Lori Moore

Healthcare Marketing: 6 Recommendations for a Social Media Policy

The National Labor Relations Board issues guidelines for social media in the workplace. 

The NLRB may not be the ultimate authority on social media for healthcare marketers but their recommendations can be very helpful.  After reviewing social media policies of businesses, they discovered that many businesses were risking infringing on employee free speech and labor rights and issued guidelines and recommendations.

Mikal Belicove reported some of the agency’s findings in an article for Entrepreneur.  Here are six recommendations that should guide a hospital’s social media policy.

1.    Know and follow the rules. 

Employees should be encouraged to read and understand the social media policy.  The policy should clearly indicate what is not appropriate and what will not be tolerated in regard to the use of social media.

2.    Be respectful.

The policy should state that employees are expected to be “fair and courteous to fellow associates, customers, members, suppliers or people who work on behalf of the employer.”

3.    Be honest and accurate.

Never post anything based on rumor or assumption.  Make sure all posts are accurate and true.

4.    Post only appropriate and respectful content

Always be respectful and maintain confidentiality.  Never represent yourself as a company spokesperson or speak for the company unless specifically authorized.

5.    Use social media at work for only work related activities.

Don’t use company equipment and time for personal messaging.

6.    Don’t engage the press.

Don’t speak to the press or engage the press in any social media activity without prior approval.

Certainly this is not an exhaustive list for a social media policy but it’s helpful in regard to what’s permissible without restricting employees’ work-related rights.

Healthcare Marketing: Social Media… “Take my advice.”

The number one piece of advice offered by marketers about social media is “Build relationships.”

As healthcare marketers continue to engage consumers with social media, it’s always good to heed the advice of others.   Regina Wood conducted an online poll on LinkedIn of 300 marketers and asked what’s the most important piece of advice they had for social media.  The results were published in Healthcare Communication News.

The results were:

  • Build relationships with your followers (57 percent)
  • Have a personality (20 percent)
  • You can’t control your message (7 percent)
  • Have a crisis plan in place (6 percent)
  • Other (9 percent)

And some other pieces of helpful advice the respondents shared:

1. “If you don’t have anything valuable and positive to say, don’t.”

2. “You can never take it back!”

3. “Be consistent—don’t just tweet or post for a couple of days and then decide it doesn’t work for you!”

4. “Use social media for professional purposes only. Keep personal specifics to a minimum so you’re never embarrassed by anything on internet.”

5. “Good manners will serve you well in your interactions.”

6. “If your post has any potential to embarrass you at all—no matter how infinitesimal—it will; the Internet is forever.”

7. “Set a time limit.”

8. “Don’t venture out until you’ve tidied your room. In other words, your company website needs to be in good enough shape so that when you’re out there drumming up attention for yourself on social media and people come looking, your site gives them a reason to stay.”

All of these are handy pieces of advice.  Let the wise take notice.

Healthcare Marketing: Five More Social Media Mistakes

Social media mistakes damage reputations and brands.  Learn from the mistakes of others.

Although not specifically directed to healthcare and hospital marketers, an article written by A.J Ghergich, CEO of Authority Domains, and appearing in SmartBlogs from SmartBrief offers some very helpful comments about mistakes brands involved in social media should avoid.  The article is repeated here in its entirety.

Imagine you built up a vast social media following — but because of one small oversight, your reputation started to crumble right before your eyes. Sadly, this scenario is not that farfetched, because some businesses leap into the social media arena without understanding how to maintain a relationship with their customers while avoiding some obvious pitfalls.

By studying some mistakes by other companies that have resulted in negative exposure, you can learn how your business can avoid a similar fate. Here are five easy-to-avoid mistakes.

  • Being crass about current events. Last year, designer Kenneth Cole used the publicity of an international crisis in Cairo to post about his products. He even used the hashtag #Cairo to try to build buzz and reach others who were searching for tweets on the crisis. The reaction was so strong that you won’t find Kenneth Cole’s old Twitter account anymore. It has been replaced. Reacting to current events can be plus for your brand, but consider how some people might react if it looks like you’re trying to capitalize on a very serious situation. Be respectful and tread lightly when talking about current events. Take a minute to put yourself in another person’s shoes and ask how your post could be perceived. It’s possible that if Kenneth Cole had taken a few extra minutes to think through his tweet, he may have decided not to publish it.
  • Getting too personal. Be careful when posting personal content, whether or not you feel it is valuable. Your customers consider your social accounts the face of your brand. Bob Parsons, Go Daddy founder, posted a video of his trip to Zimbabwe on his blog. In the video, Parsons told the audience how he kills elephants because they damage crops, which endangers the lives of the starving locals. After Parsons published the video, the media outlets ran with the story, and some customers boycotted Go Daddy and its services. Though Parsons explained the story in more detail, the damage had already been done. Regardless of whether Parsons was doing a good deed, this type of personal content is not appropriate for customers. Occasional personal content is effective for creating connections with your customers, but keep it light and don’t antagonize people.
  • Being spammy. Resist the temptation to capitalize on the popularity of another company to promote your products. Habitat UK tried to take advantage of the trending topics #Apple, #iPhone and others to acquire some traffic. Unfortunately, the strategy backfired because the tweets had nothing to do with Apple computers or any of its products. Tweeters posted negative messages to Habitat UK’s account, complaining about its “spammy” behavior. Your customers are not stupid. They know when you are trying to manipulate the system. Stay genuine, and don’t piggyback on other companies’ successes. It will only make you look desperate.
  • Putting your account in the wrong hands. The people who tweet or posts on your company’s behalf have the fate of your company’s image in their hands. What they post could potentially damage your reputation. Invest enough resources into finding the right people who will put their opinions aside and prioritize the integrity of your company. Ensure your social media managers understand the essence of your company culture and how you want your brand portrayed.
  • Pretending your mistake didn’t happen. If you ever make a mistake, own up to it and apologize. Your customers will respect you for admitting your mistakes and you can save your brand from any negative backlash. People forgive transparent mistakes much more than they excuse complete denial.

Like all marketers, those in healthcare would be wise to learn from the types of mistakes mentioned and not repeat them.

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: Brand Consistency Essential for Success

As the brand evolves and the marketplace changes the brand image must be consistent and strong.

Research is conducted, strategic analysis is developed and a hospital’s brand is introduced and executed.  The brand’s style, tone and message are established.  Everything is good.  And then over time, the market changes, the hospital changes and brand consistency starts to slip.

Every hospital changes.  There’s new facilities, expansion, increased staff, new services, improved technology.  The market changes.  The competition makes marketing adjustments.  So the emphasis for the hospital changes.  And unfortunately brand slippage occurs.

Over time the tone changes.  The primary message gets muttered and style becomes very inconsistent.  Even the corporate standards get compromised as enforcement becomes lax.  There is no brand relationship from one product line to another.  And brand equity is sacrificed.

This is not uncommon in hospital marketing.  So that over time a brand gets sacrificed.  And the consumer is confused at worse or develops brand complacency at best.

But hospitals that maximize their success over time maintain a strong brand consistency.  As growth occurs and change happens the brand is updated and integrated into all new areas of change.  The core message remains strong and consistent.  Tone and style may be updated but do not depart from the essentials of the brand.

Consumers need a clear and consistent brand.  They need a brand that is reliable and true.   Even as changes occur over time, hospitals that understand the importance of a consistent brand image will reap rewards in the marketplace.

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: Key Influencers are Physicians

Guest Blog Post By Ian Orekondy, Director of Digital Media – UBM Medica

Patients Value Healthcare Professionals for Health Information More Than Any Other Source

After hospitals across the country ramped up their marketing efforts and increased their advertising targeted to patients, research shows that patients continue to cite their physicians as the most valued influence on their healthcare decisions.

So many forward-thinking hospitals are increasingly focusing on cultivating stronger relationships with physicians in their market areas in order to:

  • Ensure awareness of key hospital services
  • Grow referrals
  • Support physicians
  • Improve care and quality outcomes.

More Than Physician Relations

Some hospitals are hiring physician liaisons to meet with certain physicians, but many hospitals are going further and partnering with trusted medical journals and online publications to strengthen hospital-physician relationships.  They do this by delivering valuable content to physicians to help them manage and grow their medical practice. Additionally, as shown in several recent hospital marketing surveys, many hospital marketers are increasing their focus on digital marketing, and are now figuring out how to scale their physician-targeted digital marketing programs.

Wait, Are Physicians Really Online? Absolutely:

  • 81% of physicians now own a smartphone (mostly the iPhone) (Manhattan Research)
  • 62% of physicians own a tablet (mostly the iPad) (Manhattan Research)

They are using these devices throughout the day:

  • 78% of surveyed physicians access health-websites via mobile devices
  • And physician-targeted mobile apps help with diagnosis at the point of care.
  • Some hospital marketers are still surprised to learn physicians are now opening their emails more than ever, exchanging emails with patients, and perhaps most importantly for hospitals, they are opening emails from sources they trust to deliver them valuable clinical and practice management content.  Physician-targeted email open rates are now routinely in line with consumer/patient-targeted email campaigns.

So how can your hospital engage physicians online?

Valuable Content + Precise Targeting = Engaged Physicians

Focus on providing value:

  • Tools: Diagnostic or prediction tools can provide significant value for physicians. For example, Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York hosts “Prediction Tools” on the healthcare professional section of their website.  Oncologists and other physicians anywhere can use these tools to predict cancer outcomes or assess risk based on specific characteristics of a patient and of his or her disease.
  • Content:  Help them save time and money.  Physicians are struggling with the business side of medicine, so providing content that helps them manage their practice is a great way to build a stronger relationship with physicians.
  • Resources: Many hospitals provide physician directories, directions to give to patients, and CME opportunities – all online.

Demonstrate that you value physicians’ input:

  • Creating an online poll and distributing it online to all physicians in your market area is an easy way to engage physicians with your hospital, and gather valuable feedback at the same time.  Ask them about a potential policy change, what changes they’d like to see, or simply ask about their overall satisfaction with the referral process.  Doing this on a regular basis can pay large dividends.

Ensure that your physician-focused content gains the right physician audience.

  • Relying on search engines, YouTube and Facebook works very well when targeting patients, but these tactics lose their effectiveness when it comes to targeting physicians.
  • Find a partner (usually a company that already has built trusted relationships with physicians) that can reach and deploy your content to physicians in your market area.  Often, even if your hospital has its own physician email list, a good partner can de-duplicate your physician emails from their own list of engaged physicians, and deploy your content only to the physicians you don’t already reach.
  • These partners can syndicate your physician-focused videos, PDFs, polls and other resources, and they can often supplement your content or even help you with production.

To recap, physicians are still the most influential sources of information for patients, and they are now fully engaged online.  There are now many ways for hospitals to strengthen their relationships with physicians in ways that reflect their needs, save them time and money, and ultimately wins your hospital more business and improves outcomes for your patient population.

Is your hospital already focused on marketing to physicians? Or is your competitor?

Ian Orekondy is Director of Digital Media at UBM Medica, building custom marketing programs for hospitals and pharmaceutical brands. He also blogs at http://searchandsocialmedia.com, and you can connect with him on Twitter @iano1000. Use hashtag #hospitalmarketing.

Healthcare Marketing: Mobile Prime Time Same as TV Prime Time

Mobile usage peaks at 7 PM daily and continues strong through the evening.

As mobile marketing becomes more feasible and the opportunities for local mobile marketing beginning to accumulate, it’s important for healthcare marketers to analyze consumer usage just like other mediums.   A study by MediaMind  and reported in Advertising Age examined when consumers use their mobile devices to search the web and access mobile apps.  And the results are the same as it is for TV.  The study showed that users surf the web and use mobile apps most during the evening hours, between 7pm and 9pm.

Examining billions of mobile ad impressions across various devices, carriers and operating systems, mobile click-thru rates are also highest between 7pm and midnight, with click-throughs reaching a peak at 8pm.  Other studies from Jumptap and Google confirm the findings.

And it makes sense considering that consumers go home and park themselves in front of the television with their mobile device in their hand or close by.  A whopping 86% of U.S. mobile internet users watch TV with their mobile devices according to a Nielsen and Yahoo study.

This is very useful information for healthcare marketers.  As we begin to examine opportunities for mobile marketing, we should use the available data to maximize its effectiveness.   Which means evenings is the time to maximize exposure on mobile sites

Healthcare Marketing: Facebook Page Dedicated to Healthcare Gone Bad

Now consumers are encouraged to post horror stories about their medical experiences on a newly launched Facebook page.

ProPublica, the Pulitzer Prize winning organization that collaborates with other media outlets for investigative journalism, has now established its “Patient Harm Community” Facebook page.  Patients can sign up and post the graphic details about their healthcare experiences gone bad.  And there is a special “files” page entitled “What to do if you’ve been harmed” which gives instructions on how to issue complaints against doctors, nurses and hospitals.

Cheryl Clark, writing for HealthLeaders Media, wrote a story about the new Facebook page.  She reports that ProPublica’s Marshall Allen, who uncovered systemic poor quality in Nevada hospitals for a 2010 series in the Las Vegas Sun called “Do No Harm”, and himself a Pulitzer finalist, explains what prompted the Facebook venture.

“For starters, he says, the one million people—a staggering number—who suffer injuries, infections, and errors in healthcare facilities across the country each year had very few places to turn for advice, until now. 
Over the years, I’ve talked to scores of patients who have been harmed while undergoing medical care, and the one thing that always struck me is the fact they feel so alone,” he says.

“When they suffer this type of harm, they complain to doctors and hospital officials and regulators, but they often don’t feel that they’re being listened to. 
I wanted to find a way to give these folks an opportunity to talk to one another, offer advice, encouragement, and comfort, and get questions answered. A lot of them are at different stages of the process of working through the things that happened to them.”

“I think for hospital leaders this would be a great place for them to put an ear to the ground, to hear what patients are really saying, and factor that in when they make decisions,” Allen says. “We created this for doctors, nurses, hospitals, and healthcare officials just as much as it was created for patients.”

This is very much a two-edged for hospital leaders and marketers.  It’s helpful to be able to actually read patients’ experiences and learn from their points of view.  And it introduces a new level of public accountability, which is also good.

However, the other edge is the page will be an invitation for patients or family members who are upset, emotional and angry to exaggerate claims without fully understanding the natural course of illness and diseases and treatment of such.  And when that happens, the hospital has very limited recourse for rebuttal or explanation due to privacy laws.

Such a site can serve a very worthwhile purpose for patients and for healthcare professionals.  But it can also be very dangerous and create more harm than it attempts to prevent.  It is a site all healthcare marketers should monitor and pay close attention to; just in case your hospital appears in one of the stories on the page, to learn from a patient’s perspective about their experiences and concerns, and to see if and how other healthcare professionals and marketers handle issues that appear there.  

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.