I’m exploring a series of webinars for 2014 concerning life online.  So recently I had a number of conversations with local physicians about their public/social/digital/online presence.  I’m trying to understand their needs.

General observation: This group recognized the benefits of global connectivity but had little interest in participating.  They knew that there are conversations happening yet they seemed to see themselves as removed from their own public existence and disconnected from the broader discourse.  Most believed their presence could be outsourced or imposed on a surrogate.  Reputation management was viewed as a strategy for removal of bad reviews.  (In fact, one smiled, leaned in and whispered that he has a guy who does that.)

Bottom line: Among this small set of busy community doctors, few would participate in a seminar or webinar involving improving their online presence, even if it were free. Discouraging but not surprising.

It wasn’t my intent to recruit. I was just looking for facts.  But it’s clear that if you want to discuss public media with doctors, you need to help them understand very clearly what’s in it for them.  But while beefing up your footprint can be done fairly easily, the creation of voice, meaningful content, audience, eyeballs and relationships that carry benefits come only after months and years of a consistent presence.

How do you teach that in a 90 minute webinar?