Making Web Writing Personal

If you are going to be successful on the Internet, you must take it personally. The key to establishing a meaningful and sustained Web presence will be your unique ability to communicate with your patients, or, in this case, your readers.

No matter how you engage the Internet to market yourself, you need a Web page. Advertising (e.g. using AdWords) and social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) are great tools to generate traffic to your site, but your site needs to engage your readers.

At the heart of your Web existence is a great Web site - a place full of great content. That’s it.

What is content? Content is nothing more than the words, or text, of your site. It’s not the fancy graphics, Flash, or videos, it is your writing. Use your Web site to convey to your readers what you convey to your patients. As you speak to your patients, write to your readers.

Readers are looking for health information that is both believable and understandable. Your potential patients are not looking for clinical mumbo jumbo. It won’t impress your readers, it will bore them. They’ll click on something else, never to return.

The only person qualified to write in a digestible, and credible, manner is you. Just as you are the only person qualified to translate clinical information in the office to your patients, you are the best person to do the same for your Web site.

My recommendation is to write down the same dialogue you’d use in the office about a routine matter. Unknowingly, it has been edited over and over again, until you found the perfect way to get your message across.

For example, I am a retinal specialist. The same explanation I give in the office about the warning signs of a retinal detachment or retinal tear has become an article about flashes and floaters on my Web site.

I’m sure you have lots of “canned” explanations that you could write down, too.

By doing so, you’ll be more engaging. You’ll be sharing the same great bedside manner that makes you so...well, you. You’ll be making it personal.