In November 2020 British physiotherapist Darren Brown, who is living with Long Covid, put out a tweet asking if any other physios or PTs were in a similar situation. His motivation was simple; to connect with people who may have similar experiences and health literacy as physios living with Long Covid, so as to compare notes on coping with the condition.
The response to Darren’s tweet was extraordinary and now a global group exists to share information and experiences, provide peer support, and to advocate for access to safe rehabilitation. Their remarkable journey from that first tweet through to collaboration with global organisations is outlined by Darren in the first Long Covid Physio blog.
Despite the fatigue and post-exertion malaise of Long Covid, Darren is no slouch when it comes to using technology. In fact, it was the exhaustion of living with Long Covid and increasing need to provide a permanent space to answer common questions received on Social Media, that lead Darren to recognise the need for a website where information can be permanently housed and easily accessed by all.
Darren’s first tweet contained the catchy hashtag #LongCovidPhysio. At the time he was a member of other Long Covid support groups but identified an opportunity to create a peer support group for Physiotherapists living with Long Covid. This enabled people to connect who shared experiences as rehabilitation professionals, who are also responding to the pandemic and living with the longer term health challenges of COVID-19. By creating Long Covid Physio, Darren hoped to be more specific and therefore cut through the noise to greater achievement for both the group and the profession.
With a clear brand identity of Long Covid Physio the next task was a logo. Darren knew it had to be square’ish to be used across multiple media platforms and to contain the group name ‘Long Covid Physio’. With some creativity and clever software the logo was born with a virus shape and a person within.
Finally, the website URL had to be chosen and it was a ‘no brainer’ for Darren to use the profession’s own domain extension .physio. The opportunity to exactly match the group’s name made the website’s address shorter, more memorable, more relevant, easier to say and easier to type – all great advantages to helping more people find them.
The website was launched Sunday 17th Jan 2021 at www.longcovid.physio and within the first week received more than 10,000 page views. The website is a great asset for the profession and a great example of how to build a global brand.
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