Junto ("june-toe") is sponsored by Franklin Street, a branding and full service advertising agency specializing in health and wellness. We call the blog Junto in homage to Benjamin Franklin, who created the first "Junto" brainstorming group, which established the first American public hospital.
According to a study from Deloitte, 80% of people will travel outside their community for perceived higher quality of health care.
Many community hospitals are challenged with the perception that they are good for the common illnesses and broken bones, but can’t handle the major stuff.
Satilla Regional faced a similar quandary when they asked for our help in marketing their cardiac services program. Despite outperforming 75% of all hospitals nationwide in the emergency treatment of heart attacks, many locals believed they needed to go out of town for heart needs.
Using research on how and why consumers choose and evaluate healthcare providers, we developed a solution that spoke openly and honestly to Satilla’s audience. When it comes to your heart, use your head, became the campaign theme.
We featured one of Satilla’s cardiologists as a spokesperson for the campaign. Based on research we’ve conducted in markets all over the country, we knew physicians can be excellent spokespeople for hospitals, creating a halo effect for providers. Consumers feel that physicians can choose to practice medicine at many hospitals, so if they are choosing this particular hospital to practice, it must be of high quality.
We also featured testimonials of former cardiac patients and the life-saving care they received at Satilla. Television and web videos wove the softer, more emotional factors that lead to trusting Satilla for cardiac services.
We’re still tracking results for the campaign, but early numbers suggest the campaign is reaching our audiences’ hearts and minds.
What’s your take on using physicians as spokespeople? Curious about our clients’ take on STARK laws? Drop us a line — we’d love to hear from you.
It’s that time of year: holiday cheer, family around the dinner table and heart-warming tales. Here’s one for this season– mixing social media with medicine to take tidings of good cheer across the ocean:
With the holiday season officially here and plans with your loved ones marked in your calendar, it is only natural to shed a tear (or two) watching this. It seems almost impossible to image not being able to witness the birth of your own child, right? For many active duty soldiers overseas, missing major family milestones is just part of the job. Now with the use a CheetahNet mesh network , soldiers have access to high speed internet in Afghanistan. Those that protect our freedom and country are now able to watch the special moment their child enters this world via Skype. Although nothing can beat the real thing, this growing program gives our soldiers a feeling of being home, even if just for the 24 hours their loved one is in labor.
Is your hospital ready to become part of this growing trend? Is your labor and delivery room high-speed and WiFi enabled? Has your hospital used Skype to share special moments? What other ways can you show your military families you care? If so, share your stories with us. We’d love to hear from you! Think big and give thanks this winter season.
Our client, Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, just launched the second phase of their cancer marketing campaign a few weeks back. As a healthcare marketing agency, it’s not uncommon for us to focus on either doctors or patients to highlight a hospital’s strengths, since both audiences can be credible spokespeople for healthcare brands. Claxton-Hepburn is unique because their program has such support from both patients, physicians and the community-at-large. Accordingly we opted to tell their story from every viewpoint.
Knowing how powerful web videos are for patients making decisions about healthcare providers, we know it was especially important to bring every aspect of the program together for the piece. Their patient navigator, specialists, patients, technology and even the beautiful facility all play key roles.
We’ve helped create new celebrities in St. Lawrence county – telling stories that friends and neighbors had already been sharing. In tight knit communities like those in St. Lawrence county, authenticity is critical so that word of mouth continues our momentum.
Already in Phoenix for SHSMD 2011? Us, too! Make sure to look for the Franklin Street team rocking the green Converse Chuck Taylors. We’d love to say hi.
Need a preview? Here is an interview of our own Senior VP Stephen Moegling from last year’s SHSMD in Chicago. Bow tie and all!
We fully believe in the power of social media, but some C-suites still aren’t convinced. If you need a short and sweet clip to show the power of the digital in the physical world, check out this YouTube video.
Here are a few highlights:
Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
If Facebook were a county, it would be the world’s 3rd largest.
A new member joins LinkedIn every second.
Over 37 million people watched the Volkswagen Darth Vader Super Bowl commercial on YouTube.
eReaders have surpassed traditional book sales.
Want to know more? Check out all the work by the guys and gals over at Socialnomics. They are doing some great research and will convince even the strongest of hold-outs that social media is here to stay.
Did you have any trouble getting buy-in for a healthcare social media campaign? What are your naysayers’ main points of contention?
One of my favorite blogs for the latest news and trends in social media comes from Flowtown, a San Francisco-based social media consultation company. Last week, they published a new entry focused on how to make viral marketing work for your organization. While the healthcare industry is typically a bit slower than most to adapt to new technology and trends, this has definitely not been the case with viral marketing. Think about it, how many versions of the Pink Glove dance have we all seen in the past 3 years? The reason that so many healthcare marketers have jumped on the viral marketing train is because of the perception that it is a quick, cost-efficient and fairly foolproof way to make a splash in your market. That’s not exactly true. A successful viral marketing campaign takes time to plan, and sometimes a healthy budget to produce.
There is some great, big picture thinking in this particular blog entry entitled Viral Marketing: Creating Content That “Pops” on Social Media, which can impact this way we, as healthcare marketers, view, and use, this medium.
Why Use Viral Marketing?
Those of us who have used viral marketing know that it can be tough to sell to leadership because it rarely results in significant ROI. So why should we invest any of our limited budgets in to this medium?
New and extended branding opportunities
A great way to introduce or remind people who you are and what your organization stands for
Improving your SEO organically
Search engines like Google and Bing now take inbound links associated with viral and social marketing into account when developing search rankings
Analytica
A steady stream of viral marketing efforts can go a long way in driving unique and sustained traffic to your website
Where to Use Viral Marketing
With all of the new social media sites that have popped up just in the past several years, its understandably imitimidating and confusing to know which are the best use of your precious time and resources. Here’s a quick cheat-sheet of the 5 major social media networks:
Twitter
Because of the huge number of people now on Twitter, there is a lot of noise to break through. The good news? If you post the right content, and have the right followers, the quality of your re-tweets, and in turn the impact of your message, will be fantastic.
Facebook
Facing the same clutter issues as Twitter, Facebook viral marketing can result in even fewer re-posts than Twitter. However, posts to Facebook have a longer life span than Twitter meaning you typically do not need to post as often to get your message noticed.
Digg
Rebounding from a poor launch of its 4th version last year, Digg may soon be a great tool for viral marketers if you are able to get your organization on to the front page.
StumbleUpon
A great opportunity for healthcare marketers because StumbleUpon members select the topics that they are interested in learning about, so your content is presented to an already-engaged audience.
Reddit
Committed to providing its users with relevant, robust content, Reddit does not tolerate spam. So while it may not be the place for the Pink Glove Dances of the world, Reddit would be a great place to post information on the latest clinical trials and research coming out of your organization.
You’ve probably noticed by now that YouTube is absent from this list. The reason? Because contrary to what many believe, YouTube is not a social media tool and it very rarely sends any substantial traffic to an organization’s website. In short, people who visit YouTube tend to stay there.
Finally, How to Go Viral
The Flowtown blog outlined three key components to keep in mind while developing viral content:
Build strong content
Not only should content be relevant, but it should also be easily and quickly digested by your audience. Visual aids, such as a well-designed infographic, can make a huge impact.
Make your titles stand out
You have a matter of seconds to break through all the clutter and connect with your audience. Be original. Be unexpected. Be relevant.
Engage with the community
Most hospitals have a good grasp on the unique needs and issues facing their local communities, viral marketing is the perfect outlet to use this knowledge to build that relationship.
I recommend reading the full entry from Flowtown, if you have a moment, and would love to hear from you. What successes have you had in your organization with viral marketing? What are your favorite viral campaigns?
Marketers are always searching for the newest trends and movements, from flash dancing mobs to the use of Foursquare and other geo-targeting social marketing movements.
Unlike other marketing trends that feel perfect for young consumers but challenge healthcare marketers to package to more mature audiences, Random Acts of Kindness fit perfectly with our audience and our healthcare brands. Health and wellness companies are compassionate by nature. Opportunities abound and don’t require big budgets to have big returns.
A few ideas:
A potted plant for a patient who loves gardening
Providing free inspirational books like Chicken Soup for the Soul to patients and family members of cancer patients
Sunscreen and bottled water for a local high school track team before a meet
Passing out free umbrellas to walkers on rainy days
A homemade jug of Splenda-sweetened tea for a Diabetes patient
Batman, a clown, Dora the Explorer or another childhood favorite showing up for an underage in-hospital birthday
A group of nurses organizing a food drive and giving bags of free groceries to needy families in the community
Monitoring Twitter for people commenting on needing to lose weight, feeling tired or run down and sending them notes of encouragement
For hospitals in urban areas, leave gift certificates to drivers who’ve received parking tickets or cover people’s bike seats when it rains
Royal Dutch Airline has started an amazing campaign where social media stalking meets Random Acts of Kindness to really personalize gifts for their customers.
Like any other tool we use as marketers, there is an art to effectively using it. Trendwatchers.com identified nine guidelines to consider while developing this type of program.
So what else is out there? I’m a bit of a gear geek and love the hunt for the latest and greatest.
Try another shoot and share video camera. The great thing about the Flip is its convenience. Take your video, upload and share. So easy. The Flip started this new category of video recorders, but it’s certainly not the only one of its kind. The Sony Bloggie is a nice option. It’s HD, lightweight, and easy to use.
Use your phone. Compact cameras are a shrinking market, and shoot and share camcorders are likely to quickly follow suit thanks to all the features our smart phones now have. Why add another gadget to the to your bag if you’ve already got the iPhone 4 or another phone equipped with HD video?
Upgrade to a DSLR with video. More expensive and a bit more to carry, but the trade-off gives you beautiful still images, and amazing video. I shoot with Canon, so my recommendation is the Canon 7D. Nikon makes great cameras as well, and both have more expensive and less expensive options. The Canon 7D is a great value for the features and video quality it provides. Warning – once you get the camera, you may find yourself adding lenses, lighting, and other props to your wish list.
Watch out singing nurses, here’s the next wave of hospital viral videos. From a dancing da Vinci robot to rapping docs, check out healthcare’s latest youtube stars!
In the race to drive new volume, marketers must help grow referrals from physicians.
This can be achieved by targeting splitters and developing an assertive outreach program. But marketers often report that physicians see them as lackeys – believing the title “PR” stands for “Party Planners.” As a consequence, referrals wane and marketers don’t feel they have a seat at the table with their physicians.
To drive cardiac volume, we partnered with Memorial Health Care System to film an open-heart surgery procedure and broadcast it on the web with a live chat hosted by the lead surgeon. Response externally was tremendous. (The hospital is considering an encore performance because of the demand.)
But response internally was even more remarkable. Physicians once apathetic to the hospital’s marketing campaigns are now eager to be part of future campaigns. Referrals flow when physicians trust their hospitals for high quality care. The same goes for their perceptions of the hospitals’ high quality marketing campaigns.
Here is the complete 30-minute video, broken into three segments, along with screen grabs of the live event.
Screen Shot #1: Prior to Webinar
Screen Shot #2: During Webinar
Screen Shot #3: During Webinar
Online Advertising Promotion
Open Heart Surgery Video (segment one)
Open Heart Surgery Video (segment two)
Open Heart Surgery Video (segment three)
Lisa McCluskey, VP of Marketing at Memorial, and I are speaking at the 2010 Illinois Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations (ISHMPR) annual conference on Nov. 9 at Starved Rock Lodge in Utica, IL. Our topic is How to Make Your PhysiciansAdvocatesof Both Your Hospital & Your Marketing Campaign.
Email me at smoegling at franklinstreet dot com for a copy of the presentation deck.
