Table 15.1 Tactics for personal branding for physicians.
| LinkedIn or Other Audience Relevant Social Media Sites |
| Institution, Company, or Personal Website |
| Personal Networking |
| Research Collaboration |
| National Conference Presentations |
| Peer‐Reviewed Journal Articles |
| Book Chapters |
| Local Speaking Engagements |
| Speaking at Industry‐Focused Conferences/Meetings |
| Blogs, White Papers, Newsletters |
15.5.1 Tactical Examples
15.5.1.1 Case 1: A Community Pediatrician
Our community pediatric practice melds a combination of personal branding with traditional business branding. With less emphasis on clinical research, the physicians in the practice all maintain profiles on the clinic website, which has their unique promise and branding clearly evident. They also have a dedicated staff member to monitor patient grading sites to ensure that they are represented. The same staff member posts to and monitors the practice's active Facebook page and engages patients during visits to obtain feedback and act on that feedback. The practice makes sure that its unique promise of caring for children and the convenience for caregivers is reinforced when networking with obstetricians and other family practices, knowing that most of their patients come via referrals.
15.5.1.2 Case 2: A Community Surgeon
Our neck surgeon ensures that he has a solid presence through many of the same websites that our oncologist uses. He has his own company/clinic site as well. As a new key feature of his strategy, he arranges and delivers local presentations for community primary care providers on a quarterly or semi‐annual basis to show advancements in diagnosis and treatments for relevant conditions (both surgical and medical). Between these events he sends out a newsletter updating his audience of his recent presentations, upcoming presentations, national engagements or publications, and reminding these physicians of his services and competence.
15.5.1.3 Case 3: A Clinical Oncologist/Researcher at an Academic Hospital
Our clinical oncologist/researcher applies a strategy that focuses on her positioning toward industry clinical trial design. She feels that the efforts to build this positioning will translate to unique value for internal promotion. Her goal is to maintain a strong presence in her institution through networking and collaborating. She already has an institution website that is kept up to date. Her growing number of peer‐reviewed publications demonstrate her competence as a clinical study design expert and an active researcher and thought leader in oncology. She sets up accounts on LinkedIn.com , WebMD.com , ReachMD.com , and several other similar sites based on information from her CV. She also monitors her profiles on Vitals.com, HealthGrades.com , and other physician rating sites. She speaks regularly at national oncology conferences and uses that opportunity to network with industry medical attendees. As a new key feature of her strategy, she begins seeking out speaking opportunities at smaller conferences geared toward clinical research trial design that bring in an industry audience.
15.6 Executing Your Brand Plan
Once you have your positioning, brand elements, and tactics planned, you are ready to execute your plan. Set milestones and goals. You may already be given deadlines, such as those for tenure review. Work backward from those dates to ensure that you are able to complete your tactics in time and adjust and streamline your plan to accommodate. Know that the plan, including tactics, will develop as you see what works best or as new ideas come to mind.
Building your brand requires patience and your brand will likely evolve as you learn more about your profession and are exposed to new concepts and ideas. It is recommended to review your brand plan annually and re‐SWOT to see how you are doing over time and to keep tabs on any new threats. It is important to remember to remain true to yourself, be authentic, and continue to be a valuable contributor to your profession.
15.7 Conclusion
As a clinician/researcher, building a personal brand can be important to your goals. When building your brand, the ideal place to start is determining your positioning or niche by finding your value in your audience's mind. You can do this by visualizing moving around to “the other side of desk” and imagining what problems you might have if you were an actual member of your target audience. Build materials to communicate your value and plan tactics that help you reach your audience.
Further Reading
1 Chritton, S. (2012). Personal Branding for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
2 Kang, K. (2013). Branding Pays: The Five‐Step System to Reinvent your Personal Brand. Palo Alto, CA: BrandingPays Media.
3 Kapferer, J.‐N. (2012). The New Strategic Brand Management: Advanced Insights and Strategic Thinking. London, UK: Kogan.
4 Ries, A. and Trout, J. (2001). Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. New York, NY: McGraw‐Hill.
16 Dealing with Manipulative People
George K. Simon
Character Development, Forensic, and Clinical Psychology, Little Rock, AR, USA
For several years I was both a consulting and supervising psychologist to a private company managing a women's correctional facility in a relatively remote part of the state. One day, the nursing supervisor asked me to check out a situation in which an inmate had secured two prescriptions from a consulting psychiatrist for medicines that could easily be abused. I arrived at the inmate's housing unit just as correctional officers were following up on a tip that the inmate in question might have recently sold Valium and Trazodone to another inmate, who, when she did not pay as agreed for the drugs, was viciously assaulted. It appeared the inmate who was earlier prescribed the medications “cheeked” them deftly before leaving the clinic and attempted to make the sale very shortly after returning to her housing pod. She also was overheard bragging about how easy it was to “score” the drugs she obtained and was advising other inmates on strategies they might use to do the same. Because I had substantial experience working with disturbed and disordered characters, and because the consulting psychiatrist in question was a private practitioner with little experience with such a population, the nursing supervisor asked if I might