What Does Online Reputation Management Include?

Online reputation management is a bit of a buzzword that gets thrown around by marketing professionals, but if you’re new to the concept, you’re probably wondering “what does online reputation management include?”

In this blog post, we provide a run down on everything you need to know about online reputation management and how it can benefit your medical practice.

What is online reputation management in digital marketing?

Evolving beyond traditional public relations, online reputation management encompasses a range of strategies and techniques designed to protect and improve the public image of an individual or business online, where prospective customers are most likely to be searching for them.

Online reputation management now features in the digital marketing strategy of most types of businesses.

Online reputation management examples

Online reputation management primarily focuses on managing feedback published on two online platforms—review and ratings websites, and social media sites.

While the ways a business chooses to manage their online reputation will differ, strategies typically aim to:

• build the volume of positive feedback
• respond appropriately to any negative sentiments, and 
• suppress anything which could be potentially damaging to their brand and reputation.

What does online reputation management include for medical practitioners?

In the world of medicine, reputation is everything. Serious negative feedback or even a single accusation of malpractice made online could deliver a devastating blow to a medical practitioner’s professional reputation and brand.

Online reputation management ensures that when a prospective patient is researching a physician or medical practice, the information they find will be mostly positive in nature, greatly improving the likelihood of them booking an appointment and driving practice growth.

Tools and strategies of online reputation management

Client experience management

Positive feedback generally stems from positive experience. Most patients won’t have anything bad to say about your medical practice unless you give them reason to, so it’s important to understand and look for ways to improve the client experience. 

Place yourself in the shoes of your patients, and analyze how they might perceive your services at every stage of the patient journey. Consider your booking processes, facilities, staff, communication and treatment practices to identify what you’re doing well, and where there might be room for improvement. Then, do what you need to get your services up to scratch and provide the best possible experience for your patients.

Asking for reviews

Think word-of-mouth referrals hold the most weight? It may be hard to believe, but some users may trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.

While some negative reviews are inevitable, you can minimize the impact by asking patients to review you online. This will build the volume of good content about your practice, and essentially bury the comments that aren’t so great.

Online alerts

Knowing how to manage and respond to negative feedback is an essential component of online reputation management—but to do this, first you need to know what’s being said about your medical practice, and where it’s being said.

Tools like Google Alerts make the job easy by notifying you each time your clinic or one of your practitioners is mentioned online, allowing you to monitor and quickly respond to any potentially damaging feedback before it has the chance to blow up into a PR nightmare.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Many patients start the search for a new doctor online. If negative feedback or reviews are the first thing a prospective patient finds when they look online, your practice will struggle to attract new patients.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works to improve the ranking of your website and ensures it’s displayed above other competing sources. This will encourage prospective patients to view your website first, helping you build a positive impression from the get-go.

Your reputation is safe in our hands

At MD Logica, we’re experts in every facet of online medical marketing and can devise a customized strategy to protect your reputation, build your brand and grow your practice.

Contact us to see how we can support your medical practice.