We sing the praises of physician connection. But maybe it isn’t for everyone. Here are 6 signs (for physicians) that social media is not for you:
1. You hate what you do. Social involvement requires some degree of passion for what you’re discussing. If you’re unhappy at medicine and you’re generally an angry sort you might keep things to yourself. Unless of course you’re passionate about creating a community of angry doctors.
2. You are a paranoid, risk-averse milquetoast. Every now and again I bump into a doctor who tells me about all the trouble I could be getting myself into. And they usually have a hundred ideas why I need to keep my door shut. Open dialog requires something of a leap of faith. In order to make any of this work you need to live without the looming belief that every post is a lawsuit-in-waiting. Tweet smart but understand the real risk-benefit (Note: Greg Matthews used the word milquetoast in a tweet last week so I felt challenged to use it myself).
3. You work 170 hours a week. Sure social media takes time. And yes, this can be a challenge if you work 170 hours a week. But there are some really useful ways you can be social as a doctor on a time budget. For starters, limiting your social properties and your connections. Small and real is better than nothing at all. I think I’ll stop there and turn this one into a post for tomorrow. Or the next day.
4. You want to hire someone to do it. I recently tried to sell one of my fertility friends on developing a presence for himself. He was really interested but at the end he winked and said, “Send me some info. I’ll have my girls get on it.” Oiy. Colleagues and patients want you, not your logo, office manager, or your “girls.” If you can’t do at least some of it yourself you should reconsider doing it at all.
5. You don’t need the patients. Boutique specialties see social as part of their personal branding strategy. And for good reason. But let’s face it, unless you’re banding stomachs or peddling bioequivalent hormones, you’ve probably got your hands full with more than enough patients. Internists don’t think about their personal brand, footprint or outreach. What they do think is how their going to keep the lights on after the Government slashes Medicare.
6. You don’t want anyone to know what you think. Admittedly, public dialog done right requires some degree of disclosure. If you’re averse to anyone knowing what you are thinking, what you believe, or what (God forbid) you may be passionate about, you may just as well hide securely under your exam table and leave the dialog to the rest us.
But in the end, you may not have a choice. When I crowdsourced suggestions for this post on Twitter, @rudxandra made the point that the use of social media is becoming no longer optional. It is, as she put, “a mandatory transformation in order to evolve as a society.”
Now I can’t beat that.
Talk amongst yourselves.
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Perfect!
If it ain’t about transformation of the ‘resistance is futile’ health care borg, it ain’t value….
Lets get with it! De-silo our hierarchically addicted ‘cathedrals of medicine’. Partnership, collaboration, and a culture of openness seem to be the currency. No slam on the sacred nature of the art and practice of medicine. Quite to the contrary, a true valuation of the nature of the physician’s role as ‘healer’.
Well-said. Pithy. And yes, this all pulls us back to our real roots.
With a few exceptions, number 3 and number 5 applies to virtually all primary care docs.
I wish those that push hard for doc’s to adopt social media would understand that it isn’t always a matter of choice to go out of their way to ignore social media. When a doc has a room full of patients waiting to be seen, 33 charts to complete, 3 more patients waiting to be discharged from the hospital, administrative task to perform, patient call-backs, all before it is 2pm, it is difficult to put in extra effort in something like social media. No matter how passionate they are.
Instead of pushing for doc’s to adopt social media, why don’t we push for a system that allows primary care doc’s to spend time in social media?
There is value in scarcity, except in primary care. As result, less will adopt social media. Let’s be honest.
Great post as usual Dr. V
@pediatricinc
Brandon. Thanks for making that point. Time is common denominator with most docs. I do think that some basic involvement is possible with a limited time budget, however. I’ve said in the past (as I think Wendy Swanson has as well) that we may ultimately see a day when docs are paid to be part of this discussion. But until then, it’s a labor of love.
Ditto…
While you might feel dejected, unappreciated and stripped of your control, keep in mind that the initials after your name and the domain expertise you have, still commands respect in the business community and is highly sought. Social media is still in it’s infancy. It will evolve to include other forms of communication. Ignore it at your peril.
Very nice. Yes, this isn’t even yet in its infancy. Let’s see where it goes.
With regard to the last point, I hope this doesn’t mean that we’ll start to see corrupted Greek ichthys symbols holding iPhones stuck on the backs of cars. Perhaps the author meant “devolution?” Good post. I recently co-authored an article on 10 lessons learned as a pathologist blogger with similar conclusions http://bit.ly/cJrwCz
This post reminded me that I started my day laughing this morning listening to an NPR interview with Nora Ephron on her new
book, “I Remember Nothing and Other
Reflections”, when she read her list of things she
refuses to know anything about as she griows older which included “The former Soviet Republics, the Kardashians, Twitter; all
Housewives, Survivors, American Idols, and
Bachelors; Karzai’s brother, soccer, monkfish,
Jay-Z, every drink invented since the
Cosmopolitan, especially the drink made with
crushed mint leaves. You know the one.”
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