Your Online Physician Portrait

Calling all wannabe physician entrepreneurs or physician job searchers!

When was the last time you spent any significant money on something without first doing some research online?

Can't remember?

Well, guess what ... that is also true for anything that you, as a physician, want to "sell." Whether it’s your services when you work in another medical practice or a non-clinical physician executive position or as an entrepreneurial physician with a service or a product for your target market!

Have a terrific resume? Did a top-notch interview? Got an outstanding website with all the bells and whistles? And yet you're unable to close the sale — land that job, get that new client, close the deal.

You may be puzzled and even angry, but this may be the time to do a Google search for yourself using your name. And even to invest in a background check. Undoubtedly that is what others might be doing to you before formulating their opinions.

The advent of social media platforms has been both a boon and a bane for physicians building businesses, medical practices or careers.

If you haven't set your Facebook profile privacy settings correctly, those goofy pictures of you downing a huge tankard of beer or your unseemly comments about your workplace colleagues could come back to haunt you. Even your Twitter stream is now searchable in Google!

The New York Times

My personal philosophy with anything you put out on the web is that it should be stuff that you'd have no problem being published on the front page of . That means no swear words, no inane or insensitive comments and no dumb, compromising photos!

So how can you use social media to your advantage?

Well, considering that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and now Google+ are some of the most trafficked websites in the world, anything that you write about yourself on those pages is likely to rank even higher than your own painstakingly-crafted personal bio on your website.

By developing a well thought-out social media marketing strategy, you can successfully woo the search engines and your prospective clients or executive recruiters, leaving them with the impression of a physician, potential physician executive or physician entrepreneur who is professional, personable and proud to be found on the Web!