Etna Interactive

Master Your Online Reputation: Go Beyond 5 Stars – Webinar from 9/17/13

Surgeons worldwide are concerned about online reputation, and for good reason. A recent study from Digital Assent showed that, for 72% of patients, poor doctor reviews could be a deal-breaker.

In this 1 hour webinar I go beyond “5 stars” to help you understand the array of factors that impact your reputation online. You’ll learn how to proactively cultivate a positive reputation and defend against negative reviews. I’ll share do-it-yourself tips and advice for partnering with your Web vendor to better protect your reputation. Finally, I’ll cover some reputation pitfalls and talk about every doctor’s favorite review site: Yelp.

No time to watch the video? The below outline will give you some actionable steps to owning your online reputation.

Focus on top rankings

  • Identify relevant and popular keywords
  • Optimize and update your website
  • Actively promote your pages, build links and inspire social signals

Extend your reach

  • Claim your namespace
  • Syndicate content
  • Cultivate media placement
  • Pay for placement

Cultivate ratings and reviews

  • Develop your staff and deserve good ratings
  • Select the most visible review sites in your market
  • Ask for the review

Make the most of your résumé

  • Explain why you deserve the consultation
  • Articulate the value of your specialization
  • Publish your perspectives
  • Highlight media coverage

Consider your response

  • Celebrate your supporters
  • Be ready to embrace harmless criticism
  • Exercise care when addressing negative reviews
  • Don’t threaten over negative reviews
  • Don’t hide your identity or affiliations
  • Don’t post reviews on behalf of patients

Our perception of the risk

  • Collecting reviews during patient survey may put you in the role moderator and limit distribution of reviews
  • Actively moderating to suppress negative reviews may result in misleading communication
  • Syndication of reviews may cause reviews or listings to be suspended and may limit distribution of reviews

Bad reviews happen

  • Differentiate service and quality of care complaints
  • Classify as critical, deceptive, or crazy
  • Get the facts before you act
  • Keep your calm – and your ethics – when reacting

Succeed where others fail

  1. Failing to deserve a good reputation
  2. Failing to monitor your reputation
  3. Failing to respond to fans and critics
  4. Failing to diversify
  5. Failing in following rules
  6. Failing to engage

Why doctors hate Yelp

  1. Cult of “community”
  2. I’m a doctor, not a restaurant
  3. Filtering of 5 star reviews
  4. Ad sales or extortion?

Taking control of your online reputation:

Part 1: Internal Readiness

  • Choose a champion and formalize responsibilities
    • Monitor your reputation online
    • Engage with your supporters
    • Cultivate a positive reputation
    • Manage reaction to reputation attacks
  • Implement an online monitoring solution
  • Create a patient feedback loop (and listen)

Part 2: Objective Measures

  • Keep your focus on search engine optimization
  • Claim and expand “name space”
    • Optimize site for variations on name
    • Secure all online business listings
  • Extend your reach each quarter
    • Publish new pages to your site or blog
    • Play an active role in social media
    • Routinely contribute content to related sites
  • Cultivate positive reviews across the Web

Part 3: Subjective Measures

  • Improve your personal presentation online
  • Engage your fans
    • Increase social media interactions (likes and shares)
    • Welcome and thank followers and reviewers
  • Address reputation challenges productively

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