Hey
. Hello and welcome. I'm here today with drew Helmer and award-winning internationally accredited, registered dietitian, providing communications and education consulting services for individual nonprofit and corporate clientele through Ontario, Canada, and the us for more than seven years.
Drew serves as faculty member for Buffalo state universities, undergraduate dietetics and graduate and multidisciplinary studies program, helping build students and practitioner know why. And know-how in scope standards and ethics and dietetic practice. He served as a board member, consultant and volunteer for state and national dietetic organizations for more than 10 years now, including the commissions on dietetic registration.
The Academy's committee for lifelong learning. The electronic nutrition care process, terminology platform, the college of dietitians of Ontario, dietitians of Canada. And the New York state academy of nutrition and dietetics, he celebrates dietitians in all areas of practice and is a proud, active fellow of the academy and the state university of New York center for teaching excellence. Welcome to today's episode drew.
Let me thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm super excited. And I just want to give a little background that I had the chance of meeting you in person, which was so fun at the, I think it was the New York state. Do you remember which conference? It was? I was speaking about nutrition and social media and I, I knew it was in New York state one.
I believe it was. I remember it being close to where I was residing. At the moment when I was going to school at Buffalo state. And it was that. Some conference center in Niagara falls. And I come in, I was so excited to meet you because I supposed to. Speaking that year. And I knew I had to find you at the event and say, hello.
Oh, that's very, very kind. And I remember meeting you and learning that you had a background in teaching and education, and I just wanted to be her friend. I thought that was so cool. And, one of the best parts of this story and our connection is that we had connected on LinkedIn and because you post actively and you post great stuff we had somehow reconnected recently and started talking about all things dietetics, and I ended up being lucky enough to get you on air. So just goes to show the power of social media and connecting with your, your peers and.
I we're going to talk about that today, but it's a, it's a fun story of how powerful it can be to. Use social media for learning advocacy and all things dietetics. Cause I think I had initially asked you some stuff about fancy and applications. For, for me to speak in the future. So thank you for being a role model in dietetics. Yeah, absolutely. I would say never underestimate the power.
That social media provides for networking and what that can lead to in life. Yeah, and we're going to be talking more about that, and I love that you use LinkedIn. That's not one of my power platforms. It's something it's a form I'm interested in. More, but it is not been one of my top platforms. So we're going to talk all about that as we continue today, but I first want to.
Ask a little bit for today's topic. Can you share. What how did you get into social media and ethics? In the first place. Great question. I was planning to lead into that anyways, cause I think background is always important. Like what. How, what brought you to this interesting, very relevant pertinent topics.
That we're going to discuss today. And that was where it all started was simultaneously actually a funny story. I was somewhat forced. Volunteering for my state affiliate association, the New York state academy of nutrition dietetics while I was a student. And that's a whole different story. How I got.
Forced into it, but it was the best thing that could've happened to me. But I started off as communications editor for the New York state academy. I have a communication and marketing background, one of my adjunct professors and noticed that Octa me a little bit after class and said, Hey, are you interested? They ended up announcing it at a meeting and I.
Did not agree, but it wasn't amazing. It was an amazing thing that had happened. So as I was working as communications editor for the, or nightstand for the New York state academy. I was working alongside the public relations coordinator at that time. And with the social media manager. At that time as well to.
I'm up with the marketing strategy to engage our members and the general public. We had two very separate distinct audiences. And we're trying to work with in the same platforms. I knew there was an issue there to begin with, so to help guide them along that way. And then eventually I became social media manager or the organization itself, and that's where I really got to deploy some marketing strategies and social campaign strategy there.
Simultaneously. I was teaching for a couple of years at SUNY Buffalo state, my Alma mater, and I introduced students to the dietetics professional, which is a blessing. Every time I teach that section, I I'm so thankful that I get to get all. All these aha moments from students like this is actually a Val. I could do this in the dietetics profession. Yeah. You can do anything you want, especially nowadays.
And in speaking with, and hearing the stories about some of those students, you know, what are their plans? What's their career pathway. I would deploy this assignment of, you know, what's your, what's your end game? What's your goal as a dietitian and how can we. Help prepare you to get there. A lot of them.
Included social media to promote their products and services. And I wanted them to provide a little bit more about what the plan to do within social media. What are the messages that they're going to promote? And there were some, you know, considering that there were lower level class. Students, there were some.
You know, some, maybe something after it information at the time they haven't gone through the ropes, that training and credible information and learning about medical nutrition therapy and research implications. But I heard some problematic messaging in there and then simultaneously a social media manager.
My I, I was a fly on the wall, looking at what every state association was doing, what our national organizations were doing, even what dietitians in all areas of practice, allied healthcare practitioners and private practice and a related associations were doing. Super creative approaches, but I saw problems. I saw real issues that could potentially impact the public health.
And I thought, okay, let me look for resources to guide me, like continuing education about how do we approach social media in a proficient, competent, ethical manner, and get spot and find any. I searched up and down. I might've found like a food. Food and nutrition, you know, the Academy's magazine that they put out monthly or bimonthly. I thought a small article there, but it didn't really bring it to life. It wasn't complete. I still had questions. And then in 2017 I eventually found a practice paper, all.
That included these standards of professionalism that I now use. The help bring these concerns and help guide other even. Just in general health, anybody who's a health educator help guide them to lead their social media activity. Abundantly and through a lens of ethical practice. And that led me to, I think, speaking for nightstand about this very important topic, somebody attended the conference from another state and they wanted to speak at that state conference. And then.
As of today, I've probably spoken at 25. Date, diabetic associations and other now health educator conferences. That's incredible. That's incredible. And it just goes to show well, When we talk about other health care practitioners. Practitioners that that's maybe a different podcast for a different day, because I know we're just talking about dietetics and social media ethics, but I think it's great in general to have this conversation and know that.
Other healthcare practitioners are pulling to standards as well. So thank you for sharing that. Very impressive. And it's great work that you're doing on a state level to, to educate and inspire with ethics in social media. Do you think it's something that dietitians are aware of at this point?
Because if you went and you have the resource, I know you are the resource like. You've branded yourself. I know that you are the person. But how do you think general perception is in terms of dietitians and, and knowing how important ethics are with social media? I think. dietitians know about the code of ethics, right. We learned about it and undergrad and.
We know that we have to abide by it. When we're a student in an ACE and accredited program, we know that we accept the code of ethics. I'd have to lead with it. When we become credentialed by the commission of dietetic registration. But I, I, in my experience, I've spoken again at like half the states. Now one-on-one conversations like with you and, you know, people just in passing at other events and having casual conversation, but the majority of dietitians don't know.
Out to apply ethics to social medias. None of them know about that practice paper, which is by a highlight and a lot of my talks and workshops. And even if they refer to the code of ethics, You know, sometimes there's, these are gray areas and dilemmas and applying it in context of social media considering.
What I would argue that the, you know, the term professionalism have to be agile at the society evolves. So yeah. Thank you for sharing that now, to be honest, I don't remember if I've read that paper. So I'm going to do that. I'm just being transparent. I'm going to read that favor as soon as possible and look at attach it to the show notes.
At Lincoln for reference and educate my audience as well, including my clients, because it's a big part of communication. And as communication evolves, this is mandatory, I would say for dietitians to know about, right. So there's a code of ethics in general, but then there's that. I don't know if it's a clause or just the overall understanding that if, and when you're educating on the internet on social media.
These are standards and I think that's hopefully something that. Is important and people are referencing that paper, like you said, I don't know if you can enforce that, but I think it's a great thing that you're representing it. Yeah. And forcement is a whole nother monster. Ended up itself.
You know, you can't, how do you enforce and regulate over a hundred thousand dietetic practitioners, but something that's exciting. I'm an internationally accredited dietitian. So I. I'm a dietitian also in Ontario, Canada, and what's exciting in Ontario, what we're seeing and I hope spreads and maybe he academy inevitably this happens too, because usually in living in Canada, I noticed habits in the states versus in Canada follows. And I think what's happening is the reverse.
That we're developing a specific practice guidelines or Ontario dietitians. So. Social media. Yeah. That's exciting. And it's exciting that you are. The source of information for that. So before we go any further and talk more about the importance of ethics and I'm interested in some of the themes that come up with your speaking, since you've done so many talks, can you give us an overview of like what they are, or the top considerations that a listener would need to know of being that my listeners are usually mostly on social or aspiring to VU social media.
Yeah, I do is again, going back to that practice paper. There are eight standards of professionalism that they list and I think it's pretty complete. Okay. And some of them, for example, just a brief overview, which I kind of clumped some of them together and say, you know, in an all encompassing manner, let everyone know what they.
What, who they are and any legal or conflict of interest included. So regarding to the formal idle of standards of professionalism, one would be self identification. Another one would be transparency and disclosure. So I kind of always grouped us together cause they talk about, you know, Yep. Definitely being transparent.
There's another one called professional boundaries. So, if you can imagine. What you post and how it might impact biases towards you in public perception of the dietitian towards the general public. Another one would be intellectual property so important. I can't wait to talk about that with you.
Content. Credibility another really important topic. Personal conduct. And within that, there is some suggestion of addressing this information when we find it because it's all too rampant on social media. And then there's two. I find just as important, but I didn't include them in the top five was privacy and confidentiality as well as professional liability. So there's eight main themes.
Thank you so much for breaking this down. I have a quick question and I want to make sure I ask because a client asked me last week and I don't know if you know where this fits in. When, I don't know if you're familiar with it's like stitches to somebody who's showing a video from someone else. And perhaps putting them down or making fun of an individual, not lifting them up, but actually ostracizing another practitioner, whether it be dietitian or therapist, where does that fit in with ethics and.
What are your thoughts? I'm not I don't, I'm not sure how to handle that as a coach, because I tell I really liked people to be fair. But that's, and it's hurtful for me to see that I I'm so glad that you brought this up Libya, because I recently, you know, as I present on this topic at conferences, you know, I only present on.
For like five or six conferences a year. And then I go to the next year and I update, I listened to. What dietitians have to say some of their main concerns what's been evolving in this area. And then I update the content accordingly and something that I recently implemented was reaction videos and how it speaks to personal misconduct. So you're saying, you know, they're kind of ostracizing this individual, they're speaking to their character.
And from what I look at this through a lens of, okay. We have a boat code. What dieting? Principle. And what standards does this speak to? And that's Lander and defamation of character, which is a breach of the code of ethics. And I always tell, because I like to provide practical advice, like, okay, this is what's wrong, but what can we do? That's right about this. And regarding that, I don't know if you want.
If you want to talk about this whole topic about Ursula. Conduct. It's great. Yeah. As it relates to reaction videos, slander defamation of character, and specifically for action videos, which are super popular. Right. dietitians, will we see what other influencers are doing? All eyes are on them. It's.
It really increases engagement and viewership and then potentially. Conversion to clients, right? So it's, it's a, a good thought to say, Hey, let's do what other people are doing because it's working and it's an effective marketing. That I say. Great. Do the reaction videos, but rather than speak to somebody's character and you know who they are personally, speak to things more objective, rather, what is their expertise? Do they have educational training? And then, and then pull out the, the misinformation and an accuracies and develop separate content from that.
Bang thing being to increase SEO, like using keywords in headings, in the text, rather than coming after their character. There's a million other things that we can do, right. It's just like, well, we have casual conversations with each other. If I have a strong opinion about somebody, I could say a million other things.
And in saying a million other things I could be helping myself. Rather than. Attention only deteriorating the RD reputation among the general public is thinking about the impact that my Avalon. The general public, depending on the words that we use, I think the general public sees it. Of course, they're probably like, oh yeah, that's right. But even I look at it through a lens of like, is this tight.
Titian approachable, like, and we want them to be able to come to us. Sure nutrition guidance. So I think about what image that gets dietitians. Yeah. That was helpful in terms of breaking down coming from an objective point of view and a. I'm a big fan of, well, it's part of, part of the ethics, but.
Putting down someone's character, no matter who, who they are like registered, I'm talking, registered dietitians, talking about other registered dietitians. It's, it's really hard for me to see, because I want people to respect other people's perspectives, but you gave a perfect example in terms of the objectivity.
And then how you can do it. In a way that fits. Yeah. So like I was saying, you know, do the reaction video, but, you know, leave that video up at the individual for just a couple of seconds to pull out whatever that. For whatever that inaccuracy is, and then get rid of the video about them and then talk, continue the video about, Hey, let's address this topic, whatever lemon juice and detox, whatever it is, increase SEO by using those keywords and then give people that evidence-based information, which is the value that we really provide.
The the other side of that. And you're, you are very practical and I appreciate that. Very helpful tip. From my perspective in trying to be accessible and helping more dietitians use social media. Is it an increases fear to see that there are these types of videos that make people dietitians feel like they're scared of becoming popular because they'll be put down. And what if their opinion is not the same as somebody else's.
So I'm not, I don't know how to best address that other than it's, it's just, it's tough. It's tough to be able to function knowing that that type of behavior is happening. And it's, it's part of how people do communicate, but it's, it's hurtful for people who are feeling shy, intimidated about showing up, especially if they're shy to show their face. And then they're seeing these stitches and they're like, oh my gosh. Like, what if that happens to me?
Yeah, I think it, you know, stepping away from the topic of ethics, I think it speaks to, and sometimes what celebrities can really say. And I see some of those masterclasses from celebrities and. In conversations with them even have hearing in Toronto that I attend because you know, celebrities are not, they provide a ton of valuable information based on that kind of experience. You are never going to play as a hundred percent of people never, ever will.
Will you ever, and, you know, I hear a little bit about, and having the stories with dietitians about that stuff. Those same fears speaks to a little bit about like imposter syndrome a little bit. Yeah. And the only thing that I found that helps resolve and say resolve, but help minimize those feelings is having a good support structure. Absolutely.
The around you, family, friends, colleagues. Yeah. Great practical advice. I agree. It's just that it, it can feel more uncomfortable because social media is already pretty scary. I got to talk about social media. I come in and do presentations for students and talk about social. And I try to identify what the common themes are like you do from presentation to presentation. And it is mostly fear.
So my role is trying to make social media accessible and talking about ethics and being practical is helpful, but yes, fear is definitely a piece of it. And, you know, I believe that. You can't please, everybody. But when you're starting out and you really want to. Build your audience or build your community and represent nutrition in your beliefs. It can be challenging for those that are getting started. And so I can appreciate that. And were there.
Where they're coming from. Yeah. Also in context of this conversation. You know, people approaching you on social media and trolling, for example. I, you know, along the years, I've given this some consideration and I've talked to some dietitians and I've consulted with some dietitians about what their strategy is regarding. How do they demonstrate their value on social media? Yeah.
And sometimes it might, sometimes what they want to demonstrate is that they can have constructive conversations during times of conflict. And there's always going to be trolls that come after you, especially the higher amount of viewers that you have been following. And some people, you know, you have this decision, you either approach it or you just, you know, ignore them and block or, and, or block them, or maybe you respond to them.
And that's a way to demonstrate your professionalism to provide more evidence-based information. So that your viewers can see that value that you provide. Yeah, really great. Tips and it does. I'll go back to identifying your imposter syndrome and finding community and people, and then developing a process, something repeatable, like you mentioned, you can respond back with evidence-based answers. You can choose to ignore, like there are options that you can employ.
And it's, this is an important conversation because we see this on social media. Some of us are already involved in these situations. So it's really important to discuss. So I'm really happy to have you on and giving these specific examples with all of your knowledge. So I'm really grateful. I feel like this is a long overdue episode.
Well, thank you. And what I said earlier about the work that we're doing at the college of dietitians of Ontario and developing, developing the specific practice guidelines, we're including a section that talks about Beth, about this fear, about being scrutinized, how to deal with that, or what do we do with trolling?
Things like that. Great. So I'll tell my clients it's coming.
I'll tell them to stay tuned. We'll be publicly accessible. The college's website. Fantastic. It won't be for members only. That's fantastic. That Canada's leading. And when you say on the colleges, you mean the college of Ontario and Canada first, right? That's where it'll be. Each province and territory has its own college that regulates dietitians, as opposed to the states, they regularly on a national level.
Yeah. I feel like every time we talk, I learned so much, you're just such a wealth of knowledge. And thank you for sharing that. So. All right. We have if you could share a little bit, when it comes to all the talks you've done, is there a top or the most common theme? I love that. You're saying you.
Take your presentations and make adjustments based on what's trending or what people are talking about mostly that year, but what kind of comes up the most? That whether you're surprised or not about it, what are the top couple of things? Oh, let me, this is such a good question. I would say, I'm going to say like the top two and they relate to the standards of professionalism.
One is intellectual property. And the second one is content credibility specifically. Hot contacts. At what, what I framed this in as the ear at the presentation is the ball. I call it. In terms of conduct and content, credibility, context and care. Are you providing all the information necessary when you are talking about the latest research study that came out there is some concern included within the dietetics community regarding confirmation bias. Like when we niche down, we're paying attention to information about this particular area of practice or disease or.
Condition. And we're trying to find evidence that supports it, and that might lead to confirmation bias because we're only paying attention to that rather than the collection of evidence. A great example, which I see time and time again is plant-based or vegetarian or vegan diets is. All only pay attention to that research, but then I'm gonna look at the collection of evidence of people. Eating animal protein is perfectly normal and fine.
The studies show it's part of a healthy diet. So content credibility in terms of context and care, and then intellectual property, which you can talk about. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And the example, and I wrote that down, cause you mentioned that earlier on in the conversation about IP and content credibility. So yeah, let's, let's, let's talk about the intellectual property.
Left. Okay. So. A brief overview and full disclosure. I'm not an intellectual property expert. Lawyers for these kinds of things. I always, when I am these conferences. Whether they're like a general session or breakout. I always have a few people that raised their hand. Like, Hey, I'm a private practice. dietitian. I've niched down.
I have, you know, I did the, I. And I develop. Hey, a considerable amount of time to develop unique original content. And I go good. You're posting it to social media. Great. Automatically copyright protected. When you can take legal action on that, I would go to a lawyer. If you've been trademark things, go to a lawyer to get that all done.
But. At these conferences. I like to tell people about, you know, obviously it's a valid strategy to use visuals because they increase engagement. We know when you post images, it gets more viewership. A brief overview of intellectual property is that it's a category of property. How do I explain this? It includes implantable creation.
Intellect. Though, in terms of like those images, graphics, posters, things like that. Once you post it, it's your cop it's copyrighted material. Now where a lot of the problem lies is individuals who are sharing other people's content from through non-native sharing methods. So. You know, social media is involved time hole over the last 10 years.
In Instagram, you can now share someone's post to your story. And that's not populated infringement because you're using a native sharing process. If you notice, when you share it to the story. It has there handled the original content creators handle and you can click on it, which goes back to the mirror.
Eric count. On. Going back to reaction videos. That's not a copyright infringement because it's a native sharing process. So on and so forth. What I'm talking about is when people go to Google and look up images and they use them for their content, that they might not have this creative comments, commercial use license.
There were several different licenses within creative comments. It's kind of complex. Yes. There's bear use licenses. You know, AKI rate. Really as an umbrella term for all of these different kinds of licenses and then there's commercial enterprise. And Marshall letter pro I mean, when you, if you ever notice, like if you're trading a slide deck and you, you.
You've tried to find an image through the image search within PowerPoint. There's these little codes that come over and meet the image. And they'll say like CC or IP CC, I'm adding. And it's the whatever, and there's all these codes. And those relate to that. The licenses, whether they're for commercial use.
Non-commercial use so on and so forth. Yeah. There's a lot of things for sharing that. And there's also. I don't know if you recommend this to your students. There's so many great free stock image sites that will allow you. But even when you're on Canva, I believe, and you have to read canvas fine print, but if you're on a free account, you can't create something that you sell, like an ebook without paying for a paid account.
Because of some of the, the licensing on, on the images. So it's really just important to read some of the fine print. Because of what you're talking about, and it is quite complex. This is in, this has come up a lot with my clients, especially I use landed really well, but especially maybe even more your so back, but about people sharing.
Other people's content and not giving permission exactly the way that they want or taking a similar idea, but then not giving someone else credit. That's come up a lot with my clients. Yeah. So on social media, when you're sharing other people's content through native sharing tools, like the share to your story on Facebook, you can share right to the page on tech doc, you can do a reaction video.
Practical, you don't need permission. But. I always say when in doubt. Reach out and ask. Yep. First. In reaching out, asking for permission. That's a lot about your character. It does a great opportunity to connect and network and provide some value and maybe foster some collaborations in the future.
Especially, if it goes back to the top of the call, you mentioned that social media was a fantastic way to, to network. And this is an example of how, if you like. It's an image or something someone's representing. It's an opportunity. If you're feeling a little shy to say, Hey, I really appreciate what you shared. Do I have permission to expand that to my audience too? It's kind of an easy way. A conversation starter, right? Yeah. Yeah. And about the free resources we have.
There's so many, I HootSweet. Provided or they produce the blog article recently that talked about like 38 of the best. Three stock. Photo websites. Okay. And there's 38. Right. So if there's no excuse to be sharing or to be using licensed copy right at non-commercial use. Images. Yeah. Yeah. So, yes.
I appreciate that. Now. I feel like I have to go find that article because that's quite a bit of, I only know about five stock image sites, so I didn't realize there were some money that's exciting. What I see also, and I don't know how you would classify this, but it's, it would be taking a concept. And I know this is again, maybe getting a little too.
Two into the legal territory. Taking a concept of what someone's done. If you're in that same space, let's say weight loss, and you're comparing, let's say a food item, a particular food item showing calories or something. Something very specific and someone else takes that concept and recreate it. And it's similar enough that the person that initially created it feels like that person stole their idea. That is what comes up a lot for, for me and my clients. And it can come up with.
Yeah. There's a great area and dilemma in. What I think you're referring to is like inspiration. Yes. Inspiration, I guess would be a good way to sum it up. Yeah, there it's a dilemma. There are some gray area I would say. You know, if the. The originator's content has inspired you to create content that's of the same exact.
OPIC with the same exact information, but reword it, then that's copyright infringement. There's again, there's going back to that conversation about having conversations and there's a million things that you can say. And let that inspire you to come up with a very specific topic within that.
Major topic that you've found inspiration from, rather than taking that topic as a whole and recreating and rewording some of it. Yeah. Yeah. It is a gray area. It is a dilemma. And I think that that was helpful and practical and it's, it's an opportunity for, for us. dietitians to perhaps lean in and celebrate somebody's success that is inspired you. And then take a moment to reflect on how we can create ideate.
And her in her own way, that's more unique. I know it's going to be challenging, but it is part of nutrition, communication. Yeah, all.
There's also the problem, which I found in many dietitians that brought forth and luckily they caught it. I don't know how they've caught this. But, and these are dietitians that have high, high following 50. A hundred plus thousand. Yep. They find that the copy that they've originally created for their website or about me, their history, the value they provide.
They're finding that other dietitians are finding inspiration in that. And some are literally just copying and pasting and using it on their website and just changing up their name. Even sometimes with liability related documentation. Oh on tracks and things like that. I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that because that speaks to another standards of professionalism, which is professional liability. And that first.
These dietitians that have high following, I guarantee you, they have a lawyer. And they're going to take action if they find this because they're protecting their brand. And they can have your website shut down. They could have your social media accounts completely disabled and not be able to be recreated with that same handle.
Yeah. Thank you for your, for shedding light on that. And that's definitely frustrating. And I know for a fact that that happens in a lot of areas Even beyond. Well, you just mentioned with forms and copy. It happens with pricing too. But that's a conversation for another day in terms of people saying, well, you've offered that all off for that. Exactly.
So let's take a moment. Is it too? Off-track talk about forms because I see this a lot. Is that too off track from his ethics, but we can't just be using necessarily social media, but it's a really important topic. All right. Look, I want to hit on it lightly. And I'm, this is more for selfish reasons. I'm you can't know.
I don't know how this is done. And I'm actually talked to my lawyer about this because I want to be accessible and offer forums, but I have to do it in a way that's compliant. You can't just sell like a credit card authorization form where you can just steal someone else's that has to go through legal.
Right. It should. Okay. Cause I see. A lot of the way I see that a lot. And I'm wondering if that's okay. Like, you know, the value. You know, there's social media is a monster. There's a lot of downfall to it, but there's so much positive in it in that follow some private practice lawyers who specialized in helping other private practice owners and all of them will tell you.
You need to have your own specific contracts to protect your own brand and company and services and products for liability. Yeah. Yeah. So we have a team lawyer and we recommend her, but she, she does cost a fee and I'm seeing that there are other options where people can buy very cheap credit card authorization forms that other dietitians are selling. And I don't think without like, working with legal, that you can do that.
So I know that. Hence on disclaimers. I was always wondering, like, how was that? You know, I'm glad that you brought that up and you said, you know, people are going to dietitian for some of these legal related terms. Okay. When you need your car fixed. Who you go to? Mechanics and your teeth cleaned. Who do you.
Exactly. We need legal advice. You should be going to a lawyer. I agree. Or at least if I partner with one, like I license contracts and I'm an affiliate for a lawyer, but it's, it's, it's her work. It's her body of work. I'm just help and get there, but yeah, I hear ya. Sometimes there's a barrier there or a perceived barrier with like, oh, this cost of like consulting with a lawyer payment. It's going to imagine the potential risk longterm or down the line and might sideswipe you and take everything you have.
Yep. And again, It goes back to protecting your brand. And what about the dietitians that are selling forms and credit card authorization and things like that?
I will keep my comments to myself. Okay.
All right, we're going to, we're going to move, move right along. We've covered a lot. Is there any advice I want to get to talking about LinkedIn and social media in your presence as well? Because I love what you're doing before we get to, to that. Do you have any general advice, pieces of advice for dietitians, whether they are, there's kind of two groups, the new people.
Right then maybe struggling with imposter syndrome. And then there's the dietitians. Who've got like 50,000 plus. Followers. Maybe they already have it under wraps because they've got legal counsel. But what would you say to either one of those two different types of dietitians when it comes to ethics and social media, most important?
Yeah. When you're approaching social media first, and this doesn't even come, this is, this doesn't even necessarily have to do with ethics, but maybe it should be implemented. And department of your business plan. And thus your marketing strategies first have a marketing strategies. Do you know what you're doing? And you know where you're going? You know, you have Target's foot place and you can measure them appropriately, just like we do with clients. Assess. Yep.
Is maybe weave in ethical practice into that business plans. When you refer back to, it's a nice reminder of, Hey, I need to self check myself when I'm developing content or when I'm engaging with the public or when I'm reacting or, you know, trying to address misinformation that I find there and that have that code of ethics, digital handouts, like two pages online, refer to it.
That's great. I think I might add that to my content checklist that I give clients and give you credit, of course, for for reminding how important that is. Because we are representing, you know, our credentials as dietitians when we're posting. And so it's important to think about that every time and make it a habit.
I liked that you said a metric similar to how we measure client success. You want to measure our ability to align with the ethics, right? Yeah. And I would say another one besides, you know, Weaving in the code of ethics into our business plan, then referring to it when we are carrying out marketing strategy is professional boundaries, which has another standards of professionalism, which speaks to the code of ethics.
I find, you know, and obviously part of the code of ethics allows for and respects autonomy. So dietitians doing what they see fit for themselves. Sure. And in that wing benefit and risk. In terms of professional boundaries, there is a slippery slope of what you're sharing with people with your potential clients or your current clients on social media. I know that, you know, you promote this more than anybody I know, and it's so valuable to niche down.
You know, solve a particular problem and you're going to reach a lot of people because you're going to speak to them and their lived experience. In that there's still other people that are watching you. So there's, it's always important to again, provide a lot of context that this is specific for this kind of issue.
But more. So the kind of information that you're sharing, whether it is for your target audience or not. What. Does that do for the relationship or the future relationship between you and potential clients that you're working with? Like I see all too often, dietitians sharing really personal information about their day to day that doesn't.
And I can read between the lines I've worked in marketing. I under, I think how a person's marketing strategy. When I look at their social media. Is if some of the content is serving your marketing strategy. If not, might it be impacting their perception of you and might be forming a bias and then they might run the other way, just because it's too personal of information. And it didn't seem to have anything to do with the service that you're providing.
It's such a really great thing you brought up and it it's tricky, right? Because like you said, autonomy branding personality. Boundaries. Right. So, yeah, that's. It's an important thing to think about. Yeah. And w. Whenever I present these things, all of these topics and ethics, I never say like, I'm not here to tell you whether it's right or wrong because you have autonomy over what you do. Right. I respect what you each and every one of you do. I just want you to weigh most importantly, going back to the code of ethics wave at benefit rescue the impact that has on.
Public perception of dietitians and your approachability. Is there anything, I know that for a fact there is with therapists. Do you, is there any code of ethics about how we disclose personal information? For example, weight loss, trauma, eating disorder. Is there anything that's detailed yet for dietitians? Or I can share what, what there is for like regarding privacy and confidentiality.
I guess it would be in that category. I'm talking about self-disclosure. So when a dietitian shares that they have lost a certain amount of weight, is there any, does it just fall in the general. So like, or talking about the dietitian success story and that adds value and re rapport reputation, right? Yeah. Yeah. And not that all, I've got plenty of dietitians that don't struggle with, let's say weight loss or chronic disease or, or eating disorder. And they help those, that type of population with that, that problem.
But is there any parameters for that with self-disclosure. Yeah, there are some principles that speak to. Let me think.
No, I wouldn't say that they don't specifically speak to sharing that type of personal information. It goes more back to those guiding. Principles about weighing benefits and risks. Yeah, that's what, that's what I thought so does different. And I want to cross-reference the, the one that they has been published with therapists, because I know that there are some ethics for that.
Healthcare practitioner. I know that kind of goes back to you saying that. It, the conversation is for dietitians, but this is a topic for other. Allied health care professionals as well. But I believe there are some tighter parameters for therapists with self-disclosure. I just don't have it referenced in front of me at the moment.
And I think that's because their main role. As not only educators or counselors, right. And there's a lot of nuance and mounts, right. Yeah, I find that fascinating and I love to follow what therapists do. And it's, it's always interesting. Even though yes, definitely some nuance, so not, not exactly the same as dietitians, but interesting. Nevertheless, and I like to nerd out and read a lot of research.
And now you've given me some more things to read. Okay, so you gave advice, I guess, unless if there's anything else that is burning that you want to share. Can you talk a little bit about your use of social media? Maybe. Either how you, I'm assuming that, you know, the ethics so well, and that it just feels natural, maybe intuitive when you post, but how does that play into your behavior and how do you perceive social media and how is it working for you?
That's wow. That's a great question. I don't think I've talked about this in so long because I don't see myself as like this social media, having the social media presence primarily because. Aye. You know, a part of my focus is academia and teaching students. So. You know, I eventually deactivated my website at summit.
In some degree, because I just can't say no. I wanted to stop that, stop those requests. And I'm primarily on LinkedIn to connect with other healthcare practitioners. And post some articles here and there and some healthy information, but my approach always is to just be as objective as possible. So is this credible.
You know, is it. Not even if it's useful because useful might not necessarily speak to ethics, but it's a value. But is it credible? Is it truthful? Is it not misleading? And I think most importantly, if I ever do. Like post about nutrition info, which I rarely do. Before to professional practice. Sure. Is, is this evidence.
Based on like marketing strategy or, you know, other types of evidence that aren't nutrition research. Is it evidence versus my opinion? And disclosing that information, which are dietitians, who post about nutrition information that goes back to contact credibility. Is, are you posting evidence-based information or is this your opinion?
And if it is your opinion or you disclosing that, it's your opinion. Okay. That was very well summed up and I can't help but ask about enforcement. I know you mentioned. A little bit ago enforcement is a different beast. What's what's going on in that department. Is there. How is, is that something that is.
I know it's not regulated per se. So what, what's your take on it? Yeah. My take on it is we're not like. The academy doesn't have little. Hidden police to go off and forgot what our content is. Right. So they suggest that we address misinformation inaccurate. And I, so that I would say just like, we're not police, we're not like ethics leads for each other, but rather we're a community of like, we're all serving the same purpose to help the public reach their health goals through stainable prep, you know, have healthy relationships with food X, Y, and Z.
All of the things. And in that same breath, we're also there to help guide each other when we make mistakes, because we all do. I remember when I did post nutrition information in my formative years as a dietitian, I made mistakes, man. I made some crazy mistakes and maybe it's cause I was like partially and confident and I was so.
Fortunate that my colleagues reached out to me, whether it was publicly or privately and said, Hey, drew. There are some flaws here with this research or this piece of information. It. You've been accurate and it was a wonderful self reflective process. Like, oh, I need to learn a bit more about this. I'm going to seek out these professional, continuing education opportunities. More importantly, I'm gonna go back to that piece of information and correct it. Apologize that.
That could, that might've potentially impacted anybody. Apologize and then move forward and do better. Moving on. Wow. And then regarding the whole, like,
The reporting process, which there is a reporting process that we can take. And I encourage people dietitians, especially to do this. If we find that the nutrition method it's a beer enough. That it could create quite a bit of impact among the general public reach out to that, that healthcare practitioner might not be a dietitian.
You know, other ones say, Hey, you know, And then your approach is going to speak to your personal conduct, right? The way that you communicate with them is really going to make all the different, they might block you. If you're just come at them, like you're, you know, fake hashtag fake news and such like dogmatic superior language. They're not going to reach anybody, but be careful in how you reach out to them.
Come from a caring approach. Always assume that they didn't mean to do it, right. We're all human come from a humanistic perspective. And then if they don't want to resolve it and they don't see eye-to-eye with you, despite you and maybe several. Several other people that see the same issue, you can report them now, social media, we know social media reporting. There's not, it doesn't happen a lot. Like they don't actually, it doesn't break the community guidelines. You'll get a, you'll get some feedback in a couple of weeks from their management team.
So you kind of report them to the academy. There is an official reporting tool. And that's through the code of ethics portion on the website. You can file a little informal complaint that the incident reporting tool, which the academy released a couple of years ago, and then where does it, where do these individuals live? There's a board that oversees their practice in that state.
You can file a report there. Okay. Yeah, that was really, really helpful in terms of the stepwise approach. So back to you and LinkedIn. I, it sounds like. It's natural for you. And it's something where you do ask yourself if you're being objective, when you post. Is there any. It tips that you would give somebody in terms of improving their relationship around social media, if they have any of these kind of scared or uncomfortable, it's true. I mean, social media.
You got to have boundaries and treat it like a tool. Do you have any tips for people that want to use it more for networking? Be released. Kind of get started with having some type of a strategy, but also being mindful of ethics. Do you have any tips for them? How you best use it, how you best use the tool, maybe like ways that you approach it.
Yeah, I don't think it's relative to actually like the tools that LinkedIn provides. Most of my, most of my activity on LinkedIn is in the DMS. Like I'm talking to them like 50 people simultaneously throughout the week, helping them stay up questions. Just starting with general people into, you know, cause I just, I love to see what people are doing and what their view is. But I would say.
Which you can look into the podcast. The website regarding those standards of practice. It's a professionalism. Just go through those quickly. Can I have that lens braid a little sticky note next year. You know, on, on the side of your screen so that when you're creating content okay. By being objective,
Am I providing context and care, is this credible? I'm not stealing any images. And then maybe that helps alleviate some of that. Yeah. That is a great checklist. And when you say 50 DMS, which is, this is great networking skill networking for you, are those people that you're finding, or how are you generating those dams? Are you sending DMS to people? Are you finding them through like healthcare practitioners or certain threads?
Yeah, it's a little half and half I'll reach out to individuals. First. I love connecting with dietitians around the world because I like to see what they're doing in their countries. A lot of the times people are looking for the migrate. They know I'm an international dietitian. I migrated. So I understand the immigration process.
To an extent for that country. And they're looking to move because they want to have a bigger impact. And then the angle, there's more opportunities than the Western world. Generally speaking, especially in the states, there's so much opportunity. Some of it is through just me posting on a person's original post that really speaks to what they're talking about, whether it's ethical or professional practice or something else I specialize in, which is effective education that targets behavior change.
And that they're like, oh, this person like knows these key terms and concepts to instructional design and let's talk and then we'll DME. And then we carry the conversation. That's fantastic. Great role modeling in terms of how to use social media as a tool and network, which is a big question. I don't get asked it in that exact language, but that is what people often ask me. How do you start dams?
How do you engage in the DM? So what I'm hearing from you is finding like-minded interests, providing value. And having that value aligned with things that you care about and that's. Yeah, never underestimate. Like, I know a lot of dietitians spend time in the content that they post. Never underestimate that engagement portion.
That's converse. A lot of conversations can lead from what you're posting underneath somebody else's post or how you're responding to somebody in your own post. Yeah, I think that's great advice and in a great share in terms of how you're using the tool to really maximize your networking opportunities, especially in an international way. Like that's so exciting.
Meaning people you wouldn't have otherwise thought of or reconnecting with them from all the talks that you regularly do. And I must be so rewarding, right. To kind of keep touch with people randomly and see what they're up to bears. Like I recently connected with somebody in Romania and they haven't had dietetics programs in years. Like.
Almost. Fell off the cliff. But for the earth. And now they recently had, and completed the first diabetics program that's happened in 20 years and they feel really incompetent because the program's not as strong as it should be. Sure. And they found me and we were able to connect and I was able to provide resources on like, how do you approach clinical care in a competent manner?
We're public health. Excellent. I actually really cool. Yeah. I love connecting with dietitians across the globe and seeing where they're at, what they're doing, and then ultimately the value that they provide and maybe I can help them in some capacity. Fantastic. If you could share what your where people can find you on social media, whether it be LinkedIn or wherever you most pop.
Most often hang out so people can connect with you. Sure. I'm on Instagram in a very informal manner. Like I. Not necessarily present as a dietitian sometimes I do, but I'd love to connect with dietitians on there. At dietitian dot Dru and then my LinkedIn is my name drew Embler H E M L E R. Amazing. And is there any other final words that you want to leave with or any, any other things last things that you want to tell people to do or final thoughts?
Just y'all make sure, you know, You think critically about what you're posting? On social media, the impact that it could potentially have on the public as a dietitians, we're here to protect the public. So think carefully. Beautiful. Thank you so much.
