocol prior to posting photos will keep a clear line of communication between your practice and patients, and it will also create a streamlined process for your social media marketing needs.

Avoid Talking About Specific Patients

Posting about patients can be helpful to your practice. You can highlight testimonials, success stories, and interesting procedures that can be used to engage new and current patients alike. However, when posting on Facebook, even if given permission to use a patient’s medical situation, you’ll want to be explicit in not identifying the individual.

Confidentiality and privacy are two sides of the same coin. Confidentiality limits the details of a patient’s health exclusively to the medical team unless given informed consent. Privacy, on the other hand, relates to the patient’s right to be treated with respect and dignity. HIPAA goes even further, stating that information given about a patient in a public forum should not disclose individually identifiable information. This information includes anything that could be used to hone in on a specific person, such as past, present, or future physical or mental health details. Understanding the difference between the two, and how they relate to the language and images used in Facebook posts, will help you and your staff to find that happy medium.

Don’t Take Pictures Around Sensitive Materials

Where you take the picture can matter just as much as the picture you take. When capturing images to share with your patients, be aware of any medical records or other confidential materials laying around. With zoom features on devices, potentially threatening information can become more decipherable when viewed from apps on a cell, tablet, or another mobile device. Avoid this mistake by thoroughly surveying the area before snapping a shot around the office. Put away any files or paperwork containing information that is private or for medical office use only. It may also be a good idea to only take more candid photos in certain areas of the facility where sensitive items are least likely to be an issue. Also, be sure to avoid taking pictures that may have a patient in the background. Having a designated spot for photo ops can minimize the chances of mistakenly exposing information that would break patient confidentiality and put your office in a compromising position.

Facebook doesn’t have to be a no man’s land for physicians and medical practices. Healthcare and social media can play on the same team. Building your brand online and strengthening relationships with your patient base is invaluable, especially with Facebook’s almost 2 billion monthly users. Don’t be intimidated by HIPAA; instead, embrace the rules, implement best practices for your staff, and walk the line to marketing and confidentiality success. The exposure you’ll get will be well worth it.

Check back next week for the final installment of our medical industry blog series, which will walk you through one of our case studies and show you how to put everything together!

If you are ready to chat about your digital marketing opportunities today, contact one of our experts.

Images:

Tablet

Patient Records

June 27, 2017
Growing Your Practice on Facebook, Part 4: Reach Your Audience

Now that you’ve gained valuable insights on the many uses of Facebook paid ads, the importance of engaging with your followers, and why all of this matters in the first place (spoiler alert: yes, social media is worth your time), we’re going to get into the specifics of understanding and capturing your audience. After all, if you don’t understand your users, how are you ever going to reach them?

We’ll share how to use the Audience Insights tool on Facebook to analyze when your users are active and what’s catching their attention. Then, we’ll share some surprisingly easy ways to update your Facebook page and grow your followers—as well as your actual patients.

Ready for the PhD-level course on using Facebook to grow your medical practice? Download our free e-book today.

How Can You Use Audience Insights to Grow Your Reach on Facebook?

With nearly 2 billion monthly users on Facebook, it’s important to narrow the scope and understand who is engaging with your practice, as well as what they are looking for from your page. That’s where the Audience Insights tool plays a vital role. Audience Insights allows page administrators to understand their users and target their reach according to demographics, purchase behaviors, geography, and activity on Facebook.

By creating a custom audience using this tool, you can target your ads to a specific group of users on Facebook. Say you know that your typical patient is a female in greater New Orleans with an average household income of $150-250K and a bachelor’s degree or higher. You can create a new custom audience using these demographics and build an ad campaign on Facebook to target that audience. While that’s a pretty narrow scope for a medical practice that isn’t quite so sure of their ideal patient, experimenting with a few different test audiences to gather data on successes and misses is a great first step.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can also use Facebook insights to gain more knowledge about your active users and cater your posts and ads to the types of demographics that are most engaged with your page. You can even learn the best times of the day and week to post and the type of content that achieves the highest engagement. Perhaps you see a spike in engagement when you post patient testimonial videos on your page and dedicate more marketing spend on creating videos. Or, maybe your analytics show that users are more engaged in the mornings, so you schedule your posts in advance for time slots between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. to capitalize on your users’ behaviors.

These insights can all inform your future social media marketing strategy to focus on what works and build on your successes.

How Can You Connect Your In-Person Audience With Your Social Presence?

While tools like Audience Insights allow you to understand your online audience, it’s just as important to understand and connect to the people visiting your office and living in your community. The more you can bridge these two segments, the better your chances of building a loyal fan base and creating meaningful social media content.

Events are a great option for bridging these two audiences. If you’re hosting an event at your office, like a drive for flu shots or a fundraiser for a local nonprofit, be sure to create a Facebook event so guests can RSVP, invite friends, and receive reminders as the date approaches. If your event is public on Facebook, the platform will also suggest it to other users based on friends who are attending. Now your online users also have a reason to visit your office and speak with you in person about a subject they are already interested in.

Community events that focus on the values of your practice are also important for building trust and humanizing your online presence. By showcasing the causes that are important to your industry, work, or community, users can connect with your page through those similar interests. For example, if your company is participating in a community event like March of Dimes or you have a team participating in a local 5K, share updates on your fundraising efforts, highlight photos from the event, and link to informational articles about the cause. All of these strategies help create dynamic social media content while also connecting you to the broader community of users with shared interests and passions.

How Can Fan-Building Campaigns Help Engage & Grow Your Audience?

Now that you have a better understanding of who your target audience is and how to build a bridge between your online and IRL communities, it’s time to increase the number of actual fans connected with your page. The first step may seem obvious, but it can’t be overlooked. You have to have an active, established page with helpful content and consistent posts. Make sure you’re dedicating time to posting new content as well as responding to inquiries to build engagement.

Another great tactic to generate new followers is through a fan-building initiative such as a “Like for Lives” campaign. Remember when we said that connecting your social media content to your values and industry is important? “Likes for Lives” does just that. The basic premise is that for each additional Like that your page receives for a set period of time, your medical practice will make a donation or take an action to help save a life. This could be a monetary donation to a charity, a volunteer commitment, or any other creative action your practice can take to help others.

The goal is to generate excitement on your page and in your office, giving you plenty to post about in order to raise awareness about your campaign and encouraging your fans to share your initiative with their friends in support of a good cause. Be sure your staff is informed of the campaign, and encourage or incentivize them to share the information within their own networks on Facebook. If you work with a nonprofit to raise money, they may also want to share the content, further increasing your reach.

With a combination of tactics like these and consistent posts on your Facebook page, you’ll start seeing your audience steadily grow. By targeting the right demographics, you can also see this growing audience translate to more patients. Remember, social media is here to stay, and leveraging its power and reach can have a big impact on your medical practice.

Stay posted for the next update in our series where we’ll discuss the importance of patient confidentiality on Facebook.

Eager for more tips and tricks to grow your social media IQ, or ready to get started with digital marketing campaigns for your business? Contact an expert from our team.

June 22, 2017
Growing Your Practice on Facebook, Part 2: Shareable Content
Now that you’ve learned why Facebook is such a crucial tool for your practice, it’s time to master one of the most important aspects of Facebook: engagement. Facebook is all about conversation and interaction. If you aren’t creating compelling content and engaging with your followers on a regular basis, your social media campaign will fall flat—making the next steps in this series much harder for you. Here’s how to polish up your content and keep your followers invested on Facebook.

1. Create Shareable Content

At one point or another, we’ve all come across a Facebook post that just speaks to us; one we couldn’t help but share with a friend or add to our timeline. The act of sharing a Facebook post seems simple enough, but for your business, these shares are crucial to your social media campaign.

According to Kissmetrics, more than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month. Facebook shares are powerful stuff for business because they help your message to grow exponentially. Friends share content with Facebook friends in a way you couldn’t have managed organically on your own. So, how do you help make this happen?

Well, if your practice wants to be included in those 30 billion pieces of shared content, it’s essential that you start writing interesting and relevant posts your fans will really want to read. If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you’ve probably heard us quote the great Bill Gates saying “Content is king.” This saying holds true across websites and platforms, and Facebook is no exception. Compelling, authentic, and viral content is what earns you those valuable shares, which in turn means more fans and more social influence.

Just one thing to clarify: we’re not saying Likes aren’t valuable in their own way. They can be a sign of popularity, a mark of agreement, or a note that “I agree,” or “I’m with you.” However, if your goal is to get your content in front of more potential patients, you should always be on the hunt for the ever-elusive Share. Got it? Let’s get started.

How to Create Shareable Content

The tricky thing for medical practices is that you’re busy, and your staff might not always have the time or expertise to sit down and brainstorm ideas for compelling content. But don’t worry—here’s a list of tips to get you on the road to those shareable posts.
- Keep it short and sweet. The ideal length for Facebook is around 40 characters.
- Don’t use too much industry jargon. The medical industry is notorious for its jargon. Just don’t forget to consider your audience when posting. Complex terms can be off-putting, and your busy readers will appreciate your effort to break things down.
- Don’t make every post promotional. Patients will find it helpful to know your biggest and most relevant updates, including new staff members, upcoming events, and special deals. But keep in mind that no one wants to read a revolving door of the same products and services your practice offers. This type of repetitive content is unlikely to be shared.
- Know when to post for best results.
- Use images whenever possible. According to Hubspot, Facebook posts with images get 2.3x more engagement than those without images. Consider adding more personal images as well, such as photos of your office, your team, or your patients. This lets readers get a glimpse at the faces behind the computer, and it adds a personal, familiar touch to your posts that can’t be gained with stock images alone.
- Consider creating a weekly themed post. This gives your fans something unique and interesting to look forward to on a regular basis. Maybe you want to highlight a recent article you read, inspirational images, or products your practice recommends.
- Share or repost interesting updates from other businesses. Give your readers a range of information by sharing relevant information posted by other practices, industry leaders, or medical associations. This can also be a good way to help build a referral network.
- Share something silly every now and then. It’s true that the medical industry has a reputation for being serious, but adding silly content to your page just for the sake of sharing the joy can make you more relatable. Funny yet relevant comics, relatable e-cards, cute videos, and even animated reaction GIFs might seem off-topic, but these types of posts are often widely liked and shared. These can be great for extending your reach if your practice’s name is attached to the content.
- Come up with interesting topics. Don’t be afraid to change things up! If you need help with this, try one of our favorite tools, Answer The Public, which can help you get an idea of what your patients might be searching for or interested in.
These tips can go a long way in shaping your existing Facebook posts into something your fans will naturally be interested in. It can take time to master all of this, but even small steps can help increase your content’s shareability—and don’t forget that we’re always here to help!

2. Engage With Your Audience

Now that you’ve created your shareable posts, it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the Shares and Likes roll in. Just kidding! The hidden “Part 2” to your shareable content journey is the engagement factor. Your audience will react and respond to your content, and they’ll also voice their own questions, comments, and concerns. Everyone wants to feel like they’re being heard, and responding to these inquiries shows your patients and potential patients that you’re invested in the discussion.

One thing to keep in mind with Facebook is that if you’re in the habit of responding quickly, users will see your estimated response time right on the page. This estimate shows your attentiveness, which can be a great signal for potential patients on Facebook. So, don’t forget that taking even a few minutes to respond to your followers can go a long way.

With the skills you’ve learned in this post, you’re already on your way to growing your medical practice on Facebook. Next time in our blog series, we’ll teach you how to enhance your Facebook campaign with promoted posts!
June 16, 2017
Growing Your Practice on Facebook, Part 1: Why Facebook Matters

It’s no secret that Facebook isn’t going away anytime soon. Even with predictions a couple of years ago that the social media giant would lose a significant portion of its users to other contenders like Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Snapchat, they’ve managed to see steady growth. Since that prediction in 2015, they’ve gone from 1.2 billion monthly users to nearly 2 billion.

So, let’s address the elephant in the digital room here. Is your practice on Facebook?

In this series, we’ll break down the ins and outs of the best ways to reach your patients through Facebook, going over everything from advertising and shareable content to privacy rights and how to find the right images.

Before we get into details of using Facebook to bring in more patients, let’s break down a broader question: Why is Facebook so important for your practice?

Social Media Humanizes Medical Practices

When’s the last time you talked with your patients outside of the office? In a report from the Health Research Institute, Ed Bennett, who oversees social media efforts at the University of Maryland Medical Center, notes, “If you want to connect with people and be part of their community, you need to go where the community is.”

By using Facebook to interact with patients, physicians can create a dialogue that builds trust. Some patients may feel uncomfortable scheduling an appointment when all they wanted was to ask a personal medical question. Sometimes questions are just easier to ask through a direct message or comment rather than over the phone or in person.

By commenting on, responding to, and answering questions directly through Facebook, unforeseen walls begin to break down. The best part? That starts to become what your practice is known for. Your medical office gets a reputation for being the place to go where people won’t feel afraid to ask about a diagnosis or procedure, how it affects them, or what their options are. It becomes the ideal venue for open communication. You’re no longer just a resource for patients when they come to your practice; you’re there for them at any time.

Think about it this way. The average user checks their Facebook account daily. Will your practice be there to start a conversation when they log on?

Expertise, Industry Experience, Specializations—Go Ahead and Tout It

To go along the philosophical questioning of whether the falling tree in the forest makes any sound, are a physician’s best certifications and qualifications of value to patients if nobody knows about them?

According to Search Engine Watch, nearly 90% of respondents aged 18–24 said they would trust medical information shared by others on their social media networks. This is also coming from a demographic that is more likely to share this information. Facebook gives physicians the tools to share their specific knowledge and expertise. Got a recent press release or blog post about a new technique offered exclusively at your practice? Put it on Facebook. It will demonstrate your expertise in your field while providing a great avenue for your patients to engage with and share this information.

Also, in a time where anyone can share information and claim it as fact or scientifically true, physicians have the capability and responsibility to make sure accurate, helpful information is reaching their current and potential patients.

It’s All About Relevance

Just as you shouldn’t make updating your Myspace page or LiveJournal your top priority anymore, you should be posting and staying up-to-date on Facebook to make your medical practice more relevant to what’s going on in your patients’ lives. It shows you’re a part of the online community, and ideally, it garners more traffic to your website and office.

Ultimately, Facebook is more than just a place to share family pictures, an exciting recipe, or an awkward political conversation with an uncle. It’s a powerful resource for medical practices to reach their patients on a more personal level. Your patients are already there. We can show you how to utilize social media to find them and make them advocates for your practice. Reach out to us to learn how to implement a social media plan for your practice.

For more information, stay tuned for our next blog post, which will teach you how to create and share content that moves your audience.

June 14, 2017
#FreelanceFriday: Finding More Time in Your Schedule to Freelance

This blog is part of our Freelance Friday series, where we discuss everything and anything related to freelancers. For more freelance information, tips, and trends, follow us on Twitter.

“I don’t have time…”

As writers, we have all said it at one time or another, most likely as an excuse for not writing more. And let’s not kid ourselves here, it is most certainly an excuse. There are 24-hours in the day for everyone. So, why can only some people pull off a freelancing side gig?

Deciding to add freelancing to your daily schedule probably didn’t seem like that big of a deal at first. You can make your own schedule and work from anywhere at anytime. That all sounds great (and it really is!), but you still have to find the actual time to do it. It can certainly be tempting to let freelancing take a back seat to other tasks and priorities in your life—but don’t let it happen!

For those who truly want to do it, they find the time. Freelancing (and writing in general) are choices. Likewise, you have to choose to find the time. Time management techniques and organizational skills can be developed and utilized easily. In the end, freelancing is all about scheduling and prioritization, especially when you are still working full-time at another job. Make those and other strategies for time management work for you and you will discover the time.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. Here are a few tips that will help you fit your freelance business into your schedule.

Assess and Make A Schedule

We have talked about time management tips a lot—and for good reason. It is the key to freelancing. Start by evaluating your daily schedule. When do you wake up? Eat lunch? Work at other jobs? Go to bed? Fill in the intervening times with potential availability to freelance. Not all of it; just when it works well for you. There are tons of time management tools to help you with this.

When you are getting started or overhauling your time management, try timing how long it takes you to complete this work. Work on improving that time, as well as adjusting your schedule as you need or see fit.

Strengthen Time Management Skills

Even if you are able to find the time, it is equally important to use that time well. Because this time is so valuable, you need to have a clearly defined time management schedule—prioritize, avoid distractions, stay organized, etc.

Try working in small pockets of time in between bigger tasks. While you are waiting for the water to boil while cooking, on breaks at your normal job, during your commute, etc. The start and stop nature of this doesn’t work for everyone, but all of these small increments can add up quickly for those who can make it work.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say No

Such an easy word to say, but one that most people are so hesitant to utter. Learning to say no can help your freelance life in more ways than one.

First, it allows you to decline jobs that you are not fully interested or invested in. Why waste precious time on something you don’t want to do in the first place? Doing this could prevent you from working on an assignment or project that is more aligned with your thoughts and aspirations.

Second, saying no can also be employed in order to free up more time to do the actual work. If you made previous plans for multiple nights of the week, think about canceling or turning one of them down beforehand. A lot of work can be accomplished in a single extra evening.

For best performance, you also need to learn how to say no to TV, social media, and other time-consuming forms of entertainment as often as possible.

Find Your Peak Hours

Most people already know if they are night owls, early birds, or in-betweeners. Whatever time of day, it’s all about finding that time period where your drive and mental capacity are at their highest and you are able to do your best work (speed and quality-wise).

That is not to say that your peak hours have to be consecutive. Maybe you can work well at multiple points throughout the day. In fact, you can probably train yourself to work better at one time or another. Try to get as much done as you can in those times—as long as you keep things consistent and don’t waste time figuring out where you left off before.

By finding and using these hours effectively, you will be able to get more done faster without the common plague of interruptions. Whether you like working into the wee hours of the morning or you are an early riser who can get things done with a hot cup of coffee, there exists a time especially for you.

Outsource Your Work

Admittedly, this tip may not be for everyone. But, if you are capable, it can be a huge timesaver to help you budget time. By subcontracting out lesser, but still necessary, chores, you can free up time to perform your freelance work.

So many things (some obvious, others not so much) can be outsourced, including house cleaning, bookkeeping, laundry, cooking, lawn maintenance, house repairs, child care, pet care, and grocery delivery. Not all of these are needed, of course. But find one that fits your budget and schedule, then get to work—this isn’t new found free time, it’s extra time.

In the end, to find more time for freelancing is a gradual process. Find what works for you and allow for adjustments and new routines along the way. Freelancing is still a job, no matter how much time you devote. The changes may not be easy at first, but they are more than doable if you want your freelance career to succeed.

Image Sources:

No Time

John Candy—No

Dog Doing Chores

June 9, 2017
NEW ORLEANS, May 24, 2017 — The Plastic Surgeon’s Guide to Press Releases
Search Influence has done a little blogging about press releases in the past, but now it’s time to kick things up a notch—or 16 billion notches. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Americans spent roughly $16 billion on plastic surgery in 2016, which is an all-time high. With thousands of plastic surgeons vying for a place in this lucrative industry, your practice should be using every tool at its disposal to keep up with the competition. One such tool is the press release.

All About Press Releases

The press release is THE classic public relations tool. It’s over 110 years old, but don’t worry—it’s still very relevant. The modern press release is published online and distributed through networks like PRWeb. A press release can inform media outlets about a newsworthy event related to your practice. Not only is this great for publicity, but it also helps with SEO. When reputable news sites run your press release or write a story about it, they provide authoritative backlinks to your website, which makes your website more authoritative in turn.

Now, if you’re low-key panicking about what PRWeb, SEO, and backlinks even are, stop. Take a deep breath. Then, contact Search Influence to get all your questions answered.

If you’re already an SEO pro, great! Let’s move on to exactly what you should talk about in your practice’s press releases.

Good, Newsworthy Topics

Step one of writing a good a press release is choosing a newsworthy topic to write about. You should think of it as an announcement, not an advertisement. Press releases are not intended to hype your friendly customer service, compassionate care, or other unique selling propositions. They should not include a personal point of view, like “we” or “you,” and they should not include any promotional language. You probably are an exceptional surgeon who provides stunning, natural results, but PRWeb will probably reject your press release if you say as much. Instead, focus your press release on important recent events or developments.

Here are some great ideas for topics to write about, courtesy of InboundMD:
- Celebrating Milestones or Anniversaries
- Participating in Community Events
- Hiring New People
- Acquiring New Equipment
- Offering New Services or Treatments
- Opening a New Location
- Winning Awards or Honors
- Speaking at a Conference
- Publishing a Study
All of these topics let you announce a new event or development that might capture readers’ attention. They also all provide the opportunity to frame your business as an objective leader in your field. A lot of practices could run ads claiming top-of-the-line equipment, but fewer practices could back up their claim with an objective and authoritative news story about acquiring new equipment. Press releases are a factual way to set yourself apart from other practices and stand out to potential patients.

Sections of a Press Release

Now that you have an idea of what to write about, let’s move on to some practical how-tos. Press releases follow a very specific format, and the sections are as follows:
- Title
- Summary
- Body
- Boilerplate
The title should concisely announce your newsworthy topic. It should include your company name and an action verb.

The summary should build on your announcement with engaging details to draw in the reader. For example, if the title announces that you published a study, the summary can explain how that study might impact surgical procedures or medical treatments in your field.

The body is where the majority of the writing takes place. It should begin with a dateline, formatted like the image below:

The dateline should be followed by a strong hook or lead to capture the reader’s attention. Then, the rest of the introduction paragraph should provide the reader with all the key details they need to know about your announcement. The following paragraphs should build upon these core details, until the final paragraph, which should briefly include your contact information.

The body should be written in the third person, and language should remain objective, rather than promotional. However, you can include one or more quotations, from yourself or another knowledgeable figure, that can bend these rules a bit. A quotation can say, “I am proud of my practice’s dedication to technological advancements.” The rest of the body cannot. This is because the quotation is clearly attributed to an individual and framed as an opinion.

The final section is the boilerplate, which is a brief, objective description of your practice.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Unfortunately, no list of things to do is complete without a list of things NOT to do. Press releases have fairly strict editorial guidelines, and as you know, the medical industry is heavily regulated. The following are some common mistakes made in plastic surgery press releases and how you can avoid them.

It’s been mentioned several times already, but do not use promotional language or treat your press release like an ad. Objective language will not only get your press release accepted by PRWeb and news outlets, but it will also lead to more compelling writing. Again, tons of doctors claim that their practice offers experienced, well-trained care. You can prove that your practice offers such care by running a press release about the impressive experience and credentials a new hire brings to your practice.

Don’t include general business information, except for your contact information and the boilerplate. It isn’t news that your practice offers Juvederm, Radiesse, and other injectable fillers. A lot of practices offer that. It is news, however, that your practice is the first in your area to offer a brand new line of injectable fillers. If you find yourself filling space with general business information, it might be a sign that you should choose a more in-depth topic.

Don’t make any promises unless they are backed up by studies and statistics. This is not only because such promises can be too promotional for a press release, but also because everyone from Google to the American Medical Association has strict rules against misleading patients. Even seemingly innocuous claims about natural-looking or proportionate results can be flagged as misleading, as results can vary based on a large number of genetic and situational factors. To be safe, include reputable citations for all claims, and it doesn’t hurt to follow up with a disclaimer like “results may vary.”

Ready to Start?

This information should put you well on your way to writing the perfect press release for your plastic surgery practice. If you still have questions, or would rather leave the writing work to us, contact Search Influence! We’re happy to help.

Images:

Deciphering the Internet
May 24, 2017
Top 5 Ways to Bounce Back from a High Bounce Rate

Growing up in New Orleans, hearing the word “bounce” means something completely different to most people. I hear the word “bounce” and immediately think of the music! After starting at Search Influence at the end of 2014, I learned that “bounce” also had a meaning in the digital marketing world.

Bounce rate is a value given to hits on a website from users that don’t stay on the site after viewing a page. This value indicates to Google that you might have uninteresting content or spammy content that users aren’t interested in.

Though I’d like to take this blog in my usual direction (Beyoncé-themed), I will be paying homage to bounce music, the only bounce reference in my life until I was 29 years old. With the help of some local talent, here are the top five ways to help decrease bounce rate on your site.

1: Interesting Content Updates

Updating your website content to get Google to crawl your site is a great way to decrease your bounce rate. If you find yourself with a high bounce rate, try updating your content with industry news or new services you are providing. The best way to show Google, and your potential customers, that you are an expert in your field is to use fresh, up-to-date, informative content on your site.

The way your content is displayed is also a part of this. Bulleted lists and paragraphs that are broken up into smaller “chunks” to display your information in a reader-friendly way are helpful in getting clients engaged and staying on your site.

2: Navigation Updates

Your navigation should be incredibly user-friendly so that users will be able to learn about you and your business. There should be a clear path a client can follow with your top level navigation, but not too packed where the user is overwhelmed. If there are too many options, then your user experience might need some work.

This is also true for sidebars. If you have a sidebar on your site that is embedded in the template (i.e. it shows up on every page) make sure the links here are relevant for all the pages on your site. This is usually a call to action button (learn more, get a quote, etc.) Having an attractive sidebar can help lead people further into your site and decrease bounce rate.

3: Become a Google Analytics Wizard

Bounce rate is something that is documented in Google Analytics. Understanding where these numbers come from, what pages they are occurring on, what referral sites they are from, and almost 100 other factors are keys to decreasing your bounce rate. This step could be the trickiest, but that’s OK!

Hiring a company like Search Influence is the easiest way to accomplish this step. Google has special training and certifications for their products so that people like me (and my fellow co-workers) can be masters at reading all of this amazing data so that you don’t have to.

4: Enhance the User Experience

There are a few things that you can add or take away from your site to enhance the user experience. If you currently have multiple pop-ups or widgets on your site to help push for sales, this may be an indicator of why your bounce rate is high. Users are less likely to click on these if they aren’t engaged in your site. Make sure that these aren’t bombarding the client during their natural reading of your content.

Inversely, if you have a high bounce rate but no particular ad experience on your site, add some! Just be thoughtful about it. Adding catchy call-to-actions to get people to click further through your site is helpful in decreasing bounce rate.

5: Update Metadata

Making your site reader friendly for SERPs will not only decrease your bounce rate but also increase your organic ranking for Google. It’s a two-fer! If your landing pages have descriptive, catchy titles along with meta descriptions to entice the reader, you will be guiding Google and its users to the page they are looking for. Bounce rate commonly occurs when someone has landed on a page that they aren’t looking for. They quickly click off of the page because it’s not the information they need. If you have strong metadata, Google will know exactly which user you should be targeting and bring them to you.

Bounce rate can affect your site’s performance as well as your business goals. Knowing what could be the culprit for your high bounce rate or preemptively updating your site to keep a low bounce rate is a marketing must for your strategy. It’s something that is manageable with the help of an expert digital marketing guru who also knows a thing or two about “bounce.”

Images:

Big Freedia

Juvenile

Mannie Fresh

Birdman

Lil Wayne

May 23, 2017