Understand how to achieve positive top Internet search results
To create a positive reputation online, a physician should seek to ensure that top results returned from an Internet search of that physician’s name contain positive or neutral information. Ideally, the top results should be the physician’s practice’s home page, the physician’s professional home page, the physician’s online curriculum vitae, and neutral or positive reviews of the physician. The importance of having positive top results is illustrated by a recent study that shows that the top listed site in response to a Google search was clicked on 36.4% of the time, the second listed site was clicked on 12.5% of the time, and the third listed website was clicked on 9.5% of the time. The first site receives as much "traffic" as the second, third, fourth, and fifth sites combined. Thus, a physician should make concerted efforts to have the top Internet search results for the physician’s name return a positive result. Alternatively, physicians can hire reputation companies to help move positive sites to higher listed result positions and negative sites to lower listed result positions.
A physician can increase the likelihood of having a positive result listed as the first result in Internet search engines by purchasing the domain name, if available, that contains the physician’s name. For example, Dr. John Smith should buy the domain name drjohnsmith.com. This strategic purchase prevents the domain name from being purchased by another person who could use it to post negative information about the physician.
Patient testimonials
Positive patient testimonials, such as patient reviews posted online, can greatly affect a physician’s reputation. However, translating positive patient comments into online testimonials is tricky business. If a patient expresses a positive experience and the physician asks the patient to review the physician online and mention the positive experience, the patient may not be willing to comply with that suggestion or feel comfortable refusing. Alternatively, a physician may ask the patient whether the comment could be included as a testimonial on the practice’s website. If the patient agrees, then a release form should be filled out that includes the patient’s comment verbatim. The patient should be allowed to check the comment for accuracy before signing this release. Although some literature recommends seeking testimonials, the senior author of this article does not.
Physicians should never ask staff members to create false positive patient testimonials because this can create serious legal liability.5 Instead, employees who wish to provide positive comments about a physician on the practice’s website or elsewhere should publicly identify themselves as the physician’s employees.
Periodic Internet searches
A physician should perform at least monthly Internet searches for the physician’s name, the physician’s practice’s name, and the names of all staff members who interact with patients. Alternatively, a physician can simply enter these search terms into www.google.com/alerts, and Google will e-mail a list of the best results, including websites, news articles, and blog entries, in response to a query for the designated search terms. Both approaches allow a physician to know what patients see when they perform a simple Internet search for the physician’s name. It is important to quickly identify negative sites and/or reviews to mitigate their impact on a physician’s reputation.
Become a dual citizen online and create an office online policy
A physician also should become a dual citizen online by creating both a public, professional identity and a private, personal identity. The public identity would include a physician’s practice’s website, professional website, a LinkedIn account, a professional Facebook public figure profile, the physician’s practice’s Facebook page, the physician’s curriculum vitae, published articles, and any reviews by patients, staff, and colleagues. These aspects of the professional identity should be readily available through an Internet search.
In sharp contrast, the physician’s personal identity would contain the physician’s personal Facebook and Twitter accounts in addition to other personal information. A physician should use privacy settings to prevent the general public, including patients, from accessing the physician’s personal information available on personal social media accounts. A physician should not connect with patients through the physician’s personal social media accounts or allow patients to access the physician’s personal information that is available online. Ideally, physicians’ personal Facebook accounts would not show up as a result in an Internet search, and physicians with personal Twitter accounts should use anonymous names.
If a patient somehow finds a physician’s personal social media profiles and seeks to connect with the physician through those personal profiles, the physician should reply with prewritten standard language explaining that the physician ethically may not connect with patients in their personal capacity through social media.
