While more and more professionals leverage the power of Linkedin, most medical doctors remain sceptical – at least in the UK. There are plenty of reasons for this, which I will explore in the near future. In this article, I’d like to share just a few reasons why every doctor should actively use Linkedin.
1) It’s massive and it’s FREE
With over 347 million of registered users, Linkedin is the world’s largest professional networking platform to date. The basic (free) membership has so many features for career development that you can actively manage your career with fantastic results without ever having to upgrade for additional services and features. Once you know the rules of the game, it is fun and effortless.
2) Professional networking
It is easy to reach out to other professionals, in and outside of medicine. It could even be someone you would have never had a chance to connect with otherwise. Linkedin allows you to collect and track all the professional relationships you have developed or want to develop further.
3) Step out of the ‘medical bubble’
Linkedin makes you realise that in the ‘real world’ (i.e. outside medicine) medics of all grades and expertise have real value within other industries, as well as in the business world. If you are a doctor who is thinking about alternative careers or developing a “career portfolio”, Linkedin is a great way to connect with other medics who “have been there, done that” and research other options.
4) A research tool
Without feeling too much like a stalker, you can find out unique insights about people’s career journeys, academic and professional interests.
5) Reignite your career!
Online professional networking can be very useful when you don’t know what direction your career should take. Linkedin not only allows you to create real opportunities to step out of the job you dislike, but also to step up the game in a career that is going well.
6) Acquire informal mentors for career advancement
You can find and connect with the people you admire and those who inspire you. They may be able to share their wisdom with you and provide some ‘insider information’ about the field/industry you have an interest in.
7) Collaboration
You can find like-minded people, some of whom may even be on a different continent. These ‘encounters’ can lead to all sorts of collaborative opportunities – from co-authoring a paper to founding a biomedical startup.
8) Introductions
Linkedin enables useful and relevant introductions of like-minded professionals who share similar interests and have complementary skills or expertise. This can lead to possibilities for professional collaboration, as well as new job or business opportunities.
9) Managing your professional digital reputation
Because Linkedin profiles get ranked high by Google, defining your credibility and having an active presence on Linkedin presents a very effective way to manage your digital footprint.
Whether you want it or not, patients and colleagues alike do look you up on Google. Most won’t look beyond the first page of Google search, so having a Linkedin profile can help ‘push down’ the influence of any negative posts from other social media or doctors’ rating sites. Unlike some other searchable sources of information about doctors, Linkedin enables you to be in control of building a respectable personal brand. The latter is especially relevant if developing your visibility is one of the goals for your career or business development (eg. private practice).
Linkedin is also useful for doctors because it allows you:
10) To follow specialty, academic, business and industry trends;
11) To have a voice through blogging;
12) To spread success stories and disseminate research;
13) Peer support networks;
14) To establish yourself as the “go-to” expert;
15) To become an inspirational role model or mentor for someone!
Summary
We’ve all been told that to achieve success in anything, we must work very hard – and doctors do. Social media allows you to achieve results faster by doing things in unusual and unconventional ways.
Doctors, embrace Linkedin as a versatile tool for smart professional networking and career advancement – in medicine and beyond!
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If you are a doctor or another Healthcare Professional? Please share in the comment box whether you have found Linkedin a useful tool for your career. Is there a particular Linkedin feature that you like the most?
If you have any questions about using Linkedin to reignite or reinvent your career, feel free to email me: info@OtherOptionsForDoctors.com.
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=8259949
Twitter: @options4doctors
