The Doctor is

A Guide for Getting Your Doctors LinkedInto Help Your Hospital Stand Out

Table of ContentsI. A Guide for Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations

II. Tips for Doctors & LinkedIn

III. Tips for Hospitals & LinkedIn

IV. Sources

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avoided social media. It seemed way too confusing. It took way too much time. And there were always the HIPAA risks.

But the healthcare world is rapidly changing. Your patients are online. Your competitors are, too. So you need to promote your doctors and their expertise.

But where?

In the healthcare arena, one channel stands out as an absolute must for your doctors:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn provides significant advantages when it comes to online search visibility. When patients, researchers or conference attendees search for your doctors online, the doctors’ LinkedIn profiles are likely to show up near the top of the results.

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We all know why doctors, nurses and hospital administrators once

Dr. Bob

The millions of in-depth profiles on LinkedIn make it a powerful content platform. As a result, profiles often rank higher in popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

That means LinkedIn profiles can rank almost as high—or even higher—than popular doctor rating sites, including Healthgrades and vitals.com.This gives you and your doctors a tremendous opportunity to leverage LinkedIn to

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WHY LINKEDIN?

Registered Nurse: 727,327OB/GYN: 59,759Pediatrician: 26,841Anesthesiologist: 16,237Oncologist: 14,973Gastroenterologist: 7,249Thoracic surgeon: 4,417Brain surgeon: 1,760

Today, it’s hard to find a medical specialty that isn’t represented on LinkedIn.Here are just a few:

When people research your doctors online, isn’t that the kind of information you want them to find?

A lot of hospitals and doctors are beginning to figure out the power of LinkedIn1 when it comes to search. There are more than two million North American doctors and nurses on LinkedIn, a number that’s more than doubled in just the last year2.

highlight your doctors’ medical expertise, research and thought leadership.

share why your doctors are passionate about their work and about caring for their patients.

These healthcare professionals are on LinkedIn because they know their patients expect them to have an online presence. percent3 of would-be patients tap search engines and scan hospital web pages to make critical decisions about healthcare.

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WHY LINKEDIN?

The Top 5 ReasonsBy using LinkedIn, your doctors can:

1) Improve their online presence.

2) Ensure that accurate information comes up near the top of web search results – making it easier for patients to find.

3) Showcase their thought leadership, research and expertise.

4) Stay connected with and recruit professional colleagues.

5) Amplify your hospital’s reputation.

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LinkedIn groups also offer doctors a chance to consult with colleagues and keep up with changes in the field.

The 36,000+ members of Digital Health, for example, can see and discuss the latest advances and gadgets in healthcare technology.

The Medical Doctor (MD) Network offers physicians a place to “connect with one another and share ideas and best practices regarding the professional, clinical, business, legal and personal issues doctors face.”

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THE POWER OF LINKEDIN GROUPS

Beyond doctors and nurses, hospital administrators should also leverage the power of LinkedIn. A lot of savvy hospital marketing, development and HR leaders are already using the channel to promote the hospital and attract hard-to-recruit medical professionals.

YOUR HOSPITALS SHOULD USE LINKEDIN, TOO

Hospitals that leverage LinkedIn company pages are experiencing explosive growth.

Consider Toby Cosgrove, the head of Cleveland Clinic. He regularly posts white papers and essays on his page. This one, for example, highlights Cleveland Clinic’s decision to ban smoking at its campuses in 2005, and a 2007 decision not to hire physicians and other professionals who smoke.

When Mayo Clinic was named the nation’s most social media-friendly hospital in 2013, it had more than 28,000 LinkedIn followers. That number has since jumped to more than 86,000 followers.

Mayo Clinic is not alone. Many other top hospitals are seeing dramatic growth in LinkedIn followers.

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Why is this important? LinkedIn members are twice as likely to buy from brands they follow on the channel. They’re also twice as likely to recommend them to others4.

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Mount Sinai Medical Center

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Massachusetts General Hospital

New York-Presbyterian University Hospital

MD Anderson Cancer Center

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Mayo Clinic

Cleveland Clinic

2015 LinkedIn Followers 2014 LinkedIn Followers 2013 LinkedIn Followers

28,82039,335

18,358

23,23411,751

23,23131,176

14,674

20,36826,502

11,587

19,44126,515

10,620

39,162

Explosive growth on LinkedIn among U.S.

hospitals

66,15988,180

36,842

48,61970,360

28,367

29,33543,954

16,932

29,33438,030

18,697

To be sure, maintaining a LinkedIn presence isn’t simply about building a following. Hospitals are finding it to be a potent tool to promote services to patients, recruit new hires and showcase top professionals.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, like many other hospitals on LinkedIn, offers a careers page to promote openings to both outsiders and employees eager to advance.

Mount Sinai Hospital uses its page to promote physician research and to recognize nurses who do outstanding work. The Mount Sinai page also offers healthcare tips for consumers.

Also, hospital administrators are using LinkedIn as a database to search for and recruit medical professionals. Armed with a LinkedIn talent pool report, your hospital can target professionals in regions of the U.S. where healthcare recruiting is likely to be most effective.

How can you take full advantage of all of these benefits?

Here are some suggestions...

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Spectrum Health, a system based in western Michigan, created a network of LinkedIn company pages, calledshowcase pages, to promote each of its care centers. Each page offers a specific view of its different hospitals and care centers.

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1. Create a complete profile LinkedIn members with complete profiles receive 40 times more engagement than profiles containing bare bones job descriptions and career histories. Here are some guidelines for your doctors and nurses...

Create an engaging summary. Don’t just talk about what you do—talk about what you love to do. Describe what you do best, what motivates you and how you help patients. Offer a few details about your likes and interests outside of medicine. Be personable, professional and approachable. (Cautionary note: Personable does not mean overly personal. This is a professional site—not a good place to take a political stand or share too much about your personal life).

Use keywords. A strong profile includes the kinds of words that patients might use to search for doctors or hospitals. For example, if you specialize in care for a specific health issue or condition, including the name of that condition in your profile may help interested patients find you on LinkedIn.

Share where you have worked, your responsibilities and your major accomplishments.

Offer specific details to make your profile more engaging and unique. For example, maybe you are passionate about mentoring, you are an avid history buff or you chair a nonprofit board.

Resist the temptation to simply create an online resume. (Tip: Don’t talk about yourself in the third person). You should add images to your profile, too. A profile page can and should be as visual and engaging as a Facebook page, with friendly language and images that reflect a doctor’s work and environment.

LINKEDIN TIPS FOR DOCTORS

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2. Be Active on LinkedInOnce you create a powerful presence on LinkedIn, use the network to engage with others and elevate your visibility.

Join groups: Find doctors in the same specialty, and seek out topics where joining the conversation can demonstrate thought leadership and expertise.

Post research and white papers on your profile page and promote them to colleagues.

Share news and information that colleagues will find intriguing.

Help promote your hospitals or network.

LINKEDIN TIPS FOR DOCTORS

3. Post content including news that your doctors can share in their feeds.

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Profile your doctors and nurses and celebrate their accomplishments by posting content on LinkedIn that highlights their expertise to patients.

Create employee and alumni groups to encourage in-network communication and team building.

1. Create a company page that offers engagement to patients, job

prospects and your staff.

2. Develop your career page to engage new prospects and promote the

upside of working for your hospital. A careers page can include your recruitment video and offer links to other social media channels that visitors can use to learn more about your hospital’s values, mission and culture.

4. Educate, educate, educate. Educational content is one of the best ways

This will help build followers for your organization.

to build and keep your audience. The MD Anderson Cancer Center regularly offers news and cancer prevention tips in its newsfeed. Many are purely informational, like this update on bladder cancer.

Even better, make it fun and engaging. Cleveland Clinic frequently features recipes for healthy foods and offers info about how eating them reduces the risk of certain cancers and heart disease. Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin regularly posts LinkedIn updates that highlight its fundraising events and campaigns.

LINKEDIN TIPS FOR HOSPITALS

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IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS.HELPHow do you get started? How do you develop the best practices and policies needed to succeed on LinkedIn?

That’s where Mindset Digital comes in. You can take our LinkedIn for Doctors online courses in 10-15 minute sessions from your phone or tablet.

Our fast, engaging and highly visual style makes learning easy. You and your physicians, nurses and marketing teams can get certified not just in LinkedIn but also in Twitter, Facebook, SEO and more.

To learn about how Mindset Digital can get you up to speed on fully leveraging LinkedIn and other digital platforms, visit www.mindsetdigital.com or email hello@mindsetdigital.com.

Visuals are powerful.So is our training.

AUTHORS

SPENCER HUNT

DEBRA JASPER, Ph.D.

Debra Jasper, Ph.D, founder of Mindset Digital, is passionateabout creating and delivering highly visual, engagingpresentations and stories. She’s provided keynotes/consultingto more than 18,000 people from Utah to Ukraine—and as a2012 national keynote speaker for KeyBank gave talks tothousands of business leaders in 17 cities across the country.

Before starting Mindset Digital, Debra spent seven years asdirector of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism at

Spencer Hunt, a data analyst, researcher, and former award-winning journalist, spends his days at Mindset Digital analyzingworkforce data, researching and writing about financial andhealth care regulations, and working with a wide range of clients.

A former environment reporter with the Columbus Dispatch andCincinnati Enquirer, he has earned state and national awards forinvestigative and explanatory reporting, including 15 first-placeawards.

Spencer earned a master’s in public affairs journalism at Sangamon StateUniversity (now University of Illinois, Springfield) and a bachelor’s in print journalismfrom University of Illinois.

Spencer and Debra worked as investigative journalists together at the CincinnatiEnquirer, where their work spurred new laws and reforms.

A former award-winning investigative reporter, Debra also has a Ph.D. from OhioState in Educational Policy and Leadership, a master’s in journalism from Ohio Stateand a bachelor’s in journalism from Eastern Kentucky University.

Ohio State, where she launched the first social media fellowship for journalists in thenation—showing reporters from CNN, 60 Minutes, Washington Post, Los AngelesTimes and other top newsrooms how to tell powerful stories on the latest channels.

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SOURCES

1) Over 2 Million North American Doctors and Nurses are on LinkedIn, http://linkd.in/1qKcPda

1) LinkedIn Surpases One Million Doctors and Nurses in the U.S., http://linkd.in/1iVavLt

2) The Digital Journey to Wellness, http://bit.ly/1ohjwTx

3) The Consumer Marketing Opportunity on LinkedIn, http://slidesha.re/1rQ4RD4

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