Physician social networking online

Most of my physician colleagues agree that most physicians generally don't engage in online social networking. The only exceptions would be those who use Sermo, and a small handful of early adopters. So who are those early adopters? Who are those who see value in online social networking?

• Are they the physicians who have a strong interest in medical informatics (or health information technology)? Sometimes.
• Are they the physicians who are actively looking for new job opportunities? Rarely.
• Are they the physicians who tend to be more adventurous and active (such as emergency room physicians)? Sometimes.
• Are they the physicians who have way too much free time (such as dermatology and radiology physicians)? Sometimes.
• Are they those MD/MBA grads who are always trying to find new ventures. Sometimes.
  

So, who are those early adopters? Most of the time, they are the medical students who already use social networking tools like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. They are the ones who graduate and become those physicians who embrace the power of social networking.