Beyond the Buzz: 20 Tried and Tested Ways to Promote Your Healthcare Blog

  Blogs written by doctors, nurses, health researchers, patients, and allied healthcare professionals add much to the richness and diversity of the online healthcare conversation. But it’s not enough to write great content and hope that people will find it. You need to actively promote your blog to maximise opportunities for more people to find and learn from your content. In today’s article, I will share with you 20 tried and tested ways guaranteed to drive more traffic and increase engagement on your healthcare blog. 1. Add Social Sharing Buttons To Your Blog This is the most obvious (though sometimes overlooked) way to encourage readers to share your content. Make it easy for readers to share your posts by incorporating share buttons for the main social media sites on your blog. Include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. Add these options both at the top and bottom of your articles. 2. Create Eye-Catching Images Add an image to every single blog post you write. Not only will this enhance your post, but it will serve as a visually appealing way to draw in more readers when it comes to promoting your blog online. Search the Creative Commons section of Flickr for an appropriate image or create your own customized and unique images using tools like Canva and PicMonkey. Other ways to add visual interest include creating an infographic to accompany your text or creating visual word clouds using a tool like Wordle. 3. Share on Facebook Share a link on your Facebook page and accompany it with a suitable image. Encourage engagement by asking a question related to the content. To keep the post top of mind, pin it to the top of your page. Unpin it when you have new content to share. 4. Tweet Your Posts Things move fast on Twitter so don’t just share your content one time, but take advantage of tweet scheduling to maximise the chances of it being seen. If appropriate, add a suitable hashtag to your tweets. Pin a tweet with a link to your blog to the top of your Twitter page. Don’t forget to include an image (tweets with images generate 55% more leads than Tweets without images). 5. Link Your Blog on LinkedIn Post a link to the content on your personal profile and add to your company page if you have one. Post links to relevant group discussions, but don’t spam. Only post if you feel you will be adding value. There are many health and medical related groups on LinkedIn. Start by weighing in on popular discussions, by responding to comments, providing your own insight or asking questions to generate additional comments. If the discussion takes off, you can then share a relevant blog post you’ve written. 6. Add to Google+ Google+ is an excellent way to boost your SEO. Post your blog content to your Google+ page with a suitable image. In addition to this, search for suitable Google+ Communities to share your content with. Google+ Communities are places where users can share specific questions,comments or content relating to a particular topic with other users who share the same interests. Communities can be public or private. The same rules for LinkedIn groups apply here—provide value, don’t spam, and post in moderation. 7. Bookmark Your Posts Social sharing bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Digg have millions of worldwide users, so make sure to include them in your promotion strategy. 8. Pin Your Content To Pinterest Boards Create a board on Pinterest specifically for your blog posts and pin each new post to it. Make sure your blog images are easy to “pin” and visually appealing. Even if you aren’t active on Pinterest yourself, many people who read your blog are, and may pin your blog post to one of their Pinterest boards. 9. Post to Forums Forums are widely used for advice on health related topics. Answer a question and provide a link to a relevant blog post to provide more information. 10. Encourage Newsletter Sign-Ups Email a regular newsletter with links to your best blog posts. Encourage readers to sign up via your website or blog. 11. Add URL Your Email Signature Put your blog URL in your email signature. I use Wisestamp to add a personalized signature to my email accounts. You can also use email signature generators such as Newoldstamp or MySignature to add a link to your latest blog post or include a clickable button with a call-to-action. 12. Turn on your RSS feed. An RSS feed automatically shares your blog posts with those who sign up to your site feed in their newsreaders, increasing the likelihood they will read your content. 13. Submit your address to blog search sites and directories. Submit your blog’s url to blog directories – Technorati is one of the most popular directories. 14. Ask Friends to Share Reach out directly to some friends and influencers in your industry, and ask them to share the content with their audience if they found it valuable. Don’t pressure them and use this tactic in moderation. Make it easier for them to share by writing the tweet content in advance and sending it to them. 15. Consider Paid Promotion Consider using paid marketing opportunities to amplify the message you already have on social media. Try targeted Facebook ads, promoted tweets, or LinkedIn’s Sponsored Updates feature for your company page. 16. Repurpose Your Content To repurpose content means to take something that you have created and convert it for use in another format. Turn your blog posts into SlideShare, podcast or video presentations to reach a wider audience. 17. Curate Your Content Rebelmouse is a content curation platform with a visually appealing interface. It’s an attractive way to showcase your blog. You could also try paper.li and scoop.it. Each time you write a new blog post add it to your curation platform. 18. Actively Comment On Other Blogs By commenting on other blogs, others who read and are interested in your comment are more likely to click on your profile link to your blog. Only comment if you can add value to the conversation and avoid leaving direct links to your blog post unless it adds significantly to the discussion. 19. Write Guest Posts For Other Blogs Offer to write a guest post for another healthcare blogger and provide a linkback to your own blog. 20. Syndicate Your Blog Syndication allows you to spread your blog across multiple platforms. Check out Alltop, Scribnia and Networked Blogs. These suggestions are just some of the many ways to help you drive more traffic to your blog. Do you have any other to add to this list?