It’s mindboggling what happens each minute on the internet. Like 695,000 Facebook updates, 168 million emails sent, 694,000 search queries and 13,000 iPhone apps downloaded.
Business Insider revealed two infographics that indicate just some of the things that happen on the internet – every 60 seconds. Perhaps nothing is as invasive in our lives as the internet. It’s truly amazing!
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Posted by Jimmy Warren
A current trend for brands is to communicate a singular message across several demographic and cultural audiences instead of communicating different messages to different social cultures and demographics. 
For years, marketers have watched as America has become more and more culturally diverse. In response to this diversity, brands have looked at different demos and cultures and developed somewhat different marketing strategies for each. But as a result of the 2010 census, a new trend is being discussed and is emerging. It is being called cross-cultural marketing, aimed at a general market that is more of a mosaic than a melting pot.
Stuart Elliot, writing for the New York Times states that “cross cultural marketing is aimed at appealing across demographic groups to appeal to consumer similarities rather than differences. By contrast, traditional multicultural marketing is directed at specific demographic groups like Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, women, etc.”
For quite some time now marketers have grouped audiences into segments, which emphasized their differences. But now researchers and marketers are looking more to being cross-cultural and emphasizing those things the groups have in common. Advertisers no longer want different messages segmented and targeted to different audiences but fewer messages or maybe even one primary message that seek to appeal to the common traits among differing groups. It’s more of a mashup of cultures.
This has probably been the primary approach most healthcare marketers have always taken. Because there is a universal need for the products and services we provide, it’s easier for us to take a cross-cultural approach to marketing. But we have sometimes segmented markets and tailored our message specifically to these separate markets. It makes sense to seek those commonalities and similarities across various cultures and communicate a singular message. It certainly will make our brand stronger.
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Posted by Jimmy Warren
Overall, adults spend as much time on the internet as they do watching TV while younger adults spend more time on the web than TV.
For the first time, the amount of time adults spend on the internet and spend watching TV is equal - 13 hours each per week. Forrester recently conducted the survey and published the results. Brian Morrissey reported in Adweek that research has already indicated younger adults (18-30) already spend more time on the web than watching TV and now it’s true of 31-44 year olds too.
The losers in the survey were radio (down 15%), magazines (down 18%) and newspapers (down 26%). Continuing the trend of the last few years.
So for healthcare marketers, that begs the question if an equal amount of your advertising budget should be allotted to the web as to TV. Some argue the percentages of ad spend are way out of line and marketers are hanging on to better known traditional media way too much. And there is a tremendous opportunity for those who align their budgets to actual consumer habits.
Others argue in contrast, that television is still the most effective way to build and sustain a brand and that web advertising does not have the impact of television.
As Morrissey stated, one important factor to remember is that over a third of the hours consumers spend on the web are work related while practically all the time watching TV is for leisure and entertainment.
It is obviously true that adults are spending more time on the web and that time is now equal to the time they spend watching TV. But I’m not sure it’s time yet to spend as much of our scarce budget on web advertising as television. Television continues to prove that it is extremely effective building a brand. And when people watch TV they are truly engaged – and actually watching TV. But while they are on the internet, they are often at work or may be searching for specific information with restricts their attention to web advertising. They are more often “on a mission” when they are on the internet than when they are watching TV and thus less likely to notice ads. Sure, one can rightfully argue that people can leave the room or tune out the TV when there are breaks in programming. But research indicates that happens much less often than assumed.
For healthcare marketers, it’s important we take advantage of the opportunities available on the web. And as consumers spend more time on the web, it becomes even more important. It also seems logical to take some of the budget from mediums that are declining in audience share to accomplish this. But the time spent watching television has remained stable over the past 5 years and therefore it remains an extremely viable media option.
It’s an argument that will continue and healthcare marketers will continue to experiment to determine the media mix that is most effective.
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Posted by Jimmy Warren
But mistakes handled correctly can lead to stronger consumer relationships. 
There have been some pretty notorious mistakes that have raced across social media networks. BP’s response to the gulf oil spill dug a hole that they are still trying to crawl out of. Response in social media caused Gap to go back to its original logo within days of announcing a new logo. And one of the latest was Kenneth Cole’s twitter that the real cause of Egypt’s uproar was due to the announcement of Kenneth Cole’s new spring collection. The tweet was deemed insensitive, inappropriate and self-serving.
The latest snafu prompted Rupal Parekh in Ad Age to outline the “Seven Stages Of Committing A Social Media Sin”. And she indicated how quickly the stages occur within social space. Here are the seven stages she outlines:
1. Gaffe – some brand makes a critical mistake.
2. Outrage – public anger is expressed via the internet.
3. Apology – the brand realizes their actions are perceived very negatively and offers an apology.
4. Parody – unflattering imitations appear.
5. Humor – consumers go from criticizing the actions to making fun.
6. Indifference – nobody seems to care anymore.
7. Repeat – some other brand makes another snafu and moves to center stage of social networks.
One of the amazing things about this outline is that with the Kenneth Cole incident – it sped through all the stages within just 7 hours. A very short cycle.
The other amazing thing is that at the end of the cycle, the brand had 10% more followers than when the gaffe occurred.
So what can healthcare marketers learn? First of all mistakes happen. And sometimes they blindside you. Consumers sometimes react in very surprising and unexpected ways. But the most important thing to remember is quick, sincere, authentic responses is usually well received and will lead to dissipating the issue.
Healthcare marketers are not very likely to commit social media sins that will reach the magnitude of negative responses directed toward national brands. But the lessons learned still apply. Any gaffe that is addressed in social media, even if in limited local circles, can cause much concern and fear. But just as we have learned from national brands, timely, honest and transparent responses will reap positive results. In fact, they may provide the opportunity to improve our brand and build even stronger consumer relationships.
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Posted by Jimmy Warren
Jimmy Warren, President TotalCom Communications
Welcome to my blog, Marketing Your Hospital: Resources for best traditional and social marketing practices.
