Fauquier ENT Reaches 5 Million Web Visits

It is with some amazement that a certain milestone was reached this past week...

Fauquier ENT's online presence received over 5,000,000 web visits since first coming into existence in 2004. This number includes practice website and blog.

There has been exponential growth year over year with daily web visits now averaging close to 8,000 hits per day with some occasional peak days exceeding 10,000 views.

Our YouTube channel has done even better on its own with over a QUARTER BILLION VIEWS since we first established it in 2007. As of today, our videos have collectively received over 228 million views, averaging 45,000 views per day.

Thanks for all the online support!

For a Physician, When is the Best Time To Tweet or Publish a Blog?

According to professional bloggers and tweeters, timing of content publication is important in order to maximize getting noticed and shared. From a general topics viewpoint (not healthcare specific; data taken from here):

• 4PM Eastern is the best time to Tweet
• Friday is the best day to Tweet
• 9AM Eastern is the best time to Facebook share
• Saturday and Sunday are the best days to Facebook share
• In the morning is the best time to blog
• Publishing a different blog article multiple times throughout the day is better than once per day

However, I've always wondered if such "rules" similarly apply to healthcare content as by their very nature, people tend to search a problem after seeing their doctor or seeing/reading it on the news.

Ever since I've been monitoring my website statistics starting in 2005, I've noticed some undeniable trends of "when" website activity occurs which presumably reflects "when" healthcare keyword searches occur.

For any given 24 hour period of time (graph shown below is for Nov 14-15, 2011), my ENT practice website got THE most activity between noon and midnight; peak activity being from noon - 3PM.

On a weekly basis (graph shown below is for Mon Nov 14 - Sun Nov 20, 2011), the greatest activity is Monday thru Wednesday after which web traffic drops off almost 50% by Saturday before bouncing back up 100% on Monday.

Such statistical fluctuations have been true for the past 5 years I've been tracking this stuff.

Now I certainly can't explain the "why" this phenomenon happens without more google analytics data from more healthcare websites, but I certainly can take advantage of this knowledge as it pertains to ENT problems (though I suspect that what is true for ENT is true of other health problems when it comes to web traffic).

How can I take advantage of this knowledge?

People are CONSTANTLY adding to the content found on the web, all vying for the attention of eyeballs. Being the first is important as it seems to me that google values original content (not copies that appear later), but just as important is "when" the content first appears as one would like to ride the wave of when healthcare keyword searches occur.

Overall, the holy grail is to come up with great original content, be the first to publish it, but publish it at the right time.

Great, Original Content

Good content is king and #1 in the priority of getting noticed. If your content stinks, being first and when you publish won't matter.

Be the FIRST to Publish

I can't prove it and I don't have supporting evidence for it, but it seems that google does prefer content that appears "first" over copies that appear later. The prime example is Associated Press articles that are syndicated and re-published over a wide variety of different newspaper websites throughout the world.

If google encounters the same exact article 100 times, how does it rank one over the other?

I suspect, it ranks based on two factors:

1) "Popularity" of the website publishing the content
2) Being the first to publish

Obviously, an individual only has control over timing. Take advantage of it.

WHEN to Publish

Though being the first to publish is important, the timing of when to publish is also extremely important. It's almost like surfing... You want to be the first to stake out a place to ride a wave... but you need to be where the waves are.

Given the dramatic... but consistent... fluctuations in healthcare web activity, it is better to wait and publish when people are actively searching. It is more likely to get noticed and hopefully shared, emailed, liked on facebook, tweeted, etc. Going viral is the goal all content publishers dream of.

So, WHEN is the golden moment to publish?

It is around 11AM on Mon, Tues, and Wed based on my limited data.


Conclusion

Now, do I even follow my own advice?

Not necessarily... I tend to go with the "be the first" rule regardless of the time, not because I feel it more important than the timing of publication, but it's just that I have so much other things to do (like taking care of patients), that if I come up with an idea to write about, I just publish it and not worry too much about timing.

BUT, if I do have a moment, I WILL tend to publish things timed between 11AM and 3PM during the week.

How To Approach Social Media as a Physician

Last year, I expressed why I bother blogging as a busy surgeon... but this article is more about how to approach social media as a physician.

There are numerous advice on the web how to get individuals and businesses involved in social media. Though much of this generic advice is applicable to surgeons and physicians, there are unique limitations as well as opportunities that apply only to such healthcare professionals.

I've also reached a few conclusions of my own regarding developing an online social media presence through trial and error since 2006 and certainly 2007 when I developed an overall game plan that has been tweaked over and over as I've gained experience.

1) Mission statement... As korny as this sounds, you need to have focus on what you are aiming for in order to develop a coherent strategy to not only create an online presence but to also grow it. Too often, I've come across physician twitter feeds that talk about literally everything under the sun with continuous commentary on everything and everyone. That's fine if your goal is to be the water cooler hang-out guru, but to have impact on the services you provide as a healthcare professional, focus is important. Focus is a two-edged sword however. With focus, your audience becomes small and encompass only those individuals who are interested in the same topic (or in this case, medical conditions you represent)... but their interaction with you and your healthcare business is much higher than an unfocused huge riotous mass of people with multiple dissimilar interests.

So a mission statement can be as simple as "To provide the best commentary on media topics related to ear, nose, and throat."

A secondary mission statement addendum can be "in order to build up my practice's brand name"... 

2) Really, who are we kidding? We all know that the end goal of any social media presence is to market "you" and your medical services.  Just keep in mind that whatever your persona may be in real life will now be represented by a "virtual" persona of you online and this online persona will potentially be the first time a patient interacts with you, even if you do not yet know they exist. Make sure it's a good impression... which increases the likelihood they will actually utilize your services in real life.

3) Create a blog... There are several free ones available... WordPress, Blogspot, Posterous, etc to name a few.

4) Write on a topic that pertains to your practice. It's VERY hard to come up with original material consistently, week after week, year after year. It's great if you can do it, but I'm just letting you all know that it's hard... and even harder when running your clinical practice at the same time.

So at least what I learned over the years is to "cheat"... I gain inspiration from what is published in magazines, newspapers, TV, etc. I than write about these published articles I find... and I criticize or at least evaluate it from a physician-in-the-know's perspective.

This serves several purposes. 

• I don't have to think about what topic I'm going to write about. I let the journalists do that for me. Believe me... it saves time.

• I write what I would have told patients if they brought this article to my attention during an appointment.

• The medical stuff patients are reading about in public is something they might suddenly start searching for... and gee whiz... wouldn't it be great if YOUR blog article on this very topic popped up. The media brings to the forefront of peoples' minds medical issues they want to talk about. What better time to add your voice to a problem you specialize in!

5) Make sure you link to your practice website from your blog article so that patients know how to reach you if they find you.

6) Make sure you have a good practice website to begin with.... It does not matter if you have a great online presence if your practice website stinks. Social media COMPLEMENTS your practice website. It does not replace it. You need both to have an ultimately successful social media presence that brings patients to your office.

7) Write blog articles often... I find the sweet spot to be about 3 per week. If you aren't actively writing, your social media presence will dwindle and fade away. Think of blog articles like growing a flower.

8) Now that you're writing blogs... how to make potential patients notice? The easiest way is to advertise your blog presence on your practice website. The downside with this approach is that if you don't get a lot of traffic to your website, it's going to be slow gaining an audience for your blog. As such, your blog needs help...

That's where FaceBook and Twitter come in which is where all your potential patients seem to hang out nowadays. These additional accounts should feed into your blog. To make less work for yourself, automate the process such that whenever you post a blog, it will automatically update your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

If all goes well, you will slowly build up a following for your social media accounts with correspondingly increased traffic to your website which ultimately leads to patient visits. It takes time so be patient!