How to build a personal brand: A guide for medical professionals

Article by Dr. Claudia Pastides, medical advisor at Flo Health Inc.

I recently appeared as a guest on “The Healthtech Podcast,” where I talked about the fact that every job that I’ve gotten since medical school has come to me via social media because of my visibility online. Whether you want to attract more patients to your private practice, network with like-minded medical professionals, or grow your reputation within the health care industry, personal branding can be a great strategy to help you achieve your career goals.

What personal branding is and why you should do it

Personal branding is how you share who you are to the world. Your personal brand is made up of your voice, personality, interests, what you’re good at and passionate about, and how you communicate that to the public.

Building a personal brand provides many opportunities for career advancement. Through social media, you can connect with fellow medical experts and thought leaders you may never have had the chance to meet in real life. I’ve gotten to know so many other doctors through Instagram who, like me, have branched out to other fields, and I’ve made lots of friends in the process!

Becoming visible online lets the world know that you’re open to building connections, and you’re more likely to attract interesting job opportunities. Thanks to blogging, I was contacted to become a content reviewer for BabyCentre. Since leaving clinical practice, I’ve been offered jobs and collaboration opportunities through Instagram. I’m also often contacted to comment on women’s health topics and have been quoted in Glamour, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and HuffPost, in addition to many British newspapers. It’s a snowball effect — the more visible you become, the more opportunities you’ll attract.

If you’re interested in finding or becoming a mentor, social media is a great place to do that. Someone recently reached out to me via LinkedIn to become her mentor as she makes the transition into the world of healthtech, and it’s been really rewarding to share my experience with her!

When creating your personal brand, be very mindful of the fact that everything you do and post online may affect your reputation. The truth is, we all look people up online and check how they present themselves on social media. So it’s important to be conscious of what you’re putting out there — people will use that to form an impression of you.

A word of caution about sharing medical information when building your personal brand

I first started building my personal brand while working as a general practitioner (GP) within the UK’s National Health Service. As a doctor, I naturally centered my posts around medical topics at the beginning. But as time went on, I realized that talking about medical topics can be rather tricky, and risky too. It’s difficult to make your posts applicable to everyone who sees them. You also need to be careful when speaking about your personal health choices because people could perceive them as personal advice.

For instance, if you’re a doctor and talk about a vitamin you take regularly, one of your followers may start taking it too, even if they have different health circumstances, and it could potentially be harmful. As a doctor, it’s important to be aware of the fact that people view you as an authority figure and will follow what you say. A single post has the potential to impact a lot of people.

It’s certainly possible to post medical information safely, and many people do it well. You just have to be careful to balance the potential risks. The General Medical Council in the UK is planning new guidelines stating that doctors who share “misleading” information on social media could face regulatory action, according to a recent article published in The Guardian.

Another thing to be aware of is that people will likely reach out to you for medical advice on occasion, and you need to think about how you wish to respond. Giving personal medical advice via social media is never a great idea, and, personally, I don’t give out generic medical advice to individuals either.

If you’re a practicing doctor and post about health topics, it’s crucial to maintain complete confidentiality and respect your patients’ privacy. When I was a GP, I was acutely aware of everything I shared on social media. I felt really anxious talking about patients’ medical conditions in case they saw it and realized I was talking about them, even if it was totally anonymous and nonspecific. So I never posted anything related to a patient that I saw that day.

Another thing to be mindful of when building your personal brand as a doctor is how much you share about your personal life online. Once I realized the risks of posting about medical topics and patients, I began posting more about my daily life. I got high engagement but started to feel uncomfortable sharing so much about my kids. Patients would come in and say that they knew where I was over the weekend or talked about things I said I liked or disliked. I realized that, for me, it was not the best idea to put my whole life out there as a clinician. If this is something you want to do, it goes without saying that you should be aware that patients can see everything you post. Before sharing something, ask yourself: Do you want your patients to see that?

Now, I see social media as a place to share my personal portfolio, mostly with bits from work and the occasional bit of home life. And I don’t share the same things everywhere. For instance, I use LinkedIn for networking, sharing my thoughts, and job opportunities to help others, while Instagram is centered around lifestyle.

How to build a personal brand step by step

1. Understand that it will add to your workload

Before you start creating a personal brand online, you need to make peace with the fact that it’s a lot of work. You’ll likely be posting in the early morning or late evening. Because of that, it’s helpful to actually enjoy doing it. And remember that with the extra work come more opportunities and connections, so it does pay off!

2. Experiment with platforms and choose the one you like best

Feel free to try different social networks. If one doesn’t feel like a good fit for you, you can always delete your profile later. I experimented with each platform and picked the ones I liked best.

• Twitter has many doctors, so it’s easy to connect with peers, and the short format makes it faster to create content.
• LinkedIn is a must for networking!
• Instagram is a good place to show off your personality.
• TikTok and Snapchat have a steep learning curve and a younger target group, so it can be challenging to toe the line between professionalism and being entertaining.
• Websites are great if there are topics that you want to share a lot about. You can do so with your own blog.

Don’t feel like you have to be everywhere! Personally, I chose to stick with LinkedIn and Instagram. I also recently started creating TikTok videos for Flo to reach some of our younger users.

3. Be yourself

The most important aspect of personal branding is to stay true to who you are. Some say that you should show people what you want them to see, who you want them to think you are. This may apply in some cases, but I strongly believe that personal branding is much easier and more enjoyable when what you’re sharing aligns with your personality and values. If you have to constantly edit yourself to fit the image you want to portray or what you think people will like more, it adds more work and is unauthentic. Eventually, people will see through it.

This point also applies to your profile photo — just be yourself! Don’t obsess about looking professional. My LinkedIn banner photo is my kids pulling silly faces, as this shows off a huge part of who I am.

4. Find the content formats that work for you

Some people think that to build a personal brand, you have to show your face on social media all the time. I disagree. If you aren’t into taking lots of selfies and sharing photos of yourself, you don’t have to. You can also get your point across through text posts, screenshots of articles, and comments on other people’s posts. Making your opinion known is more important than showing your face, and that’s also what potential employers care about more!

5. Don’t obsess over your post consistency, likes, or follows

It’s really easy to get wrapped up in these things when building a personal brand on social media. But if you’re not able to keep up with a certain consistency of posts, that’s OK. Don’t worry too much about the algorithm or your like and follower count. These aren’t always a marker of success! You don’t need millions of followers to build a strong network and attract interesting opportunities. I certainly didn’t.

6. Audit yourself

It’s a good idea to look yourself up a couple times per year and scan your profiles. Ask yourself, “Does this represent me and the image I want to put out there?” Review your bios and refresh them with new information if necessary.

7. Follow thought leaders and experts in the fields you’re interested in

Only follow people you actually like, want to see regularly on your feed, and want to hear what they have to say. Avoid overly affiliating yourself with any one person.

8. Don’t just post for the sake of it

Take a moment to consider why you’re sharing something before hitting publish. There have been times when I realized I was just posting for myself and not engaging with other people’s content. Remember that social media is a give and take. The whole point of it is to have interactions with others. Engaging with people is the thing that actually benefits you in the end. People can tell when someone is just posting to show themselves off. So each time you’re about to post something, ask yourself why.

Final thoughts

Building a personal brand and becoming visible online sends the message to the world that you’re open for business and collaborations. The more you put yourself out there, talk to people, and share your thoughts on topics you’re knowledgeable and passionate about, the more you’ll get contacted for exciting opportunities — like appearing as a guest on a podcast, speaking at an event, commenting in a popular magazine, or reviewing content for a brand or a company you love. Because of my personal brand, I was asked to speak at an event at Google.

We’re always looking for more medical experts to collaborate with at Flo. And we’ve found many of our 100+ medical advisors thanks to their visibility online! It’s helpful if you’re already comfortable in front of a camera as we always need more content for the app and social media.

If you’re interested in chatting about personal branding or working for Flo, my door is always open! You can reach me on LinkedIn — I’d be happy to talk.