Avvo Unveils New User Features Making It Easier for Doctors to Increase their Online Visibility with Prospective Patients and Colleagues

Seattle, WA - May 31, 2011 - Avvo (www.avvo.com), the world's largest online directory for doctors and lawyers that provides free rankings for 90% of the working physicians in the U.S., has released a series of new site features and social media capabilities that will make it even easier for participating physicians to enhance their online profile and effectively dialog with prospective patients.

Enhanced Social Media Sharing

Avvo's new social media capability is a simple addition to a doctor's existing use of Avvo as their preferred online ratings directory:   

• When a doctor answers a question, writes a Health Guides contribution, or endorses a peer, he or she has the option of sharing that contribution on Facebook or Twitter as soon as it posts on Avvo.
• The doctor just selects the chosen social network(s) they want to use before they submit their contribution on Avvo.

In addition to automatically sharing their Avvo contributions, the site's new social media sharing tool will also enable participating doctors to share the positive things patients and colleagues are saying about them on the site with their social networks.   

Q&A Forum Interaction through Email

Avvo has also incorporated new changes to its Question and Answer process designed to make it easier for doctors to be notified when new questions are asked. The site tool offers two types of frequency:

• Immediately: Doctors receive an email, as soon as a question is asked via Avvo.com
• Daily Digest: Questions are rolled up into a single daily e-mail
  
  

Doctors who sign-up for these notifications have the optional advantage of being able to answer the question via email directly from their personal account.  Avvo also automatically appends any disclaimer that the doctor has pre-loaded onto his/her account to every response. Finally, Avvo users (physicians and consumers) can vote up or vote down on answers in the Q&A forum.

Peer Invitations and Endorsements

This month, Avvo is also launching a new feature where doctors will automatically receive suggestions of who to connect with based on information in the Avvo profiles that indicate physicians know each other.  Doctors will specifically be prompted to invite connections to claim their Avvo profiles, if they have not yet done so - and they will also be encouraged to endorse these colleagues and peers.

Avvo, which offers free editorial "Avvo Ratings" on more than 800,000 doctors ranging from 1 ("Extreme Caution") to 10 ("Superb"), offers detailed information about a doctor's background, experience and disciplinary record, along with patient and peer ratings - all in one place.  For more information on how to take advantage of Avvo's many ways to build credibility and share reputation online, including the opportunity to participate for free in Avvo's Q&A forum and Health Guides, doctors are encouraged to visit www.avvo.com for more information.  

About Avvo
Avvo is the largest and only free website that empowers consumers to handle medical and legal matters with confidence. Avvo offers free ratings and profiles for 90 percent of practicing lawyers and 90 percent of licensed MDs in the US. This includes the editorial Avvo Rating, patient and client reviews and peer endorsements as well as experience, background information, industry achievements and disciplinary records. Avvo also offers a free Question and Answer forum, where consumers can ask questions and receive certified answers from certified doctors and lawyers.  Additionally, Avvo Legal Guides and Avvo Health Guides are free research tools, written as how-to articles covering everyday issues authored by certified lawyers and doctors. Founded in early 2006 and launched in 2007, Avvo is privately held, with funding from private investors, Benchmark Capital, Ignition Partners and DAG Ventures. For more information, visit www.avvo.com