The pandemic changed the face of healthcare as we knew it. Expert marketing strategist Lisa Larter explains why every hospital leader needs to rethink their view of thought leadership to Lisa Miller.

Episode Introduction

Lisa explains why thought leadership is essential in the era of Doctor Google, why different is better than better, and the importance of an online presence for healthcare leaders. She also highlights the 3 R’s of reviews, referrals and reputation, the importance of truth telling, and why every thought leadership strategy should begin with the end in mind.

Show Topics

• Reimagining healthcare thought leadership

• All of us have the same Doctor – Doctor Google

• Every healthcare leader needs their own brand

• Focus on your patients, not your peers

• Reputation is the driver behind success

• Effectively responding to patient reviews

• Managing patient expectations is key to thought leadership

• Begin with the end in mind

03:25 Reimagining healthcare thought leadership

Lisa said thought leadership is a vital part of patient care

‘’So when a hospital commits to thought leadership, not only is it a great tool for people to find when they're searching for information, but it's also a great tool to use as part of their patient care strategy. So if I'm someone who is recently diagnosed with let's say cancer, or diabetes, or a heart condition, it doesn't matter what it is, if a hospital has done a great job at creating thought leadership, they should have an area that they can direct me to that educates me on what to expect, that reassures me, that informs me, that really answers my most common questions and prepares me for the journey that I'm about to go on. Too often, I think people go to a doctor and they get some type of a diagnosis, and then they go home and they try to figure things out on their own. And I think that hospitals that are really, really committed to thought leadership are doing it so that one, people can find the information. But two, they can prescribe the information as part of their patient care strategy.’’

12:03 All of us have the same Doctor – Doctor Google

Lisa explained why an online presence is essential to prevent misinformation.

‘’The first line of defense for all of us is Google. And before we've even seen a doctor, we're asking Dr. Google to tell us what's going on. And so if you understand anything about SEO, you understand that when somebody types a query into Google, you need to match the query in order to show up on the first, second, third page of Google. And if you're not creating thought leadership, then there's no way for your expertise, your thought leadership as a doctor to show up there. What might be happening is a mommy blogger who is passionate about a particular ailment because she had it or her mom had it, has been blogging about this thing. And she shows up there, because she's written more about it than an actual expert who is highly skilled and trained on the same topic. And so what happens is we go down these rabbit holes of reading information, and we don't know what is misinformation and what is legitimate information. ….so you can find whatever it is you're looking for, but that doesn't mean what you're reading is scientifically backed and/or was put together by a professional that really knows what they're talking about. And so I think Dr. Google is a scary thing, but it's the default.’’ Today's healthcare systems and hospitals, especially in rural communities, are slower than ever to service patients in need. And so when you're sitting at home and you're not feeling well, and you have to wait weeks or months to get in to see a specialist, what do you do? You talk to Dr. Google.’’

15:24 Every healthcare leader needs their own brand

Lisa said healthcare leaders need to make it easy for prospective patients to find them.

‘’…. when Covid hit, a bunch of doctors, national, local, rural were thrown into the spotlight, because people were looking for information. They wanted to understand what was happening in the world. And that is not something that we've seen as much of before in our lifetime. And so I think what happened during that time is there was a bit of a shift, where we now look to doctors, clinicians to be their own subject matter experts. And we look at their personal brands as a consumer. And so a doctor may work for a healthcare system or a hospital, the same one for their entire life, or they may change, but what doesn't change is their body of work and their knowledge. And so I look at doctors and clinicians like experts of their own standing. And if they don't put their own platform out there, and show you who they are, and what they're about, and what their areas of expertise are, then it makes it hard for you to choose them…….And so if you want to control the impression that people have of you, you need to make it easy for them to find the information and find the story that you want them to know. And I think too many people are behaving like they used to behave before the internet, and they're assuming that the patients are just going to come.’’

23:58 Focus on your patients not your peers

Lisa said building a brand should be focused on patients.

‘’It's hard to get started. And you know why it's scary for so many of them? It's because they're concerned with what their peers are going to think instead of what their patients are going to think. They want it to be all academic, and scientifically backed, and perfect, and that's not what the patient is looking for. And so when you are building this body of work, you're not building it for peer review journals, you're building it for patients. So you want to talk in layman's terms, you want to talk in language that makes it easy for your patients to understand who you are and what you do. That's not to say that you can't write academic pieces that are a bit more scientific and fancier in nature. But I think you have to think about who the audience is that you are creating this thought leadership for. And you're not necessarily creating it for your peers. You're creating it for your patients.’’

29:09 Reputation is the driver behind success

Lisa explained why referrals, reviews and reputation are essential to building a brand.

‘’….your reputation is really the driver of whether people want... I mean, why do some doctors have month long, multi-month long wait lists for people to get in to see them, and other doctors you can get in tomorrow? It's because some doctors have such stellar reputations for doing what they do, that people will wait forever to see them. And  so how do you build a stellar reputation? First of all, you need to do good work. Second of all, you create a body of work. Third, you want to ensure that when people are referring you, that you have the recommendations that support the work that you do.’’

30:44 Effectively responding to patient reviews

Lisa said responding to positive and negative reviews builds trust and credibility.

‘’…. if somebody writes a nice review, get in there and respond, and thank them for the review. And if somebody writes not so nice a review, get in there and acknowledge that you would like to have a conversation with them. If it's positive, get in there and have the dialogue. Thank them, acknowledge it. Go all out. If it's not, try to take them offline. Try to get them to call the office, try to get them to call you. Try to leave a comment that says, "This is not the experience that we want you to have. Could you please call our office so that we can try to fix this for you?" You want to do whatever you can to protect your reputation. We all know there are people out there that are going to write really, really bad reviews. It's going to happen. And sometimes, you're deserving of the review, and a lot of times you're not deserving of the review. And so the best that you can do when you don't have a good review is at least acknowledge it and offer to have a conversation with the person. But if you show up regularly and you respond to reviews, and people see you showing up regularly and responding to reviews, it creates more of a sense of trust and credibility that you really are who people say you are, because you just keep showing up. You show up in the review space, you show up in your thought leadership, you show up online on your website, you show up on social media. It makes you a real person, and that makes you way more attractive.’’

34:36 Managing patient expectations is key to thought leadership

Lisa explained why honesty can help to build patient relationships and trust.

‘’Sometimes, a patient's experience is not going to be positive because that's the protocol. There are some treatments, there are some X-rays, there are some things that you have to do when you're sick that are nasty, they're not nice, they're not fun. And if somebody is writing about that because they had a terrible experience, but it didn't matter what they did, that experience wasn't going to be positive, then you have an opportunity to get in front of that and manage expectations upfront, because now you know what some of the trigger points are. And you can actually say to somebody, "This is going to suck. This is going to be uncomfortable. This is going to be painful. You are not going to like us when this is done. Here are some techniques or tactics or things that you can do to make this easier. And I think sometimes, we're afraid to tell the truth. We're afraid to tell somebody this is not going to be a pleasant experience. And then because they didn't know it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience, you end up on the other side of it writing a review, and you're upset about the unpleasant experience, where if somebody had told you upfront, "I hate to tell you, but a colonoscopy isn't fun," if somebody actually let upfront what to expect, then maybe you wouldn't be so upset with the procedure or upset with what you experienced.’’

37:35 Begin with the end in mind

Lisa said getting clear on your personal brand provides a starting point for thought leadership.

‘’I think if I could steal from Stephen Covey, begin with the end in mind. Think about who you're trying to be and what you want to be known for from a thought leadership perspective, when you begin with the end in mind and you get clear on how you want your personal brand to be and what you want your thought leadership to look like, you have a starting point. But most healthcare practitioners are not marketing experts, and so I would recommend that you work with somebody like myself who is good at developing a marketing strategy. One of the things that we do with a lot of our clients is we help them to create a strategic marketing roadmap, and we help them to actually get the ideas out of their head and create a plan that is both strategic and tactical so that they know what to do next. It's never going to happen on its own. And I would say that one of the things that is the most challenging about creating your own thought leadership is you are so close to what you know, that you often don't know what it is that other people don't know. And so you're like a fish in water. You don't actually realize some of the simple things that you know that are highly valuable to other people, because you think everyone already knows it. So I would encourage anyone who is listening who wants to really think about thought leadership, to have some type of an advisor to help them on the journey. And then if you're listening and you're an executive in healthcare and you're thinking about, "How do I do this for the hospital?" You really need an overarching strategy. And I would start with one department, one aspect, and build it out as a pilot. And then I would look at how you can build that out throughout the whole organization.’'

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You’ll also hear:

Leverage the thought leadership of your team: ‘’If you're proud of your doctors and clinicians, and you believe they do good work, then bring that to the forefront. It's a powerful way for you to improve your patient experience, to build confidence, to make your practitioners all feel like their thought leadership matters.’’

Physicians need to take their reputation into their own hands, but how can they achieve that? ‘’Some clinicians and physicians are going to be really comfortable public speaking. They're going to get on TV, they're going to show up on Twitter spaces and have debates about this, that, and the other thing. But other doctors, maybe they're going to be better at just recording short videos, or maybe recording podcasts, or maybe writing content.’’

Why different is better than better: ‘’…if you're just doing the same old and you're not thinking differently about your thought leadership in the healthcare industry, you are going to fall behind.’’

Putting a piece of paper on a pile: Why publishing online is essential to promote your personal brand. ‘’Every time you publish something online, it doesn't matter what it is. Think of it as you're putting a piece of paper on a pile. And every single time you add something to the internet, you're adding another piece of paper to that pile. Your personal brand stands on top of that pile. So the bigger the pile you have, the more visible and easily sought out you become. The person who's got 1,000 pages in the pile, it's a lot easier to find them than the person that's got two.’’

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