How to Write an Effective Blog (While You're Busy Being a DC)
Naren Arulrajah
Innovations in information technology have completely changed the communication landscape in nearly every respect. However, blogging is one online activity that has continued to survive and thrive as a powerful source of information dissemination.
Blogging provides a very interesting and effective way for a chiropractor to reach out to potential patients and educate them about various existing and newly developing chiropractic treatments. Here are a few tips that can help a busy chiropractor engage in efficient blogging and do more with less.
Prepare an Advanced List of Probable Topics
When you are ready to churn out a chiropractic blog, your first step should be to generate a variety of relevant topics that could be of interest to your patients. Check out online magazines, websites, discussion forums, social networks, blogs and publications within your chiropractic vertical to get a pulse of the type of content that is doing well, or is a topic of discussion.
You may also want to check out Google Trends to know what kinds of topics are trending in your space. Keep adding to this list of probable topics as you come across an interesting idea.
Create the Outlines for a Few Topics
The best way to make blog writing more efficient is to create an outline for the chosen topic. The outline can include the list of subheadings or bullet points that will constitute the body of the blog. Once the basic framework is ready, all you will need to do is expand on the bullet points and add an introduction to complete your blog. The subject or title of the blog should be persuasive enough to arouse the reader's curiosity to check out your blog.
Write Succinctly and Use Conversational Tone
Your chiropractic blog is not a research paper, so steer clear of any complex jargon. Write for your patients, not your fellow chiropractors. Try to keep each blog post limited to 500 or 600 words as much as possible. Lengthier blogs will be more time-consuming to write, and most of the readers will likely lose interest at some point in the blog.
Online reading is different from print. Online readers are more impatient. They have less time at hand, and plenty of options available at their fingertips. So keep them riveted to your blog with succinct posts that make the desired impact. Wherever facts and data are available, use them instead of opinions. It will save you time and the readers will always prefer hard facts over opinions.
Proofreading, Formatting and Posting
Once your blog post is ready, get one your assistants to do the final tasks of proofreading, formatting and posting it online. Ideally, each blog post must carry at least one image to make it more visually attractive. The task of choosing free images to go with your blog can also be delegated.
You may train an assistant to perform these tasks of proofreading, formatting, adding images, and posting the blog online. These are routine tasks which will not require any special skills. You can streamline your blogging activity further by fixing specific days of the week when a new blog will be posted online. This will enforce regularity in posting new content because you will be setting deadlines for yourself.
Maintain a balance between the frequency and the quality of blog posts. Both are important in order to achieve a growing and loyal readership for your blog. Over time, the process of blogging will become efficient, and your blog can gradually turn into a powerful information resource. Once the blog starts ranking higher on Google, Bing and other search engines, you can expect to command high online traffic for your blog as well as your practice website, and set yourself apart from your competitors.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
Some pundits say that the upcoming presidential and congressional races, and many local races, might be the most consequential in our country’s history. We do not have the choice of sitting on the sidelines and hoping our patients will carry our water. Unlike other medical professions such as physical therapists, podiatrists, nurses, etc., the health care class (AMA) will not protect us. We must be in the game.
The most common condition affecting the shoulder is rotator-cuff disease. From acute tears to chronic tendinopathy, it’s common and needs a thorough workup. In fact, even asymptomatic shoulders can have full-thickness rotator-cuff rears in up to 40% of instances. Let’s look at additional conditions that can present to the office with weakness, loss of motion and pain in the shoulder beyond rotator-cuff tears.
