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Listening via Social Media Tools for the Healthcare Marketing Manager

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Seems like we have mentioned this before but a conversation with a client the other day reminded me that the art of marketing and promoting our healthcare organizations is really an endless task that can always, always be improved upon.

And the first place is almost always with the source – the patient or the referring physician, whoever you consider your customer. There are formal methods for obtaining good information about your customer’s wants and needs, i.e. surveys, physician relation liaisons, but let’s take a quick look at some informal methods that are easy to initiate right now.

Social media tools allow for listening in an informal method. This kind of surveillance can help you be more nimble and lead you to a greater awareness of new trends or provide market insight that can help you navigate your outreach.

Listening can involve paying attention to your brand (or your competitors’) as it is mentioned in on-line conversations. You most likely have set up a Google Alert for specific words and names to help you keep track of mentions. If you haven’t yet done that, go to Google Alert and get started. You can also set up a Twitter alert in the same manner with TweetBeep or use Twitter search for another great listening device. Both are free just like Google Alert. With these search tools, you can capture what is being said about you or your brand on Twitter and in many online conversations.

You may have alerts set for your organization’s name but also consider more generic key words that you are interested in hearing about, i.e. “physician relations,” “oncology,” “wound center” or “healthcare marketing.” You can set up as many alerts as you choose and they can be formal names (your brand name, your competitor’s brand name, a specific physician’s name etc.) or key words or phrases.

There are a variety of services, free and premium that you can access to help you listen more closely. Social Mention scan blogs, forums and such for your key words or brand name while BackType provides other social media listening devices.

Monitoring the alerts is only half of the process of listening. Once you get beyond brand reporting, you need to consider the more complete context of the conversations. What drives the conversation? Is there a need or a frustration? To get a more complete picture of your patients’ needs or how best to improve or promote your healthcare services, you will want to be more in touch with the overall conversation that is happening about the particular medical service you provide. Scanning is worthwhile but make sure you a deeper sense of what the conversation is about.

Tags: brand alerts, listening, on-line tools
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More Social Media Examples – Medical Practices

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

What are physicians doing with social media? Physicians are exploring various forms of social media to communicate with each other and with their patients. Let’s see specifically how physicians are using blogs (akin to a practice newsletter), Facebook and Twitter.

Blogging

One of the more popular physician bloggers with over 20,000 RSS subscribers is Kevin Pho, a board-certified Internal Medicine physician in New Hampshire. His blog provides a running commentary on what is happening in the medical world. KevinMD.com describes the blog’s intent, “With health care at the forefront of the American mindset, patients often have no idea what goes on behind the scenes of medicine today. I aim to pull that curtain back.”

Some of Dr. Pho’s recent posts have the following titles:

How Connected Are You to Your Primary Care Doctor?

Mid-levels for Primary Care, But Not for Surgery

Op-ed: Not All Screening Tests Lead to Early, Better Treatment

Facebook

Advantage Primary Care Physician, a South Carolina medical practice uses Facebook to communicate with their patients the very basics about their practice and its location and hours.

Eastside Primary Care and Wellness, a Washington practice, takes their Facebook page further and provides on-going health update reports and videos. As a primary care practice, they take the opportunity to educate their “fans” on the role of a medical home. A recent update:

MEDSPA EVENING AT OUR CLINIC!!!! This Friday, May 8th… 5:30PM-8:30PM… Wine and appetizers… door prices and discounted pricing… RSVP 425.467.1314

Another example is Care Practice that has the following informational blurb on their Facebook page:

Care Practice is both an Urgent Care and a Primary Medical clinic dedicated to serving the community through personalized and timely medical visits. The clinic is located at 508 A 14th Street in the heart of the San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Neighborhood.

Care Practice started in September 2008 with a mission to break down the growing barriers put between doctors and patients in the current health care setting and reinstitute transparency and affordability to medical costs. The location and atmosphere of the clinic also reflects a strong desire to bring doctors out of the medical office building and the hospital complex and back to the neighborhoods where they belong.

We offer 24/7 Urgent Care and House Call services with an On Call Doctor available after hours and on weekends to meet patients that require Urgent Care services.

They also have interactive exchanges on their site with information about H1N1 and patient feedback such as this recent post:

Hi – just thought I’d add a post. My husband Lawrence and I recently became patients of Care Practice. I found them through a Google search, on a Saturday, during what was a horrible time for us both – our long-time doctor had suddenly closed up shop and disappeared with no referral or notice.
Dr. Blackledge came in on his day off (sorry to out you, Dr., I don’t want to set up any unrealistic expectations!) – and saw Lawrence. The office is lovely, the office manager is sweet and very kind, and Dr. Blackledge treated us with respect and dignity. It was by far the most positive experience I’ve had with a medical professional.
I can’t say enough about this clinic, and Dr. Blackledge -if you read the mission statement above, you can get an idea of what they’re about, and it’s not P.R. B.S.. They care about their patients. They don’t waste your time, but more than that, they’re willing to spend time, and they listen. Care Practice is fantastic – can’t recommend highly enough! – Sarah

Twitter

There are many ways to use Twitter. A physician and Twitter enthusiast wrote in a recent blog post, How Physicians (Should) Use Twitter. In his post, Dr. Lara categorizes the three main applications of Twitter for physicians. He provides specific examples for 1) Information Collection, 2) Information Sharing and 3) Communications Regarding Direct Patient Care.

Dr. Gwenn is Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Pediatrics Now who also has a blog and tweets. A recent post from Dr. Gwenn:

Video passed on FB by @doctor_v http://tinyurl.com/q3yulv “ode to Jenny McCarthy from Measles,Mumps,Rubella”. (someone pass this to Oprah!)12:16 PM May 15th from web

Twitter can be used as a remarkable listening tool. If you are not ready to put yourself or your practice persona out, consider finding out what others are doing and thinking. There are some very good patient advocates on Twitter who deftly articulate the experience and feelings of patients. Check out ePatientDave and TrishaTorrey.

Tags: communication tactics, health care social media, marketing tactics, practice marketiing, promotion
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Some Health Care Social Media Examples (hospitals)

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

In my last post, thanks to the Pew Survey Data, we know that many people are on-line and engaging in a variety of activities. Some of the activities include simple searches and project/service investigation while others are engaging in social media. Organizations have to decide if they are going to enter into this conversational mode and how they will meet their objectives.

In this post, I just want to provide some examples of what some health care organizations (mostly hospitals) are doing:

The American Cancer Society is on Twitter (@AmericanCancer). Their updates center on the latest cancer news and research. You can also catch the Lance Armstrong Foundation on Twitter (@livestrong). Cancer survivors are sure to follow LiveStrong and discuss and celebrate their news.

Many hospitals and health systems also are on Twitter. Some provide health updates. Here is an example from Beth Israel Deaconess (@healthwithbidmc) in Boston:

HealthwithBIDMC:

Obama Administration May Recommend 3 Flu Shots for Americans This Fall. http://bit.ly/103yfdabout 23 hours ago from web
Swine Flu Likely to Return to U.S. Next Winter. http://bit.ly/r6rq0about 23 hours ago from web

Henry Ford Hospital is experimenting with various social media outputs – they recently transmitted the robotic procedure for the removal of a cancerous bladder by satellite to the International Robotic Urology Symposium and they also provided updates on Twitter. Physicians “tweeted” directly from the operating room in a detailed description of the procedure. Physicians also answered question “tweets” about the surgery. The hospital indicated they hoped to provide awareness of the hospital’s new surgical capabilities

The Henry Ford health system has utilized YouTube and podcasting as well, offering medical advice, educational updates and a variety of health information.

Some organizations are experimenting with FaceBook accounts. Scripps Health in California has a Facebook account where they provide information about their organization and health tips. Here is a recent post:

Sneak peek! See the online version of the Scripps 2008 Annual Report, complete with video. This year’s edition, “A New Era of Medicine,” focuses on the many exciting medical advancements that Scripps employs or is helping to develop.

Mayo Clinic’s penetration into social media was recently detailed in the Star Tribune:

These days, Lee Aase of the Mayo Clinic is a walking, talking, blogging, Twittering, Facebooking, YouTubing force who’s blasting Mayo into the social networking world faster than you can say “Mayo Brothers.”

Aase says Mayo is simply spreading its reputation as it always has: through word-of-mouth. In fact, Mayo spends very little on advertising. It has had the same logo — three overlapping blue shields symbolizing research, education and clinical practice — for years.

The Web, however, seemed a natural move to Mayo executives. “As we see people communicating in new ways, we want Mayo Clinic to be part of the conversation,” said Dr. Thoralf Sundt, chair of Mayo’s marketing committee. “We know the conversations are happening out there. This is a chance for us to join.”

Does any of this actually get patients in the door?

Several patients with rare diseases have told their doctors at Mayo they came after watching another patient’s video on the Sharing Mayo Clinic blog. But numbers are hard to pin down, Aase said. What he does know is people are watching.

What this produces in patients and revenue remains to be seen, said Bevolo. But since Web tools are free, he added, “the risk of it is so little.”

In my next post, we will look at what medical practices and physicians are doing in the social media realm.

Tags: communication tactics, connecting, health care marketing, health care marketing tools, health care social media, promotion, relationship development
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Social Media Use in Hospital Marketing

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Thanks to Ed Bennett, a web manager and creator of “Found in Cache,” we can see exactly which hospitals are involved in social networking and what tactics they are employing. Ed’s statistics for April 19, 2009 show the following hospitals in the United States that are taking advantage of some sort of social networking tool:

• 240 hospitals using some sort of social media
• 129 YouTube channels
• 88 Facebook pages
• 155 Twitter accounts
• 23 Blogs

Since there are over 5,000 hospitals in the United States, it is fair to say that the 240 currently involved with social networking are the early adopters. They are taking advantage of the opportunities and experimenting.

Just who is on-line and why should a hospital or medical practice enter the social networking culture?

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project December 2008 Tracking Survey:

Age Groups	18 – 32	33 – 44	45 – 54	55 – 63	64 – 72	73+
Use Internet	87%	82%	79%	70%	56%	31%
Use Social Networking sites	67%	36%	20%	9%	11%	4%
Create Social Network site Profile	60%	29%	16%	9%	5%	4%
Read Blogs	43%	34%	27%	25%	23%	15%
Get health Info	68%	82%	84%	81%	70%	67%
Research products	84%	84%	82%	79%	73%	60%

In March, 2009, according to compete.com unique visitor traffic at the following sites looked like this:

Facebook 91,054,535
MySpace 55,594,761
Twitter 14,031,985

The numbers above are national but do provide a sense of the volume of online traffic. Based on the volume of younger adult use, it might make sense to start utilizing social networks by having a sports medicine or birthing/maternity “presence.” Use social network sites as a tool that integrates with traditional promotion tactics – not as a substitute – at least not until you are able to measure your reach and penetration.

Before you embark on the social networking element of your outreach, consider how social media should fit in with your overall strategy. Just because it is a fun, new tool doesn’t mean you forget about employing basic marketing analysis. Consider the outcomes you are hoping to obtain and plan backwards.

Once you have made a plan and have set some targets, you are ready to begin. Keeping in mind, you already have a full plate and plenty to manage makes adding something new a little scary. Start small and keep it simple. You will encounter naysayers, so work hard to prove your concept and support your work with solid data. As you become more comfortable and develop your metrics, you will be able to layer in new elements.

My next post will profile how some organizations are using social media.

Tags: health care marketing, health care social media
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