We’ve previously written about other clinicians that healthcare organizations can feature in their content besides physicians.
As healthcare organizations look to highlight other experts, it’s important that these experts have certain characteristics that will make their participation in the blog successful—or at least less of a headache.
Here are 5 characteristics to look for in the clinicians you want to feature on your healthcare organization’s blog:
They’re really passionate about helping patients.
Some clinicians love their jobs in medicine for the intellectual challenge. Others also love building relationships with people.
Ideally, the clinicians you feature on your healthcare organization’s blog will love both, but if it has to be one or the other, having strong patient relationships is your best bet for a good clinician to feature.
They have a really interesting, insightful perspective.
They are not afraid to give an opinion based on their experience or convictions. In fact, you worry that you’re going over time because they are talking too much.
They are good with rapid communication via email or text.
If the clinician takes days to respond to an email, voicemail or text message, he or she may not be a good fit as the voice of the blog. That’s because if your blog gets an interesting or concerning comment on the website or social media, you want to respond in 24 hours or less. If you’d like the clinician to respond personally or approve a pre-crafted response, a quick turnaround is key.
The clinician is available.
Yes, clinicians are busy, but one of the main ingredients for a successful healthcare blog is a dedication of time.
For some of our clients, we have a standing call with the hospital’s featured clinicians every month or every other week to gather their insights for blog posts. For other clients, their clinicians know to look out for an email with questions each month.
The clinicians also have to make time to review the content before it goes live. You want to make sure they are available to dedicate this time to the blog.
They get blogging.
As one surgeon said to me:
Healthcare is becoming increasingly complex, and we’re asking our patients to do more and more. So we have to find a way to educate them so they can make informed decisions.
To him, offering insight to the blog is not an inconvenience. Nor is it merely a marketing tool. Instead, he sees participating in the healthcare organization’s blog as part of his personal mission and his healthcare organization’s responsibility to educate patients.
That’s the mentality you want the clinicians you feature on your blog to have.
