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Poll Results: Writing Hospital Quality-of-Care Website Content

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Our last blog post, invited readers to vote in our current poll about hospital Website conversions. While that poll is underway, we wanted to review the results from our previous online poll about integrating quality of care information into a hospital’s Website (we also wrote a feature article about this topic in our May 2010 newsletter).

What the Results Mean

Although voters were split 50/50 about which was the most important, the relativity of the choices suggests that there is no question that patients and Website visitors must come first, as compared to matters that involve tone, logistics and conversions.

Although that may seem obvious, it’s an important concept to keep in mind when planning and drafting content—especially when attempting to integrate editorial feedback from hospital adminstrators and physicians.

As you might have experienced when developing content for other Website pages—such as content for your hospital’s service lines—there can occasionally be conflicts when trying to craft content that balances readability, SEO, technical language, credibility, etc. But when it comes to quality of care content, it may be best to defer to Website reader expectations before all else.

Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design

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Poll: Writing Hospital Quality-of-Care Website Content

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

It’s one thing to say that your hospital is great or even the best, but it’s another to provide quality of care data and information on your Website that supports your claim. The challenge becomes even greater when hospital marketers try to do both at the same time.

Our next newsletter feature will examine the unique challenges with providing quality-of-care information and integrating it in your hospital’s Website content.

We’ll also explore the process for writing quality-of-care hospital Website copy—a process that includes:

• Identifying What is Most Valuable to the Reader

• Balancing Content Between Best Interests of the Hospital vs. Patient

• Finding the Most Appropriate Tone

• Scheduling Interviews and Reviews with Qualified Staff

• Integrating Conversions and Calls-to-Action

Which of these do you think is the most important? Which is the most challenging? Are there any key points that are missing? What are they? And why?

Cast your vote in on our online poll and share your thoughts in the comments section. We’ll publish and review the poll results next month.

By the way, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter!

Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design

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Social Media and Hospital Brand Credibility

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Still looking for reasons to get your hospital’s leadership to approve resources for (or just approve of) social media to promote your brand?

Click image to view larger version.

Or, if you are already past that hurdle (and we certainly hope that you are!), are you now stuck with trying to figure out what to say on your blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.?

Regardless of your situation, a recent eMarketer report might be the answer.

That is because after consumers (at 38 percent), “the brand itself” (at 32 percent) is the most credible source for information about a brand on social networking.

What Does That Mean for Hospital Marketers?

Among other reasons, it means that you shouldn’t be shy about telling the world about your hospital…in your blogs, on your Facebook fan pages, in your Tweets, etc.

However, don’t limit your participation to just announcing your content—as this is counter to effective social media usage.

Instead, you can watch your social media community flourish—and build your credibility—by simply engaging with social media users.

For instance, if somebody has a question about a healthcare or medical matter, answer it.

Of course, the same general principles apply when writing a news release or content for your Website: don’t overdo it. Keep it truthful. Maintain a sense of decorum and humility. In other words, don’t diminish your credibility in your attempts to improve and promote it.

Consumers and Credibility: Monitoring Gut Check

The fact that consumers’ statements about brands being the most important source of credible information, should be a serious wake-up call for anybody that is not monitoring their brand on social media.

However, it should also be a reason why you should be monitoring your competitors’ brands on social media.

Whether the sentiments are good or bad, you can use that information to better inform your own marketing and branding efforts—including the amount of time you might need to spend with using social media to engage audiences and enhance your hospital’s credibility.

Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design

AVID Design is an award-winning healthcare and hospital online marketing consultant. Contact us for a free estimate for building your social media and branding strategy.

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Posted in Analytics and Metrics, Marketing, Research and Studies, Social Media, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »

Poll Results: What is the Best Intranet Best Practice for Hospitals?

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Although the number of voters in our recent online poll about hospital intranet best practices was slim, their opinions were overwhelming in their support of which best practice was indeed the best.

As of today, 75% of voters have said that enabling current and relevant content creation was the best of the six practices listed in the poll. (The poll will remain open, so if you haven’t voted yet, be sure to cast your vote.).

The poll’s list was developed in response to a recent Nielsen Norman Group report, Intranet Design Annual 2010: Year’s Ten Best Intranets.

The report—and the six best practices that we identified for hospitals and healthcare systems—was the focus of our monthly newsletter’s feature story for April 2010, Looking Inward: Six Best Practices for Hospital INTRANET Usability.

What Do You Think?

What are your thoughts about these best practices? Which do you think is best? Are there any others that you’d suggest?

Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design

AVID Design is an award-winning healthcare and hospital online marketing consultant. Contact us for a free estimate for developing your hospital’s intranet.

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What is Hospital Website PageRank…and How to Improve It

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Have you ever been asked about the PageRank for your hospital’s Website? Do you know what your hospital’s PageRank is? Or for that matter, do you really understand what a PageRank is?

PageRank is a gauge for how Google sees the credibility of your hospital’s Website content.

Well first, that’s not a typo—PageRank is a conjunction (as compared to Page [space] Rank) and a copyrighted term owned by Google.

Second, the “Page” in PageRank does not refer to a Web page, but to the inventor (Larry Page) of the algorithm that creates a PageRank.

What Does PageRank Do?

PageRank is a score of 1–10 (low to high) that is given to each page on your Website (not just the entire the site).

This score is Google’s way of saying what it thinks about the quality and legitimacy of your Website’s content, and it plays a massive role in how high your Website’s pages will appear in a Google search engine result page (better known as a “SERP”).

One of the primary ways that PageRank does this is by considering the number the “votes” others have given to that page. These “votes” come in the form of a link to your Website.

So, I Should Sign Up for an Inbound Link Service, Right?

No! Not only does PageRank count those links from other Websites, but it also looks at the PageRank of the site from which the link came.

The higher (or more credible) the PageRank is for a Website that links to you, the more it can help your PageRank.

On the contrary, the search engines are smart and they know (again, through PageRank) which links are legitimate and which are from so-called “link farms,” which are Websites that exist almost solely to manipulate search engines.

Although having links from a “link farm” (or even legit Website with a low PageRank) won’t necessarily hurt you, but it certainly won’t help you. Save your money and apply it towards improving your content’s quality.

How to Find Your Hospital’s PageRank

This is extremely easy. You can simply Google the phrase “check pagerank” to find countless services that offer free checks.

How to Increase Your Hospital’s PageRank

This is not as easy—but yet, not impossible. Perhaps the best three ways to improve your PageRank is to:

• Know that there aren’t any tricks or shortcuts.

• Have a sincere commitment to providing content that is truly relevant and useful to your visitors. If you do, they will ideally want to share this information by linking to it from their Websites, blogs, etc. This is also the very concept that inspired the development of PageRank.

• Encourage links to your Website. This is perhaps one of the most important reasons to embrace and integrate into your online marketing strategy.

Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design

AVID Design is an award-winning healthcare and hospital online marketing consultant. Contact us for a free SEO assessment!

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