Healthcare Marketing: 10 Social Media Mistakes

August 14, 2012

The worst-ever advice about social media

Russell Working wrote an article that appeared in HealthCare Communication News listing the ten worst tips about social media.  That list is here in its entirety.

1. Don’t bother drawing up a social media policy.

E. Blake Jackson, social media coordinator for Chesapeake Energy, once read a blog post by a “guru” which chastised companies with social media policies, saying they don’t get it. “I pray for the legal and human resources departments of his clients,” Jackson writes.

2. Put the intern in charge of social media.

Stephanie Johnson, director of public affairs at Advocate Health Care, says social media is essential, so “you need a team that is invested in staying on top of these changes and adapting new elements that may benefit your audience.”

Don’t pawn it off on the kids.

3. Try this gimmick, and you’ll win a flood of new Twitter followers overnight.

Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, says that “the followers you get organically will likely stay longer.” It’s also terrible advice to follow a whole lot of people on Twitter so that you can get followers in return, he says.

4. Ghost-tweet your CEO.

A word to the wise: Playing sock puppet with the CEO’s Twitter account can create trouble if said CEO doesn’t read the tweets in advance, says Tripp Frohlichstein of MediaMasters.

“This can lead to many problems ranging from views not really shared by the CEO to misinformation being distributed,” he says.

5. Insist that when you retweet without comment, it doesn’t constitute an endorsement.

“If you RT something, the third-party perception is that you agree with it, unless you specifically state otherwise,” says Arthur Yann, the Public Relations Society of America‘s vice president of public relations.

6. Avoid anything personal in your social media presence.

Someone once told Becky Graebe, corporate communications manager at SAS, “Don’t wish someone a happy birthday or tell them you’re excited about attending your child’s graduation if you want them to think of you as professional.”

Not so, she says. Social media lets users get to know one another and form relationships as they would if they lived next door to each other.

7. Automatically incorporate blog posts onto Twitter.

Jenny Leonard, editor of Futurity, notes a push to automatically link blog or newsletter posts to Twitter and Facebook.

“As a colleague once told me, ‘Automation is not social; it’s the opposite of social,’” she says.

8. Wait! Send everything to counsel first to prevent social media disasters.

Philip Ryan Johnson, adjunct professor of PR and social media at Syracuse University, disapproves of those who do this because “we definitely do not want to miss anything important.”

9. Insisting that because Groupon tripled your sales, you should do more such promotions—and offer even deeper discounts.

“Deals increase one-shot sales, and [those occur] among a large group of one-time customers,” Johnson says. “They also discount the actual value of products or services … and [this] has negative effects for the long-term.”

10. If you post it on YouTube, they will come.

The biggest mistake on YouTube “is that people will post a video and expect the magic to happen instantly. You really have to do some promotion of your content and make sure it’s authentic for your audience,” said one communicator who preferred to remain anonymous.

She added that “if you tried to persuade a friend to buy a product, you wouldn’t go ahead and shove the product in their face and say, ‘Hey, you should buy this.’ Then 10 seconds later, ‘No, you really should buy this,’ and talk endlessly about the features and benefits. It has to be genuine, and you have to get people to watch.”

Russell Working is a staff writer for Ragan.com. This story first appeared on PR Daily.

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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Hospital Marketing: Making the Case for Mobile

March 30, 2012

The facts are overwhelming when considering whether your hospital should go mobile.  The small screen is the place to be.

An astonishing fact: there are 48 million people in the world who have mobile phones but do not have electricity in their homes.  That shows the impact of mobile on our lives.  It’s estimated that the off-grid, on-net population will reach 138 million by 2015.

Ann Tracy Mueller posted on healthcarecommunications.com statistics showing the use of mobile is growing exponentially. Citing Kevin Roberts from a Cisco report in his Blogging Innovation site, the case is made for the impact of mobile and the need for healthcare marketers to be mobile-savvy and mobile-ready.

  • Global mobile traffic nearly tripled for the third year in a row in 2010.
  • Mobile video traffic will exceed 50 percent of all mobile data traffic for the first time in 2011.
  • In early 2010, iPhone use was at least four times higher than that of any other smart phone platform. By the end of 2010, iPhone use was only 1.75 times higher than that of number two, Android.
  • There will be 788 million mobile-only Internet users by 2015, up 56-fold from 14 million at the end of 2010.
  • There will be more than 7.1 billion mobile-connected devices in 2015, roughly equivalent to the world’s population by then (7.2 billion).

The numbers are staggering.  But they are understandable.  Think how much you use your mobile device.  How much you see the people around you using there’s.  How many people do you know who don’t have a mobile phone?  Probably not many.  The numbers are clear.  The stats are obvious.

As healthcare marketers, in the very least, we need to make sure our internet presence is mobile-friendly.  And we should be exploring ways to create and use mobile apps to market our hospital.  Information is being accessed from mobile devices, including information about one’s health.  We must make sure our health information and information about our organization and services are easily mobile-accessible.

Not convinced yet?  Here’s one more bit of information from Roberts that should remove any doubt about the need for our hospital to be mobile-friendly:

“The average smartphone will generate 1.3 gigabytes of traffic per month in 2015, 16 times more than the 2010 average of 79 megabytes per month.  Growth in the next five years will see global mobile traffic reach 6.3 exabytes per month by 2015. How big is that? It’s been suggested that every word ever spoken by human beings would equate to five exabytes. So six every month is a lot of chatter!”

 

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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Healthcare Marketing: 20% of Time Spent Online is with Social Networks

March 28, 2012

Social media sites reach 82% of the online population and Facebook reaches over ½ of the world’s population.

Social media continues to show amazing growth.  In “It’s A Social World”, ComScore has issued a report concerning the growth and impact of social media.  Without a doubt social media has become the most popular online activity.  In 2007 social media represented only 6% of online activity but that has now increased to 20%. Over 1.2 billion people globally use social media sites.

The report verified that women spend more than 30% more time online than men.  Social networking is no longer a young person’s activity as the participation now spans all age groups.   And Facebook now reaches 55 billion people, which is more than half of the world’s population.   Despite the hype for mobile access and marketing, it still captures just a fraction of the fixed-line connection.

The study just proves again the impact of social media.  The extensiveness of social networking.  But it does not answer, for healthcare marketers, the question of how to take full advantage of this massive audience.  Savvy healthcare marketers have experimented with some success.  But there are so many unanswered questions. We continue to learn and hopefully grow smarter.  But with limited resources and some of the limitations of healthcare marketing, it’s still a learning process.   There is still much to be explored as we attempt new tactics and new ideas.  Stay tuned….there will be much to come.

 

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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Healthcare Marketing: 5 Ways to Improve Your Hospital’s Brand

October 25, 2011

Your hospital will live or die by its brand.  What can help make your brand stronger?  Here are five tips to improve your hospital’s brand.

Here are excerpts from an article from Becker’s Hospital Review by Lindsey Dunn after interviewing Steve Rivkin, founder, Rivkin & Associates, a healthcare branding and communications consultancy, and co-author of Repositioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis (McGraw-Hill, 2010).

1. Think of your brand as a promise. A hospital’s brand is a promise of what the consumer should expect and how the hospital will perform.  Think about a brand in the same way as a person’s reputation. You earn a good reputation by doing the right thing, doing it well, and doing it consistently. And just like a reputation, a brand is a living entity — it evolves, and it is enriched or undermined by your actions.

2. Understand your strengths, weaknesses. Any hospital’s branding efforts should begin with an understanding of its market share, strengths, weaknesses and consumers’ perception and beliefs about its services. Consumer research should ask community members what they think is important when choosing a hospital, how the hospital is perceived and how it compares to competing facilities.  This research will reveal if the hospital is preferred, and if it isn’t preferred, will give some indication of why it’s not preferred.

Mr. Rivkin notes that consumer perceptions don’t always match reality, but it’s perceptions that influence volume.
It’s action first, communications second.  Eighty-five percent of changing a perception is what you actually do, and only 15 percent is what you say about it.

3. Differentiate. After identifying areas of strength and improvement, hospitals should determine what differentiates it from competitors and whether that point of differentiation is important to consumers. Potential differentiators include:

•    The patient experience— for instance, best customer service/patient satisfaction scores in the market;
•    Centers of excellence for specific service lines;
•    Heritage/history in a community;
•    Highest rated physicians;
•    Industry awards received (top hospital lists, Magnet status, etc.);
•    Newest technology/cutting-edge procedures; and
•    Widest range of services in market area.

4. “Sell” the brand to employees first. After determining how a hospital will position itself, hospital leaders should sell that identity or brand first to its employees. “Your workforce is a critical part of a branding program. Everything starts with your own people. Don’t expect to persuade the folks outside about much of anything, unless the people inside believe it first.”

5. Market the brand and connect it to the bottom line. After gaining buy-in from employees, hospitals should take their branding messages to the public through public relations efforts, advertising, direct marketing and other methods. Hospital marketers should be careful to quantify the results of all efforts.  Measuring return on investment will direct hospitals toward the most effective marketing tactics.

Your brand is one of your hospital’s most valuable assets.  Great attention should be given to its care. The stronger the brand the more successful your hospital will be.

 

 

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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Healthcare Marketing: Are We Taking Ourselves Too Seriously?

March 31, 2011

Some of the great advertising of the past would never pass muster today.  

I know in healthcare marketing we rarely get to be funny.  And certainly not edgy.  Maybe clever at times.  And sometimes cute.  But never outrageous.  So this is not written to healthcare marketers who almost always have to err on the side of safety.

But two recent incidents lately have really made me think we are living in a world that is far too sensitive.  And because of it, we have to be bland to be widely accepted and approved.  Now I don’t believe we should be insensitive.  But sometimes criticism of advertising just goes too far.  At least that’s my opinion.

There are many examples that could be sighted but here are two recent ones.  Diet Pepsi introduced a new “skinny can” during Fashion Week in New York.  The new can is tall and skinny.  From a marketing perspective it seemed very appropriate for a diet drink.  But apparently I’m wrong.  Critics have strongly chastised Pepsi for reinforcing dangerous stereotypes that women must resemble beanpoles to be attractive.  Now I agree that a woman doesn’t need to be skinny to be attractive.  And to promote such an idea is wrong.  But packaging a diet drink in a skinny can is over the line?  Isn’t it just good marketing?

The other example I will cite is an ad for the New Zealand Police Department.  They needed to attract young recruits to the force.  And an advertising agency came up with an all type ad with this head, “We’ve Got a Lot in Common With Cougars.  We Like ‘Em Young Too.”   An ad that very cleverly makes a singular point. A message that would be sure to resonate with the target. But it received heavy criticism and has been banned.  Now I admit the ad is provocative.  But it’s also clever and effective.  Is this over the line too?  Can we not be clever anymore? Can we not use commonly used slang words from our culture in our advertising?

Maybe I’m all wrong but I still believe clever, funny advertising is good.  I readily admit that sometimes, advertisers do go over the line.  Sometimes ads are harsh, rude and inappropriate.  But it seems special interest groups are drawing that line way too close to boring and bland.  There is no longer room for good marketing savvy.

It makes me think that many of the great ad campaigns of the past would receive heavy criticism today, as they would be interpreted in light of people’s colored glasses and extreme sensitivities.  I never want to be vulgar or create anything I wouldn’t want my children to be exposed to.  I never want to be insensitive to groups of people.  But I still want to create advertising that cuts through the clutter, that communicates, that makes someone notice. And yeah even makes them laugh sometimes.


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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Healthcare Marketing: Why Aren’t We Seeing More Traditional and Social Media Integration?

March 30, 2011

Traditional and Social Media should be integrated, sure. How much has been written and said about integration of traditional and social media?  How often have we been told integration is essential and is the   true test of effective advertising today?  Most healthcare marketers have struggled with this and have wrestled with ways to integrate the two. Some of us have made attempts at it but generally we haven’t been that successful.

Well healthcare marketers aren’t the only ones.  Even on advertising’s largest stage, the Super Bowl, integration did not occur. With all the talk about the necessity of integration you would think Super Bowl spots would have been loaded with such.  But not so.  Basically the only integration was the listing of a website or Facebook URL.  That’s it.

Lightspeed Research indicated almost two-thirds of 18-34 year-olds planning to watch the Super bowl have smartphones and intended to use them during the game.   Of those, 59% were planning on sending emails or text messages about the game, while 18% planned on checking out ads on their phonies.  With over 106 million watching the game there was a tremendous opportunity to forge new relationships.  The opportunity was missed.

Ian Schafer in a recent article in Ad Age discussed the irony of the situation.   Brands who ran ads in the Super Bowl, looked to social media to gauge their audiences’ reaction.   They carefully monitored how many views the spots received on YouTube, checked what was tweeted about their ads and monitored Google alerts for mentions.   While depending on social media to tract reaction, they failed to integrate social networking into their ads. In fact, practically every ad could have been aired prior to Al Gore’s invention of the internet.

Part of the reason is that’s it’s difficult to integrate the two in :30 secs.  Especially when you are being judged for creativity.  It’s difficult to get high marks for creativity when you take precious seconds to integrate social media. You can make an impression in :30 seconds but it’s difficult to start a relationship much less build one.

Yes, we should explore ways to integrate social media and traditional media. But don’t be so discouraged because, as healthcare marketers, we haven’t done such a great job with it.  Despite all the talk, the largest, most powerful brands in the world generally haven’t mastered the art (or science) of it either which says marketers are still trying to discover effective methods of integration.  We all agree it’s what we need to do, but finding effective and creative ways to accomplish it isn’t easy. Especially when we are being graded on creativity, immediate impact and instant effectiveness.

So we are not the only ones who are struggling to find ways for successful integration.  The big boys are too.  We all have to watch and experiment and learn.  The talk of the “experts” is good.  Their philosophy makes perfectly good sense.  We all agree.  But it will take time and experimentation to do it in practice.


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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Hospital Advertising: Creative and Effective Ads are Not the Same

February 18, 2011

The ultimate goal of our advertising efforts is to provide information that will ultimately lead to more sells.  

The results are in.  It’s the talk of the advertising community.  The most liked spot in this year’s Super Bowl was a spot featuring a little Darth Vader.   You know the spot.  The five-year-old boy who’s dressed like Darth Vader wanders around the house trying to conjure up The Force to help him.  He has no success until he goes outside and calls on The Force to affect his dad’s car.  And to his surprise The Force is finally with him and the car comes to life.  Of course the viewer sees The Force is actually his dad using the car’s remote ignition button.

It’s a great commercial.  It was ranked as the most liked by Nielsen research.  It has created a tremendous viral following having been viewed on YouTube over 10 million times.   And it has been one of the hottest topics on Twitter and Facebook.  What a success!  But was it?

Do you remember the brand of the car?  The model?  Did it impart any information?  Did it sell anything?  Bob Garfield pointed out in an article in Ad Age that the vast majority of the conversation in social media was about the ad but not about the car.  So was it a great commercial for the brand?

David Ogilvy said, “I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.  If it doesn’t sell, it’s not creative.” And there has to be some truth to that principle.  What did we learn about the car in the adorable spot?  That it has a remote ignition system?  Now that’s old news in the car industry.  That is hardly an advantage.  What else did the spot tell us?

We have to be careful we don’t make the same mistake in hospital advertising.  We need to communicate information.  Useful information.  Information that heightens the brand.   Selling is not a bad thing.  After all it is what all our advertising and marketing must ultimately accomplish. It’s not enough to be adorable.  We must sell.

The spot most liked in the latest Super Bowl could have been for any product.  Insert any brand you like.  Yes it’s well liked.  It has become a viral success.  But is that really what Volkswagen wanted to accomplish for its Passat?  If the American consumer remembers who the spot was for maybe they will rush out and buy one.  But then again probably not.

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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Healthcare Marketing: Most Popular Ads Not Necessarily Most Effective

February 17, 2011

A list of most liked commercials that aired in the Super Bowl was very different that the commercials with most recall.    

This year, like every year, there was much anticipation for the spots that would air during the Super Bowl.   A lot of talk and fanfare.  And certainly a lot of money spent by the advertisers who paid over $3 million per spot.   Not only do we look forward to viewing the latest collection of creativity for some of the world’s largest brands, we are also interested in seeing how the spots fared with the viewers.

Nielsen always conducts research immediately after the game to test the commercials.  This year two of the things they tested were likeability and recall.  And that’s where it got interesting.  Because the two lists were very different.  In fact, the top three most liked spots did not even make the top ten list for most recalled.  And even more confusing, only one spot made both lists.

Surprising indeed!  What does this say?  I think it says we can sometimes create advertising that’s clever, cute, funny, creative and well liked but never make a connection to the brand. And when that happens what have we accomplished?   This can also be true about the many creative award shows.  You’ve seen it.  Judges grant top honors to ads that are highly creative but upon further review communicate little or nothing about the product or the brand. They are creative competitions and beauty pageants and it’s so nice to be honored for great work.  But many times these very ads that are highly decorated never progress the brand.

In healthcare advertising we can make the same mistake. We can create cute, warm, emotional ads that never sell anything.  Sometimes we can win awards for such creativity but we haven’t sold anything.  We haven’t increased market share at all.  This is not to be critical of creativity.  I have written many times about the need for creativity in our healthcare advertising.   Without it, we seldom get seen or heard.  But creativity alone is not the answer either.

Effective advertising occurs when our creativity is used to actually sell a product or service or advance the brand.  When it’s used to effectively position the brand, to build a strong relationship to the brand.   When it increases market share.

And that is the challenge for all of us in healthcare marketing.  To create advertising that breaks through the clutter and has high notation.  But what it communicates is not just creativity but the benefits of a service line or brand.  It should be advertising that communicates rationally and emotionally and actually moves the needle.

Yeah it’s nice to be recognized for creativity.  But the real satisfaction comes when that recognition is more than an award, it’s recognition for advertising that actually works!


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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Healthcare Marketing: 10 Tips for More Effective Social Media Marketing

February 15, 2011

Scientific research indicates that certain proven strategies can enhance social marketing efforts.

Healthcare marketers are striving to improve their social media efforts.  There are a lot of varying strategies espoused, making it difficult to know which ones are most effective.  Social networking is certainly not a proven scientific endeavor.   There are some basic competencies required, but it also involves some degree of art, intuition and luck.

Dan Zarrela describes himself as an award winning social, search and viral marketing scientist.  He is the author of several books and numerous articles about social media.   He is a noted student of social marketing and is recognized as a knowledgeable expert.

Zarrela posted an article discussing how to make social marketing more scientific. His points are excellent and are the basis of the ten tips listed below:

1.  Experiment with different strategies to discover what works. Conduct your own research.  Try different things and learn what is most effective for your hospital.

2.  Audience size is important. Certainly you want a quality audience but quantity is very important.  Hospitals need engaged followers but also need a large number of them.

3.  Find and target your influencers.  Among your fans/followers there are key influencers.  Usually it’s those who were early adopters of social media.   Extra attention and care should be given to them.

4.  Bigger and louder works – to a point. It’s possible to yell over the social media clutter but only for a limited time.   If you yell too much, you will be tuned out.

5.   Personalize the conversation with your audience.   Make it personal and authentic.  Everyone likes hearing his or her name. And to be the center of attention. Know that!  And use it to your advantage.

6.  Avoid link fatigue.  Don’t wear your audience out with too many links.  Your audience will grow tired and lose interest.

7.  Make your brand cool. I know that’s somewhat difficult for hospitals but find ways to help your audience improve their reputations and status by being associated with your brand.

8.  Avoid information voids. Rumors and misperceptions form when there is a lack of information.  Always get out in front of every potential crisis.

9.   Don’t talk too much about yourself. Take it easy on yourself.  No one wants to be engaged in conversation with someone who talks about himself all the time.   How boring is that!

10.  Use call-to action.  As is true with every type of marketing, you ultimately want your audience to take action. Compel your audience to do so.  And make it easy for them to do so.

Healthcare marketers are  still learning when and how to do social marketing effectively.  And we are learning more and more everyday.   Trial and error and experimentation will teach us a lot.  But learning from those who  have experience and who are avid students of social media can certainly improve our learning curve. That’s why tips listed here are so very helpful.

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Posted by Jimmy Warren

Healthcare Marketing: Moms Have Changed… Has Our Marketing?

February 14, 2011

Today moms are older and more likely to be Hispanic and single.  And because of that our marketing to them has to change.

A key segment for healthcare marketers is women.  Women who are giving birth.  Women with young children.  And today this segment of the market is very different than they were just a few years ago.

In 1970 one in a hundred births were to women 35 and older.  Today it’s one in twelve. According to the National Center for Healthcare Statistics that continues to decline with the number of births falling another 2.6% last year.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports the medium age of marriage for women is now 25.9 years old compared to 22 years old in 1980. But marriage is becoming less of a prerequisite for having children.   Everyday Health cites that almost 40% of births were to unmarried women.  And unlike what one may think, only 23% are to teenagers.    Women in their 20’s made up 60% of unwed mothers and 17% were women in their 30s.  Just 64% of moms are married – leaving over one-third of moms as single.

Additionally, one in four births are to women who are Hispanic. The number of Hispanic births has risen 95% since 1985 while the births of non-Hispanic women has fallen 3%.  A full 20% of moms in the U.S. were not born or raised in this country.

Very interesting stats.  And especially interesting to healthcare marketers.   Traditional stereotypes of moms are basically out the window now.  The faces of moms have dramatically changed and this impacts how we market to moms and potential moms. Who we need to reach and what we need to say is changing. Mediums, tones, styles and content should be re-examined. According to the Marketing to Moms Coalition 42% of moms found ads to be ineffective and 28% found ads directed to moms as fully unappealing!

This creates a tremendous challenge to healthcare marketers.  We have to be sensitive to the changing landscape.  We have to explore new and different ways to speak to these moms.  Their needs are different.  Their perspectives and attitudes are different.  And our marketing should also be different.


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Posted by Jimmy Warren

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