Blogs and the Promotion of Osteopathic Medicine
Out-of-box blogosphere marketing strategy represents promotional opportunities for osteopathic medicine
By Belinda Bombei
Fifty-two million American adults, or 55 percent of those with Internet access, have used the web to locate health or medical information. Eight percent of Internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirty-nine percent of Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs.1 These are significant numbers that should not be ignored in the campaign to promote the osteopathic profession.
About one percent of all blogs deal with health, according to a 2006 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Many are by consumers writing about their own health issues, but “the numbers of healthcare providers who are blogging is steadily growing,” says Fard Johnmar, founder of Envision Solutions, a New York healthcare marketing firm.
Blogs Defined
Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject – such as medicine. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.2
The blog format allows osteopathic family physicians the opportunity to promote not only the osteopathic profession but also their individual practices and creates an opportunity to streamline communications to their patients. A few examples include:
Probably the best part of blogs (that many people are not aware of) is that your patients can utilize an RSS Aggregator and whenever new content is uploaded to the blog, this new information will be displayed in the aggregator. This means patients do not need to visit your blog every day to find out what’s new – when new information is added, it is sent to them via an RSS Aggregator.
Osteopathic Blogs
ACOFP President’s Blog
The mission of the blog written by Steven F. Rubin, DO, FACOFP dist. is defined as “for use by my patients and colleagues to assist them in learning and sharing information about their health or health related topics, osteopathic medicine and my practice.” Dr. Rubin’s blog was developed for him by thegrowthcycle.com.
AOA Presidents Blog
Get to know the AOA’s 2007-2008 President Peter B. Ajluni, DO, through the AOA President’s Blog. The AOA’s goal for the President’s blog is to support their entire osteopathic family, from students to retiring physicians. That starts by listening.
Every concern should be heard. In return, the AOA wants every DO and osteopathic medical student to become actively involved in the AOA. The AOA’s President’s Blog provides an avenue to do just that.
OMT Blog
This blog periodically lists news and interesting facts about osteopathic manipulative treatment. The blog is meant simply for learning and spreading the word about OMT and reader input is highly encouraged. Notably, this blogger feels that ACOFP.org is the best website for OMT techniques. This praise is priceless promotion to help build ACOFP membership among the medical student community.
Six Steps to Start an Osteopathic Blog
The world of blogs is exploding. As a tool to promote OFP’s, blogs may well be the easiest and cheapest tool available to educate not only patients, but also the public, about the advantages in choosing an OFP over an allopathic counterpart.
Belinda Bombei is the medical editor for tweakmywords.com and has over 14 years of editing experience, including five years of experience editing osteopathic medical articles. She provides suggestions to transform osteopathic medical content from good to outstanding, producing an article worthy of publication and recognition.
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