Psychology Today - Best Practices

This is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you. Everybody should be on Psychology Today and I assume that 90% of the people that I'm talking to today are on Psychology Today, but usually, we set our Psychology Today ad up and then we never touch it again. Sometimes we don't have the best information right at first in Psychology Today.

See here's what I've found. First thing you have to have for Psychology Today is a good professional picture. I have to tell you, the funniest thing I've ever seen, I saw a person in the Kansas City area, a lady that took a picture of herself in her bathroom mirror and you can see the robe and the shower behind it, and she took herself that way. That's not a professional picture. Let me tell you, that's not a professional picture, but get a good professional picture. Not something that's stern. Make it pleasant, make it smiling and not some glamor shot. That isn't what they're looking for. They’re looking at a typical therapist looking picture where you're smiling and friendly.

The first thing on Psychology Today is nothing's going to happen if you don't have a good picture, because they're going to look at the picture first before they look at anything else. Then when they look at that picture, the next thing they’re going to look at is the first three lines or four lines, because that's all that shows up on that first page. They're going to look at your first three or four lines.

Now, when they look at your first three or four lines, therapists are noted for being a little wordy in what they do in their advertising. The first three lines will say something like this. “As you travel through life, there are sometimes dangers that are encountered that you're unaware of because of the outcomes that may come from doing this,” and there’s your three lines. They didn't say anything.

Why don't you have something like this? “I love to help children who are struggling to fit in.” Boy if you had a child that was struggling to fit in, that's who you'd go to. Or why don't you name what we call the big four plus your specialty. You say, “I understand the pains involved with couple's problems, with anger, with anxiety, with depression.” You can get all three of those in the first three or four lines and then they see, “Oh, I'm depressed and there's the guy that works on the therapy. There’s the lady that works on depression.” They check you out because you had that in the first three lines.

See, I see many therapists spend, I'm telling you up to three months writing the three paragraphs for Psychology Today. Nobody really reads those three paragraphs except after they've already made the decision to work with you so here's what I suggest you do. Get a good professional picture. Get good three lines. You can now put videos on there. That would be a great thing to do, put videos on and I think you'll see your acceptance and the people that call you as new patients will go up if you do just those simple things. This is Dave Kats. Thanks for listening.