DAVID: Welcome to the MDsearch.com Physician Podcast. I'm David Pearson here with Robyn Melhuish and today we're continuing our discussion about online social networking by exploring how physicians can benefit from LinkedIn. Robyn, why don't you start us off by telling us a little about LinkedIn.
ROBYN: Thanks, David. With 35 million members from 170 industries, LinkedIn is the largest online social network for professionals. Members can search the network to find and connect with past and present colleagues, former classmates and professors, friends and family, casual acquaintances, neighbors...
DAVID: Wait, Robyn, I thought this was a professional site. Why are people connecting to their friends and neighbors?
ROBYN: Well, it is a professional site, but your personal connections may be able to help you in the professional realm. For instance, your neighbor may have gone to college with the hiring manager at a hospital that you're interested in, and if you're all on LinkedIn, that connection will be easy to see.
DAVID: So your network not only includes direct contacts, but it's also made up of your contacts' contacts.
ROBYN: Right, so, as you start adding people to your network, you'll discover your "connections" increasing exponentially because it includes secondary and tertiary contacts too.
DAVID: That sounds a little overwhelming...
ROBYN: It's not as complicated as it sounds.
DAVID: Soooo, when you add your neighbor to your contacts, all of her connections are suddenly in your list of contacts too? How do you manage all those connections? It seems like it would be too big to be useful.
ROBYN: Well, your neighbor's contacts are considered secondary connections, and their contacts would be tertiary connections. You won't see all of their names under your list of contacts, but if say, you are looking at Emory Hospital's company page and you see a name with a "3" next to it, you will know instantly that you have a tertiary connection to someone at Emory.
DAVID: So, how could you use that to your advantage?
ROBYN: You could request an introduction from your primary connection. He or she may not know the tertiary connection personally, but they could at least introduce you to the secondary...
DAVID: Who could then introduce you to the connection at Emory.
ROBYN: Right.
DAVID: It still sounds complicated.
ROBYN: It's really not – once you know what LinkedIn is capable of, the site itself is pretty intuitive, but a lot of people don't know how to fully optimize their LinkedIn membership.
DAVID: So, what do you recommend?
ROBYN: Well, one way to uncover important connections on LinkedIn is to periodically view your friends' lists of contacts. Go to their profiles and check out their connections. You'll see a list of names with current job titles and companies, and with a quick glance you'll know if anyone in your friend's network is currently working for a top medical recruiter or a health facility that interests you.
DAVID: And then you can ask for an introduction.
ROBYN: Exactly.
DAVID: And how does that work?
ROBYN: Once you discover that one of your primary contacts knows someone you'd like to meet, it's easy to ask for an introduction. Even if your contact hasn't spoken to that person in awhile, they probably won't mind introducing you via LinkedIn – after all, it's only requires them to click a mouse. It's not like they have to arrange for the three of you to meet for coffee. The days of face-to-face networking – well, who has time for that?
DAVID: Now you mentioned earlier that hospitals are on LinkedIn too. Can anyone view their pages?
ROBYN: Sure, once you're a member you can search for companies by name or sector, and then you can view the company profile. In addition to finding out if that facility is hiring, you'll also see a list of current and former employees, as well as new hires. Now, if you've built up your LinkedIn network to include everyone you know in the healthcare industry, it's highly probably that you'll notice a light blue number next to one or more of the names listed as employees of that hospital.
DAVID: And that light blue number indicates that the employee is in your extended network.
ROBYN: Right, so you just have to click on the employee's name to view exactly how you're connected to that person.
DAVID: And then you can ask your primary contact for an introduction.
ROBYN: Right...or you could send a direct request to connect to that person.
DAVID: Even though you don't know them?
ROBYN: Yes, you can send a direct request to connect to any of LinkedIn's 35 million members, regardless of whether or not you have any connections in common.
DAVID: So I could ask Bill Gates to be in my network?
ROBYN: To be honest, I'm not sure if Bill Gates is on LinkedIn, but theoretically, you can ask anyone, but then Bill – or whoever – can decide whether or not to accept your invitation.
DAVID: What are the chances that Bill Gates would accept my invite?
ROBYN: I'm not so sure...but your chances of connecting will increase substantially if you can establish what the two of you have in common. So one way for physicians to do this would be to join a LinkedIn group with other medical professionals.
DAVID: And they have those groups on LinkedIn?
ROBYN: A quick search of the group directory using the keyword "physicians" returns a list of over 180 groups. Physicians should simply request to join one that appeals to them, and then start they can start making connections.
DAVID: It sounds like it's pretty easy to make new contacts on LinkedIn.
ROBYN: It's definitely easy to reach out to people, but physicians should remember that while they're searching for contacts and opportunities, opportunities could be searching for them too.
DAVID: What do you mean?
ROBYN: Recruiters and hiring managers will often go to their LinkedIn networks when looking to fill a position, or they may simply perform a search of LinkedIn profiles using keywords to describe the position they need to fill. So, physicians should make sure that their profile is complete and accurately reflects their experience in place of a CV or resume.
DAVID: Well, we've learned a lot today. It sounds like physicians can really benefit from LinkedIn.
ROBYN: Physicians encounter so many people through the course of their education and career, and online social networking is an easy and efficient way to keep track of everyone...
DAVID: Because you never know when someone from your past might be able to help you with your future.
ROBYN: Or you might be able to help them...
DAVID: And hopefully we've helped you here today with this explanation of LinkedIn.
ROBYN: Next time, we'll continue your social media tutorial by taking a look at how physicians are using Twitter.
DAVID: Yeah…I'm not convinced that physicians should be using their valuable time to "tweet."
ROBYN: Well, that's what we're going to discuss...
DAVID: I'm looking forward to it.
ROBYN: Thanks for listening to the MDsearch.com Physician Podcast.
DAVID: The music on the podcast is provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com.
