Episode 078: How to Protect Yourself From an Online Attack with Dr. Todd Wolynn

We're back to medicine again with today's episode but it probably pertains to anyone with a business who might be susceptible to an online attack. The best analogy to the malicious online attacks perpetrated today is to rioters. There are many different reasons someone might riot; the excitement of conflict, ideology, revenge, financial gain. But for the store owner, this is unimportant as they are just looking to protect their business and assets. For people now with an online presence (nearly everyone) this includes the preservation of your reputation.

My guests today are Kids Plus Pediatrics CEO Dr. Todd Wolynn and his communications director, Chad Hermann. In August of 2017 Kids Plus published a video promoting the use of the HPV vaccine for children. It was something they did very often on their Facebook page which is filled with informational material for all sorts of medical advice. The group was not new to social media and recognized that there is a small but vocal group of opponents to vaccines. They expected there might be some pushback but didn't see much after a few days and sort of forgot about the video.

Three weeks later in September, the video got a negative comment. And then another one. And another. Before long, they were being barraged by people (almost none their patients) on their practice Facebook page. Then their Yelp reviews were attacked. Finally, google reviews were attacked by these people. These groups were not intent on a debate but the complete destruction of their practice and reputations.

Fortunately, Dr. Wolynn's group had a communications director and a loose plan in place to defend against such an attack. They successfully protected the practice after a weeklong attack. They learned a lot of lessons along the way and created a few valuable resources for physicians and non-physicians alike. Those resources are a group specifically aligned to help those promoting the use of vaccines and the other is a toolkit with checklists for before the attack, during the attack, and after. This tool kit is not necessarily useful for just physicians but anyone with an online business or reputation presence.

Dr. Wolynn's story is inspiring for the simple fact for his willingness to be heard online despite the risk to his practice. It is a stance more doctors need to take to add some robustness to the marketplace of ideas.