Must Watch! For Healthcare Professionals New to Social Media

Today the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media released a deeply needed short video about clinician engagement in social media space. The backstory is in the blogpost.

Network Video Project to Prod Discussion on Physician Social Media Use: http://socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/2011/06/30/network-video-project-to-prod-discussion-on-physician-social-media-use/

The Doctor is Online: Physician Use, Responsibility, and Opportunity in the Time of Social Media: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZYtZN24x_Q

I love this video. It touches on the most important and central aspects of being a healthcare provider both in your offline and online lives, and how that works (or could and should) in contemporary culture. The people speaking are all doctors, passionate, experienced both as clinicians and in social media, alive and lively, inspiring. They’ve been there and done this. Listen to them.

Here are my favorite takeaways from the video. But don’t rely on me – watch it!

1. Share good information; it’s needed.
2. Be where the patients are.
3. You can positively impact both individuals and communities.
4. What to NOT do (needs to become second nature).
5. Everything online is public & permanent.
6. Ask yourself: “How will this look to my patients?”
7. Be public, be yourself. You can shape your digital footprint with your own content.
8. Anonymity betrays the reader, the audience, the patient, the profession.
9. If you don’t speak for yourself, others will, and the public will listen to them, not you.
10. Be upfront and aboveboard in your office, with management.
11. If you aren’t 100% behind what you are saying, wait, sleep on it.
12. We should absolutely be involved. We just need to do it responsibly.