https://twitter.com/

There are a few important things to remember, however, when creating a Twitter account:

1. Choose your Twitter username wisely. If possible, make it as close to your business name as you can. If your business name is taken, consider creating [service + city name] as your Twitter username. Example: OBGYNChicago. Having these important keywords in your username will make you appear higher on search engine results.
2. You will need a square logo. The profile images in Twitter are very small so it is best to have an iconic image and avoid using text if possible. If you must use text, keep the text size very large and use small words so that it can be seen in the thumbnail view of your profile image.
3. Design an appropriate Twitter background image. Properly branding your Twitter page is important. You don’t get a lot of space to do this, however and it will look different depending on the monitor size whichever computer is being used to view your Twitter page. It is a good practice to keep all of your text and important information in the left-most 200 pixels of your Twitter page background image.
4. Link to Facebook. You can send your tweets to Facebook or send your Facebook posts to Twitter, whichever is more convenient for you.

Before getting started it is important to understand the difference between a Personal Facebook Account and a Business Facebook Page. You must have a Personal Facebook Account in order to create a Business Facebook Page. To set up a Personal Facebook Account, go to www.facebook.com and follow the steps to set up a personal account. Your personal Facebook account will be the administrator to your Business Facebook Page.  It is important to know that multiple personal Facebook accounts can be administrators to a Business Facebook Page. There is not a separate login and password to a Business Facebook Page so you will just use your personal Facebook account to access it.

1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/pages and click “Create Page”
   
2. Select “Local Business or Place”
   
3. Fill out your location information and click “Get Started.” When choosing a category, “Health/Medical/Pharmacy” or “Hospital/Clinic”
4. Upload a photo. Usually your logo is best to use in this case. It is important that your photo is square.
5. Fill out some basic info about your practice. It is important to list major services and doctors names in this area.
6. IMPORTANT: remember to put your website link where it says “For example: your website, Twitter page or Yelp link.” This will create a link from your Facebook page to your practice website. Click “Save Info” when done.
   
7. That’s it. You’ve created your Business Facebook Page! You can now start posting as your business. (Start by clicking “Like” on your own page)

In order to manage your Facebook Business Page properly, it is important to understand how to switch back and forth between your personal Facebook account and your Facebook Business Page. When you first log into your personal Facebook account, there will be menus down the left side of the page. You should see “pages” as one of the menus with your Facebook Business Page listed. Clicking the link will allow you to manage your business page. You can also find your business page by typing the name of your Facebook Business Page into the search box at the top of Facebook.

*note: this tutorial was written in April 2012. Since Facebook continually changes their user interface, these instructions may eventually become out of date. For more help, visit the Facebook help page: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=167124440013852

1. Know your goals.
   Is the purpose of your site to get new patients, support current patients, set surgical appointments or educate your patients on a specific topic? It is important to know what the measure of success is before starting your medical web design project.
2. Gather information about your practice.
   Basic practice information like addresses, phone numbers, provider CV’s, white papers, publications and in-office documentation are a few of the things you are going to need.
3. Make sure you have good pictures and videos.
   Your potential patients are looking to make a connection with you. Choosing a doctor is a very personal decision and good photos will make or break a medical website design. Make sure you have good head-shot photos of all of the providers from the just below the shoulders. Also, action-shots are very useful, photos inside the OR or pictures of the waiting room will demystify potential patients to the comfort of your facility.
4. Make a list of your forms, privacy notices and handouts.
   One of the main reasons patients return to the website is to download and print out patient forms. These should be in PDF format. If you are unable to convert them to PDF, your medical website design firm should be able to do that for you.
5. Find out if your EMR has an online patient portal or secure online patient forms.
   Online patient records and online appointment setting are often easy to add to your website through your current EMR. If your system does not support this, your medical website design company may be able to offer solutions that are HIPPA compliant.
6. Content is king so find a medical web design company with medical content.
   Search engines want to provide searchers with the most relevant content possible. If your website only has a handful of pages, it is unlikely that you will show up for many search phrases. It is important to have a deep, rich website that contains dedicated landing pages on the procedures and services that are most important to your practice.
7. Look for hidden costs or fees.
   Aside from the cost of the website, how much are the monthly hosting fees? Is the website yours to own or are you basically renting it over the course of time? Ask about licensing fees or any other recurring costs.
8. Does the medical web design company also focus on website optimization?
   Title tags, meta tags, alt tags, on-page and off-page optimization, social media management, reputation management – are these terms familiar to your medical website design firm and do they offer these services? Find out how much optimization is included in your medical website package. Optimization is often an ongoing task because if you stop marketing your website, those who continue marketing may soon pass you in search engine ranking. Also remember that just because you develop a website doesn’t mean it will automatically rise to the top of search engines. It takes effort to get it there.
9. Stay away from Flash
   While it may seem pretty to have sliding text and a swirling introduction to your website, Flash animations cannot be seen on some devices. iPhone, for example won’t display Flash. Also, make sure that your website does not have auto-play sound. Many patients access your medical website at work and auto-play music is a sure-fire way to make them close your website down fast.
10. What other value-added options are available?
    Consider interactive features for your website including social media integration, mobile web, patient education videos, mailing lists, job/career listings, patient education tutorials, eMinders, and patient satisfaction surveys. Ask if these features are available and what the cost to add them would be.

There are many other questions that can be asked such as “what kind of support is available after my site is launched?” and “can I edit my own website whenever I want?” For more help on how to choose the right medical website design, set up an appointment to talk to a medical website design adviser.

Is your practice using Google Apps for Email and Calendaring?  Do you have an iPhone or iPad and looking for the best approach to setup your device to access your practice email and calendar?  The linked article by ReadWriteWeb.com provides detailed instructions for setting up your mobile device with your Gmail or Google Apps accounts.

” Setting up mail and calendar accounts on an iPad or iPhone isn’t that hard to do. But for Gmail users, it’s trickier than it needs to be. It’s not hard to set up the basic accounts, but features like multiple calendars, “Send Mail As,” contact sync, and server-side deletion of messages take some finagling… ” Learn more by reading the full article at ReadWriteWeb.com

Who better to manage your online reputation and create a positive first impression, than you? Here’s a couple of free on-line profile services to consider.

About.me

Think of it as an on-line business card, About.me is an online service that allows providers to create a professional on-line profile.

Start by creating a profile on www.about.me and then linking your profile to your practice website (or directly to your physician profile or bios). Your splash page points visitors to your content from around the web – including social media sites, review sites and email, should you wish. Your profile also provides some basic stats – i.e., how many people see your profile, where they’re coming from, and what they do on your page.

View an example.

Zerply

Zerply is great way to present yourself professionally on-line. They offer professionally designed templates, including mobile. What’s unique, patients can give you an endorsement and help build your “personal brand”.

How to promote your profile

So you’ve set up a profile but not really sure how to use or promote it. Here are some handy suggestions:

• Add it to your physician bio or profile page
• Add it to a hospital and or payor provider directory
• Add it to your Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter accounts, or blog
• Add it to your e-mail footer
• Print it on your business card

Where to start

Plan. Start by determining what you’re trying to accomplish. This will set the course for what you need to improve upon with your website. For example, if you feel that your website isn’t coming up when searching for vague terms such as “hysterectomy”, or “ent doctor”, realize you’re asking for the impossible. Be sure to be specific (and realistic) on what you’re trying to do well with in terms of search engine results.  Are your trying to be found for a particular service in a certain geographical area? Remember – health care is for the most part local.. Be sure to include those words or phrases within the content and markup of your website. Give some thought about what your business metrics need to be to determine success? Are they based on conversions, pageviews, patients or some other measure? Strategy should identify the tactical, not the other way around.

Research. Determine what your visitors are searching for online, how it relates to you and create content that is relevant. It’s important to consider how patients will be searching for this information and not necessarily how you think they should be searching.

Write Content. Yes it’s true … content is king. Without relevant website content there’s little, if any, SEO can improve. Bottom line – create useful accessible content to earn links and references from relevant, credible sources that ultimately lead to higher search engine rankings and greater traffic.

Measure Accessibility. Make your website pages and materials accessible and optimized for search engines so they can properly display it when relevant searches are performed. Here’s where you may need to rely on your web developer for some help.

Next Steps

So now you have a sense of what needs to be done, its time to identify who is going to get it done.

Website content. If you’re adding content (and hopefully you are), consider whether to use someone internal or external to write copy. Regardless of who is writing your content, be sure that they follow a content model.  You’ll want a consistent tone and an organized approach. Random content that doesn’t enhance usability nor convey the right message will impair your visitor’s experience. Another key consideration – is this person familiar with SEO? Since optimization starts with good content, not having the right person develop this content with SEO in mind may mean redoing things.

Updating website code. While many firms provide SEO guidance, the reality is that your current website developer will most likely need to implement those changes. You don’t want an SEO firm mirroring your website simply to make coding changes. This can negatively impact your desired results. Also if you’re on a content management system, some of the suggestions made may require recoding that can typically be done with your current website developer. Its not to say that someone else cannot make these changes but they will need to get up to speed on your application, host environment and your website. Additional time spent will likely mean a higher budget to implement. And if the SEO expert breaks something in the process, you’ll need to contact your current website developer to get it fixed. Finally, keep in mind that you’ll need to provide ftp access to this outside company in order for them to make changes. If you offer any secure services on your website, you may not want to give this information out.

Link building. Bottom line it’s the quality of your inbound links, not the quantity. Google, and other search engines, see inbound links as a vote of popularity. Be sure to have your website listed on online directories that are relevant to health care, and more importantly your specialty.  Search engines reward websites that provide relevant search query results. Simply by listing your site on multiple unrelated directories will have little, if any, SEO value.

Keep in mind, it’s the tried and true, that wins the SEO race.

Let’s start with the domain name

Chances are at some point, someone from your group registered a domain name through a domain registrar such as GoDaddy or Network Solutions, or through the IT company you do business with.

When its time to develop or redesign your website, one of the first questions your website developer will ask you is the log-in information to the registrar of your domain name. If you’re like some groups, you’ve may have not done a good job at keeping your registration information current.

What may be even worse is that whoever originally registered your domain name may not have listed you as the registrant and administrative contacts – the way that registrars confirm who owns and has access to the domain. This contact can make changes to it, such as updating passwords and where your domain name points.

What you can do

• Find out how your domain is currently registered and what the contact information is by visiting www.whois.sc.

• Regardless of who registers your domain, insist that the contact information for both the registrant and administrative record for the domain is the legal owner of the domain. Do not allow your IT vendor, or anyone else, be listed as the registrant or administrative contact.

• Be sure to utilize a generic email address such as info@ or admin@. This will ensure that if someone leaves the practice, control over the domain name doesn’t go with them.

• Keep track of your domain name’s expiration date and who the registrar is. There are many registration services that solicit you into migrate your domain without your knowledge.

Website maintenance

One of the most asked questions we hear from potential clients is how they can make changes to their website themselves. Most firms today provide a content management tool that allows clients to easily manage website updates themselves without contacting their website developer. Since this is a crucial part of your website, it is a good idea to know what type of content management system they are using – a database driven application or website editor.

What you should know

Be sure to ask what content management system (CMS) your developer uses. Also take time to familiarize yourself with how easy (or not!) it is to make changes using this application. While all CMS’s allow you to make changes to your website, there may be some limitations based on the type of application used.

Open-Source CMS

There are many database driven applications available – Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, to name a few. However, these popular open-source CMS programs tend to be a target for hackers. Generally there are updates (software) available to minimize the risk of an attack. Be sure to budget for these updates.

On the host server, there are also software version updates. This may also dictate that you update your CMS or your website may not work properly. Bottom line, you can’t just set it and forget it. These types of applications require ongoing maintenance.

Finally, keep in mind that because the applications rely on server configurations, they may not be as easy to migrate (move) to a different host without some additional development time. This can get costly, depending on what reconfiguration is needed.

Website Editors

There are also a number of website editors, such as Adobe Contribute. These applications may run client-side (from your desk-top) or through a hosted provider via the web.

Some scripting is added to website pages during development. This allows you to make website changes to editable regions. Since these pages are files that sit on your account on the server, you can migrate existing website files to a new host without much reconfiguration.

However, as new browser versions are made available, older editors may not be compliant. This does not mean your website will not display properly, only that you may not be able to continue to make changes using that application.

Don’t overlook content

Take this opportunity to re-evaluate your website structure (information architecture) and content. Think of this like moving. Wouldn’t you be cleaning out your closets, donating things to good will and, perhaps, buying that new refrigerator?

Chances are that over time, content has been added to your existing site without giving much thought to where and how best to add it.  You may not even know what content is on your current website. Now is the right time to take an inventory of that content, re-organize it and clean up your copy. Also, come up with a plan for how to best add content in the future.

Let’s talk about search engine optimization

There are many online marketing firms who will vie for your business. While they may provide much needed advice in how to better position your website on search engines, much of what needs to happen is driven off proper and compliant development practices.

A few things to consider:

• Is there ample content? It all starts with having good keyword rich, deep content on your site. Without content, there isn’t much a developer can work with to optimize.

• How is your website coded? Chances are that if it’s an older website, it may not be XHTML compliant and set-up for optimal load time. These elements may play a roll in how well your website is ranked. Be sure that if you’re developing a new website, that these good practices are used.

• Does your website have keyword rich file-naming conventions, relevant meta tags and valid mark-up? It’s best if your developer updates these items as they know your website and how it was originally coded. If you authorize an outside firm to do this, they may break something on your website. When redesigning your website, be sure that these items are there upon development.

One final thought – don’t forget to have some fun! Its your opportunity to be creative.

Let’s take a moment to learn what it all means.

Clarifying the Terminology

While many loosely equate hits with unique users, a “hit” really represents a single file request. For example, one page view may generate more than 10 hits.  The real focus should be on the number of visitors, and more importantly, the number of unique visitors. This will give you better insight as to how much traffic your site is seeing and if there is some stickiness (i.e., return visitors) to your traffic.

Types of Statistical Programs

Server-based Statistical Programs (Webalizer)

Every time something visits your website and requests a file (an HTML file, CSS file, JavaScript file, graphic file, Flash file, PDF document, etc), the web server records this information in your account’s log files. Things to keep in mind:

• All requests are counted as traffic including search engine bots.
• User agent strings offer minimal information and can be faked (to ensure sites do not block the browser).
• Server-based programs cannot normally assess a visitor’s screen resolution or whether they had JavaScript and Flash enabled.
• If a visitor is sharing the same IP address and or user agent string, the program will show that activity as the same visitor.
• Server log files cannot record cached files from either your browser or ISP’s proxy servers. When you enter a web address, you may see files returned from that proxy server rather than the originating website. As your site increases in popularity, you could even experience a drop in file access as more proxy servers cache your site. This is important as it will lower your reported visitor traffic.
• IP/user agents set a “visitor session” at different time intervals. For example:  access from the same IP/user agent with a 10 minute interval would reflect two sessions if a user who visits a page then waits 11 minutes before clicking a link elsewhere. But an application which assumed a 15 minute interval would only record only one visitor.

Client-side Data Collection and Analysis (Google Analytics)

Client-side data collection requires JavaScript code to be inserted on every page you want to analyze. Although many client-side programs produce informative reports, the data collection process is more volatile than server-side methods. Things to keep in mind:

• Client-side programs collect more detailed information such as the time spent on a page, clicked links, the screen resolution, etc.
• If users have JavaScript and cookies disabled or blocked, you will not be able to collect data from their activity. In general, you can expect around 5% of your traffic to not run JavaScript. Keep in mind that this will differ from site to site.
• If another script on your page causes an error it could prevent data collection either in general or with just one browser.

Physicians are responding by utilizing their practice site to not only provide healthcare information, but supplement communication with their patients. As medical practices increasingly develop their own web sites, standards, guidelines for use and liability are growing concerns.

Providing healthcare information on-line comes with an immense responsibility – both ethical and legal. If a practice web site provides healthcare information that is inaccurate or out of date, physicians may leave themselves open to legal risk and liability.

So what are the key points for a practice to consider when developing and maintaining their web site?

• Establish Web Site Review Group - A web site review group should propose and review site content – including linked sites – for accuracy, appropriateness and usage. Ensure that proper permission for usage is obtained from all sources.
• Familiarize Yourself With Established Guidelines - Familiarize yourself with ethical guidelines for on-line healthcare content from reputable ehealth organizations such as the URAC .
• Establish a Privacy Policy - Establish a posted web site privacy policy , site disclaimer(s) and, if appropriate, terms of use policy.
• Protect Privacy - Protect patient privacy when collecting personal medical information on-line through your web site by utilizing encryption technology and firewalls.
• Follow Privacy Policy - Follow the established practice privacy policy in all cases and in all respects.
• Adopt Standards & Process Adopt standards and process for on-going site content review and maintenance. This will ensure that the healthcare information provided on your site stays up to date.
• Consultant Site Review - To minimize liability, subcontract site review and content development to others outside the practice that have expertise in ewriting for healthcare organizations.
• Insurance Coverage - Obtain insurance coverage, or rider, to cover liability associated with your site. These policies are becoming much more common.

To adequately harness this rapidly developing trend, it is crucial that physicians and other healthcare organizations become aware of erisk issues, be proactive in addressing and managing these issues and make the informed decisions necessary to limit liability.

Say less

This is the most important thing. Because web users are generally scanning and not reading your text, the more concise the content, the better. A good approach is to write concisely, then cut, edit, boil down, paraphrase and finally trim.

Put important information first

Put essential information first. A quick overview helps the reader get the purpose of a page instantly, letting them make a quick judgement whether to read on for more detail.

Front-loading content

Put your most important content first. Doing so gets it above the “fold” and viewed without scrolling. It also aids scanning and helps the user to quickly decide whether to read on.

Front-loading also applies to paragraphs and sentences. Start paragraphs with the most relevant words, to work like a header to the paragraph.

Short and succinct

Remove any paragraphs, sentences and words that don’t directly help get your point across.

Use headlines and headings

A strong, attractive headline at the top of a page can make the difference between the page being read or not. So they attract the eye, headlines and lower-order headings benefit from being large and high-contrast. It needs a hook to catch your reader’s attention

Use headings within a document makes it easy to scan the document’s meaning. Good headings read like a bullet-point summary of the document’s contents, so a reader can scan down the page, get a quick idea of what’s there and decide whether to read on.

Web Link: 8 Examples of compelling headlines from Sitepoint.com.

Consider the user’s goals

The imperative voice (commanding) is attention-grabbing, so it should go at the front of a phrase. “Register for our event ” “Subscribe to our listserv” “Place order”.

Be factual, not cryptic

Use an appropriate tone. Your tone of voice should be immediately appropriate to the audience, and their relationship with your web site.

Don’t be cryptic. Don’t assume you have your audience’s attention. You really have to work to grab someone’s attention online.

Be factual. Being factual means avoiding starting with questions. Bottom line – TELL THEM QUICK, before they go!

Establish trust

Remember you’re operating in an environment of low trust and you only have a short opportunity to get your message across. Be enthusiastic, but not pushy.

Use active voice

English grammar uses two ‘voices’: active and passive.

• Active voice – is when something does something.
• Passive voice – is when something is done to something.

Active good, Passive bad. This is because passive voice uses slightly more words than Active, and takes slightly more decoding.

Source: www.webdesignfromscratch.com/writing_for_the_web.cfm