Armed now with feedback from your peers, an understanding of what your current reputation is, and a vision to strengthen that reputation, the next step is to embrace the multitude of online communities to market yourself or your practice. Regardless if you are a student, a seasoned professional or a practice owner, the best way to convey your online physician reputation and find opportunities for success is to market yourself.

• LinkedIn.com -> Ensure you have a robust profile with strong key words highlighting your areas of expertise, membership to relevant groups, and contact information for recruiters or other professionals to reach out to you

• HealthGrades.com - > Set up your free profile for patients to provide feedback

• SlideShare.net -> Free basic plan to upload your presentations or videos, if your goal is to evolve into a speaker or clinical expert this is a great channel to promote yourself

• WordPress.com -> Free blogging site with a plethora of templates to choose from, Google will catalog your topics when you input key words -- another great avenue to market yourself and build your reputation

• Social sites such as RSNA, American Academy of Private Physicians or American College of Cardiology have Facebook and Twitter pages that you can follow, post and comment

If, for example, you are a radiologist, embrace how quickly technology changes and use it to market your practice. Marketing Teleradiology only to local hospitals or imaging centers is limits your growth, why not promote the team and your cutting edge technology to other facilities with whom you'd like to partner? One way to do this is to have a very strong online presence with a website and implementing some of the tools mentioned above to ensure the practice is found in Google search results i.e. blogging is paramount to Google reading a fresh and dynamic website with good key words and content. Once a strategy is in place with messaging and marketing I recommend having one person who controls that message and the reputation you are creating online. That individual can push relevant content that applies to your practice and promote the group as experts in certain areas.

For a practice the following sites are helpful:

• LinkedIn.com -> The practice can have a company page that colleagues follow, highlight the areas of expertise, technology, best in practice procedures, etc.

• Facebook.com -> For either an individual or a practice, set up a Facebook Page – it's not recommended that either entity "Friend" people, patients, etc. Colleagues and patients can follow through the content that is deliberately pushed from the designated person

• Hootsuite.com -> This site provides for one place to post messages that are disseminated to the various social media channels, a free tracking system can also be implemented to see who forwards which content

• Google +1 -> Over time it is expected that Google will begin to give higher ranking to websites that have "likes" or recommendations – if you interact with patients, this is a good module to add to your site

Before you begin your journey in building your reputation, your brand, and marketing yourself, you may want to be proactive and review the AMA guidelines on social media to ensure you do not violate their rules. After that, dive in, create opportunities for yourself and enjoy your success!