All Entries Tagged With: "social media"
Reading Roundup: Marketing Blog Posts and Stories You Might Have Missed
Reading roundup: A random and sporadic list of our favorite marketing articles and blog posts from the past week or so. (Or month. Or two months. Hey, there’s a reason the department of redundancy department called this feature ”random and sporadic” from its inception.)
What do the swine flu and customer experience have in common? In a wonderful extended analogy, Mark Gregory talks about a UK ad campaign aimed at stopping the spread of H1N1 and how the campaign tagline, Catch it, bin it, kill it, is a good antidote against negative word-of-mouth, too. (“Bin,” in case you were wondering, is UK for “trash can.” Sounds so much nicer, doesn’t it?)
There are 25 things Paul Anthony wishes he knew when he started blogging. That sounded like a lot, at first. Upon reflection, though, I decided there’s probably a lot more than 25 things I don’t know about blogging. The list includes such juicy tricks as how to catch scumbags who scrape your content. In fact, I’m catching them right now.
With all the gushing about what social media can do, here’s a list from B.L. Ochman of 10 things social media can’t do. Not everybody agrees—especially with number 5, which says social media can’t “be done in-house by the vast majority of companies.”
That latter point ties in nicely with Reed Smith’s Twitpoll question: Who’s Behind a Successful Social Media Strategy? What do you think?
I’ve posted here about the Kaiser Permanente ads: I like them ’cause they’re pretty and fun to watch. My colleague Marianne Aiello digs a little deeper into why the Kaiser Thrive campaign works.
A culture that embraces failure. That might make surgeons shudder, but healthcare organizations hungry for innovation should read this AdAge interview with Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh. My favorite line: “Most of our ideas stink … But that’s how you get to success. It’s a part of our culture to FAIL.”
By the way, if you find yourself going from the Huh interview to the Lolcats site, I am not to blame for your sudden drop in productivity.
Who’s Behind a Successful Social Media Strategy?
In this Twitpoll, Reed Smith wants to know what you think is the best way to implement a social media strategy. Outside help? In-house staff? A combination thereof? (My answer: Ask a millennial.)
Tweeting for Docs: Using Social Media as a Recruitment Tool
When Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA, was having trouble recruiting gastroenterologists earlier this year, Cathy Connolley knew it was time for an innovative strategy.
“When recruiting gastroenterologists we traditionally would do print ads in different medical journals and direct mail,” says Connolley, Geisinger’s associate vice president of marketing. “But this time, we weren’t getting the types of responses that we were looking for.”
So the Geisinger marketing team worked with Zero-In Recruitment Marketing, a Bloomsburg, PA, firm, to create a social media physician recruitment campaign.
Zero-In began integrating social media into many of their clients’ recruitment efforts because it realized that the majority of physicians use the Internet to conduct their job search. According to a 2008 New England Journal of Medicines study, 71% of respondents said they hunted for jobs online. And the popularity of Sermo, a social networking site just for physicians, gives marketers some insight into how doctors spend their time online.
Geisinger wanted to develop a convenient, cost-effective way to communicate with physicians, Connolley says. “So we sat down with Zero-In and they walked us through what it would take to put a Facebook page up and direct gastroenterologists who met the criteria we were looking for to our page—and that tactic outpaced our direct mail approach and our email blasts.”
Geisinger and Zero-In launched a Facebook page in January, which includes photos, recruitment event information, and links to the health system’s site.
Seaboard Health Care Search, a physician recruitment firm based in Nashville, also worked with Zero-In to promote their brand via social media. But Seaboard focused their efforts on a different channel: Twitter.
“We’re in a marketplace that is now shifting to people who are very young,” says CEO William Herrington. “I’m always looking at how to position my organization to take advantage and get to physicians-in-training earlier.”
Read more about Geisinger and Seaboard’s social media recruitment strategy here.
SHSMD 2009: Tweeting in a Vaccuum
One challenge of Tweeting from a conference using a device such as a phone or mobile device: It’s difficult to keep up with what others are posting. Healthcare marketers at this week’s SHSMD conference in Orlando have been very active, though. So here’s a a sampling of the Tweets so far (some have been edited for clarity).
For starters, SHSMD itself is Tweeting from the event. Find them at www.twitter.com/shsmd2009. Here’s some of what they’ve been posting:
Win $100 by posting the most popular pic to the #SHSMD Facebook Event Page! Or we’ll post for you if you send to SHSMDcommunity (at) aha.org. Deadline to submit is Monday 10/5.
Carol Dobies, CEO, Dobies Healthcare Group writes:
Listening to [Paul] Begala on health reform from SHSMD–past failures in healthcare good lessons learned. Moderate bill will pass.
Intro to Begala at #shsmd well done! Hilarious intro to an equally hilarious speaker.
ND&P’s Danny Fell posts:
Listening to Paul Begala speaking at SHSMD–very entertaining and great insight on politics and health reform.
Writes Ross Bruno: By the Numbers’ research says 39% of hospitals do not have newcomer programs for community and Hospitals are setting communications budgets at an average of 0.61% of operations revenue.
PRC’s National Consumer Study is a fascinating look at 25 years of changing consumer perceptions of healthcare.
Tracy Weise writes from this morning’s general session:
Barry Schwartz says too much choice leads to decision paralysis.
Barry Schwartz: why do we advertise prescript drugs when we can not buy them without physician intervention?
And one more, just for fun, from the Weekly Probe: Liquor sales spike in Orlando, officials cite link to healthcare marketing conference. (via Chris Boyer).
You can read my posts from the conference at www.twitter.com/gienna. This is just a small sampling of all the great Tweets from Orlando, but if you are posting from SHSMD and I missed you add your Twitter ID to the comments section so others can find you.
Wellmont Employees Go Viral with Flu Shot Video
Today’s column, Employee Engagement, Participation, Helps Spread the Flu Shot Message, is about the difficult task hospitals face in convincing employees to get the flu shot each year–a task that’s even more critical this year because of the H1N1 virus. One example of a healthcare organization that’s done a great job engaging employees is the eight-hospital Wellmont Health System, which serves Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
Employees throughout the organization got on board by participating in this must-see (seriously) video on the importance of getting a flu shot this year–sung to the tune of “Gimme Three Steps.” Thanks to Wellmont’s Amy Stevens for sharing.
Now, what are you doing at your organization to communicate to employees the importance of getting a flu shot this year?
Five Reasons Healthcare Recruiters Must Engage in Social Media
As physician shortages worsen, one of the most pressing marketing challenges facing many hospitals today is recruiting top talent. To meet this challenge, in-house recruiters routinely deploy an all-too-familiar marketing mix of job board posts and journal ads, while largely ignoring social media.
But why the snub?
Granted, a job tweet on Twitter doesn’t yet have the same reach or cachet as a recruitment ad in the New England Journal of Medicine. But I do believe social media offers immediacy and relevance that may be more effective than traditional means to connect with a growing segment of healthcare job seekers.
Still skeptical? Here are five reasons your recruiters must actively engage in social media.
Your candidates are already there. If you don’t think your next Chief of Surgery or Head Nurse could possibly be on MySpace or Facebook, think again. Social media is fast becoming mainstream media-and clinicians are embracing it. My company recently surveyed physician and RN job seekers and found that 56% are using or interested in social media and 37% use Facebook. And adoption rates will continue to climb with Facebook adding 600,000 new members a day, the fastest growing segment of which is adults 35 and older.
Pooh-Poohing is Easy, Adapting to Social Media is Hard
I don’t always agree with everything that’s posted here on the MarketShare blog. Take, for example, the recent post about hospitals using Twitter to describe surgeries in real time, Milwaukee Not All A-Twitter Over Hospitals’ Use Of Social Media. The post itself is great. But boy was I annoyed when I read the reactions of those who responded to an online poll about twittering surgeries. It’s not just that the responses were so negative. It’s that they clearly didn’t know what they were talking about.
It’s very easy to pooh-pooh anything new. What’s hard is learning about, adapting to, and successfully using new forms of communication.
I wrote more about this in today’s column, “Healthcare and Social Media: The Benefits Win Out,” which features a Q&A session with Marc Battaglia, associate creative director at Demi & Cooper Advertising in Elgin, IL. The agency worked with Chicago’s Sherman Health to tweet a laproscopic hysterectomy. Battaglia understands the risks and benefits of trying something new, but does a good job articulating why the benefits outweigh the negatives.
Want more on twitteries? Check out Marianne Aiello’s article for HealthLeaders Media online, Tweeting Surgeries May Lead to Improved Doctor-Family Communication.
Lessons From Twitter Bootcamp: What’s Your Follow Policy?
Mayo Clinic's Logo (and Twitter icon).
The Twitter bootcamp I wrote about in yesterday’s post was a great introduction for healthcare organizations dipping their toes into the Twitter waters. It was led by Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic’s social media manager and chancellor of what he calls Social Media University, Global (SMUG). He spoke to a live audience in Rochester, a remote audience on the phone, and also interacted with folks who were following along on Twitter. Talk about multi-media.
One caller asked Aase about Mayo’s “follow policy.” In other words, if someone chooses to follow Mayo Clinic’s Twitter feed, does Mayo also click the button to follow them back?
In fact, as often happens with new types of media, they had to experiment a bit before they found the right approach. [more]
Twitter Bootcamp Today
Corrected: event starts at 3:30 EST.
Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic’s social media manager and chancellor of Social Media University, Global (SMUG), is always two or three steps ahead of me when it comes to new and social media, particularly as it relates to healthcare. So I’m pretty stoked to be listening in on his Twitter boot camp today. (Just please don’t call it Twitcamp, OK?)
View the slideshow (preview below) and follow along with the conversation by searching for the hashtag #Tweetcamp on Twitter. Don’t know what a hashtag is? Well, then you better pull up a chair for the show. Starts at 3:30 p.m. EST, 2:30 CDT.
[slideshare id=1293528&doc=tweetcamp-090415082522-phpapp02]
Crisis Communications, Social Media, and a Whole Lot of Heart
Healthcare marketers talk a lot about the importance of communications, employee satisfaction, and branding. But all the talk in the world can’t replace a real-life example of a hospital that gets it right.
In Fargo, SD, Innova Health got it right.
Innova, which was for days the only hospital fully open during the recent Red River floods, used their blog, Web site, and Twitter feed to communicate with the community and emergency workers.
In a letter posted on the blog, Innovis President Greg Glasner and CAO Kevin Pitzer pledge their continued support to the community during clean-up and rebuilding.
“The floodwaters are receding, though in many instances, the hardest work begins now–the clean-up, the re-building, the emotional wear and tear, and the repairing of families impacted by the flood,” they write.
They also recognize their employees for their work during the crisis. “The power of human spirit was clearly evident in the determination of the staff of Innovis Health not to give up, but rather ’step up’ at this time of crisis,” they wrote. “You did it through the offering of your time, energy, skills, talents and even personal resources. Your collective efforts resulted in a tremendous impact on our patients over the past week. Our communities and region know who they can count on to be there with them in any emergency.” [more]
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