In the United States, there were more than a million doctors on LinkedIn as of April 2013. Are you one?

Are you a member of the medical network? Now is the best time to register and take advantage of the largest global network of professionals. Did you know that LinkedIn has 277% higher lead generation efficiency than Facebook or Twitter?

LinkedIn offers many opportunities for you to network with like-minded doctors and patients looking for information about health care. It also allows your practice to market to the right people.

LinkedIn today boasts over 200 million global users and 1.5 million groups. It is time to take advantage of this social platform and build credibility for your medical expertise, as well as spread the word about your practice.

Here are 9 ways you can market your practice via LinkedIn

1. Your Profile Update and Optimization

To establish yourself as a medical professional, create your profile

You should also include a headline and a summary of your career. This will detail your experiences, your education, and skills. Follow top LinkedIn influencers and companies to follow.

It is easier to tell a more clear story about your professional experiences and past, which will help you build your credibility.

A complete profile has the added benefit of making it easier to search LinkedIn for you. This is because your profile contains relevant keywords, which can be a great source of networking. 

This is a list highlighting medical professionals who have optimized LinkedIn to show their unique offerings and make them more searchable.

• Bryan Vartabedian
• Joseph
• Jennifer Dyer
• Kevin Pho
• Wendy Swanson

2. Join relevant LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups that interest you and are relevant to your professional goals as an MD practitioner.

The most popular LinkedIn groups for doctors are Doctor (MD), Network, Health Innovations, and Business Professionals & Doctors.

You can join one of the top doctor networking groups or find one that best suits your professional and personal needs. You can have conversations with other members about what they’ve shared or answer questions.

If you are a specialist physician, it is a great way to improve your credibility and expand your network.

3. Get connected with other professionals

Start adding professionals to your network through the connections you make with LinkedIn.

Start looking for trusted local medical professionals that you can connect with online. LinkedIn is a mobile Rolodex that holds your most important contacts.

After you have become active in the groups, connect with other members of the group if you feel they are valuable to the community, sharing valuable content, having productive conversations, or just being a great contact.

4. Your Network can share your content

Start sharing content from your profile and in groups that correspond to the practice areas you work in. This can be content directly from your practice, or content from other professionals in the medical field. Each account can be joined to up to 50 groups. Choose wisely.

This video tip will make it easier to share great content with all 50 of the top groups after you have joined them.

LinkedIn only allows professional content. As a representation of your practice, you should only share links, photos, and videos that you are comfortable with.

As a rule of thumb, you should share content from your industry or your blog to spark professional discussions and analysis within the network.

5. Participate in discussions

It is vital to engage in discussions with other members of the group once you have joined it. It’s not enough to just join a group and stay silent. Post a question or link to an article to start a discussion.

Browse the group to view and comment on other members’ posts. Participate in the discussions by sharing your expertise, opinions, or friendly input.

You can build trust by having regular conversations with other professionals in your group. This will allow you to share your expertise with a large audience that is like-minded and could be helpful in the future.

LinkedIn allows you to offer advice and favors to other members to grow your network. This will allow you to have a trusted group of people to reach out to if you need any help or expertise.

6. Increase traffic to your blog & website

To drive traffic to your best content, post articles to your LinkedIn profile and LinkedIn groups. You should share a balanced mix of your content and the content of others.

If you offer your group members diverse content, they will be more inclined to see you as a source of high-quality information about your expertise than someone who constantly shares content about their practice.

Try different types of copy for your posts to find out what makes people click and engage with your content. You can post an article on your profile once and again in a LinkedIn group with a different copy and a new picture.

You can drive more traffic to the same content by using multiple calls to action and changing the way the content is presented in a post.

7. Run LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn allows you to run an ad campaign that targets other medical professionals on the network. Do you want to add new members to your referral network? LinkedIn is a great way to reach the right professionals within a particular industry or role.

As you can see, LinkedIn ads appear on a user’s profile when they use the social network. Start by identifying your target audience to place these ads. What are the goals of your campaign? Which calls to action appeal the most to LinkedIn professionals?

These questions will help you to plan a LinkedIn campaign that generates connections and leads for your practice.

8. Make Recommendations and Endorsements

You can recommend the work of professionals within your network to help them gain credibility. It will also spread good faith among past and current colleagues, peers, and professional connections. LinkedIn makes it easy to build a network of favors through endorsements and recommendations.

As a token of appreciation and to show your gratitude for the trust shown by others in your network, leave recommendations on LinkedIn.

Long-form recommendations are displayed on your profile to show the professional’s work quality. You are more likely to get recommendations from other people on your profile, which can help you gain more credibility for your company and personal brand on LinkedIn.

Endorsements can be used to recommend that someone has one of the skills listed on their profile. Take a look at the profiles of your colleagues to see which skills you admire the most.

You can get more endorsements from your network members and build your credibility on LinkedIn by getting more.

9. Create a company page for your organization

To connect with professionals on LinkedIn, create a company profile for your practice. Administrators can post content from the perspective of all staff members through a company page.

Include a cover photo and a description of your organization. As an example, take the Mayo Clinic’s, LinkedIn Page.

LinkedIn allows you to post job openings, industry news, and articles.

LinkedIn now offers sponsored updates, which allow companies to pay for content on a company’s page to reach more people.

This type of paid advertising allows you to generate quality leads through your LinkedIn updates. It helps build relationships, shape your practice’s perception, and increase awareness about your unique offerings.

Your unique expertise can be highlighted on your LinkedIn company page to gain the trust of others on the network. This will help you turn them into followers and ultimately patients at your practice.