accustomed to the feel of the warm
water surrounding you, you
gathered up the courage and shed
that crutch — those same floaties
you were so reliant on at first.
“ When it comes
to social media
presence... there’s
a simple algorithm
involved: If you’re
not inside of it,
then you’re simply
out. You have to
seriously consider
which side you’d
rather be on.”
Subsequently, you got better the
more times that you went in.
But many of you know this already,
and yet you’re still holding back. So
here’s what I want to ask the
professionals among you — and I
single out professionals because
they’re the ones that have the most
trouble starting out on this
particular journey into social
media: What’s holding you back
from starting it?
THE ETIOLOGY OF A
PROFESSIONAL’S SOCIAL
MEDIA FEAR
Many of you may think of
exposure on social media as “out of
your comfort zone,” but why do
you consider it “outside” at all
when it isn’t “outside” for anyone
else who takes part in it?
Dana Corriel, MD
Is it because you’re a doctor and
need to stick to office visits? Or a
lawyer that needs to hide behind the
logistics of a courtroom case? How
about a businessman who suits up
for work and leaves his ideas behind
him in the hands of the private
boardroom? We need to start
shedding this What-happens-in-
Vegas-stays-in-Vegas-type mentality
about the professional world and
embrace the amazing benefits that
social media has to offer. What’s so
great about hiding your Vegas
experience anyway, when you can
share it with the world? And I’m not
referring to those raunchy
experiences, of course, but am using
the adage as a metaphor.
What if your insight and knowledge
could help others from outside the
immediate vicinity of your office?
And what if you could do something
fantastic with it even within your
profession? Isn’t this exactly what
social media first set out to achieve
— to connect not only people but
also ideas, regardless of geographic
location? Look how far it has gone!
From personal experience, I can tell
you that doctors on social media was
never a “thing of the norm” — until
right about now. I had good friends
tell me, back when I started my own
journey, that I shouldn’t do it — that
doctors weren’t supposed to be
engaged in it. They were supposed
to just be doctors.
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