Who is Michelle van Tongerloo?

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Michelle van Tongerloo: Advocating for Health Equity Through Frontline Action and Digital Influence

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Michelle van Tongerloo is a practicing street doctor in Rotterdam who focuses on treating the homeless, undocumented individuals, and people with addiction. Her medical practice operates outside institutional settings, giving her firsthand exposure to structural failures in the Dutch healthcare system. She regularly shares these experiences on LinkedIn to raise awareness and propose local reforms. Her field reports are rooted in direct patient contact, not secondary analysis.

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She founded lekkergeven.nl, a crowdfunding platform designed to provide emergency support for patients excluded from public assistance. This initiative allows donors to fund urgent needs like shelter, medications, or transport for people who fall through institutional gaps. The platform is tightly integrated with her medical practice, often funding cases she personally encounters. It reflects her belief that healthcare requires both treatment and structural aid.

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Michelle also contributes to Dutch outlets like NRC Handelsblad and De Correspondent, where she documents cases that reveal systemic barriers to care. Her dual role as physician and journalist allows her to expose blind spots in government health policies using verified patient stories. Her writing is based on lived cases, not general opinion, which has helped her gain credibility in policy debates and the media.

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Her voice on social media is distinct for its specificity—she names institutions, dates, and outcomes, holding systems publicly accountable. Unlike general medical influencers, she rarely posts about trends or research, and instead focuses on real events from her practice. Her goal is not to inform broadly, but to correct gaps directly. This has positioned her as one of the most recognizable health advocates in the Netherlands.

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An Influencer Active on Social Media

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Michelle van Tongerloo is active across LinkedIn, X, and Instagram, with LinkedIn serving as her primary channel for thought leadership and community advocacy.

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Michelle's Social Media Strategy Analysis

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LinkedIn: Medical Advocacy Built on Real-World Cases

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Michelle van Tongerloo uses LinkedIn to share detailed, case-driven posts rooted in her experiences treating homeless and undocumented patients in Rotterdam. She posts three times a week, usually at 4 AM EST, and each post highlights a real encounter that reflects larger failures in Dutch healthcare or housing systems. Her content often tags public institutions like Gemeente Rotterdam or insurers such as Zilveren Kruis. These posts are designed to trigger visibility and accountability, not discussion for its own sake.

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Her tone is calm but direct, often stating what went wrong in a specific case, who was responsible, and how the system can be improved. Unlike many LinkedIn creators, she doesn’t use inspirational messaging or motivational hooks. Instead, she relies on factual breakdowns and sharp conclusions based on frontline evidence. This has helped her maintain high engagement from policymakers, journalists, and medical professionals.

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Her visual content is minimal—usually a photo from her daily work or a news article where she was featured. She avoids branded images or templates and does not use emojis or design effects. This visual consistency reinforces the seriousness of her messaging and aligns with her credibility as a medical professional. Each post feels like a report, not a performance.

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With 139.2K followers and an average of 2.7K engagements per post, Michelle's content reaches far beyond her immediate network. She uses LinkedIn not to build a personal brand, but to apply pressure on institutions and advocate for systemic change. Her voice has become one of the most cited in Dutch LinkedIn conversations about public health access and inequality.

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• Username: @michellevantongerloo
• Influence Score: 8,370 pts
• Followers: 139.2K
• Activity: 14 posts/month
• Engagement Rate: 1.97%
• Growth: +3.03%
• Average Engagement: 2.7K
• Posting Habits: 3 times a week at 4 AM EST

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X (Twitter): Civic Commentary and Issue Spotlights

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Michelle uses X (@michellevanton2) to comment on news stories and policy decisions impacting social healthcare in the Netherlands. Her posting frequency is low—less than once a week—but each tweet is timed around media coverage or political moments. She often quote-tweets local government announcements or news clips to highlight contradictions between policy and what she sees in the field.

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Unlike her LinkedIn content, her tone on X is more expressive and politically visible. She uses the platform to tag journalists, public officials, and organizations involved in the story she’s discussing. Tweets are usually under 150 words and often link to external articles or include photos from protests or media appearances. Her presence on X helps her enter civic conversations quickly without the structure of a long post.

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She has 10.6K followers but maintains a high 7.4% engagement rate, showing that her audience is niche but highly reactive. Her tweets frequently generate replies from healthcare workers, political commentators, and NGOs. This makes her a visible voice during Dutch healthcare debates, even if she’s not posting daily. Her content is designed to intervene in moments, not maintain daily reach.

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Michelle does not engage in trending hashtags, viral formats, or online discourse unrelated to her advocacy. Every tweet connects back to healthcare access, community safety, or specific cases she’s handled. This narrow focus has helped build a clearly defined role for her on the platform—as a live commentator from the front lines of public health.

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• Username: @michellevanton2
• Influence Score: 83.2/100
• Followers: 10.6K
• Activity: 0.8 tweets/week
• Engagement Rate: 7.4%
• Growth: +2.89%
• Average Engagement: 788
• Posting Habits: Once a week at 11 AM EST

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Instagram: Personal Insights and Behind-the-Scenes Views

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Michelle’s Instagram presence (@michellevantongerloo) offers a more personal and informal look into her work. She posts roughly twice a week, sharing moments from protests, media panels, or community-driven care events. Her captions are longer than average, often giving background on the people or situations pictured. These stories focus on humanizing policy issues through patient narratives and event documentation.

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She uses Instagram to spotlight behind-the-scenes aspects of her advocacy—such as meetings with municipal leaders, volunteering days, or patient crowdfunding updates. The tone is still serious, but more emotionally resonant than her LinkedIn writing. It gives her audience a visual entry point into her cause without the structural commentary required on other platforms.

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While her follower count is smaller (6.3K), her engagement rate is strong at 2.25%, with most posts reaching nearly 4K views monthly. This shows her audience is committed and responds well to visual documentation. She doesn’t use influencer-style content like selfies or reels; her images focus on community, street scenes, and grassroots medical action.

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Michelle avoids sponsored content entirely and doesn’t use Instagram Stories to promote services or products. Instead, she leverages the platform to strengthen transparency in her work, showing real moments with the same populations she advocates for. Instagram functions as her digital diary for activism, offering a different kind of credibility—visual proof of impact.

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• Username: @michellevantongerloo
• Influence Score: 66.2/100
• Followers: 6.3K
• Activity: 9 posts/month
• Engagement Rate: 2.25%
• Growth: +5.54%
• Average Engagement: 141
• Posting Habits: Twice a week at 12 PM EST

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Michelle van Tongerloo's Social Media Influence Summary

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Michelle van Tongerloo holds a Favikon Influence Score of 8,370 points, placing her in the Top 1% on LinkedIn Netherlands and Top 1% in Health & Medical Netherlands. Globally, she ranks in the Top 3% in Doctors & Medicine and Top 1% on LinkedIn Worldwide (#370). These rankings confirm her authority not just as a medical expert, but as a voice for underserved populations. Her profile shows a mix of strong engagement, steady growth, and consistent platform use. Each channel—LinkedIn, X, Instagram—serves a different function within her advocacy ecosystem. While LinkedIn amplifies her professional credibility, X sharpens her voice in political spaces, and Instagram reinforces relatability.

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Learn more about the Favikon Methodology here

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Content Strategy: Advocacy Rooted in Firsthand Exposure

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Michelle’s content strategy is based on case-driven storytelling—each post is tied to real-world healthcare challenges she encounters in Rotterdam. Her typical post walks through a patient’s experience, outlining where the system failed and what should have been done differently. This makes her voice extremely grounded and difficult to ignore in policy circles. She blends her medical authority with journalism, tagging local institutions like Gemeente Rotterdam or Zilveren Kruis when highlighting systemic gaps. These mentions are not generic—they are deliberate and tied to accountability. Michelle uses clear, direct language, avoids technical jargon, and makes her posts actionable, often calling for donations or policy pressure.

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Reachability and Partnerships

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Michelle van Tongerloo is most reachable through LinkedIn, where she maintains a consistent posting schedule and directly tags institutions like Gemeente Rotterdam, NRC Handelsblad, and Zilveren Kruis. She uses her platform to initiate or escalate cases requiring attention from city officials or media outlets. While she does not advertise services or collaborations, she regularly shares contact points for public support, medical donations, or community aid. Most of her partnerships are mission-driven and related to health equity or public policy.

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She does not work with commercial sponsors or branded campaigns, and her content has no monetized elements. Instead, Michelle accepts invitations for speaking engagements, public health panels, and collaborations with investigative journalism teams or municipal programs. She has previously worked with Dutch broadcast platforms like Zembla and nonprofit networks that support the unhoused. Her reputation for medical accuracy and direct storytelling makes her highly credible and influential in advocacy and policy reform circles.

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Conclusion: Michelle van Tongerloo Is Reframing Public Health Through Street-Level Action and Policy Pressure

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Michelle van Tongerloo blends frontline medical work with targeted digital storytelling to advocate for healthcare access and equity in the Netherlands. With top-tier influence scores across LinkedIn and a strong multi-platform strategy, she remains a vital voice in Dutch social health conversations. Her clear messaging, real-world anchoring, and professional credibility make her a standout creator for mission-aligned partnerships and public sector collaboration.

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