I saw a recommendation the other day, posted on LinkedIn, and couldn’t help but weigh in.

Sometimes those two cents really burn in my pocket. They have to get let out.

Here was the recommendation:

It was a good recommendation, so I agreed with it.

But I recommended a tweak instead.

People need to ideally post on their OWN website first. To me, this is a no-brainer and a non-negotiable.

Place your original content – the BEST content that represents you and your intelligent capabilities in a space that you own. Don’t let that content disappear into the abyss of a social media platform. Allow it to continue living and breathing (my apologies for the dramatics) in a space that you own.

Once you do this, THEN, and only then, should you use LinkedIn (which is my favorite platform) as a way to get the word out on your content.

Use even more platforms, in fact!

Here’s why.

Platforms today serve as advertisement conduits for your thoughts. Think about it from this perspective and you won’t go wrong.

Posting on social media is the equivalent of placing your thoughts on a billboard of a local highway. Except the highway is the online world. And that billboard (the one that costs tens of thousands in the real world) costs you nothing.

The more billboard companies that allow you to occupy space in your own billboard, the better. Esp when putting that billboard up takes very little time and effort on your part.

Meaning, use Linkedin and Facebook and YouTube (and whatever other billboard allows you to get the word out on your services, or thoughts, or product) because they exist, and because people occupy those spaces.

But don’t forget to also own a space of your own, where people enjoying your billboard’s message can go!

This is also known as your “call to action”, and that call to action should include bringing the eyeballs, and interest generated, into an actual space that you own.

Yes, it can be your physical clinic (a la “come and visit me in my office to help with the pain in your back). But I want you to think bigger. BETTER.

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Eyeballs.

I want you to bring interested eyeballs back to an online space. Where you’re the star. And where folks can follow you REGARDLESS of where they’re physically located.

That’s the magic of the online world, and online connections. Someone from London can be impressed with your thought leadership, and want to follow your work. But if you call to action just asks them to visit your office in Nashville, there won’t be continuity. They’re a wasted opportunity.

Think about this example: if the person from London was an event organizer, putting on a conference on medical topics, and your post peaked their interest, your call to action wouldn’t interest them if it asked people to simply call your office.

But if you lead interested parties to your website, where you’re beautifully featured, alongside your regular blog posts, and maybe a recording of a few of your talks, they can drop their emails and remain connected to your content, to see and hear more!

Guess who gets invited to the next conference they host after they read a few more of the articles that land in their inbox (that you wrote)?

Reel in that interest.

There, on the site, you can collect the emails of those who show interest. They’re YOUR customers (or clients or patients) now. And you can make a list of them all and nurture those relations/contact them anytime.

Now, back to my billboard analogy:

There’s ways to get placed on busier highways than not. That’s where platform algorithms come into play.

If you’re not in “the know”, algorithms refer to the calculations a social media platform’s AI makes on how many people to show your post to, and who. Though you can make adjustments in factors like your posting content, timing, and frequency, you can’t adjust the algorithm itself.

The platform determines the algorithm. Because the platform owns the space.

I’ll give you one guess as to who owns the algorithm of your own site, though.

Did you get it right? (The answer was YOU).

For the sake of simplicity, where online strategy and brand-building is concerned, we’ll start with that visualization (of the billboard and the highway). I use it frequently in the talks I give about the social media space because it so accurately represents how this all works.

You can, of course, post in both your own site AND LinkedIn (or whatever other platforms you’re active in, and even in all). But you should ideally always build content on your own site, too.

Think bigger.

I don’t suggest you stop at LinkedIn, folks. Even if it’s certifiably my favorite platform.

Here’s just one of the reasons why: LinkedIn may work for me today, but maybe its algorithms will change tomorrow (remember who’s in charge?) and will no longer be my favorite).

If I put all my online “eggs” in one basket, is it really a smart move?

To go back to our analogy, imagine you’ve spent time building your billboards on the LinkedIn highways (literally spent time posting regularly within LinkedIn), but those highways are suddenly diverted.

Imagine all of the traffic that was once seeing your billboards (your posts and content) no longer see them. You will have essentially wasted all of your time.

“If I put all my online “eggs” in one basket, is it really a smart move?”

But if you also captured in on your own website, then your time wasn’t a waste. Because you’re displaying your content there, wherever you want it displayed. You’re not privy to anyone’s algorithm but your own.

If you also posted on other platforms, you’ve given other people (who may not use Linkedin, but use Instagram. Or Twitter. Or Pinterest) a chance to see your work. You’ve placed billboards on other highway roads.

Every platform, in fact, should be considered, for putting up “billboards” in. Because every platform has its own highway, and usually, with unique travelers passing by.

That means new faces, fresh opportunities, and endless possibilities.

It’s free. It’s easy.

As long as platforms are free, and are easy to post on, I recommend posting on them (there are ways to recycle content across platforms and not have to spend time on each one – digital multitasking is the best!).

But the main crux of your content, again, should also be on your own site.

Finally, there’s syndication. That’s where ventures like SoMeDocs (the site you’re on) comes in to play.

Syndication is a concept that’s fairly straightforward and further helps give your work a push. Read/watch a quick video about what it means here.

Where it comes to yet another billboard for sharing a “sampling” of your thoughts, what we’ve created here, on doctorsonsocialmedia.com, is unique. You not only get to be circulated to our unique audience (again, highway roads we build), if your content is accepted, but you also get to watch as we creatively spread the word.

We spent hours and hours of my time building unique ways to have SoMeDocs share others’ health and healthcare-related content. Not because we want to own it (we regularly teach docs to have their OWN website, first and foremost), but because we’ve been blessed with a uniquely active imagination, and can channel that imagination into creative content pieces, shared.

The why.

Why do we do it? Why do we regularly market others, here on SoMeDocs, instead of just focusing on ourselves?

Because we believe in the individuals of healthcare. And because there are SO MANY issues to tackle.

We saw the void where healthcare was concerned – that there was no site that organized what we do.  And so we decided to fill it.

the reality is that healthcare individuals are healthcare heroes. They’re busy, and also don’t typically possess the design, online strategy, social media, or marketing skills necessary to grow in the online space.

So we decided to not only teach them (via a network, incubators, pods), here at SoMeDocs, but help them do it, too.

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