Russ And Randy Podcast | Healthcare's Prescription For Web & Social

About 50-75% of doctors do NOT stay with their first job for a variety of reasons.  Many times, the doctor will move to a new location just outside of the restrictive covenant.  How can your patients easily and quickly find your new location?  Here are a few tips to get your new contact information on the Internet...and found by your existing patients. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Organic traffic to your website is the best for growing your practice, but is there value in paying for traffic such as pay per click (e.g. Google AdWords), YouTube ads or Facebook boosts?  You may be surprised to learn why we feel Facebook outweighs the others because of its ability to target an audience so much more effectively than the others and is why we feel "paid advertising" may be worth some of your marketing dollars!    Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

We talk about two types of transparency.  Operating a transparent business often leads to improved patient experience.  Are you able to define the goals of your practice and share them, e.g. patient care.   Personal transparency requires sharing elements of "who you are" as a person rather than "what you are" as a professional.  Physicians are typically afraid of transparency, but it can be a powerful way to engage your next patient and grow your practice. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Here's a quick laundry list of "must do" SEO tips to get your site ranking with the search engines.  These are some specific SEO tips you can implement immediately on your website to get you higher rankings and to grow your practice.  Some of these are "one and done" which we have discussed before.  For some of the other "best practices" we talk about YOAST, a free plugin to walk you through the optimization process.  If Russ and I can learn it, so can you! Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Uploading, optimizing and publishing your video can be easily in done in a just a few steps.  Video allows you to appeal to a different type of learner, but also has some practical advantages.  There are few disadvantages to the use of video.  We talk about how and where to optimize your video so YouTube can rank your videos and grow your practice.   Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Ever consider using video to increase your audience? Use of video can be a great addition to your digital marketing strategy to expand your audience and attract new followers and potential patients. Video can nicely augment your website and educational value of your content.  Educate your viewers in different ways than straight forward text. Creating videos for your website or video channel shouldn’t be a major Hollywood production nor be expensive. Listen why. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Choosing which social media platform to use for your medical practice is easier than you think.  Each has a different appeal and application for marketing.  Which one is best and how many should you use?  We discuss the merits of Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and few others for a medical practice or healthcare institution.  You'll be surprised to learn what Russ and I prefer.  Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Are you spamming your readers?  In past episodes, we discuss the importance of building an email subscriber list and using email to distribute your newsletters, website articles, etc.  This episode discusses the best practices to avoid scrutiny by the FTC.  Russ and I discuss some "easy" methods to ensure your emails are compliant with the FTC regulations prohibiting SPAM and a few ways to avoid spam filters. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Have you started to create an email address list of your patients and your Internet followers?  How do you use this list to best connect with your followers and patients?  An easy and effective way to take advantage of your email list is to automatically notify your subscribers of new content on your website.  In essence, they receive an email newsletter containing a link to your new article on your website.  This can be automatically set up requiring no extra work on your part.  There are so many advantages! Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Your web page now ranks, but how to best engage your reader and turn them into a patient?  Russ and I have several recommendations on how to best engage your reader and turn them into a patient.  There are different ways and methods to best engage your readers;  format your articles to make them easier to read and more engaging.  Russ advocates using a "call to action" in every article, but also he now uses as new "game."  We hope you like this episode! Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Steve Christiansen, M.D. started using social media before he became an ophthalmology resident. He is a true early adopter of social media, successfully using the platform to promote his eye care blog, grow the Ophthalmology following of the University of Iowa Ophthalmology department and the American Academy of Ophthalmology.  He has published a paper in the journal "Ophthalmology" regarding the use of Twitter in Ophthalmology.  Follow him @EyeSteve and www.EyeSteve.com. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Russ and I talk about the importance of writing to your patient persona.  What is your patient persona? The patient persona is your perfect patient, or your avatar.  When writing to your patient persona, your writing becomes more directed, engaging and valuable.  As physicians, we must remember we are not writing to the world, but just one patient at a time.   Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

  This interview was recorded "live" in a back hall of McCormick Place, Chicago.   In October, 2016, Randy interviews Andrew Doan, MD, PhD, ophthalmologist in Temecula, California.  Andy talks about his early adoption of websites and his interest in SEO.  He has formed a verified review company (Credential Protection) to help physicians improve their online reputation. He is author of the book: "Hooked on Games:  The Lure and Cost of Video Game and Internet Addiction."  Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

To rank get your website to rank, the best method is to produce original text articles for your website.  Sometimes it is simply too difficult to write and be creative.  Here are some personal tips on how Russ and I personally solve "writer's block."  Russ likes to exercise and I like to sit at my desk.  Listen for more ways we "break the block."   Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Creating content to boost your SEO is difficult. It is especially difficult if you hate to write.  Instead of writing, what can you do?  We discuss some options to writing articles for your website.  In most cases, you probably have some great sources right under your nose.  Russ and I talk about, effective options to publishing text articles for your website and improving your SEO...without writing.   Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

There are several hosting scenarios for your website.  These options vary by the amount of support your receive to maintain your website on their servers.  While you do not need IT support per se, your website needs to be maintained on healthy and secure servers.  Russ and I talk about the 3 levels of web hosting which vary in the amount of IT and maintenance support you can expect, including security and backups. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

For your website to achieve great rankings, you must produce relevant content on your website on a regular basis....but what does "regularly" mean?  How often should you be publishing on your website.  In this short episode (6 mins) we talk about the variables leading to the number of times you will need to dominate search terms in your market.  Enjoy! Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

This interview was conducted at the AAO Chicago meeting this past October.  Rob Melendez, M.D. is managing partner of Eye Associates of New Mexico.  Rob has been instrumental in his own and his practice's marketing with social media.  Listen why you must engage social media and to his 4 tips to marketing successfully with Facebook. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

The three most important pages of your website are the Home, About and Contact pages.  Each has an important function in the process of patient engagement.  The Home page gives you the opportunity to convey what services your provide.  The About page should convey personal and business information and Contact page, perhaps the Call-to-Action to allow your next patient to contact you and make an appointment. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Wordpress is the most popular CMS (content management system) in the world for your website...and without exception. There are two versions.  We are really only discussing the advantages of Wordpress.org.  (The Wordpress.com version has too many limitations and we do not recommend this platform at all.)  Wordpress is cheap, easy to use, the best for SEO and provides turn-key themes which can be customized. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social