A good reason to blog.

If you are a physician, or any other public person, there exists a great deal of information about you that is readily available to anyone with access to a computer and some google skills. Physicians, it seems, are among the most public of figures, and with a couple of key strokes, potential patients--or anyone for that matter--can learn the entire work history, training history, and any disciplinary history for any physician, any where in the USA, 24 hours a day. And most of this information is supplied not by the physicians themselves, but by third party data entry personnel, some who work for the state, and some who are employed by for-profit companies. In other words, there is dialogue that goes on about you, and you have no part in what is being said.

Here is a simple, low or no cost way to combat this dialogue.

Take part in it.

Engage it. Add to it. Reply to it. Embrace it, and eventually, control it. How?

Blog.

By blogging actively and transparently--in your own name--you can influence the dialogue that already exists and turn it in your own favor. Your blog should be compelling, honest, and well written, and if it meets those criteria, people will find it and link to it. The more posts, the more links, and the higher the google organic ranking. Plus, it's fun, and you'll make friends.

All of your posts should be linked to your own website, if you have one, and--this is key--you must blog in your own name and be proud of what you write.

This way, you can influence the conversation that takes place in cyberspace that is about you.

Thanks for listening,

The IU, aka Richard A Schoor MD, urologist, Long Island, NY