Articles

Employment Branding - Social Media is the Message

In the 1960s, communication theorist Marshall McLuhan dedicated himself to determining the effects of new media on society. In the course of his work, McLuhan coined the expressions “global village” and “the medium is the message,” theorizing that the medium that carries a message is more apt to affect audience perception than the so-called message itself.

In the 1960s, communication theorist Marshall McLuhan dedicated himself to determining the effects of new media on society. In the course of his work, McLuhan coined the expressions “global village” and “the medium is the message,” theorizing that the medium that carries a message is more apt to affect audience perception than the so-called message itself. He concluded that the audience for any new media was a part of a large interconnected group, or global village, affected by and affecting media. In other words, the medium is the message but the audience shapes the content.

Today, it’s easy to see how very prophetic McLuhan was. Social media has become the primary media that people use to gather information and interact as a society. Even more in keeping with McLuhan’s theories is the fact that social media itself has no message—it relies on audience-generated content that is transmitted through a network of personal contacts. So instead of the one-to-many broadcast McLuhan spoke of, mass communication has become a many-to-many broadcast.

Messages can have a broad reach through social media, so it’s no surprise that healthcare recruiters are leveraging social sites to recruit physicians. To do so with any success, you must first break down the key components: your audience, who will inevitably shape your content; your media, which will influence any action taken by your audience; and your message.

Your Global Village—The Physician Population
When developing a social media plan, consider your audience—it is going to create and broadcast content either for or against you. Fortunately, physicians are leading the tech charge and, by extension, are helping to evolve online content. Physicians tend to be very current with their technology and information, very connected and very mobile. They can access research and social media content on the go and are increasingly more connected to their peers through the web.

According to Manhattan Research, 84% of physicians use the web for pharma, biotech and medical device research, which shows a strong gravitation to the web for consumer information. But the more telling statistics reveal the growing physician trends towards user-generated content.

Manhattan Research estimates that nearly 300,000 physicians report using blogs for any reason, with over 25,000 actively using blogs for professional content. Additionally, Manhattan estimates that almost 80,000 physicians report that they participate in online communities, and 111,000 more report that they have a strong interest in beginning to use online communities to keep up with other physicians.

The numbers may not seem staggering in comparison with the millions of social media users, but an increased segment of the physician population is moving toward online social networking. Almost 90% already use the web to get information, nearly 50% of the total physician population is using and generating blogs, and almost 33% is using—or intends to become active in—one or more online communities. That is a large segment of the physician population preparing to create new physician-centric content on these platforms simply by their involvement.

The Media—Social Networks
As physicians join the online community, they’ll be ready to create and transmit content. The challenge for healthcare recruiters becomes how to enable the employment brand message. This is where the medium comes into play and, fortunately for recruiters, there are social media channels that can be used at little or no cost. Consider these three channels in developing your social media plan—Facebook, Sermo and Twitter.

Facebook
Facebook is the biggest player in the social media world. Facebook is much purer in its construction as a communication platform than MySpace, less saturated with consumer advertisement and more in line with the physician age groups. The population of Facebook members is astounding. According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “If Facebook were a country, it would be the sixth-largest country in the world.” Better still, audience members are connected to one another, so if you have one audience member, your message could conceivably be broadcast to thousands.

The real advantage to the size of the Facebook population is connection. With users linked to users linked to other users, there is no end to the amount of exposure you can get for your employment brand once you’ve established a network.

One convenient way to begin building the network is to engage with groups on Facebook. Clusters of likeminded users are forming both public and private groups to share information. Groups are defined by common employment or interests or just for social purposes. A quick search by medical specialties can bring up numerous groups ranging in size from very small to very large. These are very interested members who are gathering to find information from trusted sources. The key for your recruitment is to become a trusted source.

Sermo
There isn’t a better platform to use as a physician recruiter for your employment brand than Sermo. Unfortunately most recruiters cannot become members because Sermo is a social networking site for physicians only. With physicians gathering to speak with their peers in one place, there is a greater opportunity to get employee-based referrals from an expanding network. More important, a trusted diplomat for your employment brand can begin sharing his or her experiences with peers and delivering information about who you are as an organization.

Twitter
As this article is being written, Time Magazine has announced that the Twitter phenomenon will be the cover story for the next issue. Such is Twitter’s rapid ascent in usage and acceptance that it is creating its own social phenomenon. Twitter is a “microblogging” platform that has 32 million users, an increase from nearly 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Twitter is a communication platform that acts as a personal RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed for anyone from your neighbor to Oprah Winfrey to Dell Computers.

Some pundits suggest that Twitter is the face of what Web 3.0 content will be—a personalized web where you choose to follow certain information sources and you receive updates on the go and on demand from your personal sources. As Twitter grows, it will increasingly become a place where companies build brands, do research, send information to customers, conduct e-commerce and create an information oasis for their users. The power exists for recruiters to become one of those personal sources and continue to gain brand recognition among physicians.

Your Social Network Is Your Message
McLuhan said that, independent of its content or its so-called message, a medium has its own intrinsic effects on our perceptions, which are its unique and true message. This suggests that your content should always reflect the “social” in “social media site.” Feel free to introduce yourself, as you would in any social situation, and give a strong description of what your organization is, but beyond that you want to create an environment that promotes socialization.

Feature physicians who post articles to your discussion boards for peer review. Send out information relevant to physicians (both internal news and national news sources). Host video that is appropriate and valuable to physician candidates. Start conversations with your network of followers so they can share information with friends.

You can do wonders to promote your employment brand through social media by simply developing a network where users come to socialize and share information. You can begin to spread positive perceptions of your organization, eventually enabling you to source more candidates.

According to Marshall McLuhan, “The message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.” Using social media isn’t about effecting one particular action, it’s about changing the way your audience interacts with “the message” and ultimately each other. So be patient with the process, allow your audience to drive content, follow the message of your medium and you will begin to develop a unique method for promoting your employment brand and sourcing interested candidates.