Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE)

If you haven't heard about the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE), you may want to spend a few minutes to learn about this organization. If you're a physician and you've been bitten by the entrepreneur bug, then you should join other physician entrepreneurs.

Visit the main Society of Physician Entrepreneurs website here: http://www.sopenet.org and you can join the group for free.  From there, you can leverage social media resources by joining the Facebook fan page, following @sopenetorg on Twitter, the Ning network, and the group on LinkedIn.

Leveraging social media to help physicians find non-clinical jobs

Here's a practical example of using social media to help physicians find non-clinical jobs. Let's review the list of social media tools/websites that can be valuable resources:

• Blog: http://www.nonclinicaljobs.com/
• Ning: (Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals) http://members.nonclinicaljobs.com/
• LinkedIn: Our LinkedIn Group
  
• Facebook: Our Facebook fan page
  
• Twitter: @DrJosephKim
  

Now, how did I leverage these resources to help a physician find a non-clinical job? In this example, it went like this:

• A female physician found this website by doing a search on Google for "non-clinical physician jobs." She wanted to balance the following: family life as a wife and mom; she wanted to leave clinical medicine and work from home; and she wanted to maintain some level of financial productivity by working part-time.
• This individual reached out to me to get some personal guidance to find some non-clinical opportunities.
  
• She became active on our social network (Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals) and reached out to some physicians within the network to get some advice about different types of non-clinical opportunities.
• She also leveraged other social networking websites like LinkedIn and Facebook and reconnected with her college and medical school friends and colleagues. She had lost contact with many of these people because she had become so busy working as a full-time physician (sound familiar?).
  
• We soon discovered that one of her college friends was married to someone who works in a medical company and she reconnected with this individual through Facebook and Twitter. Through this individual, she was able to get an interview with a hiring manager and this led to a job opportunity.
  
• She's now working from home for this medical company and doing some other contract-based work for several other companies.
  

Now, this simplified example is an illustration of a major key point: the importance of social networking. She may still be looking for work had she not reconnected with this college friend.

The other point is this: once you get your foot into the door and establish yourself as someone who has solid non-clinical experience, it becomes much easier for you to find additional non-clinical jobs.

915 members in the "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals" social network

I think we will exceed 1000 members in our Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals social network before the end of the year. I'm excited to see how this social network has grown and I feel like we can leverage this network to help each other find non-clinical opportunities. Over the past several weeks, I've already sent several broadcasts related to different opportunities in medical writing, reviewing, and health IT.

I want to thank everyone who has told others about this network. I also want to thank those of you who has become a fan of the Facebook page. That's my own little social experiment because I know that most physicians are not leveraging social media, but I'm curious to see how many physicians are using Facebook, Twitter, and professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn.

If you haven't joined the Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals, what are you waiting for? Meet over 900 other health care professionals (mostly physicians) who are truly interested in learning about non-clinical career opportunities.

When will we reach 1,000 members in our social network: "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals"?

Our social network Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals currently has over 880 members. Do you think we can reach 1,000 members before the end of the year? I'm asking for your help so that we can get there.

Over the past few months, I've been referring physicians to various non-clinical opportunities (some are part-time, some are consulting projects, and others are full-time jobs). Over the past few weeks, I've developed connections in two separate companies and they are both looking for some part-time physician consultants to help with projects as they pertain to:

• Medical communications: medical writing, editing, health education, consumer health, etc.
  
• Health information technology (health IT): electronic health record (EHR)/ electronic medical record (EMR), data integration, etc.

Some of these part-time consulting opportunities may evolve into full-time positions. I encourage you to join the free Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals network and tell others about this resource. Let's aim to reach 1,000 members as we enter 2010!

830 members in our social network: "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals"

If you'd like to connect with other physicians who have interests in non-clinical career opportunities, join the free "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals" social network. We currently have 830 members and we're growing!

Earlier this month, we had 785 members. I encourage you to tell others about this site and about the free resources that are available here. To join the social networking site, click here: Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals

Over 730 members and growing weekly

As the month of July comes to an end, I wanted to provide a membership update. We currently have over 730 members in our Ning social networking community (Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals). When we entered the month of July, we had 668 members. After announcing a career counseling service earlier this month, I'm now working with over 50 physicians who are seriously interested in pursuing non-clinical careers.

I'm still finalizing some of the details with my professional career counselors who are eager to help these individuals and I hope to provide some updates over the next several weeks as things move forward. If you haven't joined this social networking community, I encourage you to join. It's free to join and it's a great way to meet others who may share similar interests. Plus, it's a good way to stay updated with any new developments/services offered through this site.

Join me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Ning

I'm a social networker. I've helped many people get connected, find potential jobs, and network with other healthcare professionals who have similar interests. In the world of medicine, networking isn't so crucial (relatively speaking). In the world of business, networking is absolutely essential.

I invite you to join me on LinkedIn. I currently have about 800 connections that link me to over 13,000,000+ professionals and I'm always open to growing my network so that I may help others. My LinkedIn profile can be found here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/drjosephkim

Need my e-mail address to add me to your network? Go to this page ("contact me") to view my e-mail address.

While you're building your social network, why don't you join me on Twitter (@DrJosephKim) and also join my free Ning social network: "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals" (which currently has 686 members).

So, there you have it. I'm inviting you to join me on three different social networking sites:

1. LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/drjosephkim)
2. Twitter (@DrJosephKim)
3. Ning ("Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals")

If you're not using these social networking sites, then you may be missing out on some incredible opportunities to help others (not to mention the opportunities that may be out there for you!)

668 members in the "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals" network

As we start the month of July, I thought I should provide an update. We currently have 668 members in the "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals" social network. Most of the members are physicians, but we do have some nurses, pharmacists, and other types of healthcare professionals. It's free to join and it's a great way to expand your professional network.

Social networking is critical in the non-clinical world and if you have any interest in pursuing jobs or careers in various medical industries, I would urge you to join. It's free to join and you can network with other healthcare professionals who may share similar interests or advice. Do you blog, Tweet on Twitter, participate in forums, or use Facebook or LinkedIn? Why not expand your social network to include people working in various non-clinical areas of medicine?

A Growing Social Network: Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals

For the past few months, the "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals" social network has been growing by approximately 50 people each month. It's now the middle of June and we currently have 632 members.

Do you know any healthcare professionals who are currently working in non-clinical positions? Encourage him or her to join our social network. Perhaps you know people who are interested in pursuing some non-clinical opportunities. Let's build this community so that students, residents, and practicing clinicians may share ideas and help one another find the right opportunities. Perhaps you're interested in starting a new business. Maybe you want to share ideas related to health information technology. Interested in business school? These are some of the topics that you can discuss with other healthcare professionals.

Social networking is such a powerful way to find new career opportunities and promote your own professional development. I've learned so much about leveraging Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Facebook to find some new and exciting opportunities in blogging, consulting, and reconnecting with old friends and colleagues. I've also found that these social networks are very useful tools when you want to help a friend or colleague find a new job. How have you been leveraging your social network to help others?

Join the "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals" social network and spread the word!

Social Networking Through Ning

Ning is a powerful social networking platform that allows you to create social networking communities for free. These free communities offer some basic services and if you wish to upgrade, then you can for a monthly maintenance fee.

I've created a social networking community titled, "Non-Clinical Healthcare Professionals"

This site is open for clinicians, scientists, and others who are interested in various types of non-clinical opportunities in the healthcare industry. We currently have 620 members and we're growing each week. It's a great way to meet others who share similar interests, so what are you waiting for? Click here to join for free.