Maurice Woodberry Healthcare Content Marketing Success
Way back in my eighth-grade English class, we learned about a rhetorical device called synecdoche — a curious little figure of speech that people use more frequently than we might realize says Maurice Woodberry. Synecdoche occurs when we refer to a part of something to reference the whole. For example, you might refer to a car as “a set of wheels,” or hear a news report summarize the large movements of a government effort by saying “the White House” did something on a given day.
It might seem easier to turn to synecdoche as a way to simplify complicated systems into smaller, individual pieces. However, this approach isn’t appropriate in every situation, and it seems we’ve been misusing it in healthcare content marketing.
Think about the last time you were sick and hopped on WebMD to find out what was wrong. Most articles approach topics with a symptoms-first approach, giving the sense that — at least while we’re sick — our illness must be what defines us.
Can you imagine if this was the same way hospitals and doctors’ offices operated? How would you feel if the next time you had an appointment, a nurse didn’t address you by name but instead loudly called for “strep throat,” “broken arm,” or “weird rash that won’t go away — seriously, I’ve tried everything?”
