It’s All “About-dot-Me.” The Benefits of a Free Personal Profile Page for Doctors, Hospitals and Healthcare Marketing Professionals

This is a brief post about a deceptively simple and highly useful idea to help people find you online.

Here's how doctors, hospitals and marketing professionals can quickly create a custom splash page—complete with analytics dashboard—to bolster personal reputation and practice branding, and heighten search engine visibility.

The first thing you should know about About.Me is that it’s free. There’s no charge to create a one-page landing page at www.about.me.

What is it? About.Me is an easy-to-use online service—recently acquired by AOL—that works a bit like a digital-age business card. The custom-made landing page offers a snapshot bio plus links to all of your other online profiles and content. In this singe page, visitors can connect to your website, blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

We like “free,” but what’s the value in having a consolidated profile page? Several benefits come to mind, and depending on the current state of your online presence, consider how these ideas might fit your needs:

• It’s another digital oar in the water. Internet search engines and online searches are more likely to find you, especially when people search by name.
• An analytics dashboard is included. The user account keeps track of how many people see your profile, where they’re coming from and what they do on your page.
• Use it for managing your brand and reputation. A single page can say a lot about you, with more info available via the links.
• Hospitals and organizations can also use it. The focus of About.Me is about individuals, including doctors and other healthcare professionals. But if you poke around a bit, you’ll also find hospitals and other medical entities.
• It’s a central connecting point for your many public “faces.” You can include any or all of your online and social media sites.
• Did we mention that it’s free? Right now there's no cost, although that could change. We have no inside info about their business plan, but you might see a premium/subscription option added in the future.

If you think a personal splash page would be helpful, our advice is to prepare your content carefully. You've only got one page, and writing to a short length and small space is tough. To communicate, we suggest that you:

(a) be consistent with your brand and branding message; (b) be clear and precise about who you are; (c) tell visitors what you can do for them; and (d) offer a way to contact or connect directly.

A personal profile page can be a useful adjunct to your overall online presence. We’d be pleased to talk with you about the big picture if you connect with us here.