10 Reasons Patients Trust TikTok & Instagram Creators More Than Qualified Podiatrists

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Welcome back to podiatry marketing. I'm your host, Jim McDannald. Joined as always with my trusty cohost, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how's going today?

I'm fantastic today, Big Jim. Good to be here again for another podcast topic on marketing.

Yeah. We're kinda getting to the point of year where it's it's becoming conference season. I don't know if you're in the midst of traveling around right now or what's going on, but lots of lots of spring conferences on the docket.

I didn't realize. Yeah. I suppose there is conference season, isn't there? It's well, I suppose it depends what part of the world you're in. On like, you're in North America.

So what is what is conference season in North America?

I would say, like so basically, kinda from January until April, and then, like, September through early November.

Yeah. Well, that that makes sense then because that's why The UK podiatry conferences are around now. And and then in April, I'll be in Toronto at their podiatry conference as well. So you got the beginning part then. Do they skip the summer?

Do they just miss the summer altogether and then wait until the fall?

It they're much more there's there's definitely less conferences in the summer. The big one for the American Academy of Podiatric or the American Podiatric Medical Association, meaning it usually happens in the summertime. But I think I don't know. Like, I think it's tough for people that have kids and activities and vacations and those things to make time for it. But a lot of people will it's a big association, obviously, but that's the only one that I really know of in the summertime.

Alright. Okay. So let's get on to today's topic.

Ready for it? Yeah. What are we gonna jump in? What are gonna jump into today?

Today, we are talking about here's the long title, 10 reasons patients trust TikTok and Instagram creators more than qualified podiatrists. Doesn't it just hurt to even think of that?

I think this is gonna be a bit of a controversial topic here. Don't know. Like, it's It is. Pretty rough.

It is. I've listed 10 things. And some of these people they're not necessarily that I'm expecting people to agree with me a 100%, but just to get the idea and try and get into the mind of the consumer, the patient, the customer, the client on how they actually think. So the first one is confidence beats credentials. So people don't trust degrees, they trust trust certainty.

So an online creator, they'll get up there, they'll get in front of the camera, and they'll just speak without hesitation. They just get in there, and they blurt some of the most ridiculous rubbish out there that I've seen. Some of it's right, but sometimes, they'll just they just make stuff up. But they do it with such conviction and such certainty that people just believe it. Whereas many podiatrists, they'll explain something, but then they'll over explain it and they'll add a caveat.

Well, but just in case, yeah, if this happens, which then the whole message gets softened, and then it sounds like a little bit unsure or sometimes a little bit complicated. And pages go, oh, okay. Well, did did they really are they really sure that this is gonna fix the problem? Whereas the online creator, those get there and go, bang. This is what you gotta do.

And people go, oh, okay. I I must need I must go have to buy that little tool that they're selling online for $49.99 and put it with the other 10 things they bought that didn't work.

And I think confidence in communication is is hugely important in the the way you convey your ideas and suggestions to people in ways that that they'll relate to and obviously, hopefully wanna to to go along with can go a long way. I mean, it's definitely a skill that isn't taught in podiatry schools or even residency. It's something that you have to learn over time and hopefully either through mentorship or, you know, working with somebody, you can get that that level of confidence when it comes to speaking with people.

Yeah. And this is what I want people to remember. Just get in the mind of the consumer and who doesn't know anything about podiatry. They know nothing about podiatry, so they're looking at podiatrists explaining something or somebody else giving advice. And that's where that that certainty part comes in.

The second thing, which I thought was interesting, simple stories win over complex science. So when when an online creator, someone on TikTok, just goes, do this stretch, it's nice and simple. That is far better than a podiatrist getting on there trying to explain the biomechanics behind a plantar fasciitis injury. So social platforms reward clarity, not so much accuracy. So somebody go, do this stretch.

It's gonna do this. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. Going through all the biomechanics of a plantar fasci injury, people are, okay. That might be really accurate, but it doesn't always sort of resonate with the patient.

Just like we talked in the past, I think that kinda relates to the people are looking for solutions. Yeah. They're not always looking for long explanations about something.

I remember when people used to come in with, say, Morton's neuroma problem. They give me all the symptoms, explain it, I knew it was, find the mold as a click. All cool. I would draw this diagram and explain how it worked. Was my diagram correct?

No. Was my explanation correct? Probably not. If I explained it if another product saw how I explained it to the patient, they'd probably go, oh, that's not exactly how it works or or what's right. Every patient understood what I meant.

When I showed them this drawing and then gave them a visual, they went, oh, yeah. That makes sense. So you don't necessarily always have to be accurate. It just needs to make sense to the patient so they can understand it visually in in their mind.

Sure. That that totally makes sense. You have to get on the level of the patient and, yeah, explain it to them in ways that they'll understand. Otherwise, yeah, they'll be lost and lose trust in you.

So the third thing this is another interesting one. Relatability feels safer than authority. So creators, TikTok and Instagram, they talk like friends, whereas sometimes podiatrists just talk like textbooks. And and patients don't wanna lecture. They just want someone who actually sounds like them.

I guess some dude that gets up there or some lady and explains something, and they go, oh, yeah. They seem like a really, really nice guy. But you see some podiatrists will try and explain things, and they've they've got the medical head on, and it's just boring.

No. It makes sense to to speak patients in a way that they want to be spoken to, because otherwise, yeah, for speaking about plantar fascia and and all kinds of medical terms, and that's basically just jargon to them. Right? It's gonna go either over their head, they're gonna kinda tune out and not really kind of seek the best care or get the best care for them because they they don't relate to it. So yeah, if you can be relatable to patients, think it's a it can be a superpower.

Okay. Number four is visibility creates perceived expertise. So if someone shows up daily on their screen, their brain just assumes that this person must be someone of authority and someone that must be listened to. Whereas a lot of podiatrists, yeah, they might see the patient, but in between their appointments and any other time, they're they're not seen anywhere online. They just disappear.

Or even if they haven't met the podiatrist yet, you got this person who just keeps appearing day in day out, sharing this message, and people just start believing it.

I think there's a huge power of being the visible kind of the visible expert or the the go to expert in an area. And like you said, if you're not visible, you're you're you're no one's seeing what you're doing and there's no way they can kinda relate that level expertise to you. But so, you know, whether it be, you know, the way you post or the way you're visible on your website, on your social properties, that can have a huge impact on the amount of trust that people are willing to put into you. Because like you said, someone's out there speaking about plantar fascia or heel pain in ways that are relatable, that that show that they are the expert, they're gonna believe that person a 100 times out of a 100 compared to somebody that's like, you know, no pictures of them on the website, like no no treating of patients, just kind of like hanging out in their own office, seeing their patients, but not really kinda spreading the word about why they're that local expert.

Yeah. I remember many years ago, there was a I might have been an accountant or a business person I had to go and see for something. I went and saw them, and then I came away from there. Then I was searching for some information online, and I came across them with all these short videos explaining all this information. It it built so much credibility for them for me because I went, hang on.

I I already had that talk with them. Now I've actually seen them online in these different places, giving advice in different areas that I hadn't even thought about, and then ended up going back to them for that. And I think that's why it's important for podiatrists. If you've seen the patient, you you need to have some form of something online that you're posting something on a fairly regular basis that they will come across it when they're searching for something else. And if they can relate you in the clinic to something else that they've seen, you're gonna get the authority, not the not the person who's on TikTok.

No. I totally agree. That's that's a great way to put it.

Okay. Number five is emotion builds trust faster than evidence. So social media, and we've all done this when we've looked at post, it sell hopes it sells hope. It allays fears, relief, and it it's almost like a sense of belonging where clinicians sometimes just try and sell facts, and emotion will always win in that first decision.

I see that's a lot with kind of setting expectations. I think there's sometimes fear about, you know, guaranteeing a result or guaranteeing an outcome. But that doesn't mean you can kinda help patients along the way by giving them some things to be motivated by. So I think, you know, definitely there's ways to, you know, ethically help motivate people by showing them, you know, where they can go with a certain type of treatment or a way to, you know, have some positive imagery towards what you're both trying to accomplish together. And and know that they're they feel heard, number one.

I think it's a huge thing that people like you said, sometimes with the facts, people are just talking at a patient in a way that doesn't necessarily take into account the way they feel about their condition or the the way they feel about they can't do something they wanna do. Acknowledging that emotion, I think, is a is a huge part of being a a caring and a good clinician overall.

Okay. The number six one was stories stick, statistics slide off. And and this goes right back to our whole DNA. It came right back to caveman days when we're all in the caves.

Sitting around the campfire.

Sitting around the campfire telling stories. People love stories. That's why there's paintings in caves and drawings and things like that. We we are it's ingrained in our DNA to love stories because that's how we survive. When back in the day, you're in the cave, some guy would come in and tell a story about, oh, see that big brown thing up on top of that hill when you go out when you go out of the cave and you turn left, that brown thing on top of the hill, that is a bear.

You don't wanna go there. And they tell the story. But then John, who was not paying attention, he'll be standing near the creek talking to one of his friends, would walk out and go, what were they talking about? Oh, I don't know. He wasn't paying attention.

We'd go out, turn left, get eaten by the bear. Good part is his DNA got wiped out and the people who listen to the stories survived. So that's why stories stick. So a creator getting there and saying, oh, this fixed my you know, the pain in my foot. That story of them sharing that lands a lot harder than a clinician talking about different studies that were done or different statistics.

So humans are wired for a narrative. We're not really wired to just be looking at numbers or hearing about numbers or statistics.

No. I think when it comes to either clinic reviews or patient reviews, patient testimonials, that's why they're so much more powerful than you kind of beating your own chest and telling the world how great you are and that you went to x, you know, x y z residency and you had this many cases. Like, patients don't really care about that. They wanna hear they wanna hear your story. They wanna hear like they wanna hear how you can be a part of their story and help them with their own story.

Right? So like, it's really important, like you said, to have a narrative, to have, you know, ways of relating to people, and storytelling is a very powerful way to form a connection.

Yeah. And I just wanna remind everybody. I'm not saying that what the TikTok people and people on Instagram, what they're doing is right. I'm just pointing out that this is how people think. So you just need to be aware of this.

So when you have a patient come into you and they say, oh, I saw this guy on TikTok and he said, you can't sit there and argue with them because if they've been watching this person for a while and and they trust and like that person, you can't bag them. If you start doing that, then all of sudden, you you could be offending a person or if you said, oh, no. You shouldn't listen to that. You're you're crazy. Anyway, so number seven is speed feels like certainty.

So a TikTok person will get up there quick answers and makes them look really confident. And whereas thoughtful answers, something that's a little bit too slow can make patients feel a little bit cautious. TikTok creators, they thrive on speed. Whereas healthcare providers, we we thrive on having a little bit of caution. And that's that's the difference.

So even though what we're doing is probably the right thing, just be aware this is why they're picking up information from someone on Tiki because they just go bang. That's what it speed. We're going, oh, let's be a little bit more cautious with this. So I think it's a really good point.

No. It's the reason why we do a history and physical and an exam before we just take somebody back to the OR. Right? It's not at the the at the new patient visit, we're not gonna take someone back and do a bunion surgery the same day. There's no such thing as a same day, you bunion surgery that I'm aware of.

Maybe there maybe there are that I'm not aware of. But but yeah, like obviously, the kind of the Hippocratic oath of do no harm is maybe a part of this. Obviously, you know, people that are in emergency rooms or you know, trauma, they they have to work maybe a little bit faster due to, you know, certain higher higher risk, higher level of situations that come across their desk. But but for most podiatry clinics, you know, we can take our time to try to provide the best possible care. But like you said, you know, people these days are expecting speed, whether it be getting their Netflix movies in, like, one second or their Amazon packages same day.

People expect that speed and to have a little bit of pause, you know, sometimes may raises a little bit of doubt with people these days because they're so used to the speed of life. This is it keeps on accelerating.

Yeah. And this and that leads on to number eight really well where people trust people. They do not trust professions. So patients do not trust podiatry. It's really that simple.

But they will trust the podiatrist that they feel that they know. And a lot of social creators, they build these social relationships with people online. And most clinics and clinicians don't. They get in there, oh, I wanna be known as the professional, which I totally understand. You wanna be seen as being professional, but you've also gotta come across that you're a person and that they can relate you can relate to the patient on different levels.

So when they walk away, they're gonna build they're gonna have trust with you if they feel that they know you a little bit better. And that's why my people say, oh, no. I I keep my podiatry life and my social media completely separate. I don't want them to know that I have children or or anything about me. And I actually think that's a mistake.

You need to let them into your life a little bit. I'm not saying that you have to provide photos of your children or where you're where you live. Don't You give it your home address and things like that. But they need to be able to relate to you on some level. And that's what they do with these other the creators online.

Yeah. I think you need to kinda show your human side, you know, within a lot of different ways. Like you said, sometimes it's showing a little personality. I know you're a huge grill man, a cheeseburger lover, a beer lover. So, you know, showing those things are important, but it's also like I think I mentioned earlier, it's just people need they want to be heard.

Right? So I think one thing that I always was trying to prove when I was in practice was just trying to be a good listener. Like, talk a little bit, but also just, you know, you have two ears and one mouth. Right? So trying to make sure the patient feels like they're heard, that that they're valued, injury or the problem they have is being listened to at the very least.

That's what people wanna hear. They just don't wanna be treated as a diagnosis or treated as like a condition. They're a human being attached that has this problem, but they wanna be heard. So if you can build the that trust and that relationship, it's it's something that's super special.

Yeah. I definitely agree. This number nine, this one I I don't necessarily agree with. Number nine is online creators sell outcomes, not a process. They they promise results.

Hey, do this and this is what the result you're gonna get. Now they can get away with saying that because they don't have a an association or registration board watching what they're saying. So that that's why they can say sometimes the most outlandish things. Whereas podiatrists will normally explain a pathway or treatment process. For some patients, that may seem a little bit long and drawn out.

So I actually agree with I think podiatrists providing treatment pathways, I think, is the right thing to do. I don't think you should be just promising a result. If you do this, this is the result you're 100% gonna get because every person is different. You can't you can't guarantee that. But be aware, patients are listening to these creators.

And so you've gotta give the patient a little bit of certainty that in some point in time, this is where you'll be, but you can't guarantee or promise exactly when that will be. There's gonna be that that time limit or time frame.

Yeah. For sure. And I think we live kind of in a fix it culture. Right?

Like, fix

my thing. Like, fix it fix it, and like, it's sometimes not that easy. It's it takes time to diagnose and and and like get on with the right treatment plan and and kind of working through some things. Not everything is gonna work the first time or the second time. So it is one of those things where you know getting patients to buy into that you care about them, that you have you do have a plan, but it's not you know, you're not there just to do the quick fix.

Yeah. And but it's being aware, they're getting offered quick fixes all over the place. So taking that into account, like I said, I believe you need to have a treatment pathway 100%. It must be laid out for the patient. But you're gonna be so certain with other things that you're talking about.

You gotta be a lot of clarity with what you're explaining about. They've gotta understand you and trust you. If they trust you and you explain a pathway, then that's gonna be accepted a lot more than if they don't trust you or know you yet, and you're still giving that same that same pathway. And the final point, and this goes back to the trusting again, is we assume trust comes with a degree. Just because you got a degree, it means you must know what you're talking about.

You know? You're not in jail, and you got a degree, you you must be must be trustworthy. But it doesn't. Trust must be earned and demonstrated, repeated, and must be visible every single day. And it's not that patients aren't choosing misinformation over medicine.

They're choosing clarity over confusion and connection over credentials. That's pretty much what it comes down to. They want to connect with the person. You could have two podiatrists, one that's got four different degrees and so many things, a PhD and whatever. You could have another podiatrist just has their undergraduate degree.

If that podiatrist with their undergraduate degree connects with the patient better, they are always gonna get better outcomes than the person with a PhD. Who tells the patient, oh, by the way, I have a PhD. Means nothing to the patient. They just wanna know you care about them and that you can actually help them or fix them. So, Jose, the problem isn't TikTok.

The problem is assuming your qualifications speak when you don't, and you just need to be aware of that.

I think that's well said. It this is this is kind of a I didn't I wasn't really sure at the beginning of this podcast where things were gonna go, but because always exciting to talk with you about these different topics, but I definitely see, you know, where you're going with it now, and definitely a lot of value today.

Yeah. Well, it's crazy because I see online people all the time just blurting out bad information. But they say it with such conviction that you could understand why patients fall into that or will they buy gadgets online and they're trying all these things before they're prepared to come in and see a podiatrist. Whereas I think if podiatrists were seen more in the public, whether it's on social media, YouTube, whether they are on Instagram, if they're on TikTok, whatever it is, But if they're sharing information, factual information, but doing it with conviction and clarity, I think they will get the same sort of reputation as just some random lunatic. It's just read something on the back of a cornflake packet and then gets out there and just says

Yeah. It's a combination of using the skills that we have and then, you know, taking away kind of the the best parts or the the more reputable parts of this and and and forming it to a that's gonna connect well with patients. I think that was the real important thing that I took away from tonight is that, you know, we have to speak to people that they are expected to be spoken to and find ways of connecting that will help build that trust so we can provide excellent care.

I agree. Well, I do agree because it was my topic. But so, Jim, that's all I had to say on this. I just want people to be aware of what your patients are consuming, and and therefore, if there is any crazy questions or something that they're asking you, just be aware of where they're gathering their information from, and be prepared for it.

No. I think that's great advice. I really enjoyed tonight's topic.

Okay, Jim. I will see you next week.

Sounds great, Tyson. Okay. See you. Bye now.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDaniel. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.