Latest / Voices of Otolaryngology / Social Media and Building Your Voice in Otolaryngology
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to the Voices of Otolaryngology podcast series, where we spotlight
- 0:05diverse perspectives and insights within the field of otolaryngology.
- 0:08I'm your host, Rahul Shah.
- 0:10Let's jump into it.
- 0:12Welcome to the Voices of Otolaryngology.
- 0:15I'm really excited today to have Doctor Hussain with us,
- 0:18and I'm going to ask her to speak about social media presence
- 0:22and strategies that we as surgeons and physicians should think about.
- 0:27Doctor Hussain, welcome.
- 0:29Thank you so much for having me today.
- 0:31Well, tell us a little bit about yourself, about your practice,
- 0:34where you're from, where you trained just everything in, like, 20 seconds.
- 0:38Great.
- 0:39Well, I'm a laryngologist, so a medical director of laryngology
- 0:42here in northwest Indiana with Powers Health.
- 0:45I did my fellowship in laryngology from Massachusetts
- 0:48Eye and Ear Infirmary and ENT residency from Northwestern.
- 0:52So kind of stayed in the area.
- 0:54Have a clinical practice where I do all things laryngology,
- 0:58but have a specific specialty and focus on LPR.
- 1:03I wasn't kidding when I said 15 seconds, that was incredible.
- 1:06I beat you, you look.
- 1:08You have probably learned how to do great sound bites.
- 1:10Well, why don't we get into it?
- 1:12Several folks and otolaryngologists are pining
- 1:16for understanding how to use social media in your practice, and how to develop it.
- 1:22Your name kept coming to the top of the list.
- 1:25People respect you.
- 1:26They see your post, they see your engagement.
- 1:28So kudos on that.
- 1:30Let’s start with that.
- 1:31Why do you use social media?
- 1:33Is it to educate?
- 1:34Is it to market?
- 1:35Is it for fun?
- 1:36Why do you use it professionally?
- 1:39Yeah.
- 1:40So I would say I probably use it for all three of those reasons.
- 1:43So initially it started as a kind of, an outlet, a hobby, if you will.
- 1:48Right.
- 1:48So I started during kind of the pandemic, and what I found was the,
- 1:53the largest responses were for the, the things that I was educating on,
- 1:57which was specifically laryngology topics.
- 1:59And so I think social media is a fantastic tool for education,
- 2:04which, to be very frank, is very natural for otolaryngologists.
- 2:08We are teachers at our core.
- 2:11And then so that's the first part.
- 2:14And then you always have fun with it.
- 2:17Right? But then you also use it for marketing.
- 2:19Tell us about that. Yeah.
- 2:21So I transitioned to this community practice about three years ago,
- 2:25where, you know, laryngology.
- 2:27There was no laryngologist here prior.
- 2:29So there was a lot of, you know, education,
- 2:31not just about my to my community, but to my colleagues as well.
- 2:35And so social media has been a great way to let patients and providers
- 2:39know what I offer, what I do, and how I can help patients.
- 2:42And so patients have been able to find me here in Munster,
- 2:45and through social media
- 2:47and through my work on LPR, I've actually get a lot of out of state
- 2:51consults and people who fly in for that education and care.
- 2:57Wow. So your reach is large?
- 2:59It is. Yeah.
- 3:00So we have a lot of people who find me on social media,
- 3:04and they're willing to travel to get that specialty care.
- 3:08Have you heard of “High/Low/Buffalo”?
- 3:10Have you listen to anything I do?
- 3:11Nobody does.
- 3:12My mother doesn't even read or listen to my stuff.
- 3:14Yeah.
- 3:15So despite the fact that I'm on social media,
- 3:17I actually don't do a lot on it other than my own posts.
- 3:20No problem.
- 3:21So “High/Low/Buffalo” is a thing. My kids taught me.
- 3:24What is the high?
- 3:25What is the low and the buffalo’s like the “zebra.” The little unusual thing.
- 3:29So I bet you one of the highs is having patients travel from all over the world.
- 3:34I mean, that is incredible.
- 3:36Yeah. It's done.
- 3:37You know, I've always, prior
- 3:39to starting this community practice, I was in academic medicine.
- 3:42And so research and publishing and speaking at,
- 3:45you know, our annual meeting has been always very enjoyable.
- 3:48But I'll tell you, the reach I get from one post on social media,
- 3:52it's very impressive how many people you can reach in just a 15 second clip.
- 3:58So let's think about this.
- 4:00Let's do a “High/Low/Buffalo” for your professional social media.
- 4:03I'm going to give you the high.
- 4:05The high is the reach.
- 4:06And having patients travel the world to see you.
- 4:08What's been a low? When you're like oh that was weird.
- 4:11And then you got to give me a buffalo.
- 4:13Like the most bizarre thing.
- 4:15So think about a “High/Low/Buffalo” of some of your posts.
- 4:18Yeah.
- 4:19So I think definitely some of the lows, I mean, with social media, I mean, you
- 4:22you are putting yourself out there
- 4:24and so you have to be open a little bit to criticism. Right.
- 4:27So I think everything I put out there,
- 4:30I, I am proud of in some way, I mean, maybe my,
- 4:35you know, ways of making videos have evolved or gotten better over time.
- 4:38But one of the things is when people do criticize you for things, right?
- 4:42The other kind of low on social media is I think there's still a lot of bias
- 4:46in academia about people trying to do social media.
- 4:50And I think my kind of come back, frankly, to that is the idea of like,
- 4:54why are you trying to be an influencer?
- 4:56It's because influencers are trying to be doctors.
- 4:59So we have to kind of step up to the plate.
- 5:01I think the buffalo or something weird.
- 5:05I don't know if it's necessarily weird, but I think I've gotten
- 5:09a lot of different opportunities that I don't think I would have gotten otherwise.
- 5:13In terms of connecting with LPR specialists around the world,
- 5:17again, getting to meet all sorts of, you know,
- 5:20well known people who find me on social media
- 5:23who maybe wouldn't necessarily found me in Munster, Indiana otherwise.
- 5:27So it's kind of connected me
- 5:29to, you know, some celebrities and stuff as well, just through LPR work.
- 5:34Amazing.
- 5:36So I love that quote.
- 5:38Influencers are trying to be doctors.
- 5:40And yes, you are an influencer in our specialty and we appreciate that.
- 5:43And that's how, people brought your name to our attention.
- 5:46But you're right.
- 5:47If we don't take the social media handles, others will.
- 5:51Correct.
- 5:53Yeah. Thank you for that.
- 5:54Yeah. Please go ahead.
- 5:56Yeah.
- 5:56I was going to say I mean, we have very we know what we're talking about.
- 6:00And there's nothing wrong with sharing that. Right?
- 6:03I mean, at our core, I think most of us are here to essentially help our patients.
- 6:08And education is a great way to do that.
- 6:10So again, I think we do need to get take some control over the narrative for sure.
- 6:15In terms of what education and what stuff is getting out there?
- 6:19We're the voices that should be heard.
- 6:22Yeah.
- 6:23You did great on “High/Low/Buffalo”, by the way.
- 6:25I think you won that game. Good job.
- 6:27Where are you active on social.
- 6:30What platforms?
- 6:31Yeah.
- 6:31So my most active platform is actually Instagram.
- 6:35I did initially some stuff on TikTok.
- 6:38And then I'm starting to kind of merge into the world of LinkedIn.
- 6:42So that's kind of my been my newest, social media platform.
- 6:48So let's just really then confine it to Instagram on LinkedIn.
- 6:52Why are you trying to merge into LinkedIn?
- 6:54What are the audience differences and here in this podcast
- 6:58we're talking to our otolaryngologists.
- 7:00So what advice
- 7:01would you give them in deciding which one to go to or both or merged?
- 7:05Sure. I think a lot of it to be very frank.
- 7:08So I was unintentional in my growth on social media.
- 7:11Right?
- 7:11So it wasn't like
- 7:12I had a game plan to begin with, like I do with most aspects of my life,
- 7:16social media.
- 7:17I just did what was easy.
- 7:19I was on Instagram. Personally. It felt comfortable.
- 7:21And so that's where the transition happened.
- 7:23But as I was growing on Instagram, what I realized is that it
- 7:26depends on where you see your career going and what you're interested in.
- 7:30So LinkedIn is very good for networking
- 7:34with industry, and professional organizations.
- 7:37They're not as active on platforms like Instagram.
- 7:41So Instagram is great for kind of the followers.
- 7:44The general public, getting people
- 7:48to see your content who maybe could be potential patients.
- 7:52LinkedIn is great for kind of networking with
- 7:55industry organizations, looking at kind of the larger picture.
- 7:59And so I think it's nice to have a foot in both of those realms,
- 8:03for, for kind of what we do.
- 8:08Have you had professional training?
- 8:11How did you learn about this?
- 8:13Did you find it on YouTube?
- 8:14Ironically, you learned on Instagram.
- 8:16How did you get to where you are?
- 8:18What advice do you give to our busy practicing surgeons out there?
- 8:22If they want to use it for education and marketing, they don't want to compete
- 8:25with you, Doctor Hussain, don't worry, they want to use it for marketing.
- 8:29So what I would say is just, I guess, the same advice
- 8:32I give my kids in life, right?
- 8:34Do everything in baby steps.
- 8:36Don't feel overwhelmed by all the different,
- 8:39you know, AI tools and apps and things you can download.
- 8:44I would say be a little intentional about what you're using this for.
- 8:47So if your goal is like marketing, the same thing you would do
- 8:51to encourage colleagues to send patients for you,
- 8:54that's the same information that you're going to be posting online.
- 8:57And I would say
- 8:58if it's truly a marketing like you're trying to build your clinical practice,
- 9:02then focus on where most of the patients or the general public are,
- 9:06which will be like your Instagram or your TikToks, right?
- 9:10If you're more interested in, you know, I'm really interested in working
- 9:13with industry, letting them know I exist, maybe getting some consulting gigs,
- 9:18things like that, then really hone in and focus on areas like LinkedIn.
- 9:22And then in terms of the actual content
- 9:25and I always say this, people can tell who's genuine or not.
- 9:29So be yourself.
- 9:32Every way I talk on
- 9:33Instagram is the same conversations I have in the room with the patients.
- 9:37So I am the same person and I think that's why there was
- 9:41such growth, because people felt like it was very genuine.
- 9:45So I would actually shy away from doing very formal,
- 9:49structured types of interviews initially.
- 9:52Act like you're in a room with a patient.
- 9:54How do you explain chronic sinusitis?
- 9:56How do you explain that surgery that you're about to do?
- 9:59Make it feel natural and easy and not like work.
- 10:04Well, very well said.
- 10:06How long did it take you to get up and running?
- 10:08Let's let's focus on Instagram because you're merging onto LinkedIn, right?
- 10:12It took you a few months to get going.
- 10:14When did you reach kind of that critical mass?
- 10:16I would say to be honest, I think it was probably about 2 or 3 months.
- 10:20There's definitely a little bit of trial and error.
- 10:23When I first started a professional Instagram again,
- 10:25I had experience doing it more from a personal standpoint.
- 10:29But professionally, it took a little while to find
- 10:32what was it that I wanted to post, right?
- 10:35So initially, you know, I was trying to see what did my audience care about?
- 10:39Do they care that I got some award?
- 10:42Did they care that what I'm doing for lunch? No.
- 10:46What they cared about for me was the educational aspect.
- 10:49So when I started talking about what is throat clearing, what is LPR?
- 10:53That's where I found I was getting the biggest number of views and hits.
- 10:56And so then I doubled down on that content.
- 10:59And so that's why sometimes it's difficult to tell people
- 11:02what they should be posting, because we can't get away from that trial and error.
- 11:06Even if you're working with a social
- 11:08media manager or some formal companies, they will tell you the same thing.
- 11:12You have to throw a lot of stuff out there and see what sticks.
- 11:15If you're doing this simply for a hobby,
- 11:18sure, post whatever you want to do for fun.
- 11:21But if you're doing this for growth, you have to post what your audience wants,
- 11:25and the only way you will know that is by presenting them with options.
- 11:29So eloquent.
- 11:30Thank you.
- 11:31Do you ever get scared with what you post?
- 11:34I love what you said.
- 11:35People don't care about your awards.
- 11:37I do your parents do, your family does, but the general public doesn't.
- 11:41And if you post about your lunch, it just becomes somewhat of a farce.
- 11:44And so I think your insights were incredibly valuable.
- 11:48Be genuine to yourself and post what matters.
- 11:51Do you get scared when you post?
- 11:53I guess if you're posting on education and LPR and knowledge,
- 11:57there's no you're the expert.
- 11:59There's no knowledge gap.
- 12:00I think.
- 12:01I think there's definitely some fear.
- 12:03I mean,
- 12:04I don't know if that's as obvious or not, but I'm incredibly introverted person
- 12:08and so social media was a weird transition where,
- 12:12yes, before I post anything, I do second guess myself often, and a
- 12:16lot of the advice out there is to kind of get outside of your head and just do it.
- 12:22I think that's really hard for physicians to do, right?
- 12:25We aren't influencers at our baseline.
- 12:28We are professionals and we are trained in a certain way.
- 12:31And so that's what I always come back
- 12:33to, that I don't imagine that I'm going to have,
- 12:36you know, millions of followers because I'm just not willing to do
- 12:40some of the things that are required to have millions of followers.
- 12:44But at the same time, if one person with sub glottic stenosis
- 12:48finds one of my videos that feels like a home run, right?
- 12:52So I think just having realistic expectations,
- 12:56you know, we are otolaryngologists,
- 12:58we are professionals at our core and we should maintain that.
- 13:02But it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.
- 13:05Like, you can build a great following.
- 13:07You could do it on a platform of professionalism and education.
- 13:10Who cares if so-and-so is making videos about their lunch?
- 13:15That's fine.
- 13:15Good for them. But you don't have to do it to grow.
- 13:19Yeah, I'm loving your insights.
- 13:21How long does it take you to curate a post
- 13:25and let me tell you about myself, so I can give you a chance to think about it?
- 13:28I completely agree with you.
- 13:30I consider myself introverted.
- 13:32I get my energy from doing my own thing,
- 13:35and I second guess a lot of my posts and when I'm on LinkedIn,
- 13:39it takes me about 30 to 40 minutes to write a post.
- 13:42It really does.
- 13:43I give it a lot of thought, and I look at it from every angle.
- 13:46And about one out of 20 I might take down, because I hit the wrong chord.
- 13:50How long does it take you to ideate, create and make an Instagram post?
- 13:55And let's focus on the education and marketing,
- 13:58because this is what our members we need to learn from you.
- 14:00And I know you've talked in our meetings about this Doctor Hussain,
- 14:03so we appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Of course.
- 14:06So I will tell you, I think it still takes me quite a while as well.
- 14:09Like I think it's very difficult, the comfort level in terms
- 14:14of posting and tagging that you learn pretty quickly,
- 14:17but being comfortable with something definitely takes a longer time.
- 14:22I think again, part of this is also what is your intention, right?
- 14:26So again, if your intention is like, I really want to get a lot of patients
- 14:31to come in through this,
- 14:32then you know, upfront that you're going to be putting a lot of work in social
- 14:36media, takes a lot of time, even this many years into it,
- 14:41even with all the fancy AI tools and apps and batching of content
- 14:45and scheduling of content, it still takes a lot of time.
- 14:49So, you know, we're not in the world of five minute videos on TikTok.
- 14:54We're not those type of influencers.
- 14:56So I would plan to, you know, spend several hours a week for this.
- 15:01In terms of really creating a strong base.
- 15:04I think for me, yes, it still takes quite a while.
- 15:07Definitely at least 30 minutes if I'm doing kind of a quick post.
- 15:13But I think once you get curate, your niche, your content,
- 15:17a lot of it is the same thing over and over again.
- 15:20And that's okay for social media.
- 15:23Yeah, very, very well said.
- 15:25Do you get clearance for your videos if you're in an academic center?
- 15:30I think you and I would both recommend
- 15:31they work with their department chair and PR marketing and then talk about that.
- 15:35And can you also talk about your own practice setting with your own hospital
- 15:39and your partners?
- 15:40You represent your office. Right.
- 15:43So I to be very frank with you, I think, like most of us,
- 15:46I hold myself to a certain standard when I'm professionally at work,
- 15:50when I'm with my patients, when I'm with my employer.
- 15:53And that's not anything on social media.
- 15:56So I'm very careful to be very careful with patient information.
- 15:59So despite the fact that I'm sure a stroboscopy video
- 16:02could potentially get lots of views, I'm not going to do it
- 16:06unless I have patient clearance, and I would just never do that.
- 16:09Right? That relationship is just too important for me.
- 16:11I think in terms of policies and procedures,
- 16:14different employers, different hospitals, different centers vary.
- 16:17Everyone should have a policy now.
- 16:19This is not something new.
- 16:21I'm very careful not to necessarily show where I am.
- 16:27Very careful not to show faces of patients or fellow colleagues, things like that.
- 16:33Unless I have their explicit permission to do so.
- 16:36So I think part of that's why it takes a while to do post,
- 16:39because I'm trying to be mindful.
- 16:41But I've also decided that this is a very professional page that I'm creating.
- 16:45Right. So I'm okay with those steps.
- 16:49Let's advise our members.
- 16:51We're about 50-55% private practice, 45% academic.
- 16:57Do you suggest they think about how their organization
- 17:00wants their post to be cleared?
- 17:02What what advice do you give to folks that are entering the social space?
- 17:06Yeah, I mean,
- 17:07I think if you're in private practice, you have definitely more flexibility here.
- 17:11It's really just presenting yourself how you would want to be seen by everybody.
- 17:16Remember, these posts are forever.
- 17:18There is no actually taking them down. Right.
- 17:21So, just this is how you would want anyone from your family,
- 17:25your friends, your patients, your colleagues, your boss to see you.
- 17:28So that's one thing to think about, in terms of being with an employer
- 17:31in a, in an academic center or a, you know, community based practice.
- 17:36You can always talk with your
- 17:37manager, seniors up, say, do you guys have a social media policy?
- 17:41I'm going to be building this brand online.
- 17:44I would love to, you know, make sure we're aligned on that.
- 17:47What my experience has been, whether it was academics or community practice,
- 17:50I found actually a lot of support for this.
- 17:53This isn't as, you know, the support from those institutions
- 17:58is actually often greater than I found from my own colleagues.
- 18:02And so they encourage their physicians to build the brand.
- 18:05Right?
- 18:05Because if you are building and you are growing
- 18:07and you are bringing patients to the system, that is what they want,
- 18:11and they realize that social media is very, very important.
- 18:15We can't shy away from it. It's not going anywhere.
- 18:18And you're in a hospital owned practice.
- 18:22You're in a group practice. What is your setting?
- 18:25Yeah. So I'm hospital employed.
- 18:26So community based.
- 18:28Does that PR marketing team, they must be aware of you obviously.
- 18:33And they're proud of you.
- 18:34And in the beginning, did you have to check with them or sometimes
- 18:37they'll be like, oh, great post, or there must be a halo effect.
- 18:41Also, someone with LPR might come in and get a GI referral,
- 18:44might see neurology.
- 18:47Correct.
- 18:48So we I mean as laryngologists, I'm sure otolaryngologists in general,
- 18:51feel this way,
- 18:51but we are kind of at the crossroads of multiple different specialties.
- 18:56And so when we see patients, our contribution margins are often high.
- 18:59Right. Because we are referring
- 19:01for speech in neurology and GI and scopes and all of that.
- 19:05So again, I didn't formally clear anything when I started.
- 19:09I already had an online presence before this current job.
- 19:12But I don't necessarily clear my posts, but I do try to work with them
- 19:16in, in things like if it's, World Voice Day, I say, hey,
- 19:20you know, maybe doing something together, like from an institution
- 19:23standpoint, getting interviews and things like that would be great.
- 19:26But I'm also, again, very mindful of making sure that nothing says
- 19:30my employer's name unless I have their permission
- 19:33or it's something formal through marketing.
- 19:35Patients can still find me because I have an office number listed,
- 19:39but without really details of what that number is, if that makes sense.
- 19:43And so far it's been okay.
- 19:44I mean, maybe my employer will see this and have some thoughts, but so far
- 19:47they've been very supportive of that relationship.
- 19:50Yeah.
- 19:51You have a very great reputation, honest education.
- 19:54And and we're proud to have you educating our members.
- 19:57And thank you.
- 19:57You do you do educate otolaryngologists on kind of the do's and don'ts.
- 20:02Let's morph into that a little bit if you may.
- 20:04By the way, do you think you could help me go viral?
- 20:07Could you take this and like amplify this on Insta?
- 20:09All right.
- 20:10Just like some some can.
- 20:11That's that's my goal. And my children.
- 20:14Yeah, my children and their friends laugh at me.
- 20:16But it's going to happen one day, hopefully for the right reason.
- 20:19Run through as we think about wrapping up.
- 20:21Let's try for the next 5 or 10 minutes.
- 20:23Do's and don'ts.
- 20:25And I'm not going to have you memorize stuff.
- 20:27I know I didn't even prep you for this, so try to try to do your best.
- 20:30Try to do your best. Sure.
- 20:33So I would say one do is do be honest and open with your with your following.
- 20:39I'll write these down and I'll say them back.
- 20:41Okay. I was like, do do be yourself.
- 20:44People want to feel a connection and they feel a connection
- 20:47if they feel like you're being honest.
- 20:49Do share evidence based medicine.
- 20:52That's how we practice.
- 20:54So that is what should be shared.
- 20:56I would say.
- 20:58You cite Doctor Who saying, do you, do you give citations in evidence based?
- 21:03I do. Sometimes.
- 21:04Yeah I like me different. Out. Yeah. Please.
- 21:07So a lot of times.
- 21:08So I do a lot of short form content and in short form content.
- 21:12You don't really often have time to necessarily share all that.
- 21:15So use your captions. Right.
- 21:17So you use the written word to share information, information
- 21:22on where they can find
- 21:23things on PubMed and things like that to review the article that you're citing.
- 21:27So I think it's very easy to do something like that
- 21:29just at the bottom of your post.
- 21:31You can put that PMid right number and you can show people
- 21:35how they can find the article.
- 21:37Wow. It's that specific?
- 21:39Very cool.
- 21:40You like you're not holding anything back.
- 21:42And again, it's it's who you are as a person, right?
- 21:44I mean, I do that to be very honest with you.
- 21:46Do I do that a lot with my patients in the room?
- 21:49I'll say, hey, if you're interested,
- 21:50I can give you the the link to this article or
- 21:53this is how you would find it on PubMed. You know how to use PubMed.
- 21:56These conversations come up in practice, so I feel like
- 21:59it's very natural transition for social media as well.
- 22:02Well, you're probably rattling off PMid all over the place.
- 22:05So you said honest and open be yourself evidence based I interrupted you please.
- 22:10Yeah. Evidence based.
- 22:12I would say I don't.
- 22:14And again, this is very, very individualized.
- 22:18Right.
- 22:18Because I don't think we can make guidelines
- 22:21in general for people depending on what they want to do.
- 22:24But in general, my don'ts
- 22:25are the sharing of patient information without explicit written.
- 22:29Okay, right.
- 22:31I think we need. So you have written consents?
- 22:33Yeah.
- 22:34And again, I, I personally choose not to share a lot of those things.
- 22:37I, you know, because of
- 22:40I just want to be very respectful of patients coming in and being vulnerable
- 22:43with sharing their stories that I don't feel now.
- 22:45This is very different if you speak to plastics colleagues, right.
- 22:48Because most plastic surgery, dermatology world is all based on those pictures.
- 22:54But again, they have a consent form process.
- 22:56So I would say just be very careful
- 22:58if you don't have a formal process for getting consent, because one
- 23:03again, that's can be a HIPAA betrayal,
- 23:05a HIPAA betrayal, but it's also a personal relationship betrayal as well.
- 23:09So someone came to you to share something and you share it on social media.
- 23:13I'm just going to use an example.
- 23:14Sorry to interrupt you.
- 23:15Even behind you on the right, I see your American Board of Otolaryngology diploma.
- 23:19So sometimes you film something and you think you're fine,
- 23:23but people can zoom in
- 23:24and they can see a medical record number, they can see initials.
- 23:27So I'm just calling out that AV OTO behind you.
- 23:29But you never know.
- 23:31Right?
- 23:31You never know people you can find out there are a lot of social media or online
- 23:35sleuths that exist.
- 23:36So, one do's or don't for things, for example, is filming in the O.R..
- 23:41Right.
- 23:42So I'm very, very mindful to never post anything related.
- 23:46Why is that?
- 23:46Doctor Hussain has seen a lot of O.R. posts.
- 23:49Yeah. Why?
- 23:50Yeah.
- 23:50So I, I'm just really careful
- 23:52not to be the day that I was actually in there just for identification purposes.
- 23:55Right.
- 23:56So no one could say that on the day
- 23:57I was having surgery, you were filming a video, right?
- 24:01So I'm very mindful, of not doing that during patient care time, to be honest.
- 24:06So a lot of times anything I film will be after hours.
- 24:10Just again protect that relationship with not only my employer
- 24:13but with my patients.
- 24:14So there's no way to track that.
- 24:16This was during your, you know, your day of surgery or anything like that, right?
- 24:20You would never want someone to feel, oh, you made a funny video
- 24:23when I was having this major surgery on my airway, right.
- 24:27Like, again, my my first priority is always to my patients in my profession.
- 24:31And I don't think these need to be mutually exclusive.
- 24:34If you just follow a few guidelines.
- 24:37So you said some don'ts.
- 24:39You're generally cautious in the O.R..
- 24:41Be rigorous about sharing PHI.
- 24:44Never do it, but think about what could go wrong
- 24:47and the other do's or don'ts that you'd give.
- 24:49And when you lecture that you like to bring up.
- 24:51Yeah, I mean, I would say in terms of do's,
- 24:54you know, do I would, I would recommend
- 24:57being a little intentional with why you're doing this.
- 25:00So before you get started, really think, what is the goal here for you?
- 25:05And again, if the goal is for you to be,
- 25:08you know, a well-known medical influencer, that's okay.
- 25:11We're not putting any judgment on that.
- 25:13But that's going to be a very different path
- 25:15than if it's just simply to get some patients through the door.
- 25:18Right. So just think put a little intention.
- 25:20Do put a little intention into why you want to be on social media.
- 25:26Awesome.
- 25:27So why am I on LinkedIn and social
- 25:30to drive our specialty
- 25:34and advocate for our members?
- 25:36I mean, you are absolutely right.
- 25:38That is our crystal clear goal and you have a goal too.
- 25:41You've articulated. So I think that's important, right?
- 25:43We're not just out there for myriad reasons.
- 25:46We know we're we're trying to achieve influence.
- 25:50Correct?
- 25:50I would say correct. Definitely.
- 25:52Think about your just spend
- 25:53that little bit of time to really hone in on why am I doing this.
- 25:57Because again, we mentioned it's a lot of work.
- 26:00It's a lot of time.
- 26:02So you want to make sure that the goal is aligned with you as well.
- 26:06Right.
- 26:06You want to be excited about this.
- 26:08You want to be happy to be doing this.
- 26:10This shouldn't feel tedious or like work.
- 26:12And so that's why thinking about the goal when it aligns is
- 26:15something you wish, you're more likely to put the effort in.
- 26:20As we think about wrapping up, I definitely want
- 26:22to give you the last word, but just a couple of questions.
- 26:25Would you do it again?
- 26:26Would you take this path again for education marketing influencer?
- 26:31Oh, 100%. It's changed my life.
- 26:34I mean, I, I feel kind of like sappy saying that, but it's true.
- 26:38I mean, deciding to just post on a professional aspect
- 26:42and just the response has been so positive overall.
- 26:45It's really changed the trajectory of, you know, my career in my life
- 26:49in a positive way.
- 26:51And so I encourage others, I want to see more of my OTO colleagues on here.
- 26:56You know, we can help support each other, health, amplify each other's voices.
- 27:00I think a lot of other specialties
- 27:02do a pretty good job of that in terms of, for example, like dermatology.
- 27:06Let's get some more colleagues.
- 27:07Again, my growth in my success doesn't take away from yours, and vice versa.
- 27:12We can help each other grow.
- 27:14We're all very passionate about our specialty.
- 27:16We need to get this information out there.
- 27:19How genuine, Doctor Hussain, now I know why people love interacting with you.
- 27:23And while everybody suggested, to have you on the podcast.
- 27:26Any parting words? Any.
- 27:29I know you've given us a lot. A lot of insights.
- 27:31Anything you want to
- 27:32tell our audience, we're very grateful for you and the brand you've built.
- 27:36Yeah. No, thank you about that.
- 27:37Yeah. I would say final words.
- 27:39I would say, you know, social media is what you make it.
- 27:42There are no real rules here in terms of who you have to be.
- 27:46You can be yourself on these platforms and that's okay.
- 27:50Patients and followers, they want to hear from you.
- 27:53So I would say again, I try to a lot of this is for myself as well,
- 27:56to try to get outside of my head a little bit.
- 27:59But I will tell you that we have a lot of education, a lot of knowledge.
- 28:03We do some amazing things and people just don't know about it
- 28:07because we're a smaller specialty.
- 28:08So I think definitely encourage all of you to put yourself out there,
- 28:12share the education that you've spent years and years cultivating.
- 28:16It's much needed. It's very much needed.
- 28:19Doctor
- 28:20Hussain, thank you so much for joining us on Voices of Otolaryngology.
- 28:23We have captions and we will most certainly link to your Instagram
- 28:28and LinkedIn.
- 28:29As one of our colleagues, friends and people, we admire.
- 28:31Thank you, Doctor Hussain.
- 28:33Yeah.
- 28:33Thank you, Doctor Shah for having me today.
- 28:36We hope today’s episode sparked some fresh ideas.
- 28:38If it resonated with you, please subscribe and share it with friends.
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- 28:52Thanks for listening. See you next time.