Rock Your WebMD Profile Page!

If you're a member of the WebMD community, you have a profile page that you can use to tell the rest of us a little bit about you. Amazingly, not everyone takes advantage of this cool tool.

There are two sides to your WebMD profile page. The first is for your friends on the site to see. It's the public you. You can rock it out with your favorite image, talk about why you came to WebMD, share some of your favorite things, and even link up to your personal website or blog. The public page also includes a list of some of your most recent posts so your friends can keep up with what you're saying on the site.

Here's a visual of what one of our board hosts, Kathy_WebMD, has on her public profile:



You'll notice Kathy has a photo of her son "Little Dude" as her image on the page. If you're worried about using personal photos, you can always just use an image or photo that isn't personal, but that you feel represents something about you. Some members use photos of their pets, some who love gardening may have a flower or gardening tools, others choose an image that represents how they may be feeling for the moment. You can change your image at any time.

You can write as much or as little as you want to about yourself in the question section. It's a great way to find out what you have in common with your WebMD board friends.

I have to toss in a note of caution, though. Be sure that you don't include too much personally identifying information in there. It's easy to forget that folks other than just your friends can see your public profile. Also, most content on the web is searchable, so maybe use only your first name or a nickname rather than your real or full name. And you NEVER want to list your address or phone number.

Another great reason to beef up your WebMD profile page is that our staff often spotlights members on our Community Home Page.

We've actually just added a neat new Meet the Community section to the top of that page:



Ideally, we'd like to feature four members each week, so get that profile updated and rockin' just in case we choose YOU! (Don't worry, we won't sneak up on you. We'll alert you first. *wink*)

In addition to your public profile, there is also a private side that only you see. That is the place you can store your favorite boards and threads and your personal tag cloud.

So, if you haven't taken the time to fill out your WebMD member profile, I hope you'll do that soon!

Leona