Finding Success With DocNews: Best Practices

Find Success With DocNews

Choose content that is clinical in nature. Focus on medical innovations, research, newly published studies by affiliated doctors, adoption of cutting-edge technology, and other topics that are most relevant to physicians. Patient stories and administrative institutional updates often do not resonate with our users as much as information about medical advancements and outcomes.

Other sites have shortcomings. Facebook skews personal. Twitter only captures physicians interested in social self-promotion.

And LinkedIn is overwhelmed by the noise of non-physicians — frankly, I get close to no use from it. Doximity is a means to actually connect to the specialists I work with everyday.

- Arjun Sharma, MD

Key Tips To Write a Headline That Resonates With Your Readers

DO

• Include a statistic: If a percent or a number is at the heart of a story, add it to the front of the headline.
• Write to your target audience: Generalists might not know every acronym that specialists do.
• Get clinical: Mention the disease, specialty, procedure, or any other key clinical details.
• Get specific: Rather than just naming a conference, name the exact presentation title. Direct content at specialists or sub-specialist when relevant.
• Grab their attention: Use action words (like “discover,” “explore,” etc.) and superlatives (like “groundbreaking,” “revolutionary,” “state of the art,” and “expertise”) when it’s relevant.
• Headline with Featured Story type: Include “Video,” “Podcast,” “Q&A,” and/or “Event” in your Featured Story headline when relevant.

DON'T

• Include your organization’s name: Your hospital name and logo will appear in the newscard.
• Be overly technical: Keep it brief. Your featured story will dive into the details, so your headline should include just enough to draw readers in.
• Lean into gimmicks: Avoid being sensational, silly, or incredible. Don’t rely on metaphors and other referential language to convey your message.

Article Length

There’s no single required word count, but a good rule of thumb is to keep Featured Stories concise. Physicians are most often reading on a mobile device, in short windows between patients—so long-form content can feel like too much. Aim to deliver your key clinical takeaway quickly. If a reader has to scroll significantly to reach your main point, you’ve likely lost them. Think of it less like a journal article and more like a clinical brief: lead with the finding and support it with enough context to be credible.

Pro-Tip:

If your content is long by nature (a study with complex methodology, a multi-step procedure), use headers and short paragraphs to make it scannable rather than cutting important detail.

Trending Topics

Each quarter, your CSM will share what topics are trending on Doximity in each specialty.

Use them to your advantage by tailoring your content to match these topics. You can also explore the latest trends anytime on our Trending Topics page. They can also provide monthly information on trending topics and health observances.

We work with our team at Doximity to make sure that that content is relevant and is going to have the most impact.

We want to know what pediatric endocrinologists are reading about and what’s performing best. Trending Topics reports show us what’s really resonating with our audience.

- Elizabeth Morrow Marketing Manager, Children’s National

Getting the Most From Digest

Digest and DocNews behave differently, so your content strategy should too. DocNews is about stopping the scroll — your headline and visual need to quickly signal relevance at a glance. Digest is where depth and specificity win. It’s a more intentional, less crowded environment, so content can be more nuanced: subspecialty insights, complex cases, research breakdowns, and clear connections to clinical decision-making.

Think of DocNews as the hook and Digest as the value delivery. If you’re repurposing content from your DocNews library, don’t just lift and shift. Ask what earned attention, why it worked, and how you can elevate it with more depth or clinical context for the Digest audience.

DO

• Lead with depth: Digest readers are more focused than newsfeed scrollers. Subspecialty insights, study breakdowns, and nuanced clinical content perform well here.
• Tailor headlines by specialty: Some audiences respond to journal-style titles; others prefer outcome-driven or practical framing. Match the tone to the audience.
• Use Digest to amplify what’s already working: High-performing DocNews topics are strong candidates. Build on proven engagement; don’t start from scratch.

DON'T

• Treat it like a second newsfeed: The physician mindset is different. Broad, high-impact hooks work for DocNews; Digest rewards specificity and clinical value.
• Skip the strategy conversation: Your CSM and Relationship Manager can help identify which specialties, geographies, or service lines are the strongest fit based on performance data and your market position.

Pro-Tip:

We’ve seen broadly-targeted audiences engage with highly niche content in Digest that didn’t perform as strongly in the newsfeed — physicians are in a more focused, “lean-in” mindset when reading Digest.

Video

• Shorter is Better: Keep video lengths under two minutes; hit key messages within the first minute; capture attention in the first five seconds.

• Tell a Visual Story: Include people and graphics, captions, or text.

• Add a Featured Story: Videos with a Featured Story perform 2x better than those directly on the newsfeed.

Photos

The top-performing newsfeed card images include clinical imagery that show real-world, HIPAA-
compliant photos and scans, as well as physicians in the workplace. Featured Stories with at least one embedded image will perform better. If possible, avoid stock/promotional imagery.

Pro-Tip:

Don’t be scared to use graphic images.

Note: For images embedded in a Featured Story, we recommend an image size between 800x800-1200x1200 pixels. An image with a 1200px width will match the width of the story. The more pixels, the sharper the image. If an image is smaller than 800x800px, the image quality will not be sufficient for the story. Unlike the Featured Image, embedded images have no required ratio. Your Doximity team can adjust the size of your provided image as needed.