What do your patients know about your brand before they even visit your website?

Chances are, they’ve already read a Google review, skimmed a Reddit thread, or asked ChatGPT what people are saying about your hospital or brand. They might have seen an Instagram reel, a local news segment, or even a TikTok explainer about your specialty clinic before you’ve had a chance to shape that narrative.

Welcome to the new era of reputation by aggregation, where brand perception lives beyond your owned channels. For healthcare marketers, it’s both a challenge and an opportunity. The good news? You can absolutely influence the story.

Let’s talk strategy.

What’s changed: Reputation is now everywhere (and automated)

For years, healthcare marketers have focused on reviews and patient surveys as reputation touchpoints. But today’s digital ecosystem is louder, faster and more fragmented.

• AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are summarizing your brand from public sources without your input
• User-generated content from patients, creators and sometimes critics is shaping brand sentiment before PR teams are looped in
• Media visibility, both positive and negative, is getting scraped, aggregated and echoed across platforms

And unlike traditional reviews, these inputs are not just showing up on Yelp or Healthgrades. They are becoming the foundation of AI-generated content that informs patient decision-making across multiple platforms.

What that means for healthcare marketers and PR teams

If you’re leading marketing or PR for a regional hospital system, managing reputation for a specialty care provider like a dialysis or oncology center, or handling comms for a community-based health nonprofit, your job just got more layered. Reputation management now lives at the intersection of:

• Patient experience and content strategy
• Digital PR and search visibility
• AI literacy and brand voice consistency

The goal is to earn trust at every digital touchpoint, especially the ones you don’t control.

How to future-proof your healthcare brand reputation

Here’s your playbook for staying ahead in this new environment:

1. Create high-trust, high-visibility content

Google’s AI Overviews and other generative tools are pulling from top-ranking, high-authority content. So, give them something worth pulling.

• Build expert-driven blog content. Think “What to Know Before Your First Visit” or “5 Questions to Ask Your Cardiologist.” Use medical professionals as named sources when possible
• Publish patient stories (with consent) in human, conversational formats. Bonus: these also perform well on social and video
• Maintain an up-to-date press or newsroom page with media mentions, awards, or community impact stories. These often rank high and get picked up by AI tools

Pro tip: Link internally and externally to credible, indexed sources. This boosts your authority in both SEO and AI summarization.

2. Treat physician profiles like PR assets

Whether it’s your hospital website or a third-party directory, provider bios are often the first impression patients get.

• Use clear, conversational copy that highlights expertise and bedside manner
• Include headshots, languages spoken, and community involvement where applicable
• Keep bios updated across all platforms, even the ones you didn’t create like Healthgrades, Zocdoc, and local listing sites

Patients want to trust the person behind the stethoscope. Make it easy for them to connect with the human, not just the credentials.

3. Have a plan for reviews, feedback and yes, Reddit

Reputation is not just earned in five-star bursts. It is built over time through consistent, responsive communication.

• Monitor review sites regularly and respond in a HIPAA-compliant, empathetic tone. Even a simple “Thank you for your feedback” shows presence
• Keep tabs on platforms like Reddit, Nextdoor and Facebook groups in your community. You don’t have to join every conversation, but you should know what’s being said
• Create a feedback loop between marketing and patient experience teams. What are people praising or complaining about most often? Turn that into messaging guidance or operational improvements

4. Use media and PR to shape the bigger story

Earned media and owned storytelling work best when they support the same narrative. Use your PR efforts to amplify what makes your organization not just competent, but credible, relatable and mission driven.

• Pitch human-interest stories that showcase care teams, innovation, or community health work
• Position leadership as trusted experts through op-eds, podcast interviews, or local panels
• Repurpose media wins across social, email, and internal channels to reinforce consistent messaging

You can’t control every headline. But you can make sure the ones you help write are easy to find and hard to forget.

Trust is built in layers and you need to be present at every one

Patients today are smart, skeptical and extremely online. They’re not just looking for services. They’re looking for signs they can trust your people, your mission and your follow-through. Your brand reputation doesn’t start with your logo. It starts with what shows up in their search bar and what AI tools summarize from the digital breadcrumbs you’ve left behind.

So, leave the good ones. And keep shaping the story.

Need help building a content or reputation strategy that’s ready for what’s next? Let’s talk about where you’re showing up and where you want to lead.