While writing comes naturally to some, most medical professionals who decide to take on the task of medical blogging quickly realize that they aren’t one of those kinds of people. As a medical professional, you’ve dedicated your life to knowing how to perform procedures like colon and rectal surgery, not how to write to an audience about it. Because of this, it can be very difficult for doctors or other medical workers to feel like they’re having success with their blogging efforts. So to help with this, here are three tips that can make your medical blogs a little easier to write and better to read.
Understanding Your Blogging Goal
Before you can truly have a good handle on your blogs, you have to know the reasoning behind your desire to blog. According to Alison Ritchie, a contributor to ModernMedicine.com, simply knowing what the goal of your blog is can make your blogging that much more impactful. For example, if you want to get more patients to your practice, the execution of your blogs will be much different than if your goal is to solidify yourself as a public figure about health-related issues. Once you’ve nailed down what you want your blog to help you accomplish, it will become much easier to create a blogging strategy as well as write your individual blog content.
Know and Convey the Purpose of Your Blog
While the goal and the purpose of your blog may sound like the same thing, they are actually quite different. The goal of your blog is something personal to you while the purpose of your blog relates to what you want your readers to get out of your content. For example, Simon Sikorski, a contributor to PhysiciansPractice.com, shares that many medical blogs see the most success when they stick to a specific topic. By focusing on one medical topic for the majority of your posts, you will find that both you and your audience have a better understanding of what to expect from your content. This will also make your blogs more effective for SEO purposes because you’ll become an online authority around the specific focus in which you’ve chosen.
Watch Your Medical Jargon
Because you’re not a super experienced writer, it can be difficult to take off your medical hat and put on your writer hat. One of the things within your writing that will make this obvious to your readers is if you use a lot of medical jargon that they have a hard time wrapping their heads around. Lynn of WriterAccess.com states that using your medical jargon is perfectly fine if your intended audience is other medical professionals. But if you’re writing to patients or those who aren’t as versed in medical terminology, leave the medical jargon at the door when you sit down to write your blogs. To see if you’ve done this effectively, have someone that isn’t a medical professional read your blog before you post it to see if they have any questions regarding your phrasing.
The Internet is used a lot by people who have medical questions. And by writing blogs, you’re tapping into this pool of people to help make your medical career more successful. Use the tips mentioned above to get even more traction out of your blogs and reach an even wider and more loyal audience.
Originally posted on April 14, 2016 @ 9:02 am
