The volume of content on the internet and the stiffness of the competition has made reputation, more than ever, important in healthcare marketing. Readers want helpful and trustworthy information especially when it’s about healthcare. Creating an author byline establishes the credibility and the trust that readers want. This gives healthcare professionals the chance to strengthen relationships with patients as well as potential patients.
It is always important to have author bylines in your posts and articles, whatever your industry is, because of the credibility it weighs in and the humanizing effect it has on readers. 80 percent of users or 93 million Americans read about health topics on the internet and blogging has become a very popular way in the healthcare industry as a way to give patients the health-related information that they are looking for.
Reasons to have author bylines
The author rank algorithm by Google improves search visibility. Author rank is a solution by Google to provide readers with sources that have good reputation. Just like how Google ranks pages and websites, authors are now being ranked and rated for their authority. Along with this, Google also takes into consideration timeliness and quality of content.
In the field of healthcare and in healthcare marketing, physicians and medical professionals can use their credentials to become trusted sources of information related to health. The support is going to motivate positive interactions with audiences who are going to read blogs with less doubts compared to content written by authors who are not experts in medical fields. Having an author byline is going to establish your relationship with the reader and the fact that the article is written by a person who is well-informed and well-connected. These are both important elements of Author Rank.
Post credibility
A lot of doctors start blogging in order to market their expertise and their services so they can stand out in the competition. It’s an excellent way to connect with your patients and build an outlet in the community to talk about conditions. When a doctor uses their name in an author byline, their name adds credibility to the content. This is because doctors can lend their knowledge and professional expertise to a certain issue and give advice about how to approach the issue.
Medical professionals and doctors who write blogs should include their names along with their credentials, but also information about their employment location to increase the credibility by establishing the fact that they are licensed and still actively practicing their profession. When it is about credibility, the key is transparency. If you do use a byline make sure that you include a blog disclaimer. The disclaimer protects authors and their employers from any liabilities. An example of a disclaimer would be something stating that the post is no substitute for actual consultation with a doctor.
The HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 limits the information that bloggers can share. The main objective of the HIPAA is to protect information of patients. If you are a doctor with a sane mind, you would not risk your career over a post. The HIPAA laws include social media and this law has already gotten many healthcare workers fired because of posting confidential information on the internet. The easiest way to avoid violating HIPAA is to never disclose any information that might identify a patient in a particular way. HIPAA outlined 18 unique identifiers that you can avoid. The identifiers even included photographic images even if they do not include the face of the patient.
If there is any better advice regarding HIPAA, it is to err on the side of caution. If there is anything that sounds too personal for a specific patient and you are not sure, better not write it down. This is especially true if you are stating examples because these examples might lead to malpractice suits. Try to be as general as you can possibly be.