Is it HIPAA-noia? A fear of lack of control? Whatever the reason, most medical marketers have been late to the social media party. All that, however, seems to changing according to a recent article on Portfolio.com: “This is new territory for medical marketing. Ten years ago, it was innovative if hospitals had websites. Now, medical institutions area tweeting, creating Facebook pages, making videos for YouTube and posting photos on Flickr.”
While we cheer this growing acknowledgement of social media as a marketing tool, we wonder about the effectiveness of most hospitals’ efforts as they “dip their toes into the water.” Are they building engagement? Are they forming communities? Are they advancing their brand and differentiating?
Media Logic is working with Atlantic Medical Imaging (a multi-site radiology/imaging practice based in New Jersey) to establish thought leadership, create engagement and preference among patients (and prospective patients) and referring physicians, and ultimately drive utilization. At the center of the strategic social marketing effort is a blog featuring information on the benefits of low dose radiology, a key differentiator for the practice. We also use Facebook and Twitter to create a fan base, encourage interaction and drive traffic to the blog.
Even though the effort has just recently launched, we have used “best practice” techniques we have learned through our work with highly regulated industries such as banking and insurance to build-in security while optimizing engagement. Here are three key elements we believe are important in using social media for medical practices.
Here at Media Logic, we’ve been busy working out social media for older adults…
In our recent work with Healthways SilverSneakers Fitness Program, we’ve discovered that older adults are readily embracing social media – to share health, fitness and life goals –by increasing engagement among a mature audience by twenty-fold in just a few months.
Through our recent work with Healthways SilverSneakers, Media Logic is proving the value of strategic social marketing for membership-based organizations. In partnership with us, SilverSneakers has employed a nimble social media content development strategy and our revolutionary social media management suite, Zeitgeist & Coffeesm, to enhance its engagement with members – increasing participation, fostering loyalty and stimulating new membership growth.
Watch as our conversation manager, Michelle, provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Media Logic and SilverSneakers are using social media as a marketing tool for collaboration and interaction with an active community of older adults.
Who owns social, anyway? It’s the question Pete Blackshaw asks in his insightful 4/12/2010 Ad Age article.
Blackshaw does a wonderful job highlighting the dualities and absurdities (not to mention clichés) that emerge in any discussion of social ownership. I think these dualities emerge because what we have in social is one of those “duck/rabbit” or “vase/face” optical illusions which delight and frustrate us because, although we can see both things easily, our brains won’t allow us to see both at the same time. “It’s a duck! It’s a rabbit! It’s a duck!”
It’s the same with social.
The social web is driving a revolution. But it is not the fact that we can now communicate with customers and prospects socially that defines this revolution. It is the fact that we can now collaborate with customers and prospects… as well as with business colleagues, marketing partners, and advocates socially.
In her excellent recent article for Advertising Age, Kunur Patel outlined the struggles big-name social media pioneers have faced trying to implement effective social media content creation and approval processes.
One of the companies, Ford, stumbled on something really remarkable.
