Are You Using A Picture ( Gravatar) To Brand Your Blog Comments?

I have seen a lot of empty images where a real picture should be on many of the comments left on  physical therapy blogs I have visited.  So I thought I would share a tutorial that will show you and other physical therapists how to add a picture or gravatar to their blog comments.

Either when commenting on your blog or other blogs, I feel it is important to let others in the virtual community see a picture of you or your company brand so they can identify and connect with your comments.

Below I have a video that briefly explains the benefits of having a Gravatar and why you should start implementing them when you comment on blogs other than your own.

Now below are some screenshots that will show you how to set this up step by step.  Click on the images to see a larger shot on your screen. Just follow the detailed steps below and you will be on your way to branding your blog comments with your own Gravatar.

Step 1.  Visit the Gravatar.com website and sign up at the top left-hand corner.

Step 2. Sign up to begin creating your Gravatar image.

Step 3. Select “add an email” in the my account menu. This email address will be connected to the image you select later on.

Step 4. Once you confirm your email account with the Gravatar website it will be time to select your Gravatar image.  Go to my account menu and select add image. Choose where you’d like to get the image from.

Step 5. Most of your images will already be on your computer. So select a file from your computer to get your image.

Step 6. Crop your image and select finish.

Step 7. Choose a rating for your Gravatar image.

Step 8. Next you want to confirm this is the image you want to use for your Gravatar.

Step 9. Select an email address to connect with your Gravatar image.

Step 10. Congratulations! Your email address is now connected to your Gravatar image. You can begin blog commenting and have everyone see your Gravatar image.

That’s pretty much it for creating your own Gravatar image. You can now comment on other physical therapy related blogs and start branding your new Gravatar image.

Once you have completed these steps, show off your new Gravatar image to me by leaving a comment below.

Also I would be grateful if you can help me spread this post around on Twitter, Facebook or any other social network you use so that others can learn how to create Gravatars of their own.Similar Posts:

• Discover 10 Reasons Why Your Physical Therapy Marketing Should Include Blogging
• How To Know What People Think About Your Physical Therapy Business Using Google Alerts
• 5 Reasons To Start A Physical Therapy Blog That Attracts Patient Referrals Than To Have A Boring Static Website

Who’s Looking for Your Services Online?

People in need of physical therapy services are searching for a good physical therapist and these days, they’re using nontraditional methods that have proven to be very effective.

More and more often, people are turning to the internet to find physical therapists. They’re using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, they’re searching on search engines like Google, and they’re looking to see what other people have to say about physical therapists in their local area that catch their attention.

They’ll do so by looking for, and reading, what other patients have to say about the physical therapist they see. If that physical therapist is you, you’ll want to make sure you have tons of raving reviews floating around about the PT services you offer.

Reviews Help Conversions

What will these tons of good reviews do for your PT practice? First of all, they’ll help build immediate trust between you and your potential patient. When a potential patient sees that other patients you’ve helped were very happy with the services you provided, they’ll trust that you can help them too.

This trust is one of the most important factors when it comes to converting potential patients into patients who follow up with you for your services. The more people trust that you can solve their problems, the more likely they’ll be to make that first appointment with you.

Reviews Are Good For SEO ( i.e Google Places, Yahoo Local, etc )

Third party reviews aren’t just good for building trust, they’re also good for SEO or search engine optimization. When your satisfied patients post raving reviews about you on sites like Google Places and Yahoo Local, they’ll use keywords that potential patients might use when searching for a good physical therapist.

The search engines will see the keywords used in these reviews and will use them to bolster your website’s rating in the search engines. This way, when potential patients search for a physical therapist in your local town, your name is more likely to be at the top of the search engine result pages.

Giving Patients A Nudge To Write Reviews

So, now that you know how helpful third party reviews can be, how do you get your patients to write great reviews about you that other potential patients will read? Your patients are busy people so when you ask them to write you a review, make the process as easy as possible.

One of the best ways is to have a card printed with instructions for writing you a review. It can be on the back of the appointment reminder card you give your patient at the end of their session and can say something like, “If you’ve received excellent service, please take a moment to go to (www.name-of-review-website.com) and write a short review.” You’ll also want send them a follow up email or call them on the phone and politely ask if they’ve had a chance to write a short review about the services they’ve received from you.

Promote Your Reviews

Once your patients start writing raving reviews about your physical therapy practice, you’ll want to be sure to promote these reviews on the internet. Doing so will help your rankings in the search engines as well and it will get the word out about you and your practice faster and to even more potential clients and patients.

Sites like Facebook, LinedIn, Twitter, and other social media sites are great places to promote your reviews. When you mention you got a great review from someone, make sure you link to the site where the review is posted so it will be easy for people to click through, read, and then call you to make an appointment.

A Short Review About Reviews

Potential patients are looking for you online. One of the most popular things they’re doing to find the physical therapy services they need is to read what others are saying in the form of third party reviews.

Third party reviews help you build immediate trust and turn potential patients into patients who use your services. Third party reviews will also help increase your ranking in the search engines. So, make it as easy as possible for your patients to write you a review.

Once a patient has written a fabulous review about you, make sure to promote your review through social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. If you haven’t already started harnessing the power of third party reviews to build your physical therapy practice, there’s no time like the present.

If you found this post helpful, please share with others on Facebook and Twitter.Similar Posts:

• The Advantages Of Listing Your Physical Therapy Practice With Online Business Directories
• My Physical Therapy Marketing Predictions For 2011
• 6 Reasons Why Your Physical Therapy Business Should Be In Google’s Local Business Search Directory
• Improve Your Online Physical Therapy Marketing By Understanding Basic Keyword Research?
• 5 Reasons To Start A Physical Therapy Blog That Attracts Patient Referrals Than To Have A Boring Static Website

Press play to begin streaming the audio or right click the text link and choose save as or save link.

Monique Serpas is a physical therapist practicing in a general outpatient setting. She also writes for her blog called “Geaux To Physical Therapy” which serves as a platform to educate her current patients or anyone who would like to learn more about physical therapy.

She writes mostly about injury prevention, conditions treated by physical therapists, descriptions of treatment techniques, and other helpful information her patients and readers may find beneficial.

I was very excited to have found her and wanted to share her story with other PT’s who maybe considering taking the plunge into blogging and social media. Especially since blogging and social media will be one of the ways you will need to market your physical therapy business online today. Show Notes

• Monique shares what encouraged her to start her blogand how she embraced the technical challenges to get it started. 
• We learn the benefits of her blog to her patients and her online readers that seek out her information.

• Monique explains how she leveraged social mediato connect more with her patients, readers, PT’s and other healthcare professionals. 
• We learn what impact blogging has had since she got started and the attention she is receiving in the online world and in the clinic.

• Monique breaks down why blogging should be part of your marketing strategyif you want to get noticed and brand yourself in your area of expertise. 
• She shares her thoughts on the impact blogging and social media will have on the physical therapy profession and for PT’s who are in business for themselves. 

Click Here to Download the MP3 [ 38 Minutes - 17 MB] Similar Posts:

• How To Manage All Of Your Physical Therapy Social Media Profiles In One Place
• 5 Reasons To Start A Physical Therapy Blog That Attracts Patient Referrals Than To Have A Boring Static Website
• Why Online Reviews Matter For Your Physical Therapy Practice
• The Advantages Of Listing Your Physical Therapy Practice With Online Business Directories
• My Physical Therapy Marketing Predictions For 2011

Online blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as sports, news, music or a hobby. Most blogs online function more as personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photos, audio podcasting, videos, or all combined together.

Many physical therapists who have private practices, physical therapy products, and continuing education courses can use blogs to keep in touch with their readers or create a community of readers interested in their subject matter. If you are a physical therapist who focuses on total knee rehab you can talk about total knee surgery and treatment. If your expertise is in rotator cuff injuries you can blog about rotator cuff injuries and treatments. By offering quality expertise in your field you gain trust among your readers and possibly a potential patient or walk-in.

Blogs are affordable compared to the cost of building a website. Most blogs are free or have a low monthly fee to maintain. The most common blog programs available are wordpress blogs or blogger. Both are easy to use and update. Blogs are also very search engine friendly so it will also assist in getting you found easier online.

Here are some things you can do with a blog:

• Post daily tips and information to your readers.
• Share your expertise and become the go to blog for useful posts about a specific topic.
• Search Engines like to spider Blogs because the content is always fresh and constantly being updated!
• There are a lot of directories catering to Blogs online. Some directories allow you to Ping them when you add new content to keep their directories updated.
• Have your visitors subscribe to your blog by leaving a subscribe button on your blog so that interested visitors can get notified when you post.
• Have your blog offer RSS feeds and Podcast feeds of your posts.
• Place links to important information from your website like the services you offer, continuing education courses that you offer, your physical therapy product information, and etc.
• The important social and interactive aspect of blogs is its ability for visitors to post comments on your post. Creating dialogue shows your reader you are a live person behind the blog.
• You do not need to be a programmer or coder to get a blog up and running. For the most part it is very user friendly and easy to start one up.
• You can customize the design and layout of most blogs to cater to the look and feel of your business brand.

If you have not noticed blogs are here to stay. If you are a physical therapist with a private practice, a physical therapy product or an instructor for a continuing education course, you need to start planning on adding a blog to your existing website for the benefits I mentioned above. Any business looking to increase their online exposure, brand,  and social presence in the web 2.0 environment we are in should be thinking this way.

If you have a physical therapy blog, please let us know about it in the comments section below.Similar Posts:

• 5 Reasons To Start A Physical Therapy Blog That Attracts Patient Referrals Than To Have A Boring Static Website
• How To Add A Picture ( Gravatar ) To Your Physical Therapy Blog Comments

Welcome fellow colleagues to  PT Marketing Unleashed. This blog is for all physical therapists wanting to learn how to market their business on the internet. My name is Samuel Awosolu. I am a licensed physical therapist and I am also a web developer and internet marketer. I have gather tons of experience over the years building and marketing websites for small businesses and other individuals. Now I want to show you what I have learned over the years to help you build a commanding presence online.

The first thing I want you to do is sign up for my news feed so you know exactly when a new blog post becomes available. On this blog I will write and demonstrate online and offline strategies, techniques, tips and tactics to help you promote your physical therapy business on the web. I am excited to share with you all that I have learned over the years on web marketing and development. I look forward to teaching and connecting with you as we move forward on this journey!

Thanks for stopping by!Similar Posts:

• Welcome To PT Marketing Unleashed!