Web Strategy Blog

Healthcare and Social Media

Social media is here to stay and the role that social media can play in health care marketing and communications is evolving.

Marketers in regulated industries are finding it challenging to leverage the full power of social media and are awaiting guidance on Internet marketing and social media from the FDA. I've talked with a dozen + marketers over the past few months in the Healthcare industry and the possibilities of what they would like to do with social media is inspiring. I predict that once FDA guidance is given we will start to see an abundance of innovative social media initiatives in this area. Ironically the CDC uses social media extensively and even has guidelines. This report is an overview to demonstrate how leading healthcare brands are using social media marketing today.

 Some stats:

• 61% of American Adults look online for Health Information
• 60% said it affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition
• In 2010: 744 U.S. hospitals were using social media, 549 Twitter Accounts, 513 Facebook Pages, 337 YouTube Channels.

 Some of the typical areas that healthcare marketers are using social media for:

• Connecting employees
• Corporate communications
• Condition-related campaigns
• Crisis management
• Use of video to engage
• Patient experiences
• Wellness
• Engaging around charitable causes
• Education
• Co-Marketing with health associations

How do you think Healthcare marketers should be using social media?

Healthcare and Social Media

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Tapping the Olympics' Social Media Pulse

It was with a lot of pride in my Canadian roots that I have been watching the 2010 Olympics both online and on TV. With the world’s attention on Vancouver, one thing is certain: people are posting, updating, tweeting, and blogging about it like no other Olympics before. NBC recently launched a pretty interesting way to take a snapshot of that real-time conversation.  The Olympic Tracker aggregates tweets about live sporting events and Olympians and then overlays these conversations with images.  Click on an image and tweets clearly targeted by key word, are displayed to share live comments and links. The site even allows users to post directly to Twitter without ever leaving the site. 

 

The tracker is a fun new way to experience the Olympics and NBC has utilized it to set up a hub and spoke approach to their social media strategy. The NBCOlympics.com page serves as a social hub, aggregating tweets from Olympians to provide unique perspectives on the games, using the Tracker to create a fun participatory experience, and linking to a number of blogs to provide in depth information.  NBC also maintains a Facebook page, a Twitter handle, and offers widgets and a mobile app, each of which serve as another touch point to tap into the ‘pulse’ of the Olympic games online.  This approach allows NBC to create a seamless broadcast experience beyond their primary medium: television. 

This cross utilization of multiple social channels allows NBC to syndicate content across the web and ultimately drive users back to their social hub.   The notion of a social hub has become increasingly important as media broadcasters and marketers look to extend their social media presence beyond the often mundane Facebook fan page. Often it is these unique sites that use open API technology to tap into the social fabric of the web that are truly eye catching and engaging.   

 

Channels like Twitter and Facebook are quickly becoming utilities that are directly integrated into every website experience.  The challenge for marketers then is figure out how to utilize multiple communication channels to achieve their marketing objectives.  Each social tool should be used to its own strengths, but all touch points must ultimately find continuity.   The hub and spoke approach to social media allows the marketer to do just that.  By integrating social interaction and popular social network channels into a centralized site, companies or broadcasters can maintain a focus in their communication without spreading themselves too thin.  Social hubs also have the potential of creating a community beyond the Facebook fan or Twitter follower.  Soon we may see Facebook or Twitter serving as just a gateway to an even more vibrant and close nit online community found within a branded social hub. It may be these more niche online communities that make social media even more impactful than today. 

The Social Web, Taking it Personally

As we rapidly approach 2010, it's hard not to consider the implications of social media's banner year: 2009. Brands continue to adopt social media marketing practices just as fast as populations join social networks and utilizes social media sites. It has become fairly clear that the rapid adoption of this technology over the last year will certainly give rise to a number of trends in the coming years.  Recently, David Armano wrote a very interesting blog post on the Harvard Business Blog outlining six social media trends for 2010. Here is a quick snapshot of the trends:

1.  Social media begins to looks less social

2.  Corporations look to scale

3.  Social business becomes serious play 

4.  Your company will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced

5.  Mobile becomes a social media lifeline

6.  Sharing no longer means e-mail

Already we can see many of these trends taking shape from the number of sites incorporating sharing tools into their web pages to the rise of mobile applications. One trend, which I hope will result in more discussion, is the idea of social media becoming less social.  David argues that with the advent of Twitter lists, the rise of niche social networks, and the clutter of web communication, people will begin to block out a majority of the social communication on the web.  While in some ways this may be true, I believe that the social web will in fact be more personal (and therefore more relevant) rather than less social.   For example, Twitter lists function on the same social principle as the platform yet they allow users to break groups of people into lists with a focus on relevant and valuable information.   Niche social networks function on the same principle: a strong focus on relevant information for a certain type of contacts. Individuals are now taking on personal branding, and as every digital marketer knows - your customers are now their own publishers, and they have their own personal networks - and they are syndicated. 

The important thing to focus on is the personalized nature of each of these components of the social web. People continue to find value in the web as a social communication platform, but users continually looking for a much more personalized experience. The implication of this trend is huge for marketers.  In the past traditional marketing methods have generally been based around the one-to-many principle. Marketers worked hard to create a message that would have universal appeal to a mass target audience. This type of marketing worked well when the media was in fact one-to-many i.e. television, outdoor, print etc.  Today, individuals use the web as an information source to research and maybe even connect with relevant products and services.   Therefore, marketers must keep in mind that the browser is also a very one-to-one medium, capable of delivering a highly personalized experience for the user. Online audiences are already seeking out personalization with customized home-pages, Twitter lists, bookmarked and tagged websites, RSS readers etc. to filter out the clutter of the web.   The social web will continue it's trend to becoming a more open communication platform,  but tandem communications will need to become more personalized so that users will continue to see value in leveraging it.  I predict in 2010 we will see more groundbreaking approaches with organizations utilizing social media to establish a valuable personalized relationship with the individual - on a mass scale. 

Creating Community: Organic vs. Engineered Growth

The rapid adoption of the social web, especially around social networks, has given marketers a unique opportunity to build vibrant online communities around a product, service, brand, or organization.   The process of turning that community into a self-sustaining and growing business asset remains the key challenge.  To meet this challenge, marketers must learn to strike a balance between so-called 'Engineered' vs. 'Organic' community development.   It is essential that a community have a clearly defined purpose and a number of goals to set the tone for the overall content strategy and member discussion.  Community managers must also work to enforce rules within the community to ensure that user generated content, discussions, and posts all meet an agreed upon terms of use.  The delicate balance exists when a community manager or marketing strategist begins to see the community take on a life of its own.  If all goes accordingly, the 'engineered' strategy may lead members of the community to interact and contribute as planned, but may only lead to slow and steady adoption. Community managers must then question whether there is a enough 'organic' growth within the community to really achieve critical mass. Creating a community that lacks a defined structure and purpose can lead to rapid adoption and growth. This type of community platform has a lot potential (Twitter for example), but if an organization were to try and brand this sort of community, they would surely lose control. 

Organizations and brands considering creating an online community need to understand how to orient the tools, content, and purpose of a community to establish both 'engineered' and 'organic' growth.  Most organizations choose to establish communities on easy-to-manage social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace etc.   Using these tools, organizations can achieve solid organic growth with already existing user bases, a number of unique features/functionalities, and limited financial commitment. So how does one implement some sort of 'engineered' growth mechanism into these already established networks?  One way would be to integrate Open ID technology within a branded URL.  This allows a brand or an organization to utilize the existing user base of social networks, such as Facebook, while also allowing the business to form the community around a centralized purpose.  

As an example I will use an interesting travel site, whereivebeen.com. This is an excellent social travel site giving users the ability to pin-point places they've traveled on a map, share those experiences with friends, read reviews of destinations, and much more.  The site is completely integrated with Facebook Connect allowing users to share via the existing social network.   As the site continues to gain momentum, something interesting has occurred within the community.  Much of the user generated content on whereivebeen.com generally serves as a travel log or diary for individuals, citing interesting things that happened to them in a location or with people they met along the way.  The site organizes these thoughts as travel reviews, but most of the time the comments do not actually review the location.  So why does this disconnect exist between their 'engineered' community strategy and the 'organic' growth its sustaining?

 

Users generally consider Facebook as a personal network of friends providing information on personal experiences.  Clearly this association and integration with Facebook has caused the user base to utilize whereivebeen.com as a part of their very personal social network experience.  This is a good example of a community which has really taken on a life of its own. It also serves as an important lesson for marketers considering building a community.  Marketers need to consider how people use networks such as Facebook or Twitter in their every day lives. They must also consider the existing user base of networks like Linkedin, MySpace, and Facebook. Building communities that embrace their intended use and audience, will most likely lead to rapid adoption.  The 'If you build it, they will come' mentality is quickly fading as more online communities continue to take shape and users begin to expect certain features/functionalities.  It will be those businesses who understand how to successfully engineer and organically grow their online communities that will be able to deliver on the true value of online community. 

Building Community Through Member Recognition

Many organizations and their customers are finding more value in branded online communities. As the web continues to become a social communication channel, this relationship-driven marketing strategy is beneficial for both the business and customer when executed properly. Communities can offer a member answers to questions, interesting content, access to like-minded people, and a direct line of communication, while providing a business with a sales & marketing channel and a group of potential brand advocates.  Communities can be built to fit the needs of the organization and utilized to accomplish a number of marketing objectives.  Today's continued use of social networks and community platforms gives marketers a unique opportunity to easily utilize a number of options to create a community. Organically growing that community into a valuable business asset remains the critical challenge. Communities tend to fail when they are unable to stimulate long-term interaction and participation among their own members. Communities can only grow in value when community members contribute, providing more content for users, information for marketers, and creating strong community ties along the way. Businesses must find ways to encourage interaction and strong participation if they want their community to flourish. 

Many organizations choose to embrace their online community by recognizing and rewarding individual community members. Recognizing members allows companies to establish a deeper connection with the community, creating a personal experience and a sense of ownership among the community. Recognition also encourages members to contribute better content more often. A few companies have proven to be successful at using member recognition programs to encourage interaction. 

 

Point-based systems can be used to encourage members of the communities to participate in forums, answer other member's questions, creating content, replying to a post etc.  Points can be accumulated and exchanged for incentives such as waving a community membership fee, gaining exclusive access to portions of the site, or earning prizes and discounts.   Microsoft's Silverlight Developer Community functions on a point based system allowing users to accumulate different numbers of points for different levels of engagement. The site even features a hall-of-fame listing top contributors and their point levels. 

The Experts Exchange community depends on it's point based system to generate the site's content. Experts Exchange is a knowledge-sharing platform in which community experts are awarded points for answering other member's questions about technology problems and solutions.  In this system, members actually grade the expert's work and points are awarded based on the number of points the question was worth (may be assigned a value up to 500) and the quality of the expert's work. Experts are recognized by earning free memberships and special year-end awards. 

 

Peer recognition occurs within online communities when members of the community recognize other influential members. MyStarbucksIdea.com is a good example of peer recognition.  Members of the site vote on their favorite product improvements and unique ideas in hopes that Starbuck's may actually implement the suggestion. Members who have ideas implemented are recognized not only by Starbucks but also the community as thought leaders. Others aspire to come up with that next 'best' idea and continue to participate with their own ideas. 

 

Member spotlights are becoming more common on blogs and member communities. This sort of member recognition can often be as simple as listing top blog contributors and commenters on the community landing page or newsletter.  Organizations can also host user generated content contests or challenges.  For example, H+M clothing partnered with Sims 2 for a clothing design competition. More than 1,000 aspiring fashion designers and fans of The Sims submitted designs online that were voted on by more than 100,000 people and viewed by more than 500 million people in six weekly fashion shows on Yahoo.com.

 

As the web continues to become a more social and interactive environment, it is important to remember that individuals seek social capital on the internet just as they would in real life. Building communities with this idea mind and incorporating member recognition programs will create the organic growth necessary to turn a stagnant online community into a valuable business asset.   

Windows 7 Launch Party!

Remember the days of college when theme parties were all the rage, with motifs ranging from funny and crazy to just good old fashioned fun? Microsoft recently just announced a new, rather unique, twist on the age-old theme party for the much-anticipated release of the new Windows 7 OS set to release on October 22. The initiative encourages thousands of employees, partners, and technology enthusiasts, to throw parties in their homes or communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about the new OS.   Microsoft is planning more than 1,000 parties worldwide, in hopes that around 10,000 people will attend in 12 countries, including the US, UK, Australia, India, and China.  

There are four themes for the party that official hosts can choose from: PhotoPalooza, Media Mania, Setting Up With Ease and Family Friendly Fun.  While some sound a bit more enticing than others, Microsoft is taking an extra step by providing hosts with a Party Pack which includes, Windows 7 playing cards, puzzles, streamers, balloons, napkins, a centerpiece, and 10 Windows 7 tote bags for party guests.  Not only will guests receive party favors, the hosts will be given an exclusive signature edition of Windows 7 Ultimate and non-employees will be entered into a drawing to win a $750 dollar PC.

The theme-party marketing initiative has already stirred up a good amount of buzz within the tech world. As mentioned in a recent podcast with Shel Holtz, the fact that Microsoft is launching Windows 7 in such a manner really suggests a strong vote of confidence for the new OS, which has received much more positive press than its predecessor Vista.  It remains to be seen if these parties will be a success given the strong consideration Microsoft will be giving the hosts.

The launch parties, which will be held between Oct 22-29, will definitely be something to keep an eye on. From the social media perspective, the initiative may be a very successful word-of-mouth marketing engine, that would generate a number of blog posts, reviews, and other user-generated-content which may either make-or-break the new Windows 7 OS.  If you're interested in throwing your own Windows 7 Launch Theme Party, sign up via the House Party site to be considered. Otherwise, sit back, watch and listen as Microsoft re-invents the “theme party” as we know it.  

What are your thoughts on the Windows 7 Launch Party initiative? Will Launch Parties re-invent the  user-experient around products, like software, and how they are marketed? If you are throwing your own Windows 7 Launch Party, I'd love to hear from you.

Crimson Social Media Marketing Approach

In the spirit of "if you get it, share it" we’ve decided to start publishing some of the approaches, methodologies and marketing strategies that we are doing in the Crimson Consulting Interactive Services group, for which I am the lead Partner. We’ve worked hard over the past few years at creating and refining some approaches we have used across both F500 clients and some startups - particularly around Social Media Marketing.

In many ways this goes against the traditional management consulting and agency practice of treating everything as proprietary, but if there is one thing I have learned in the new modern marketing environment, its that sharing your approaches has a lot of advantages. The feedback, recognition and collaboration we have received when we have done this is invaluable and I am hoping that as I publish some of our approaches that other people will share theirs also. As a result we can all learn from each other, what is working, what isn’t and what is still experimental.

 

Here is the first framework - its the basic approach that we use for planning Social Media Marketing initiatives:

Crimson Consulting Social Media Marketing Framework: A repeatable approach for planning social media marketing initiatives

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