Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
Welcome to Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive, the ultimate resource for mental health professionals ready to step into their power, grow their practices, and create a career they love. I'm Dr. Kate Walker, a Texas LPC/LMFT Supervisor, author, and business strategist who's here to show you the path to success.
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Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
131 Everything You Need to Know About Ethical Marketing Practices for Therapists
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hey, there, I'm dr kate walker and this is the tuesday group coaching for all Step it Up members. You guys get it first and everyone else they can hear it on the podcast. Maybe eventually, I don't know, but this is a great topic. I get lots of requests to talk about this and it's also one that I see when I'm stalking the social media threads, and it has to do with Google, and usually it's a different thread that has to do with social media. So if you guys have heard me talk about this before, you know how I feel about social media. I mean, I love it, I'm kind of addicted to it, but at the same time, therapists often think we need a social media presence, but we're not really sure how it serves our purposes. So how are we using it in marketing? How are we identifying it in our consent forms for our clients and potential clients? So for this particular day of Googling and social media-ing, I wanted to focus on a few things. First of all, number one, the rule of confidentiality, and I'll talk about that. The second thing I want to make sure I cover is how to get a Google review the right way, and it's not from clients review the right way and it's not from clients, then how do you respond to a bad Google review and then how to make it all work in your marketing strategy? So if you take out the word or phrase Google review and you insert social media posts social media posts, right, it's the same thing. Because you have this social media presence, you don't often have control over who is liking and commenting on your posts. So let's start with the foundation of what are the rules of confidentiality. So, long and short. Client owns their information. The client owns their PHI or sensitive information, right, anything identifying that belongs to your client. Now they entrust you with that, which means, if I hand you my puppy for the weekend, you're going to have to assure me that you're going to take care of my puppy for the weekend. You're gonna have to assure me that you're going to take care of my puppy in certain ways. Right, you know, don't let it out, make sure it gets fed, make sure that you close that broken gate you have in your backyard.
Speaker 1:So, as the keepers or the custodians of the protected health information, we follow rules like HIPAA, like FERPA, like our licensing rules, lpc, lmft, social work, et cetera. So when we follow those rules, we are being good custodians of the thing that doesn't belong to us, right, it's been entrusted to us. Now, if we take all of that and we say, okay, well, how are we going to communicate to our clients that we are good custodians, we can take good care of their information? Well, it's in the consent form, right In the rules, in our codes of ethics. We have to put in the consent form that we are following the rules, how we are following the rules. Now, implicit in that is our steps we will take if something goes south. Right, if something goes wrong, how we will mitigate the damage. So I'm putting all of that there.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to go deeply into that. I probably have another training out there somewhere that dives a lot deeper into HIPAA and confidentiality. But what I want you to hear me say when I talk about this is clients can do whatever they want to with their information. Okay, right, I mean, if I go back to my puppy metaphor, it's their puppy. They can do whatever they want. That's what makes it tricky for us as the keepers of the information, as the licensed keepers of the information right, I don't have anything against coaches, and they may have a code of ethics that says that they protect health information, phi and sensitive information, but there is no license that tells them they have to right, they don't have a licensing board.
Speaker 1:I'm not really sure about where they stand with HIPAA. They might have to follow HIPAA. I don't know. I'm not really sure about where they stand with HIPAA. They might have to follow HIPAA. I don't know, I'm not a coach. I have a coach. I have a business coach, love my business coach. But you hear what I'm saying. As a license holder, you must follow these rules. So, yes, you will include it in the consent form.
Speaker 1:But now let's think about if we plan to use social media for marketing purposes. It's a great idea. I mean, if you have gone and you've done all the things like I told you to do back in January, right, you took your goals, you put it into Chat, chat, gpt, you put in where you see yourself in five years and you compare it to what you're actually doing week to week to week. Hopefully you have a great strategy for social media and marketing, or just marketing in general. And if you want to include social media in that, you probably want to add that to your informed consent. Now, if you have not heard my training on what should be in your informed consent. You can go back and listen to that. I released that in January. That was something that's stepping up, I think we went through and we actually did some screen sharing and I showed you how I place my social media information into the client's consent form.
Speaker 1:And a couple of things that I highlight are social media is not for communication and I'm not going to respond to your social media. So, in other words, if you're going to say, hey, I can't come to my appointment next week, that's communicating. I'm not going to communicate with you on social media, right? Or if you like my post, I'm not going to go find your profile and like your post back. So it gets complicated. And we have to keep in mind too, if your social media is out there. You don't know if somebody is liking your post. I mean, I know in Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses. We get requests all the time from people who want to join and it's not their name, like it's not even a name, right? So we can't really identify anybody solely by their social media handle. So when you have this consent form and you're putting things in writing for the client to agree to before they agree to or as they're agreeing to become your client, then you want to make sure you identify at least those two things right Social media, google reviews.
Speaker 1:They are not how we are going to communicate with one another. So let's kind of shift for a minute to Google reviews Very basic. I'm going to tell you how to make sure you're able to manage your Google reviews. You've got to go online, you have to do Google my Business and you have to claim your business. I know, when I posted this or when I talked about this about a year ago, those of you with virtual businesses, I didn't. I don't think there was a way for you to claim your business, because Google loves Google Maps. They want people to be able to find you, and those of you without a physical location, it was going to be tough for you to claim your business. So here's how they do it right you go in, you kind of fill out the information and they actually mail you a postcard via snail mail. So you put in the address where you are, where your business is, the business you're claiming, and they send you a postcard. When you get that postcard in the mail, it's going to have a code on it. You go back into your account in Google my Business and you enter that code and, boom, you have now claimed your business profile. So I highly recommend you do that.
Speaker 1:I don't know what happens if you don't claim your business.
Speaker 1:I don't know if someone else can go in there and do that if they don't have your address. But if you claim it, hey, it's yours. Then you can start using powerful Google reviews to help you market your business. I mean, that's one of the things that when we go to business coaches and small business development and chambers of commerce and we're sitting with people and think tanks and we're all trying to figure out how to better our businesses, they look at us sideways because we're saying to them we don't solicit client reviews. They're like are you crazy? I'm like no, we're ethical, right, we don't solicit client reviews for Google. But that doesn't mean it's not going to happen. So when we start with the foundation of claiming your business via Google my Business, then at least you have a place to start from as these reviews come in. And if they come in, remember, clients can do whatever they want to with their information. If they want to give you a review, there's nothing you can do about that. Well, let me get to that in a second. So let's just let's say the good ones right, if it's a good review, right. So then you have your business. You've claimed it, nobody else has it. You go here and you're like but Kate, what if somebody gives us a bad Google review?
Speaker 1:Now, I've attended lots of webinars on this with attorneys Laura Clement, kenda, dalrymple. I've heard from board members, I've heard all kinds of information about this and I can filter it down to one thing Don't respond. Don't respond to a Google review from your client. You have an obligation to neither confirm nor deny that that person is your client, and the minute you start to defend yourself in a bad Google review, you have confirmed that they are your client. Now, if that person was never your client, I would say so right, I'm sorry. According to our records, we've never seen you before. You've never been a client in our practice, right, I'm sorry? According to our records, we've never seen you before. You've never been a client in our practice, right? Saying something like that is factual and it emphasizes this is not a real review, it's a fake review.
Speaker 1:The other thing you can do and I'm actually going to turn here to my left, because I do have my Google my Business up and when you're logged in to your Google and I know I mean this sounds weird, but when you log in, so, for example, when you open your browser and you see in the top right-hand corner Gmail, google Drive, youtube, those are under your Google account and if you log in to a different Google account it will take you to a different set of information. Again, not going to go down that rabbit hole in this training, but if you are logged into your Google account that set up your claiming your business, then you will be able to access your reviews and respond to them. So let me say that again. Number one you have to claim your business on Google my Business. Number two you log into your browser with the same email address you use to claim your business. Then you are able to access not only your reviews and respond to them. You can get the link to share your Google review for people you do want to solicit, and I will talk about that in a second. So let's say you're logged in, you go to your business and the way I do it is probably not the way you're supposed to do it.
Speaker 1:But I put in Kate space, walker space, training space, because I've googled myself a lot. It would come up katewalkertrainingcom. And I don't want to go to my web page, I want to, and you can also open an incognito browser. I put in Kate Walker training and if I don't put it in like that, then Kate Middleton's going to show up, or Kate the romance writer there are lots of Kate Walkers out there, so I put that in and then I'm able to see my Google reviews. So I've got 64 Google reviews.
Speaker 1:I click on the highlighted link, the hot link, google reviews, and I'm able to go through each one of my reviews and respond to them and report them. So if I did get a review that was bad and first of all let me just kind of do an aside here If you get a bad review, that's true, that's real right. Don't respond to it, but you need to take a look at your business. That's what we do here. So I look at this and if I get a five-star review, yay, thank you. If I have and I have never I'm going to knock on wood real quick. So far I have not had to have a review reported, but I have colleagues who have.
Speaker 1:There is a exclamation point icon and when I click that it says why are you reporting this review? Off topic, spam, conflict of interest, profanity, bullying or harassment, discrimination or hate speech, personal information and that contains personal information such as address or phone number. So you can report a bad Google review to Google with any of those criteria. So that's as as a licensed professional if someone gives you a bad review, that is unwarranted, it is spammy, they were never your client. First of all, report that. Right, and in fact I would do that. I know I said about seven minutes ago that you can respond to someone who's a non-client, but that's just really walking a pretty sticky line there. So you can report that to Google. The second thing I would do I don't know if I'm up to two or up to three is solicit Google reviews from colleagues. Now you can do this with social media as well.
Speaker 1:Ethically, I will stand on this box and on this hill. I will fight for this. I don't care what anybody says out there. We do not solicit reviews from our clients. Current past. Just don't do it right. It offsets, it upsets the balance of the relationship. It puts you in a position of wanting something from your client for your gain not necessarily theirs.
Speaker 1:But you can do two things. You can solicit a review from a colleague and so, when something appears in your Google reviews that's negative, you can reach out to colleagues who have factually seen you teach right. They know maybe they had a class with you and they know that you always showed up on time. You were a great team player. You were somebody that they could count on to get your stuff done right. You were somebody that they could count on to get your stuff done right.
Speaker 1:If they can attest to something about your professionalism, then I would absolutely ask them hey, would you here's the link to my Google review Would you mind writing a review? Just something that you know about me, because you know me personally. Also, if you have ever taught a class, if you have ever given a presentation, a CE, or spoken at a conference or in front of a PTA meeting, ask someone who is in attendance at that meeting or who hired you say could you write this Google review? I've got this bad review on here and we're really trying to make sure we offset that with some factual information about what you think of my professionalism, right? So if they just say, hey, you know they're a wonderful person and they bake really good cookies, that's probably not going to offset a bad review, especially if it's something that's actually happening in your office that you're trying to correct. But you know, bad reviews happen even in the best restaurants.
Speaker 1:You can't please everybody all the time Reaching out to colleagues and helping them connect with your Google link and write a review. You can then go in and respond to those, right, because that's not protected health information. So you can go in and there's a way. Again, I'm looking to my left here, because if I click on my Google reviews, the first thing that comes up it's a window and it has replied unreplied. So I usually go in and click unreplied and if I have a fabulous review, I go in and I say thank you, right, this is my business account. That is not client related, right? So I'm not protecting anybody's information here.
Speaker 1:These are not from clients, and so if you got a review from a client, remember what I said in the first five minutes of this presentation do not respond to a client review, unsolicited client review. Remember we can't control what they do, and if they want to give you a review, ignore it. But if a colleague gives you a review someone who's not your client, who has witnessed you personally be excellent somewhere out in the community absolutely give them a thank you, say thank you so much for the five-star review. I'm so glad you enjoyed my talk. I'm so glad you enjoyed my talk. I'm so glad you enjoyed my presentation right Something so that you're helping them understand. Or the person who's just found you on Google yeah, I've got people out here that know me and can attest to my professionalism, all right. So we've got soliciting from colleagues.
Speaker 1:I'm going to circle you back to your existing clients. Yes, I do remember telling you we won't solicit reviews from our clients, but you can gather client data with outcome surveys. So if you give your clients a HIPAA compliant survey something that protects their information then you can ask them things like did you enjoy your experience? Do you feel like your goals were met? Was your therapist on time? Did they close on time? Was it easy to schedule On a scale of one to five? Would you recommend us to your family and friends?
Speaker 1:You get data from that, even if you have SurveyMonkey. Surveymonkey gives you great aggregated data, collated beautifully in tables and charts, and all kinds of things. You can report that data on your website. You can report that, make a nice you know visual of that in your Canva and you can say you know what four out of five people say that they didn't have to wait more than five minutes in our waiting room. You know what four out of five people say that they would refer us to their friends and family. And you can report. You know there are 500 people and I mean I would get really nitty-gritty with the data. I mean, everybody remembers the toothpaste commercial. Four out of five dentists surveyed would recommend blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:That's what you're doing. You're collecting data and you're reporting the data. You are not compromising anybody's protected health information. You're still abiding by HIPAA, ferpa, your licensing rules, et. Etc. So you've got the ability to report data in marketing copy. Remember what copy is. Copy is just a fancy word for words. The copy exists on your website in the form of your about me, your list of services, and it exists in your website on your blogs, etc. Now you can also use Canva C-A-N-V-A. It's super fun. You can go. Make a visual, a chart, something colorful and eye-catching. You can put that on your website. You can post it on your Instagram. You can put it in your Facebook Instagram. You can put it in your Facebook professional Facebook so people can see. You know what 98% of people reported that they would refer my therapy practice to their family and friends. So let's kind of put a bow on this.
Speaker 1:Why use Google at all? Well, number one if you don't claim your business, it's just sitting there, there's a possibility I'm pretty sure someone else could claim that business, right? So that's one reason we want to kind of get involved with Google. Bing is actually the engine, the search engine, that powers ChatGPT, right? So it also has the ability for you to go in and claim your business so that you can have accurate information about everything from your hours to your services, to four out of five people would recommend you to family and friends. So you can't ignore these search engines if you're marketing using a web present and why would you ignore them? Right? We don't want to stick our heads in the sand. We just want to make sure we're utilizing these search engines and marketing opportunities ethically. So that's how you dive into Google, that's how you dive into Bing. You make sure you put in the informed consent for your clients who are signing on with you.
Speaker 1:Google, bing, those aren't social media, those are not how we will communicate and I will ignore you. If you like or comment, just put it out there up front and I will ignore your Google review. I won't solicit you, I will not respond to you. That doesn't mean that I don't like you and I look forward to seeing you at a session every week. I don't know you do you? You tell them what you need to, but include that in your form consent, the limitations of the Google review and the social media post. You're going to solicit from colleagues, not clients. You are going to report data, not client verbatim testimonials. You're going to report the data you get from clients and their outcome surveys and if you get a bad review, you're going to report it, not respond to it. And, in fact, the only Google review you will respond to is something from a colleague, someone who is not entrusting you with their protected health information.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to put a cherry on top of the bow. Why are you using social media? You got to answer that question. So, google, like I said, I just think if you're going to be a good business owner, you need to answer that question. So, google, like I said. I just think if you're going to be a good business owner, you need to claim that business Virtual. I'm not sure if you can, but don't trust me on that. Go in there. Google, google, how to do that. But social media I want you to put into chat GPT. This is February, when we're having this training session, and I usually call this the share the love month, because we're learning how to refer to one another. We want to make sure we're helping our colleagues out if they ask us to give them a good Google review. So why, though I mean why do you have social media at all? So I want you to put that into chat GPT this month.
Speaker 1:This month, say I'm trying to develop a marketing strategy. This is me typing. You can't see me, but I'm typing here. Go my fingers. I'm typing into chat GPT. Help me develop a marketing strategy. Here are my ideal clients. These are the people I'm trying to reach. This is what my community looks like. Now tell me the pros and cons of incorporating social media and y'all. If the cons outweigh the pros, I would just eliminate social media marketing from your strategic plan for 2025. Focus on the Google machine, focus on the Bing machine and pop some questions into the Step it Up group and Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses. Tag me with your questions. Let's sort this out. If something's confusing you or you're not sure what to do, all right, I am going to hit pause and open it up for questions.