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Three doctors performing surgery.

Three Public Health Issues to Watch in 2024 and What They Mean for Health Communicators

Written by Kathleen Petty on . Posted in Promoting Science, Increasing Awareness, Positioning Issues and Brands.

With a new year comes a new reality in health communications. Public health is grappling with ongoing and new challenges that will inevitably impact our field. As a public relations professional with a master’s degree in public health, I track health care industry trends to help clients navigate the complexities of their work. Here are some of the major health care trends to watch in 2024.

The Controversial Role of A.I. in the Future of Health Care

Artificial Intelligence has permeated seemingly every industry and health care is no exception. Some experts actually predict health is the field where AI may play one of its most controversial roles.

Some are optimistic about technology’s ability to alleviate a few of health care’s pressing issues, such as clinician burnout, patient outreach barriers and diversity in clinical trials. This was a topic of discussion among panelists at the Milken Institute’s 2023 Future of Health Summit. One panelist noted that AI could help in the battle against the spread of public health misinformation – one of the biggest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, there are researchers and companies dedicating resources to developing AI technology that can automatically detect fake news online. And growing attention to the dangers of AI has spurred the call for teaching basic media literacy in schools, so the public can detect fake news on its own.

Of course, the bigger concern among public health professionals is the direct negative impact of AI on the field. While policies have been enacted to try to restrict AI, such as President Biden’s recent executive order for our country’s health organizations to create a regulatory plan, many experts are concerned that there is no effective way to control it.

These issues will directly impact the work that health care communications professionals do for our clients. The spread of misinformation via AI poses reputational risks for clients. And as AI grows, trust among the public dwindles. It’s likely that in the future, we will not only be communicating key messages, we will also have to counteract falsehoods and find new ways to ensure our clients are seen as credible and reliable sources of information. This will make our jobs even more important to ensure that we are cutting through the noise and getting our clients’ messages right.

Climate Change and Structural Racism

The issue of climate change has been looming over the planet for decades. But researchers are telling us it’s no longer just a threat – it’s our reality. The effects of climate change are being felt in health care. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, climate change is linked to the increase in respiratory illnesses and pest-related diseases, such as Lyme disease. It’s also connected to poor mental health and increases in violent crime.

There is also a growing divide in who is impacted by the effects of climate change. Maranda Ward, EdD, MPH, assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at George Washington University says the impact of climate change on minority populations in particular will be one of the biggest issues facing public health. “Climate change is impacting us all, especially given the role of environmental racism,” she said. “The reason there remains a disproportionate impact on historically disinvested neighborhoods is because of structural inequity.”

In the past few years, we have seen a growing number of organizations looking to address structural racism by funding diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) programs as well as environmental justice initiatives. But the recent Supreme Court ruling to end affirmative action has set off an anti-DEI movement in politics, business, and academics, as reported by Erica Pandey of Axios. We are now seeing funding cuts for DEI programs being pushed on both sides of the aisle.

It is likely that this trend will have an impact on the kind of work that comes through the doors for health communicators. DEI programs that continue to be a priority will likely need to take a different approach as far as communications. We may need to add messaging about how these programs help society as a whole through their mission and purpose, to ensure they remain in place and that they are able to continue the important work they are doing.

The Polarization of Health Care

Over the years, health care has become increasingly polarized, and this trend is likely to be amplified in 2024 with the upcoming presidential election. Health care issues will become a focal point during campaign season, as they always do, and this will only make current hot-button issues even more polarizing.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health communicators had to work tirelessly against the politicization of public health messaging to ensure our clients’ campaigns could break through and reach target audiences. One of the best examples of polarization in health care is the changing public perception of vaccines. Since the late 1940s, vaccines have been an accepted form of preventative medicine among most Americans. This changed around 2008, when according to a recent report by the CUNY Graduate Center, Republicans began to show more skepticism toward vaccines. This divide was heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic and there are no signs that this will change. Recently, the CDC reported increased vaccine exemption rates among kindergarteners in 41 states.

While there will be many serious challenges on the horizon for health communicators in 2024, there will also be promising opportunities to help clients reduce clinician burnout, improve access to care and increase confidence in scientific breakthroughs. As long as we stay on top of the trending issues within public health, we can help our clients stay ahead.

Mentoring via Zoom.

Managing and Mentoring the Next Generation of Health Care Public Relations Professionals

Written by Lauren Musiol on . Posted in Firm Culture.

COVID-19 has turned our workplaces upside-down, creating a remote/hybrid office environment that has changed when and where we come to work. At The Reis Group, we have also come to fully realize that we must also change how we work with each other. In our case, TRG has converted to a Tuesday-Wednesday in-office schedule, with everyone otherwise working from home, using Teams and Zoom to do our work and keep in touch as a team.

But in my role as a Senior Vice President and account lead, I’ve come to understand that this hybrid world creates entirely new challenges about how we manage and mentor the next generation of professionals in health care public relations. Lately, I’ve been pondering these questions a lot, particularly since I’ve been working remotely myself for many years and have experienced first-hand how this alters relationships in the workplace.

I’m asking myself how do we, as managers, create an atmosphere to allow our colleagues to thrive in this new remote/hybrid environment? How can we continue to mentor, lead and cultivate those crucial relationships and connections that create strong teams? How can we carve out opportunities to grow relationships with our team? How can we provide feedback and ensure it is delivered in an appropriate, effective way? How do we create an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and direct communication so that we feel kept in the loop, but are not perceived as micromanaging?

So, I decided to interview my own colleagues, along with some of TRG’s clients, to get their ideas about how we can make sure that as we reinvent when and where we work, we never lose sight of the fact that the heart of our work is all about maintaining important relationships. In these conversations, three major themes emerged:

  1. Communication is more important than ever.
  2. Investing in relationship building is crucial.
  3. Setting intentional roles promotes engagement and growth.

Communication is key.

Becky Armendariz, Associate VP of Marketing & Public Relations at Banner Health in Phoenix, says she pays attention to this issue more closely than ever: “My team members know that they can call, text, IM, or email me any time they need to reach me. I will respond as quickly as possible — prioritizing them over other projects or requests in my queue — because I never want to be the reason that my team members can’t do their jobs. It’s extremely important to me that they have what they need to work autonomously and productively remotely to meet their deadlines.”

At TRG, our Account Directors hold weekly check-in meetings for each account they manage to ensure team members are apprised of what is going on with the client and what the short- and long-term priorities are. These meetings allow team members to ask questions, suggest ideas and provide an opportunity to carve out roles on the account.

Our founder and principal, Sharon Reis, is very purposeful about meeting regularly with Account Directors and the account team to allow a space for checking in on workloads, discussing office culture and industry trends, and brainstorming ways to better serve our clients.

“Our monthly check-ins with Sharon establish a productive atmosphere for important conversations about the firm, the team and the industry. These interactions provide a needed space for connection and collaboration, which ultimately help me do my job better,” says TRG’s Senior Vice President, Kathleen Petty.

Investing in relationship building is crucial.

More than ever, it’s clear that team members want to feel heard and valued. They want to know their colleagues are understanding and empathetic about what is going on both during and outside of working hours. They want to know the team is there to support them. But it’s important to remember that building these connections takes time, effort and sensitivity.

“Three years ago, I started a new job, in a new field, leading a new team in a fully remote environment. I knew I had to work fast to gain their trust, to learn my own job, and to provide leadership and supervision,” says Rachael Kagan, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Blue Shield of California Foundation. “Counterintuitively, that required a bit of slowing down. Since the personal moments were not going to happen organically, I had to build them into the agenda. Suddenly, ice breakers and check-ins became a huge part of every meeting. It wasn’t perfect, but over time it did start to make a difference and allow for connections to happen.”

At The Reis Group, we recently established a new mentoring program to pair new team members with a veteran team member known as their “Reis-source.” This program creates one-on-one engagement and allows team members to learn directly from someone who has recently walked in their shoes. We are also holding monthly “Ask Me Anything” sessions during lunch when we are in the office. The selected moderator for each session sets the agenda and develops questions to spark discussion around both work and personal topics.

Beth Casteel, Senior Counselor at TRG says, “When we first started working at home in the pandemic, I made it a point to try to recreate moments that happen organically in the office: A quick hello in the morning with a fellow early riser, randomly grabbing five minutes to chat with different team members over Teams – like you might start a hallway conversation in the office. Continuing this practice has helped me get to know new staff members and lets everyone know my virtual door is always open.”

Setting intentional roles promotes engagement and growth.

The virtual atmosphere can make natural conversation technically difficult. Delays and blips between unmuting and trying to speak results in folks missing each other’s points and unintentionally interrupting. Virtual communication requires more planning and intentionality.

Jessica Duncan, vice president of communications at the American Gastroenterological Association, says she’s gotten more purposeful about designing her team meetings to ensure that everyone contributes. “Each monthly team meeting has three sections – an ice breaker, a learning session, and a case study,” she says, “Responsibilities for each section rotate among the team members and everyone has a lot of latitude to develop the content for the discussions they lead. I’ve found that being purposeful about the time we spend together as a team and ensuring that everyone has a voice and a role helps to build bonds when we’re not physically in the same space daily.”

At TRG, we have overhauled our professional development program to do this as well. To allow for reverse mentoring and for junior team members to stretch their skills, we work with each team member to pick a topic that excites them to present to the team. Whether it’s the latest in health policy and its potential impact on our clients, SEO tips, or the latest in artificial intelligence, each team member prepares a session and shares their learnings with the group. This format allows the double benefit of practicing presentation skills and sharing new learnings to keep the team on the forefront of both health care and public relations.

“As a young PR professional, I’ve quickly learned that to be successful in the industry, you need to master two things: knowing how to engage your audience and presenting your message in a clear and confident way. Our professional development program has enabled me to hone those skills and has directly benefitted my interactions during client meetings,” says Tiana Ware, Senior Account Executive at TRG.

What does the next generation of health care public relations professionals want from its managers and mentors?

It’s vitally important that our senior leadership remains deeply engaged in how best to support the team, but it’s equally important to listen closely to what the next generation of health care public relations professionals want from their managers and mentors.

Sean Logan, a senior marketing and public relations specialist at Banner Health, says “I’m looking for someone who listens well and genuinely cares about how they can help me to grow and improve beyond the everyday work questions I may ask. My leader has done an exceptional job emulating these qualities, which has helped make working remotely an afterthought rather than something that is a cause for headaches.”

Krysten Massa, Senior Communications Associate at Blue Shield of California Foundation has worked with several managers throughout her time at the foundation with one of them starting during the pandemic when the office was entirely remote. “It is really important for me to have a personal connection with my manager. When we were remote, these connections did not happen organically,” she says. “My manager took the time to facilitate conversations that allowed us to not only discuss current work activities, but career growth and life in general. Her investment in making sure that we had a good relationship and in getting to know me as a person first and an employee second has really helped me thrive.”

When determining how to best manage and mentor the next generation of health care PR professionals, we are listening and learning together. In one recent Harvard Business Review article, someone likened remote managing to learning to drive on the wrong side of the road. You must get to the same destination, but you now have different signals, cues and controls. I think this is an important analogy. What worked five or more years ago won’t necessarily resonate today. It’s important that we all invest the time to adapt the way we engage with each other so that everyone feels supported and is set up for success.

TRG’s 7th Year: Learning the inner workings of our health care system—from a new perspective

Written by Sharon Reis on . Posted in Firm Culture.

I have worked in health care public relations for more than 25 years and this June marks the seventh anniversary of TRG, the company I founded in 2016. Over these years, I have represented hospitals and health systems, medical societies, research institutes, and foundations spanning all sectors of the health care system. I’ve promoted scientific breakthroughs and rallied for patient advocacy organizations. I thought I understood the inner workings of the U.S. health care system, inside-out—until a close family member unexpectedly faced a diagnosis of advanced-stage cancer.

The last several months have been full of daunting obstacles as I struggled to help manage a family crisis taking place in another state. But I strongly believe that from every challenge emerges an opportunity. For me, I found many moments of gratitude. The airline industry gave me the ability to quickly and easily fly up and down the east coast. Telehealth enabled me to directly join my sister’s doctor’s meetings via a Zoom call or my iPhone. The internet gave me access to her patient portal and the ability to quickly research every term and test. This experience also reminded me that I chose the right profession and the right field. I love health and health care. The science behind her care is complicated and fascinating. This experience reaffirmed for me that this is my calling: working to improve access to quality care, helping patients advocate for themselves, and understanding and translating the complex jargon-filled language of medicine.

Everyone needs to know more about the science behind diseases and treatments, how federal policy changes impact the care they receive in their community, and how to coordinate among their providers and be an advocate for themselves. Health care PR plays a vital role in achieving these goals.

As we mark TRG’s seventh year in business, it is gratifying to see that health care continues to be one of the most pressing issues facing our great nation. Technology continues to bring great promise. We are closely watching and developing policies around AI, apps and other emerging technologies. We are truly excited about their potential to transform health, improve access to care, better manage chronic conditions and change the way we communicate about it.

In TRG’s history, 2017 was the year of increased workload with fewer resources in the PR services field; 2020 was the year of suddenly adapting to a remote virtual work world; and now 2023 marks the return of a work world of face-to-face client meetings, business travel, and a few power lunches and networking dinners.

When we opened our doors seven years ago, I said something that still holds true and that I keep near to my heart. “To give it my best – to really make it shine – I need to work with the best people; people who share my values and my commitment to excellence. I must work in a culture of support, in which our team members see that a major part of our work is to build each other up and help each other succeed.” I look forward to continuing to make that a reality at TRG for many years to come.

How PR Can Make a Meaningful Public Health Impact

Written by Molly Ashmore on . Posted in Promoting Science.

Everyone has their own unique career journey. As a recent grad who just last year received my master’s in Public Health, I may not be the typical person you might think would be working at a PR agency. Public health is an incredibly broad field – some of my colleagues are tracking infectious diseases or managing hospital operations, while I spend my workdays drafting press releases, conducting media outreach and supporting communications campaigns.

Fortunately, it’s turned out that health communications, an important aspect of public health, has been the perfect niche for me to start my career. My background in public health helps me understand the science and context behind the messaging strategies we employ. The experience I’m gaining at TRG has made me a more effective communicator and given me a practical understanding of how people receive messages about health.

I’ve seen firsthand the importance of strong communications skills in the world of public health, particularly in a time when many people rely more on social media than their own physician for health advice. We can – and must – employ solid public relations strategies to impact public health for the better.

Understanding your audience. One of the key points that was emphasized in my public health classes was that no one wants to adopt healthy behaviors if they’re just being talked at and not understood. Think about when your doctor simply tells you to “try eating healthier” without any additional information or tips customized to your specific situation, background or schedule. It’s frustrating, right?

People want information that is relatable – and this is where public relations comes in. Knowing our audience is key in developing content for campaigns or preparing spokespeople for media interviews. One way we do this is by making sure we’re up to date on news coverage, frequently scanning the media so we know what our clients’ priority populations are seeing about various health topics.

Digging deeper than just scanning the headlines is important: have there been any recent changes in coverage in a particular area? Are there any new polls available that survey people about their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs around a health topic? Being up to date on all aspects of coverage keeps us in close touch with our audiences. Take vaccination for example: we need to be fully aware of the most recent changes in public attitudes, such as vaccine fatigue and skepticism, if we expect to make successful pitches to the media and effectively reach our intended audience.

Reviewing science responsibly. As communications professionals, it’s our job to come up with fresh and creative ways to promote our clients’ news and viewpoints. But it’s essential that we always take extra care to make sure the messages we are sharing are completely clear and accurate. In the field of health care, our audience is often patients who are relying on information from trusted sources. We have the responsibility to guard against dangerous misinformation as our first priority.

At TRG, we work with many scientific organizations and conferences to promote the latest science and research being presented at their events. We need to carefully read the latest research papers, and we must also conduct deeper, probing conversations with the researchers so we clearly understand their methods and their findings to make sure that consumers clearly understand the importance of this new health information. As we all saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation can be incredibly harmful.

In my day-to-day work at TRG, I wear many different hats, but everything I do is part of a larger chain of events that impacts people’s health. This is my “why” for coming to work each day and trying to provide the best product possible for our clients. Ultimately, our “clients” are not just the organizations we work for, but also the end users in the public who rely on us for vital, accurate communications about their health.

Nourishing your Social Media Campaigns

Written by Alyssa Slovin on . Posted in Increasing Awareness, Positioning Issues and Brands.

Your organization has worked hard and just finished preparing new resources, and you are excited for your audience to begin using them. You’ve posted all the new material on your website, but when you check your traffic, you don’t see the spike in page visits that you were expecting. It turns out that most of your audience is unaware of the new content because you didn’t effectively promote it on social media.

At TRG, we work hard with all our clients to perfect their messaging, and one of our goals as a health care public relations firm is to increase awareness of those messages — whether publicizing a scientific study, new client resources, or registration for an upcoming event.

Social media campaigns are a great way for our clients to reach their audiences since so much of the public is on social media — patients, doctors, educators, students and consumers — and it is a valuable source of owned media for any organization.

However, telling your organization’s story on social channels is not as easy as it may seem. Here are some key elements that we consider when implementing our social media campaigns.

Develop content around your organization’s goals. Remember, social media is not just a place where young people share pictures with their friends. Your organization’s social media posts should be strategically planned around your goals so your audience understands your mission and trusts you as a source of information.

For example, we recently worked with a client about the types of content they want to be posting. Their focus is on professional education, and they were debating posting about various national observances that were not necessarily relevant to their mission. We collaborated to work out a system to spotlight only select observances that felt authentically related to their current work and future goals.

Use paid social campaigns carefully. After putting in countless hours of work on a project, it’s tempting to just click the “boost” button on your Facebook newsfeed to increase impressions for a few dollars. If impressions were your only goal, that would be a fine plan. But putting real money behind a post only for the algorithm to show it to unrelated audiences will not increase the account engagement and bring more users to your site. Instead, when we create social media ad campaigns, we prefer using targeted audiences and conducting A/B testing to gauge reactions and make changes based on the results.

Track the sources of your website traffic. There are countless ways for your audience to find your website, a factor you should always be aware of and use to your advantage. A great way to do this is by UTM tagging, a method of tagging the links you share to quantify the traffic based on source, content type and content topic. UTM tags are not directly related to social media, but UTM-tagged links can be shared on social media to get a better idea of your organization’s analytics and make informed decisions for the future.

For example, we might learn that the blogs we post on your organization’s LinkedIn page with messages from leaders are the most-clicked links. With this insight, we could increase the focus on creating and sharing this content.

Carefully crafted social media campaigns allow organizations to introduce themselves to both new and familiar audiences in ways that would not be possible otherwise. Having a specific strategy is key to putting your best foot forward.

 

Capitol

Communications Solutions to 2023 Advocacy Challenges

Written by Stacy Skelly on . Posted in Increasing Awareness.

As a public relations agency serving medical societies, foundations and health care leaders, The Reis Group often helps clients with earned media and thought-leadership strategies to support their national and state-level advocacy goals. And, for me, having spent the better part of my career at the nexus of communications and policy, I love tackling these efforts side by side with my clients.

Sadly, most Americans consistently give our U.S. health care a failing grade, and they yearn for a path forward to better care. Here in D.C., we see that intense national interest in health care bubbling up with fiery debates in our deeply divided Congress. At the same time, policy and health care leaders at the state and local levels across the nation are grasping for solutions.

Despite these deep-seeded challenges, there are opportunities to create lasting change. In fact, I see three strategies that communicators can use to drive successful state and national activism in 2023:

Enhance your campaign with message testing. The best advocacy campaigns start with an understanding of which messages resonate with your intended audience. Many clients come to us seeking to influence health care leaders or policymakers, but they haven’t ever heard directly from these leaders to understand their motivations. Knowing how specific language can appeal to or dissuade them is key to moving the needle.

Creating that customized approach is part of our proven, iterative TRG methodology to message testing. With this process, we recently helped a foundation client refine its advocacy message for health care providers, health-system executives and thought leaders. Through a set of 16 interviews, conducted in three rounds, we were able to define three tailored message platforms. We learned how each group preferred a similar, but slightly tweaked, version of the same information to help them push for health care strategies that focus on the whole person, not just an individuals’ acute illness or disease.

Capitalize on legislative action to drive earned media coverage. Coordinate closely with your government relations teams. They are on the ground and know when an important bill is about to move out of committee or on to a floor vote. Staying connected also helps when key policy announcements are coming from federal agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We’ve seen this close coordination work for a medical society that ensures federal and state policy supports their clinician members in providing the best possible care for patients. With advanced knowledge, we have developed quick statements and offered reporters early access to their subject matter experts to secure media coverage that advocates for enhanced access to life-saving treatments.

Reach lawmakers where they live. The political saying remains true: “all politics is local.” When you know which lawmakers you want to reach, you can target your efforts to the their local communities, most effectively by placing a commentary in a local paper or landing a key earned media placement. These successes are sometimes more impactful than even a big national hit.

We know that members of Congress and state and local policymakers pay very close attention to their local news outlets. We recently worked with one of our foundation clients to land an editorial in an influential newspaper. As a result of that story, a local government official reached out to the foundation to learn more about their recent research and to find ways to develop statewide wellness programs aligned to foundation goals.

Communications remains the most powerful tool for change. That’s why so many of us at TRG are deeply passionate about what we do. As 2023 unfolds, we look forward to an eventful, productive year supporting policy work already in motion, along with new opportunities to come.

Microscope.

Promoting Science: How to Get the Media to Cover Research

Written by Kathleen Petty on . Posted in Promoting Science.

As a communications firm dedicated to health and medicine, promoting science is a major pillar of our work. Over years on The Reis Group team, I have worked to generate national media coverage for dozens of journal articles and scientific abstracts. My background includes a master’s degree in public health, which taught me the importance of a critical eye when reviewing any piece of research. Even studies from prestigious medical institutions conducted through the “gold standard” of randomized controlled trials may have significant limitations that could undercut the findings. As public relations professionals, we must be able to discern whether the research is both rock-solid and newsworthy, as well as important for our audience.

For example, a medical society client of ours recently sought publicity to promote research on a pain treatment for breast cancer patients. Our goal was to place one or two stories during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The treatment was novel—but not easily understood.

Translating the science

Our first step, as with any research we promote, is to understand the science. This means getting a firm grasp on the goal of the research, the methodology used, and most importantly, the findings and their implications. Not everything is worthy of a news release. The keys to attracting attention from sharp science reporters: Make sure the sample size is large enough, the findings are statistically significant, and the methodology is solid. If you’re not careful and accurate, you risk very bad outcomes for you and your client.

What does your audience need to know?

It’s not enough to promote a study’s primary outcome. The media (and your audience) won’t be interested unless you convey the real-life significance of the findings.

When brainstorming the all-important headline, make sure you check with the researchers to make sure they agree with your approach. In your eagerness to push for a newsworthy angle, you might inadvertently badly exaggerate the meaning of the findings. Your researchers can make sure you are not erroneously hyping a “miracle treatment.” Even one careless word choice can misrepresent findings, and your credibility—and your client’s—could take a catastrophic hit.

Demonstrate impact through stories

“Human interest” remains a very powerful tool to generate media interest when promoting science. If the researcher can produce a study participant willing to share their story, it can be a huge factor in attracting media coverage. We profiled a breast cancer patient who was a mother of two young children, a wife, and a professional ballerina. She was forced to give up her career and was unable to take care of her children because of excruciating pain following her double mastectomy. Nothing she tried helped, including multiple surgeries and opioids. She had joined a clinical trial we were promoting, and the treatment helped her immensely. She was so grateful that she wanted to share her story so that other women might find the same relief.

Telling her story was the key to placing an article on the TODAY Show’s website: Post-mastectomy pain made her feel ‘on fire.’ Nerve freezing offered relief. The reporter interviewed both the patient and our researcher. The article highlighted the ground-breaking findings. This prominent national placement made our client incredibly happy. Without our showing how research impacted an everyday person, we would never have drawn national attention.

Promoting science has always been a vital part of the public discourse. But now, more than ever in the age of social media, we must make sure that the information and interpretation we promote to the media is both accurate and crystal clear. It is exciting and rewarding to succeed, but it can be devastating to fail.

Executive Thought Leadership: An Important Investment for 2023

Written by Lauren Musiol on . Posted in Building Credibility, Positioning Issues and Brands.

You are reading through your morning news when a story piques your interest about how to tell whether respiratory symptoms signal COVID-19 or the flu or RSV. You begin to read the article in more detail and notice that a physician from another health system is quoted as the main expert in the article.

You are scrolling through LinkedIn and see a post about an executive at a competitor organization who has won Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.

You are checking your email and notice several promotional emails from major industry meetings, including HLTH, ViVE and Becker’s Annual Meeting. When you click and scroll through the confirmed speakers you notice several notable names of other health care executives from other organizations who are confirmed as speakers.

All these situations are thought-leadership opportunities which can be capitalized on to build the reputation of your organization and its key executives. And, if any of these situations sound familiar, you may want to start thinking about making a bigger investment in building your organization’s thought-leadership platform.

So what exactly is thought leadership? It’s the process of publicly establishing an organization or an individual as a recognized authority within a particular industry or on a particular topic. It occurs when an organization or individual’s opinions and advice become widely accepted and valued as a trusted source for perspective on an important subject.

Building a successful thought-leadership platform does not occur overnight. You must be in it for the long game and understand that establishing credibility and clout can take years of cultivating relationships, carving out areas of expertise and identifying the right opportunities to showcase members of your leadership team. While you likely will not see dividends from your effort very quickly, you must stay the course because your investment will eventually pay off by helping to:

  • Create visibility for your executives and, in turn, your organization,
  • Position your executive as a leader in the health care industry,
  • Establish your executive and organization as the go-to source for reporters,
  • Build lasting trust with key stakeholders, and
  • Open doors to new opportunities for engagement with other top minds/organizations in the health care industry.

I’ll give you two examples. One TRG client is an Alzheimer’s research institute that has become world-renowned. This scientific organization had been doing groundbreaking work for more than a decade, but it was not on the national radar screen of the leading health care reporters because they had not yet made a strategic investment in becoming recognized thought leaders. Through their engagement with TRG and our work to build the reputations of both the organization and its key leaders, the client is now a go-to source for every major national reporter from The New York Times to The Associated Press to NPR whenever breaking news occurs about Alzheimer’s. Another client is a children’s health system that is paving the way for a new approach to whole person care. Changes in their executive leadership meant rebuilding and re-establishing the health system as a leading source. After several years working to establish their new executives as go-to sources, they are now frequently sought after for speaking opportunities at major industry meetings and widely quoted in the media and recognized with top industry awards.

So, what can you do to raise your executive team’s thought-leadership profile? Here are four tips to consider as you get started.

  1. Carve out a specific area of issue expertise.

This is a crucial first step to building any thought-leadership platform. You must establish which particular topic/area of expertise you want to be known for and have the most information to contribute to. It’s important to determine where your executive/organization can provide a unique perspective that adds value and depth to the public conversation and doesn’t just repeat the current discussion. You must be able to provide fresh ideas and thinking so that people want to hear what you have to say.

  1. Start small and set realistic expectations.

It’s unrealistic to think your executive will be the keynote, mainstage speaker at a major industry event right off the bat. You need to recognize this and identify opportunities to help build your executive’s credibility, so they become a more sought-after speaker. Look for opportunities such as a panelist or even a moderator at smaller industry-focused meetings so you can begin to establish that credibility and use it as a steppingstone for more prominent opportunities.

  1. Keep a running list of opportunities.

This may sound like an oversimplified piece of advice, but missing deadlines can hinder your ability to build a thought-leadership platform. Many speaking engagements and award opportunities have ongoing deadlines throughout the year. For example, a meeting scheduled for September might have a submission deadline in March. Make sure your tracker is up to date and that you are constantly looking for out-of-the-box opportunities that may put your executive in front of an important key audience. Sometimes, the quality of people in the room is worth more than the quantity.

  1. Never underestimate the power of social media.

Building your executive’s social media presence is another important way to build their credibility and clout, helping them to make connections with key audiences. Working with them to share an interesting perspective related to a news article on LinkedIn can help expose your executive and your organization to new stakeholders. Additionally, working with your executive to retweet relevant news articles can help build reporter connections as many reporters are held accountable for the virality of their articles.

An investment in thought leadership can reap huge benefits for both your executives and your organization but remember to be patient with the process. Your hard work will eventually pay off!

Calm in the Storm: Five Tips to Stay Cool in Crisis Communications

Written by Stacy Skelly on . Posted in Elevating Reputations.

Calm in the Storm: Five Tips to Stay Cool in Crisis Communications

By the nature of our jobs, health care public relations agencies are often called on to provide communications counsel and identify how to act during a crisis. We’re also expected to remain calm under pressure. But that isn’t easy – especially when a client may be panicking and reporters on deadline are calling to demand comment, and your job is to calmly navigate all the internal and external responses to an emergency.

So, when the heat turns up, it’s vital that we’ve got our own strategies for staying cool under the collar. Here are my tips for building credibility and elevating reputations during a time of crisis:

  1. Plan, plan, plan. While most communications professionals know that issues management plans, including scenario planning and rapid response systems, are important to staying ahead of the curve, this part of the work can often fall by the wayside. When approaching your work, you need to make time to stop and think about scenarios: what is likely to happen and what could happen, and how will we respond. Sometimes that requires a formal issues management document, or it could be a quick check-in before an event or press announcement goes out.

Having a strategy is one of the absolute best ways to keep even-tempered, so that when others are pressuring you or creating a fuss, you can simply point to the procedures in place to address the problem. Besides, it helps to remind yourself that you’ve already thought this through. Going back to your plan lets you stop spinning and start leading.

  1. Take action. Nothing cures anxiety like putting one foot in front of the other. Ideally, amidst the crisis, you’ve already got a plan and you are acting on it. But perhaps that first draft of a media statement needs to be written, and your chest is just a little bit too tight to start hitting those keys. The reality is that making the first move, even if you later scrap it, is crucial. Simply taking that next step—rather than worrying about every possible outcome or second guessing—helps get you unstuck and moving forward.

But it isn’t always clear what that next move should be. In those cases, you could “phone a friend.” Perhaps you know someone in your office who always has great advice for any situation. Or you could reach out to colleagues in the industry to ask how they might handle this predicament. And never forget, you’ve got a team at your back—call a meeting, explain the challenge at hand, and brainstorm. Even as the PR expert, you aren’t going to have all the answers. But you don’t need to, as long as you can figure out how to get unstuck. Sometimes the simple act of picking up the phone or sending that email will get the ball rolling.

  1. Practice self-care. When things start heating up and stress makes you lose focus, simply getting up and out of your chair can allow you to refocus with the right attitude. I’m not talking about retail therapy or bubble baths; just a quick mind-body reset that can happen in as little as 5-10 minutes.

My recently discovered activities include standing yoga, a short meditation, and the tried-and-true walk around the block. A quick journaling session or deep breathing could work too. My personal favorite is to close the door, shut the blinds, turn up a favorite song, and pretend it’s karaoke time. I’ll wager that after three minutes of singing your heart out, things will feel different. Those few minutes taking a mental break will reap a serious reward. In fact, my guess is that if you need a reset and you don’t take the time, then you’ll just waste those same minutes in a tailspin.

  1. Rely on what you know. It’s easy to let the stress get the best of you but remember that you’ve gotten to this point in your career for a reason. You’ve been put in this job because you are a trusted member of the team—and your experiences and expertise are valuable. Don’t let the pressure make you forget that.

But if that’s not enough and it all feels overwhelming, revisit a previous time you’ve tackled something unknown and remind yourself how you felt when you accomplished a frightening task that had seemed insurmountable. Consider, too, what lesson or action you can implement from situations you’ve handled in the past. Recall those successes to build your future. You’ve done hard things before—things you weren’t sure you could do—and come out on the other side. Now go into this crisis with those experiences at your back.

  1. Be flexible. Even the best-laid plans aren’t going to work every time. Sometimes the reporter is going to move up the deadline on you, or the business decisions change, or something impossible is added to your plate amidst all the craziness. You already know you’re going to have to pivot in a communications role, so it’s best to practice being flexible in small ways each and every day. Recognize where you’ve done it well in the past and lean on the understanding that you can move quickly and make good decisions in the moment.

If you’re like me, you might struggle when things don’t go “as they should.” But my favorite trick is to bake flexibility into every project. Remind yourself that flexibility is a core element of any PR strategy. Things are going to shift on you, and you’re going to have to adjust. So, when things don’t go as expected, I get the joy of reminding myself that, actually things are going exactly as planned and now is the chance to implement the part of the plan where things change.

When a PR crisis hits, it’s easy to allow ourselves to get caught up in the storm. Stressful situations can always get the best of us. But we also need to be forward-thinking and anticipate staying calm under pressure. With a little conscious effort, we can be our best professional selves and do the best work for our clients and teams.

Good Project Management is an Art – Not a Science

Written by Kathleen Petty on . Posted in Firm Culture.

Deadlines, discipline, and organization – these are the tenets of good project management that most can agree on. But as a vice president at a health care PR firm in Washington DC, I’ve learned that good project management goes beyond these principles. It’s more than keeping diligent timelines. There is also an art to it. Project management is essentially about people; and I’ve found there are six key principles to doing it successfully: getting your team started as soon as possible, setting your team up for success, looking for barriers and roadblocks before they happen, maintaining open communication with your team, leaning into your team’s strengths, and always keeping the budget in mind along the way. Doing these six things helps us produce efficient, high-quality work that keeps our clients happy.

1. Time is Your Greatest Asset
As anyone who works in health care communications knows, time is not always on your side. We work in a fast-paced environment that doesn’t often allow for careful planning, so it’s vital to use whatever time we do have to our advantage. Don’t get caught thinking that if something is due in a few months, you can “get to it later.” The time you have right now is your greatest asset so the more lead time you give your team, the better. Even if you feel like you can’t fully start the project, set up a timeline for deliverables; think through background research that your team could be doing to help set up a solid foundation for the hard work ahead. Whatever time you do have is a gift, so don’t wait!

2. Set Up Your Team for Success
This may be the most crucial part of good project management. First, ensure everyone has the background information they need to understand the overarching goal of the project. This will help guide people and ensure the end-goal is met. It’s also important to provide people with clear instructions and the materials they need right from the start. It helps instill confidence, allowing people to do their best work. It also cuts down on wasted time that would have been spent correcting mistakes and fiddling with nagging minor issues. Get ahead of all of that by giving your team everything they need upfront to be successful.

3. Look for Barriers Ahead of Time
Before assigning work to your team members, put yourself in their shoes as if you were going to do the work yourself. What questions will they have that you can be ready to answer? What can you address up front in the materials and information you give them? Additionally, think through the issues the team could run into as they begin the work. What advice can you give them right now to head off any roadblocks? For instance, if you’re asking the team to conduct a media audit of a client’s issue, spend a few minutes thinking through the process. Could the search terms you’re giving them produce too many articles to count? Or no coverage at all? If that’s the case, what will they need to know to adapt their process?

Once you identify a few of these potential problems, address them during your initial meeting so the team can develop the tools they need to solve them.

4. Communicate Often
Don’t wait until deadlines are looming to check in on your team’s progress. Having consistent, clear, and open communication can make sure everyone’s on the right track from the start. If you remove yourself from the process, your timeline may be derailed. This could lead to you and the team scrambling to deal with trouble as your deadline is fast approaching. Plan to check in one or two days after the team has begun work. It’s best to have in-person (or video) check-ins as opposed to relying on email. This builds team identity and encourages more personal communication and problem-solving together.

5. Lean into the Team’s Strengths
We all have qualities that set us apart from others as well as a variety of “strengths” that help us to excel in certain capacities. At The Reis Group, we identified each team member’s individual strengths during our recent team retreat through Clifton StrengthsFinder. It’s an assessment to help you discover what you do best and to learn how to develop your talents and maximize your potential. According to this assessment, my top five strengths are: empathy, individualization, connectedness, restorative, and positivity. The odds of someone getting the same list of strengths in that order is 1 in 33 million. Everyone will have varying strengths that complement each other. It’s important to learn what people excel at, and what they enjoy doing so that you can tap into those strengths and maximize each person’s opportunity for success. Doing so will help keep the team motivated and ensure they feel valued.

6. Don’t Forget About the Budget
In public relations (or any client-service industry), we have a tendency to want to say “yes” to anything our clients want. However, having a budget is crucial for ensuring staff’s time is valued. From the start, set expectations by telling each team member how many hours they should spend on the work. As you’re managing projects, check on their work hours to make sure no one is getting carried away. Not only is it a sign that the budget may be in trouble, it’s also a signal to you as a manager that your team is running into issues that need to be addressed; or that they might not have the correct direction from you to get the job done in a timely manner. Checking in and having open communication with your team will help identify any issues before the project and budget spiral out of control.

Managing tight timelines and client expectations are crucial aspects of project management, but we often lose sight of the nuances of “team management” as well. They go hand-in-hand. So, while it’s important to hone your skills in meeting deadlines and allocating work, it’s just as important to learn how to foster a supportive environment for the entire team. When we all have the tools to do good work, we all win.