PT Marketing Unleashed » physical therapy blog

How To Add A Picture ( Gravatar ) To Your Physical Therapy Blog Comments

Samuel — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:33:09 +0000

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:

5 Reasons To Start A Physical Therapy Blog That Attracts Patient Referrals Than To Have A Boring Static Website

Samuel — Sat, 29 May 2010 06:09:29 +0000

If you haven’t noticed or payed any attention to the latest trends in the tech world, blogging has evolved quite a lot in the last few years. It has become a key part of Web 2.0. In fact, if you’re a super geek like me you probably are familiar with the more popular blogs like the Huffington Post, TechCrunch and Gizmodo, that have a huge user base, and are much larger than most websites. If not maybe you noticed sites in our own industry, like Advance For Physical Therapy starting to use blogs to manage more of their own content.

Why all the blog talk you ask? Well if your planning on building a website anytime soon for your physical therapy business, you may want to think about which direction you should be headed in.

With that said, I want to give you 5 reasons why you should consider starting a blog that can potentially generate patient referrals for your physical therapy practice versus having a boring static website. This can also be applied to those that have a physical therapy product and want to generate more buyers or if you have a physical therapy continuing education course and are trying to increase attendee enrollment.

So here are the 5 reasons to ditch your boring static website and get going with a new blog:

1. A blog is a more personal medium than a website: When your patients read your blog posts, they feel as if they are listening to your voice. They form a much deeper connection with you as they read more about what you write and learn more about you. The content on a static website can sometimes feel like it has no “voice”. It can come off like canned jargon with no personality. In my opinion static websites are dry, boring and can lose its appeal with your visitors.

2. Search engines like blogs: This is a known fact in the blogging community! By their very nature, blogs are updated frequently with new content, and search engines love websites with new content. Search engines, like Google, devour them like a slab of roast beef. Keep the content coming and you will have no problem having your content picked up by the major search engines.

You also have a lot of latitude about what you can write about, and can often leverage your patient’s common interests. I recently did a podcast interview with Monique Serpas, a physical therapist who blogs about injury prevention, conditions treated by physical therapists, descriptions of treatment techniques, and other helpful information mostly catering to the patients she treats in the clinic.

If you listen to the podcast, she mentions that she provides preventative tips, she references earlier blog posts she has written and uses the right keywords that is relevant to the search engines and her patients. Monique was able to do this all while providing valuable content to her readers. It’s a great combination that attracts patients and the search engines like bees to honey!

3. Interaction and community: Blogs are a lot better for interaction because they have a comments area below each post where people can leave comments. As a reader you can then respond to these comments and leave your opinion about the topic being discussed in the post. People are usually motivated to leave comments when they read something that strikes a chord with them. You as the blogger can respond to these comments and slowly build a community of loyal followers who will begin to like know and trust you based off of the interaction you have with your readers.

4. Blogging technology has come a long way: You can build a very professional looking blog with the technology that is around these days. I actually prefer using WordPress which has many benefits over the other blog software I have come across. In fact, you can achieve all the features of a static website using a WordPress blog. I have seen a lot of websites that look like static websites but were actually built using WordPress. So if you don’t like the blog look, you can build a “static-like” site using the powerful features of WordPress and still get all the search engine benefits that comes with having a blog.

5. Repeat Visitors: If your blog content is compelling and provides value to your readers, they will come back hungry for more. This is great because it increases your traffic and gives you a higher chance of converting your reader into a patient referral, a buyer for your physical therapy product or having them become an attendee for your CEU course.

Providing quality posts and content is a recipe for repeat visitors and website traffic. It’s very hard to get repeat visitors with a static website because there is no real reason to go back and visit. The blog content, interacting through comments, and the relationship readers have with the blogger is what drives blog readers back to a site. This can be a powerful physical therapy marketing strategy and what you ultimately want to achieve if you have a blog online.

Hopefully I have given you a reason to ditch the thought of creating a static website and move towards creating a blog. As I mentioned before, a blog will help you drive a lot more traffic to your physical therapy business and this could translate into increased revenues and growth in your private practice, physical therapy product or CEU courses.

If you want to create a strong presence for your physical therapy business online, getting started with a blog is a move in the right direction. I cover a lot of how to set one up and promote it in the PT Marketing Academy. I will even host it for free! You can go here now to enroll and get started.

If you have a blog or a website for your physical therapy business and would like to share your thoughts on this topic, leave your comments below to share with everyone else.Similar Posts:

Podcast: Physical Therapist Monique Serpas Reveals How She Uses Her Blog And Social Media To Connect With Her Patients

Samuel — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:15:13 +0000

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 Select An Unforgettable Domain Name For Your Physical Therapy Business

Samuel — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:58:44 +0000

Picking a domain name is the first step to creating your online presence. It is also what you will need to tell your patients, clients, & customers how to find you on the web. In this video tutorial I will give you some tips on how to choose a domain name your patients, clients & customers will remember even when telling their friends. You can watch the video above or view the slide presentation below.

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