Include a picture

   Ask a question to encourage reader comments

   Hyperlink to other posts on your blog or related websites

   Title your post with keywords for ideal searching

   Share it on your social media networks

Making Your Blogging Visible

Imagine that you’ve written the perfect blog article: an amusing anecdote, practical advice, and a compelling title. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Now imagine that not a single person ever reads it. Heartbreaking! Just because you write something online doesn’t mean audiences will flock to it. If you want your content to be visible, you have to actively build an audience and lead them to it.

Self-promotion

It can’t hurt to simply let people know that you are blogging. Take advantage of opportunities when you’re face-to-face with a patient (or potential patient) to mention that you are an active blogger. You can present this as a positive service you provide the community. There is a lot of misinformation about dentistry online and creating a blog allows you to help people get good information.

For your existing patients, write about the most frequent questions you receive. The next time a patient asks you one of those questions, you can answer them and direct them to your blog for a more complete response. For example, you can create a short video blog post demonstrating the correct and incorrect ways to apply bleaching material into custom trays. Each patient that receives bleaching trays can then check their technique at home by browsing your blog.

For potential patients, your blog can serve as a kind of engaging business card. Whether you’re presenting at a local networking meeting or simply striking up a conversation with a stranger, mentioning that you write a blog is more unique than simply handing out a business card. It’s an excellent follow up to any dental-related questions they may ask. It also helps establish your brand with someone who may be contemplating becoming a member of your practice.

Social Media

One of the best ways to build an online community around your blog is to go to where the party is. Millions of your potential readers are already hanging out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media networks. They may check into these sites multiple times a day, which means multiple times to make an impression and divert some of their attention to your blog.

Now here’s where terminology can get confusing. Posting content on social media often goes by the name microblogging because you have limited space to get across your ideas. Posting an entire blog entry of 200 to 300 words isn’t practical or effective on social media. Instead, our goal is to tease content and attract social media users to your separate website where you host your blog.

One of the best ways to build an online community around your blog is to go to where the party is. Millions of your potential readers are already hanging out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media networks.

Start by creating accounts on the various social media platforms that will suit you best. These accounts should all be consistent with your blog brand in name, color scheme, design, etc. Meanwhile, on your blog, install icons for these platforms that link to these accounts under a section called “Follow Me.” Now you have a two-way street for traffic that directs readers to your content and allows them to Like, Follow, Subscribe, and otherwise keep in touch with you using the social media networks they prefer.

With your traffic patterns in place you can begin your blogging. After publishing your post, announce the update on your social media channels and provide a link to the article. I recommend including a photo, catchy title, and a very brief description that will make the reader curious. You want this post to jump off the Facebook timeline, Twitter feed, and other piles of content that the audience is browsing.

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