A big question that I get from Direct Primary Care doctors is how to get media coverage for their Direct Primary Care Practices. This is a huge topic and I’m going to bite off a small piece here. The big idea is to be media ready. Like the old saying, where preparation meets luck, you have opportunity.
How to Be Media Ready
Being media ready can take many forms, but it looks like practicing in the medium in which you want to be featured. For example, you want to be on TV? Why not have a weekly YouTube show? You’ll learn how to look into the camera, remember your talking points, and engage with your audience. You’ll learn about posture and effective communication. Some people in the Direct Primary Care community do this very well.
If you want to be featured on the radio, start by being featured on local or regional podcasts. Again, you’ll learn how to focus on your talking points, annunciate, and get to the point. There’s an art to being interviewed and it takes practice to get good at it.
For example, because of my activities on Social Media, I’m often asked to appear on Podcasts. I will participate in virtually any podcast because I love to talk about Direct Primary Care, I like to help people build their audience for their podcasts, it’s a great piece of content for me and my business, and it boosts my Search Engine Optimization.
Here’s my latest podcast interview: https://primarycarecures.com/2019/07/18/episode-25-dr-paul-thomas/
Reach Out To Journalists
A little secret: journalists are people too! They have deadlines and things that they need to accomplish. They have social media channels, and followers, and egos just like everyone else. One way to get onto the radar of a journalist is to follow them on social media. You can like and retweet their content, and overtime, you can respond to their content and start a genuine conversation around mutual interests.
Is there a health care reporter in your town? Do you follow them? Do you contribute thoughtful comments to their stories? Do you like/share their content on your social media channels? These are easy actions to take to communicate with journalists - and they cost nothing other than some of your time.
Once you’re on their radar, how can you package the work that you do so that they’re likely to write about it? And that can be accomplished via a Press Release. You’re basically packaging a blog post or a short article about yourself in to the language of a Journalist.
Sometimes You Just Get Lucky
I took a course at the Build Institute called Co-Starters. It was a cohort of about 12 people in Detroit, all starting unique businesses. We’d meet up every week and review the curriculum - marketing, identifying potential customers, leveraging capital, etc… As a part of the Build Institute’s 10 year anniversary, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion with the Media present.
After the panel discussion, I talked to a few different reporters and one of them came to our office to learn more about our practice. That turned into one of the biggest pieces of content and biggest magnets for new patients: our interview on Detroit’s NBC Affiliate aka Channel 4 News.
This is what I mean about when Preparation meets Luck, you have Opportunity. If I had said “no” to the panel discussion, I would have missed this opportunity and I probably would not be nearly as successful as I am today.
Thanks for reading and best of luck with your Direct Primary Care practice!
This will become a longer-form course shortly as it is one of my most common asks - “how were you able to have your Direct Primary Care practice featured on TV/Radio/Newspaper?”
-Dr. Paul Thomas with StartUpDPC