Cold. Sterile. Unwelcoming.
Not altogether unfamiliar terms for many when thinking of a hospital — due, in part, to the circumstances that often compel people to visit one. Hospital marketers need to fight this perception and social media can be one of the most potent weapons in their arsenal.
Coming off a successful three-day event in partnership with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., late last month, Ragan Communications CEO Mark Ragan spoke with SmartBrief about how the industry is learning to overcome fears of regulation and breaking the mold of traditional outreach with social tools. Ragan’s company is partnering with Mayo to host three more similar social-media events for health care communicators over the next year, with Mayo having made its announcement of the formation of the Social Media Health Network, to provide “a place where providers can exchange otherwise sensitive information” about health care outreach and marketing campaigns, Ragan said.
“Social media allows an institution to create a warm, human face from what some people see as a cold, distant organization,” Ragan said. “[The] health care [industry] is loaded with interest in social media … and it’s particularly powerful because it’s all about exciting, engaging content.”
Presenters at the three-day forum on effective social-media campaigns touched on a variety of tactics, such as marketing, outreach and awareness. Laura Howe from the American Red Cross said one in six people get emergency news information via social networks, adding that the organization put that knowledge to good use during the earthquake in Haiti — using social media to send out information, as well as solicit financial aid for the victims.
Other presenters, Ragan said, touched on how effective hospitals and other health care institutions can be in directly reaching patients and potential patients by having doctors and upper management types foray into the blogosphere. He warned, however, that the content could not seem contrived or forced, otherwise failure would likely loom.
Ragan cited the tweeting and blogging of Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson of Seattle Children’s Hospital as a prime example of how to successfully engage an audience — by being genuine.
“She’s articulate, emotional and a good writer,” Ragan says. “If you get your doctors out there, get ones that are charismatic. You have to be able to speak to people like a human being … and not use jargon.”
Return on investment for social-media efforts is often a difficult to prove, and Ragan says that while social-media success can’t always be plotted on a graph, success can be demonstrated in other ways.
“You can’t look at social media like you’re just selling hot dogs,” he said. “It’s about building relationships.”
For more insights on the health care marketing industry, sign up today, for free, for SmartBrief for Health Care Marketers.
Image credit, sjlocke, via iStock
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Personally, knowing more about my doctor is a comforting feeling. Going in for a check-up, for me, is not a routine activity. Being able to read about their thoughts on a variety of subjects humanizes the our relationship, making it easier to communicate my ailments to her. Social media provides us another channel to communicate amongst ourselves, and its implications are actively changing the contours of how we talk to one another. At the company I work at, RememberItNow!, we give our members an online-privatized social network on which they can communicate with their doctors and caregivers about their health needs, kind of like "chicken soup for the online soul." Having a caring community around, in my experience, alleviates social isolation that sometimes occurs with chronic illness and I look for to seeing how social media affects health care.
Great thoughts on this. I know in talking to many people, there's a sentiment that people don't want to bother doctors with too many questions,l either because they don't feel comfortable asking them or they feel like they will be too busy to take the proper time to answer them fully. It'll be interesting to see if health care reform furthers this, as many studies are showing a projection of further shortages in PC docs with more people getting added to insurer rolls…
Maybe this means that in the future a Dr will be able to diagnose via Twitter, lol
My recent post How to Grout Tiles
Companies that do not adapt to the social web will be left behind. It facilitates business and will be used against you by your competitors!
My recent post Daily Online Marketing Digest for October 5th
As this article indicates, “social media allows an institution to create a warm, human face from what some people see as a cold, distant organization,” Ragan said. “[The] health care [industry] is loaded with interest in social media … and it’s particularly powerful because it’s all about exciting, engaging content.” This is very true and INgage Networks is excited to be able to accomodate the healthcare organizations looking to embrace social media.
INgage Networks has been accommodating various social media trends, including community, crowdsourcing, and social mobile for 10+ years. Our ELAvate Community software is an online community with a full set of social media features including quick notification to your entire community of serious concerns as well as the ability to get your target audience talking about common interests and your brand. To take a look at our ELAvate Community splash page, click here: http://www.ingagenetworks.com/elavate-community
To see our customer success stories using ELAvate Community as well as our other ELAvate Business Services, please visit this page http://www.ingagenetworks.com/customers.
If you want to hear more stories about health care organizations breaking the mold and reaching out to both patients and colleagues using social technologies, check out a webinar featuring Ray Kerins from Pfizer, Nathan Bieck from TransforMED (American Academy of Family Physicians) and Dan Latendre from IGLOO Software. The health care communities webinar will occur on Thursday Oct 7th at 2pm ET http://bit.ly/c0vrJE
Interesting article– certainly regulations have kept the industry at bay. But there are some great examples of physicians, nurses and organizations that are engaging in great dialog. Just follow #hcsm and #hcsmeu to see!
@healthcare3dot0
Agreed, Cheri. HIPPA and FDA have played a big role in serving as something of a deterrent for many physicians and providers in getting too involved in this manner. That fear of leaving yourself open to a legal issue looms large for many…
Nice post Adam. I wish I'd been at the conference. I followed on Twitter but there's nothing like being there!
Dan – http://thehealthcaremarketer.wordpress.com
Thanks, Dan. I look forward to going to one of the upcoming events Ragan and Mayo will be joining forces on over the next year (though likely not any they plan in Minnesota during the winter, haha)
Great way to reach very specific markets too. Texting for kids, as well as facebook pages for families and special interest groups such as those planning bariatric surgery. It helps to make it easy for them to get the info they eed in a way they can relate to.
Sure, Michelle. Social media certainly offers an ability to conduct targeted marketing dialed down to a level I don't thinkwe've truly seen before. The question is, will people respond, or tune it out?
This all started with a few ERP and localized CRM database that came out for the Blackberry cell phones. Then as they started getting smarter, they came out with technologies like Smartwave and HTech mobile nursing systems. It seems now, that the hospital IT world has finally got it – when it comes to making our human lives easier with innovative and interactive connectivity. Social media in the health district could flop. Or, this raving sensation for doctors, nurses and patients could proved well worthy beyond its means. I hope SMHn really hits the ground rnn
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Glad to hear it, David. We look forward to providing more content like this in an area of such vital importance in the health care arena.
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Emory University got a woman on the Life Flight helicopter 17 minutes after her son sent out a tweet. I think she had a blown aorta?