I frequently teach and speak to physicians concerning online reputation and digital footprint. Many with nothing to their name want to know how they can get started. Here’s how you can begin to take ownership of your reputation in under an hour.
1. Launch a LinkedIn page. Put a stake in the ground with a solid LinkedIn page. Be sure to include 1) photo 2) basic history and 3) bio. The bio is the most important element of your LinkedIn profile. Make it real. Make it good. And LinkedIn has a very nice timeline where you can share links and update what you’re up to.
2. Create a Doximity profile. Doximity is effectively LinkedIn for doctors. You’ll notice that the features are more geared toward practitioners. Be sure to make your profile public so that people searching will find it. Be sure to read, 12 Things About Doximity You Probably Didn’t Know.
3. Join Vizify. This is a cool personal infographic platform that allows you to publish a page with your personal particulars. Here’s mine. Note: this works best if you have some social presence on Twitter or the like. So…
4. Jump on Twitter. Open a Twitter account. Name with your name…maybe MD after it to indicate you are a doctor. Put a simple, pointed bio. Then share something, maybe once a day. If you share just one thing every day, people will find you and follow you. And no need to be overwhelmed. On the inbound side just follow 10 people to start. Then grow as you find valuable sources of information. Or just follow 10 people. You are in control of your inputs.
5. Pen a 350 word post for your medical center blog. Most hospitals, medical schools and institutions have blogs. And they love to have their staff physicians contribute. Peek at what they like to publish on their site. Draft a post, send it along and you’re public. Maybe you have a few dozen Twitter followers? Let them know about your new post. KevinMD is another great place to share what you’ve got assuming it’s pretty good. Do this every 3-4 months and pretty soon you’ve got a nice panel of posts that tell the world how you see the world.
6. Mess with Medium. Medium is a chic new blogging platform by the brainchild of Twitter and Blogger. It’s a good place to share your ideas in a way that’s clean and minimalistic. Medium and other blogging platforms allow you to create permanent content that everyone can see.
7. Grab a Google+ page. Have ideas longer than a tweet but don’t want the hassle of formally creating a blog post? This is your solution. Think of it as a stream like Twitter or Facebook but prettier and easier to understand. Share news, links and images related to your passion. And Google+ searches well on…Google. So it’s a good place to consider when trying to put yourself out there. Once you’re on, add me to your circles
8. Create an about.me page. This is a platform that allows you to create a public landing page for yourself. You can post a small bio and links to things like your LinkedIn page (which you just created) or your hospital’s blog (where you just posted). Like vizify, this works better if you have ‘properties’ to link to.
All these things can make you public and in control of your own information in an hour. I’d recommend focusing on a couple to start. Pick a place to park a profile (LinkedIn), one place for content (like your hospital blog) and one place to have dialog (Twitter). Update your LinkedIn or Doximity profile every so often. Publish to your medical center’s blog every 3 months or so. Share a link on Twitter once a day. Do these things and you’ll have a solid footprint underway.
You can grow as time allows. Of course, creating real value for people takes a little more time. But it’s easy to start.
And rather than reinventing the wheel, the best thing you can do for yourself is to find a few role models in your specialty or area of interest. See what they share and how they handle their public presence.
I hope this was helpful. What have I missed? What else can be done in under an hour?
Note: Each item represents an effort that can be executed in under an hour.