Social Networks Having Success Recruiting Physicians – Twitter, Sermo and More

We all keep hearing how social networks are finding there place in to healthcare, well here’s one example besides communication and reading material. Just from my own point of view I am seeing a lot more physicians on Twitter, and some even follow me. Sermo I can’t comment on how it all works since I am not a physician, but Twitter is go getter. Anyone not on Twitter today at least for reading material is missing the boat and working way to hard on searching and finding relevant reading material, no matter what field you are in. BD

When Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA, was having trouble recruiting gastroenterologists earlier this year, Cathy Connolley knew it was time for an innovative strategy.

"When recruiting gastroenterologists we traditionally would do print ads in different medical journals and direct mail," says Connolley, Geisinger's associate vice president of marketing. "But this time, we weren't getting the types of responses that we were looking for."

So the Geisinger marketing team worked with Zero-In Recruitment Marketing, a Bloomsburg, PA, firm, to create a social media physician recruitment campaign.

Zero-In began integrating social media into many of their clients' recruitment efforts because it realized that the majority of physicians use the Internet to conduct their job search. According to a 2008 New England Journal of Medicines study, 71% of respondents said they hunted for jobs online. And the popularity of Sermo, a social networking site just for physicians, gives marketers some insight into how doctors spend their time online.

Attracting followers on Twitter
Seaboard Health Care Search, a physician recruitment firm based in Nashville, also worked with Zero-In to promote their brand via social media. But Seaboard focused their efforts on a different channel: Twitter.