Social Media for Healthcare

Healthcare Marketing: Day of Week and Time of Day Affects Social Media Engagement

Research indicates some days and times are better for launching social media campaigns.

As healthcare marketers we take great time and effort making sure our message is just right.  And we are careful to make sure we are using the correct media to reach our target audience.  But what about timing?

YesMail Interactive conducted a comprehensive three-month study of consumer engagement with online campaigns.  The research was summarized by John Loetsier in VB News.    The research of major retail brands conducting online social campaigns indicated most of the campaigns are deployed on Fridays.  But Tuesday is a better day for consumer engagement.  Fridays make sense because that’s when retailers try to reach consumers –before their weekend shopping.  But social media doesn’t work the same.  Maybe because consumers are shopping or doing weekend activities, Friday is not a good time for online engagement.   Too much clutter and a lot less engagement. Tuesday was a significantly more successful day than any other.  And, as you would suspect, Sunday offered the lowest level of engagement.

Another finding was the quantity of social media campaigns did not improve engagement.  In fact, the companies that had fewer campaigns had higher levels of engagement.

Not only is the day of the week important but also is the time of day.  The research indicated the time of day clearly affected the level of engagement but it varied based on the target audience.  For those brands trying to reach college students, the best time of day for a social media launch is between 10PM and Midnight Eastern.  Success depended on understanding when your potential consumers are most likely to be interested and engage with the information you are sending.  The key is to launch the campaign when it’s good for your target audience, not just when it’s ready or when it’s most convenient for you.

Although this research consisted of mostly retail brands, the take-aways are very insightful for healthcare marketers.  For those who conduct social media campaigns it would prove useful to know what days are better to initiate a campaign and to understand the target audience well enough to know what time of day they are most likely ready to engage in the campaign.  Your social media campaign is not something to get completed by the end of the week and send it out to get the task accomplished.  Success requires you to be much more thoughtful and deliberate.

Healthcare Marketing: 10 Social Media Mistakes

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.

Healthcare Marketing: 5 Ways to Ruin Social Media Campaigns

Sometimes we are our own worse enemy.  Oft-repeated mistakes prevent marketers from having social media success.

Healthcare marketers can never be sure their social media efforts will be successful.  But there are some common mistakes that will almost assure us that our social media campaigns will fail.

Writing for Advertising Age, Seth Simmons, social innovation director at Mullen identified five mistakes that will just about guarantee failure.

1.    Put your entire social budget behind a single platform.

If you want to drop kick your next social campaign, make sure to pick just one platform and treat the rest like disfigured orphans. You’ve seen the brands that put everything into Facebook and push links to their content on other platforms? That’s top-notch campaign killing right there. All for one and one for nothing.

2.    Ignore any strategy that doesn’t align with your gut instincts.

Given that most senior marketers on both sides of the table have very little time to stay abreast of best practices, let alone discover next practices, relying on gut instinct is a great way to hold a campaign under water until it stops struggling. Focus on how you feel about things and ignore the data. You don’t tweet so why should others?

3.    Leave legal and rights management until right before launch.

Talent negotiations can take months, so make sure to wait until everything is built and TV spots are back from the production company before you start asking why your campaign isn’t like Old Spice’s. That way you’re locked into a single piece of content with limited shelf life, so even if it does get 10 million views on YouTube, you’ll have to take it down after 12 months because your talent contract ended.

4.    Only use technology you’ve seen competitors use.

This is one of the best ways any marketer can drop at least $100,000 on something meaningless. That Facebook tab built 12 months ago by your competitor is a relic from a time when people actually looked at tabs. If lack of awareness is a result (as it is in crisis management sometimes), then you’ll drive tremendous results.

5.    Don’t listen to any feedback from anywhere, ever.

Of all the ways to ruin a social campaign, this is the most effective. Whether it’s feedback from an agency partner, a client, a vendor or consumers, toss it aside. And if you are forced to measure social, do it with a platform that makes pie charts about sentiment with a margin of error even an English major knows is too big. No marketer ever sets out to ruin a campaign, social or otherwise. But social campaigns continue to flatline. Why? Because great content is hard to create, insights are difficult to obtain, and the people with the power to change things seldom know how.

The opportunity lies in doing things differently. Invest in great content based on real insights and stay flexible. Things will break, tempers will flare, and you’ll finally stand a chance at having your brand do something awesome.

Marketers, please, please stop standing in the way of your own success.

 

Healthcare Marketing: TV Still Rules!

Over 90% of all TV viewing is still with viewers watching live television.

Despite the pervasive nature of the internet and the growth of online options for viewing television programming, 91% of television viewing is live on a television set.  A recent study by TVB, a TV-based marketing group for stations, indicates that 1.5% of TV viewing occurs online.  And only 7% is time shifted.  The remainder is live traditional TV viewing.

Research has shown that TV usage has actually grown 8% over the past two years and the study indicated television is still the media most influential in making purchasing decisions for adults 18+ at 37.2%.  Newspaper was most influential with 10.6% of those surveyed and the internet at a surprisingly low 5.6%

So despite all the talk of the demise of television as an effective advertising medium, research indicates exactly the opposite.  Online viewing and the use of DVRs and ad skipping have had a much smaller impact on consumers’ viewing habits than has been predicted.  Traditional television viewing is indeed strong and influential.  Healthcare marketers can still have confidence in investing dollars in television. Especially since it is still renders the largest influence of all advertising mediums.  Television is alive and well.

Another important finding was that 51% of adults stated a television commercial prompted them to go online for more information.

Again, research indicates the importance of integration and convergence.  As consumers regularly access not one, but two or three screens at once, its important that our marketing efforts are integrated and converge consistently over all mediums for maximum effectiveness.  While consumers watch television traditionally, it’s extremely likely they also have a laptop open and available as well as a smartphone sitting beside them, both for internet and social media use.   To have a presence and consistency over all components of these mediums can exponentially improve the effectiveness of each. And it can certainly build and enhance our hospital brand. 

Healthcare Marketing: Customer Service Expected Component of Social Media

Almost half of Facebook followers of your brand expect a customer service component.

Consumers are expecting brands to provide customer service options in their social networks.  A survey conducted by Oracle found that online users of social networks expect pathways to customer service from the social media site.  The expectations include click thrus to customer service departments and instant messaging.

Forty-six percent of Facebook users expected brands to provide customer service options through the social network.  Twenty-nine percent of blog followers expected customer service options compared to just seventeen percent of Twitter followers.

Not only do consumers expect customer service options, they also expect quick responses.   Over half of Facebook users and eight out of ten Twitter users expected responses within 24 hours or less.  Social media is always on and responses to concerns and issues are expected quickly.

The most common reason to follow or like a brand on social media networks is to have access to information.  The second most common reason is to access comments from other consumers.  And the third reason, at forty-three percent of the respondents, is to receive direct response to questions and concerns.

So as healthcare marketers become more active and engaged in social media, it’s important to provide customer service options as a key component to meeting consumer expectations.

As stated in eMarketer concerning this research, “the potential return for brands that stay engaged on social networks is significant.  Customers who have a great experience on social media can easily become brand advocates, and are already in the right place to spread the word.”

Healthcare Marketing: 15 Social Media Facts for Marketers

It’s a very strange irony that socialization is happening using computers.  And face-to-face interaction is conducted on Facebook.

In a presentation given at OMMA Social during Internet Week, and reported by Adrants. ComScore Media Evangelist Eli Goodman rattled off a plethora of juicy social media facts and figures. Here are but a few for you to digest.

  • 1.2 billion people access social networks on their computers.
  • One of every five minutes spent online is on a social network.
  • 1/3 of social network users are located in Asia Pacific. 
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  • Five of the most engaged markets for social networking are in Latin America.
  • Facebook has 55% global penetration. It is the third ranked site in the world for traffic.
  • One in seven minutes online are spent on Facebook.
  • Three in four of all social media time spent online is on Facebook.
  • There are only five markets in the world where Facebook isn’t the leading social network.
  • In January 2012, Facebook surpassed Orkut in number of users in Brazil.
  • Males over 55 are the fastest growing segment of social media users.
  • Women spend more time on social networks but men are catching up.
  • Digital Natives (15-24) have largest decline in email and IM usage.
  • One in four display ads are on social sites.
  • Five percent of all U.S. display ads are socially enabled.
  • Google Plus is the fastest growing social network reaching 25 million users in one month.

Consumers are socializing.  But it’s with a computer. The challenge is for healthcare marketers to discover how to join them there and engage them. It’s new ground.  It’s not an easy task.  We must continue to experiment, observe and learn. The task at times is daunting.  But the rewards could be substantial.

Healthcare Marketing: Face-to-Face with Facebook Advertising

Some brands are questioning if Facebook advertising actually delivers.

One in five clicks on the internet happen on Facebook.  Astonishing!  Is there any place that touches so many people?  No.  So if there is that many people on Facebook, then obviously that’s where we should advertise.  That’s what logic and common sense would tell us.   And therefore brands have rushed to get and maintain a presence on Facebook.

But as of late, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook.  There has always been skepticism about Facebook advertising but GM’s decision to pull the plug on $10 million of Facebook advertising has certainly brought the issue more to the forefront.   Although GM is in the minority, it certainly raises eyebrows.  Especially when GM gave the reason for their retreat being the inability to effectively track an ROI for Facebook advertising and the general belief that it was ineffective.

Some advertisers agree with GM and therefore don’t advertise with Facebook although they have a heavy Facebook presence.  GM in fact still devotes an estimated $30 million to building and maintaining a Facebook presence.  Others argue the problem is not Facebook but rather the strategy and execution of the Facebook advertising.

Another example is P&G’s Secret Deodorant’s anti-bulling campaign “Mean Stinks.”  Although P&G has a strong presence on Facebook it has bought Facebook advertising not during the build up but after the launch and strategic times since.

Others argue Facebook advertising is not good for brand building but only for specific promotions or offers.

All of these arguments have some validity.  So where does that leave healthcare marketers when considering Facebook advertising?  I think the key to success is to determine your objective and then gauge if Facebook advertising can deliver on that objective. 

Our agency has rarely used Facebook advertising for our healthcare clients strictly for image building.  I have my doubts about whether that is effective.  But we have used for Facebook advertising for events and specific services.  And have seen very good results.  We have targeted Facebook audiences who would be interested in a hospital’s special event and believe the advertising contributed to the event’s success.

More often, however we have used Facebook adverting for specific self-referral services.  We have used it quite often for such products as sleep services and spine centers.  In each case, from a landing page we offer a way for the consumer to request an appointment.  And those efforts have been successful. The financial investment is modest but we get direct click thrus with consumers requesting appointment.  And they come at various times during a 24-hour period. But most frequently late at night when a person is on their computer because they can’t sleep or their spouse’s snoring is preventing them from sleeping.  Or because their back pain is hindering their sleep.

Facebook is where the consumers are.  Hospital marketers should consider having a presence there for their brand and engage the consumer with meaningful and helpful information.  And Facebook advertising can be effective. But only with a well thought out objective and a solid strategy.   And just to be sure its worth the expenditures, make sure you can measure the response.

Healthcare Marketing: QR Codes Effective for Hospitals?

QR codes can be effective for healthcare marketing, but they have limitations.

They’re everywhere these days.  You see them often.  In magazines, newspaper ads, retail stores, on product packaging and in many unexpected places.  Quick Response Codes, better known as QR Codes, with the black and white patterned squares that can be scanned by a Smartphone to link to a web page, registration form, contact info, etc.  QR codes link print and the web and allows tracking of its use.  And they are becoming more and more prevalent.  Their use increased 1600% last year.

QR codes can be very effective, disseminating useful information to the consumer.  The code can provide additional information, show a video, provide a place to respond, offer surveys and many other creative uses.  QR codes have many positive attributes for healthcare marketers but also some limitations.  A listing of both are offered here:

Positive attributes

1.    Easy to create
2.    Basically free
3.    Can be printed on almost anything
4.    Can disseminate a large amount of information
5.    Provide information in a private setting

Limitations

1.    Not everyone has Smartphone…only 35% of population
2.    The linked website must be compatible with mobile platform
3.    Smartphone must be close to the QR code
4.    Phone must have the appropriate app to read the code

QR codes can be very successful for healthcare marketers.  But their use should be strategic.  It should fulfill a consumer need.  And it should be easy to use

Hospital Marketing: 7 Common Social Media Mistakes…And How To Fix Them

As healthcare marketers delve into social media, we have all kinds of fears and hesitancies.  To be more effective learn not to make these common mistakes.

Heidi Cohen, principal of Riverside Marketing Strategies posted the following blog on Smart Blog.  It’s a very good read:

Marketers are afraid of making social media mistakes. Even worse, they’re concerned their social media faux pas will balloon into a public relations nightmare. Get over it! In today’s always-on, connected world, issues can arise whether you’re participating in social media or not. So be a part of the conversation and engage, because when you have a problem, it’s too late to build your base. (And of course make sure that you have a PR crisis plan ready!)

Here are seven common social media mistakes marketers make and how to fix them.

1.    Fail to show respect for others on social media.

Take a lesson from the Godfather. Social media runs on old-fashioned good manners. Just because you work for a large company doesn’t mean that social media participants will automatically listen to you. Remember they’re thinking WII-FM (What’s in it for me?). Further, just enticing them with a special offer may not cause them to stay longer than necessary to make the purchase.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Listen to what your customers and the public are saying on social media platforms and respond where appropriate. To this end, it’s helpful to use social media monitoring products and to have customer service representatives prepared to respond via these channels.

2.    Use sanitized corporate-speak on social media platforms.

Social media requires a human presence. The absence of anything sounding remotely human, such as in one-way, one-to-many message broadcasting, hurts your organization. It means you’re only talking about your company and products. This me, me, me syndrome is how marketers miss the boat on social media.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Before pushing out your business-focused messages, listen to the conversation and realize it’s multi-directional, including many-to-many at the same time. Inwardly focused messages about your organization tend not to be where the interest and power are on social media platforms. Instead actively participate. The bottom line is you need to be and sound human! Consider what you can do for others.

3.    Shout buy, buy, buy on social media platforms.

This is akin to being a fast-talking sleazy salesman. While causing prospects to run in the opposite direction, it shows you don’t understand how social media platforms work. Instead, it’s important to pay-it-forward on social media platforms.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Change your tenor on social media networks. You can have one deal-of-the-day special where you push out a one-day-only offer the way Woot and Target do. (Check out Target’s site  on Twitter.) But the rest of your social media participation should contain at least 10 messages about others including your customers to every one message about your organization. To this end, it’s useful to create an editorial calendar of content you plan to share on various social media platforms.

4.    Build a social media following for one campaign.

Without understanding the ongoing nature of social media, marketers may build a social media base for one campaign without thinking about how to keep these participants engaged. I call this the LeBron James approach to social media. Basketball player LeBron James built lots of interest around which team he was going to join in July 2010. Instead of providing fans and followers with reasons to support his decision, he seriously made them angry.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Start by understanding the relationship nature of social media. Getting engagement for a one-time promotion translates to customers taking your deal and leaving. Use your promotion to build long-term relationships with your prospects. Create a plan for ongoing engagement and marketing to maximize your investment in the acquisition campaign.

5.    Forget to incorporate your brand into your social media engagement.

Organizations work hard to create and grow their brand. Branding should be integrated into every aspect of your social media interactions including your pages, interactions and content. It’s deeper than the colors you use or slapping your logo onto your avatar.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Examine your brand’s DNA and determine how you’ll translate the salient elements to social media interactions. Remember social media runs on content. Think in terms of your organization’s stories.

6.    Employ a college student who knows Facebook.

While it’s enticing to hire an inexpensive intern to handle your social media communications, it overlooks the importance, experience and maturity required of understanding your brand, organization and the public. Understand social media participants take exchanges seriously. Therefore, shouldn’t your organization put its best foot forward?

Actionable social media marketing fix: To this end, show that your firm is serious about social media by having permanent employees who know your organization, brand(s) and product(s) run your social media efforts. Create a set of social media guidelines and provide social media training for your employees so they understand how to represent your organization and what to do as private citizens.

7.    Are you opaque in your social media dealings?

Social media requires a level of transparency. This doesn’t mean you need to divulge your competitive advantage or financial statement. Your target market and social media participants want to know where you stand and what you’re up to.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Don’t just lurk on social media platforms. Create a profile that represents your organization and discloses your point of view. Ensure that your representatives are trained in social media and understand your business so that they can be transparent in their dealings without telling corporate secrets.

Face it: You’re going to make mistakes on social media. It’s an evolving platform and, while there are pathways to help you develop an effective marketing plan, none of them is guaranteed to have no problems. What’s more important is that you’re prepared to respond in today’s 24/7 world and how you handle your engagement.