Tweeting, Blogging, SEO and Strategy for Medical Editors

Tweeting, Blogging, SEO,
and Strategy:
Online Content Planning
for Medical Editors
Brande N. Martin, MA
American Medical Writers
Association Conference 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013

Goals of Today’s Sessions
• Learn about
o The Changing Role of Editors in the
Online/Digital Space
o What is Content Strategy?
o Ways to Plan Online Content
o Integrated Communication Strategies
2

About Me: Brande Martin, MA
Content Strategy, Communications, & Editorial
Management Professional
• The College of American Pathologists
• Medscape/WebMD
• Northern Illinois University
• American Dental Association
• American Medical Association
• Rapid Science Publishers (now part of Wolters
Kluwer)
3

The Word is Out!: Content, Content Is Everywhere…
4

The Traditional Role of a Medical Editor
6
• Working for
o news outlet (Reuters Health),
o online medical journal (JAMA), or
o other online sources (Medscape)
• Edit and fact check content
• Understand and use style manuals
• Write/Rewrite content

• Identify and prioritize topics to cover
• Give assignments to writers/editors
• Maintain an editorial calendar
• May oversee/train writers and other editors
© 2013 Brande Martin. All rights reserved. 7

Our New Editorial Responsibilities
• All of the traditional tasks plus…
o Web Content Strategy
o Marketing Strategy
o Social Media Strategy
© 2013 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. 8

Online Content Planning
• Step 1: Plan a content strategy
• Step 2: Focus on your audience needs
• Step 3: Write/Edit/Deliver Good Content
• Step 4: Repurpose/Integrate content for social and
email (and mobile) channels
• Step 5: Measure and manage the content

Content is King!: Content Strategy
•Can user find the content?
What is the content that meets
the audience’s needs?
Up-to-date content
Editorial Calendars
Content Owners/ Subject
Matter Experts

Our Audiences
• Consumers
• Patients
• Healthcare Professionals

Patients’/Consumers’ Online Use for Health Info
• 81% of US adults use the internet
• 59% say they have looked online for health
information in the past year
Source: Pew Research Center, Health Online 2013; Jan. 15, 2013
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Health-online.aspx
• 52% of US adults gather health information on their
smartphones
Source: Pew Research Center, Mobile Health 2012; Nov. 8, 2012
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Health-online.aspx

• 33% of consumers use social media sites for health-
related matters, including seeking health
information…
Source: Demi & Cooper Advertising and DC Interactive Group, Rising Use
of Social & Mobile in Healthcare: Inforgraphic; 2012
http://thesparkreport.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/SparkReportHealthcareGraphicLarge.jpg

Content Development Strategy
• Who is the audience you trying to reach with your
content?
• What are the goals for the content?
• What topics are of most interest to my audience?
• What type of content should I plan to add
(write/edit) to the Web site?
• What content should I remove from the Web site?
• How should I plan the editorial calendar?

Writing the Content
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Definition:
SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of a Web
site or a Web page in a search engine's "natural" or
unpaid ("organic") search results.
Write Quality Content!

Keywords
o Determine best keywords for your landing pages
or pages where you want users to visit
o Add to page – headlines/titles/descriptions
o Meta-data: page title and description
o Use Google Adwords

http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo

Social Media Strategy
• Use Twitter or Facebook
o promote content on your site
o encourage audience engagement
• How to do this
o Repurpose content from your site
o Come up with questions on the topic that
engage readers
o Use graphics/clever copywriting content
Goal: Drive audience back to the Web site

Example: Cleveland Clinic Web site
234 FB
likes
Posted
4/17/2013

Example: Cleveland Clinic Facebook
846 Likes
346 Shares
Posted today
11/7/2013

Example: Cleveland Clinic Twitter Feed

• Blogging
o Have doctor write a blog about the topic
o Have a patient write a blog telling a personal
story about the topic
Source: http://thesparkreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SparkReportHealthcareGraphicLarge.jpg

Example: Cleveland Clinic –
Featured Expert Bloggers

Informed Decision-Making for Content Plan
• Follow the trends
o What topics are most popular <<stress>>
o What are most common patient health concerns,
illnesses, conditions
o What events are happening (breast cancer
awareness month, heart healthy month)
• Follow your best judgment
• Assess competition (what are others covering)

• Work with your business intelligence, digital team,
or Internet services team
• Assess and review your analytics (statistical trends)
o Unique page views
o Conversion Goal Rates <<sign ups/order>>
o Referrer pages

Case Study
• You write patient health education materials and
post the following on your organization’s Web site:
o Fact sheet on weight loss (HTML page, not a
downloadable PDF)
o Call-to-action for audience to sign up for a new
monthly newsletter on weight loss <<Pilot
newsletter>>
• Goal: You want users to come to Web site to sign up
for the monthly newsletter
• Topic: Weight Loss
• Audience: Women 18-55 years old

Content Plan/Editorial Calendar
• What types of content from the weight loss fact
sheet can you repurpose for other channels (ie,
Twitter, blog, or print)?
• Recipes
• Fad Diets
• Weight Loss Plans
• Exercise Tips

Editorial Calendar
• When will you plan to release the content on weight
loss in the different channels (editorial calendar)?
• Fall: College Semester Begins
• Winter: Holidays
• Spring: Wedding
• Summer: Swim Suit Season

Keyword List
• List the top keywords (groupings) that a user may
consider when searching for the topic on weight
loss
• Weight Loss
• Obesity
• Dieting
• Fad Diets
• Quick weight loss

Tracking/Analytics
• Did you have good conversion with signs up for the
newsletter?
o Track for 3 months or more to get decent trend

• Never report standalone metric in your data trends
Track at least 2 metrics for comparison
o Goal Conversion
o Visits

Key Points
• Medical editors must consider new content
strategies
• Online content planning includes web, social, and
mobile strategies
• Always remember your audience’s needs
• Always write quality content
• Track, measure, and analyze your data for best
content results

Resources
• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson
http://contentstrategy.com/
• Aha Media Group – Content Strategy
http://www.ahamediagroup.com/index.html
• Search Engine Land: SEO
http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
• How to analyze, interpret and report data trends in Google
Analytics
http://www.seotakeaways.com/analyze-interpret-report-
data-trends-google-analytics/

QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU
Follow me on Twitter: @brandemartin
Email:
brandemartin229@gmail.com
Website: http://brandemartin.com

Tweeting, Blogging, SEO and Strategy for Medical Editors

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (7)

Similar to Tweeting, Blogging, SEO and Strategy for Medical Editors

Similar to Tweeting, Blogging, SEO and Strategy for Medical Editors (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Tweeting, Blogging, SEO and Strategy for Medical Editors