Networking with Healthcare Professionals – online and off, whether you’re introverted or extroverted was delivered as an accredited webinar for naturopathic doctors as part of the OAND webinar series. Though the webinar explores numerous examples and fundamental guidelines, this article is based on the premise of the topic. More about this webinar is available here.
Forget the image of the master networker stuffing his pockets with business cards, as he schmoozes his way around the room. Networking has changed. There isn’t one right way or one right personality to network, any longer.
Today, a successful networking strategy is about resonance.
You could be quiet as a mouse and run a ridiculously, successful healthcare networking strategy based on any number of creative approaches. You could place the spotlight on others with twitter chats, run activity – rather than discussion – oriented events such as yoga or meditation sessions designed to give back to healthcare professionals, become a hub for co-branded collaborative projects that bring together complementary professions and more. Or, you could be the life of the party and use the web to get the word out about offline mastermind groups, blogger nights, sports teams (why not start a local soccer team -chiropractors playing against naturopaths?) and other ‘meet and greet’ types of events.
Whatever you decide, aside from your disposition and talents, the plan will need to account for your practice goals and unique circumstances. You’ll also need metrics to keep you honest about how deeply you’re connecting with your audience. The following 20 tips are meant to be helpful considerations for the entire process.
10 tips for online networking with healthcare professionals:
- Don’t spam or self promote – It may be easier to limit your use of social media to article distribution, but it’s not more effective.
- Respond to what others write about themselves – Responding to others will help to generate awareness of your own online presence.
- Respond when others write to you – Whether they’re a fit or not, take the time to be a good brand ambassador and respond to anyone that contacts you online.
- Use social media to warm up offline introductions – A quick hello or an introduction by way of a shared contact can establish connection, shifting a cold call to a warm one.
- Process information before responding – One of the advantages of networking behind a monitor is that you’re never put on the spot. So take the time to consider how you can add value and interest with each response.
- Be personal and relevant – You can see through form letters. Others can too. The time you take to make connections between shared history or networks won’t go unnoticed.
- Think success through, how will you handle the volume /workload – If your strategy is designed to generate volume, you’ll need to be prepared to engage with a large audience. If it’s designed to generate recurring activities, you’ll need to commit to a predictable schedule in order to inspire others to join you.
- Take the time to learn about someone before reaching out – It’s a lot less pressure to meet someone, if you take the time to do a Google search on their name. A quick scan of their digital footprint will provide much inspiration for icebreakers.
- Take initiative – If you have an idea for a group but it doesn’t exist, start one. If you like what someone writes, tell them. If you want to meet someone, find some point of connection to create a reason to say hello.
- Take it offline – Build phone calls, skype calls, lunches and activities into your online networking strategy, in order to solidify and expand any newly formed relationships.
10 tips for offline networking with healthcare professionals:
- If you find speaking draining, pad your events with quiet time – If you enjoy it and you know you’re good at it, figure out how to maintain your energy so that this becomes something you can do and even look forward to doing.
- Learn how to introduce yourself – Most of the stress revolving around a networking event is centered on the 30 seconds it takes to introduce yourself. A natural sounding, elevator pitch peppered with stories and questions can shake away those jitters.
- Learn how to ask powerful icebreaker questions – If you get others to talk, you’ll have removed the pressure from yourself to keep talking and you’ll learn something about them. Wasn’t that the point all along anyhow?
- Give the quiet people a chance to talk, without interrupting – If you’re a natural talker, then you may need to learn the discipline of picking up on when others need time to put their words together. After all, there’s always the chance that your most desired contact in the room is introverted.
- Be professional – If you wouldn’t want your patients to know about it, don’t share it with your network.
- Be prepared – Carry business cards with you and rehearse an elevator pitch, so that you can present yourself professionally anytime and anywhere that you might run into a member of your network.
- Forget your agenda… be friendly and generous – Imagine how much less stressful your job as a networker would be if the only onus you placed on yourself was to help others, be it by way of introductions, suggestions or invitations to collaborate.
- Be real – Think about how you connect with patients when you’re just getting to know them. You might have a common hobby or your kids might go to the same school. People connect more easily over the stuff that makes up our real lives.
- Nurture your existing network – Networking is usually heavily focused on creating new connections, while the value of expanding one’s existing network is often underestimated.
- Take it online – It might be counterintuitive, since the objective is to meet people. But if you get into the habit of connecting with your offline network online, then you stand a better chance of staying on their radar via social media updates and newsletters.
I recently heard a great adaptation of the old adage ‘we have 2 ears and 1 mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we speak’. It goes, ‘We also have 2 eyes and 1 keyboard, so we can read twice as much as we write’. Whether you’re online or off, introverted or extroverted, networking with healthcare professionals is about relationships. Bring the best of yourself to whatever you do and the connections will certainly gel.
Related articles: Elevator Pitch – A New Approach for an Old Tool and Make Your Networking Plan Work for You
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