Archive for the ‘Blogs + Blogging’ Category
Friday, August 13th, 2010
Although I have a few phobias, like my alarming fear of heights and flying in airplanes, Friggatriskaidekaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th) is not one of them. We all hear about myths and superstitions associated with this particular date, so with that day being today, I thought I’d compile a short list of myths relating to hospital Website design, SEO and the like.
 Happy Friday the 13th from Jason Voorhees and AVID Design. Since a list of 13 myths would be more apropos for this date, I thought I’d spare the folks out there who too suffer from phobias, like triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).
1.) Website Design – A hospital (or any) Website redesign will solve all my Web problems.
Many hospital marketers believe that a redesign is simply the “cure” for solving any and all Website problems because a fresh design is all that is needed. This is untrue. These same people don’t take into consideration that the strategy that goes into a redesign can sometimes be as important, if not more important, than the actual design itself.
2.) Content— If users are going to be guided to my hospital’s Website to read up on procedures and services offered, then posting every bit of information I have online is the only way to go.
First things first…users don’t read on the Web, they simply scan, so it’s best to write relevant, bite-sized chunks of optimized copy that are easier to read (e.g. bulleted lists). Secondly, content is not just written text, it is also images, videos, etc. And don’t be fooled about trying to fit all information on one page, it is okay to have a few pages as long as the copy is relevant and includes at least one call-to-action and effective anchor text to navigate through the pages.
3.) Social Media and Web 2.0 – If I build a Facebook fan page for my hospital or I start a hospital CEO blog, it will accumulate numerous fans and page hits overnight.
This doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time and effort to cultivate an audience, and a good social media and Web 2.0 strategy should be put into place before embarking on this trip.
4.) Website Design – I have to do my hospital’s Website redesign all at once.
Truth be told, redesigns take an extended period of time to fully complete, so it’s best to break down the redesign process into phases where each phase allows you to concentrate in a particular area, like focusing one phase on your hospital’s specialties and content and another phase on examining rich media. Also, change is received better with your employees and users when made in increments rather than all at once.
5.) Search Engine Optimization—Once you optimize your hosptial’s Website, then you are good to go and should be ranking well in the major search engines from here on out.
SEO is an ongoing process and is never finished (much like that of your hospital Website). What your hospital ranks today for pediatric cancer quite possibly not be the same three months from now. It’s best to have a professional (like AVID Design) provide you with an SEO assessment (that’s FREE) of your hospital’s Website to get the ball rolling on developing a proper search engine marketing (SEM) campaign.
Lisa M. Federico | Content Specialist | AVID Design
Don’t let your hospital’s Website fall under a spell of bad luck, make sure your hospital Website design and optimized content doesn’t suck! Call AVID Design today to speak with our hospital marketing strategy consultants to get you on the right path(without that black cat crossing it) toward achieving your online marketing goals.
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Posted in Best Practices, Blogs + Blogging, Online Video / Rich Media, Pop Culture, SEO, SEO Tips, Tricks and Advice, Social Media, Things 'n' Stuff, Web 2.0, Web Design | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
I recently read an eye-opening blog from earlier this month about “Mommy Blogs and Hospitals,” which did an excellent job of defining an emerging type of specialized healthcare blog content creator and illustrating the importance of engaging with their extremely important audience.
However, one thing it did not do was answer a very important question: Does your hospital actually need a mommy blogger of its own? After all, as the blog mentioned, the trend is currently very popular with blue-chip corporations like Coca-Cola, Pampers, General Mills, etc. Of course, those companies have deep enough pockets to pay for such boutique content providers.
Most likely, your hospital has probably only recently convinced administrators to let you start committing resources towards social media and blogging. At best, you have been given a budget for a social media specialist. But support and funding for a dedicated “mommy blogger?” Doubtful.
Yet, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to hire an actual mommy blogger to engage with that audience. For that matter, you don’t need to take a pseudonym (especially if you are a male) and start pretending to be one, either.
What it does mean, though, is that your hospital’s social media strategy must engage parents that utilize social media for communicating about healthcare and hospitals.
(Note that I used the gender non-specific term “parents.” Although it’s entirely possible that mothers are the predominant parent figures that are engaging in healthcare-related social media, it doesn’t mean that fathers (especially in single-parent families) should be overlooked.)
How to Build Your Mommy/Daddy Social Network…Without Your Own Mommy/Daddy Blogger
Regardless of the size of your budget or depth of your social media staff, interaction and engagement should always be the primary goal of your social media efforts.
Having a mommy blogger implies that you have somebody that is creating content…which is certainly a nice luxury. But that tips the scale towards one side of the communication circuit. The other side—listening—is an equally important part of that circuit, and also one of the easiest to do. Start by finding, joining and monitoring:
• Local mommy blogs.
• Leading regional/national mommy blogs.
• Twitter keywords and hashtags.
• Facebook groups.
Arguably, this type of “scoping” should be one of the first steps in any type of focused social media strategy. Even if your strategy is to use social media primarily as a channel for your messages, if you aren’t networked with your target audience, who is going to hear—or eventually share—your message?
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
AVID Design offers hospitals experienced social media strategy and content creation–including blog writing and social media content.
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Friday, March 12th, 2010
In case you missed the implication—or missed the blog entirely—the other week, I wrote a blog that was inspired by my response at a LinkedIn discussion group thread for Professional Healthcare Marketers.
These types of discussion groups—LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, news media Websites—are not only an outstanding way to stay current on the issues that affect hospitals and healthcare, but engaging and participating with them are an essential part of a truly effective social media and inbound marketing strategy.
However, there is one additional benefit, and this was the implication of my recent blog: using those topics and your responses as a basis for more thoughtful and protracted postings on your blog.
One of the challenges with writing on LinkedIn or similar discussion groups is that you have to be economical with your words. After all, it’s not your blog, so it’s inappropriate and not a common practice to share more than a brief response and a few extremely brief points.
Additionally, in a popular discussion group, there is likely to be at least one person with whom you don’t agree. Rather than voicing a response that could instigate an attack on that person (even if your benign response is perceived to be an attack by person or another), you can anonymously quote or paraphrase their sentiment on your blog—and then reply to it with little reprisal—unless, of course, one of your blog’s commentors chooses to challenge you, which is certainly a more appropriate environment and forum for such debate.
Linking Your Hospital’s Blog to LinkedIn
On the other hand, if you have no problem finding topics and time to blog, think about repurposing some of your ideas by extending them to other forums, such as LinkedIn discussion groups for healthcare and hospital marketers. Not only can you possibly find more interesting and qualified feedback, but you might encourage some group members to follow you back to your blog and Website.
Do you have trouble finding blog topics? Or do you struggle to keep your LinkedIn discussion responses brief? How do you resolve these challenges?
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
AVID Design specializes in online healthcare and hospital marketing strategy.
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Posted in Blogs + Blogging, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
This is most likely to irk some healthcare marketers, but if it does, consider yourself lucky, because it means that you are on the right path.
 Missing the easiest balls can waste tremendous opportunities for glory. Don’t let missed calls to action do this to your hospital’s marketing efforts. But first take a look at the list below. If you are missing these opportunities to extend a call to action to your audience, it means that you are at least performing the essential actionables that create the opportunities. If you aren’t…well, let this serve as a list of some of the activities for which you should immediately start pursuing!
Blogs
If you are regularly writing a blog for your hospital, good for you. If you are getting a solid base of engaged readers that share your blogs (e.g., RSS, Twitter, social bookmarking) and comment on them, even better.
However, if you blogs aren’t regularly extending an explicit call to action that encourage a visitor to click a link to your Website or subscribe to a newsletter or any other type of action, you are overlooking some of the most prized members of your online community: active ones that are trying to interact with you!
Subscription Confirmations
This one might seem ironic. After all, if somebody subscribes to a newsletter or another feature of your Website, doesn’t that mean they’ve already converted on a call to action? Yes. But why stop there?
When that subscriber completes the subscription process and is then directed to a confirmation page or sent a confirmation e-mail (or both), ending the conversion process is another tragically missed opportunity to continue engaging with clearly active Web user. Keep going by encouraging this person to not consider the confirmation the end of a process, but the beginning of another.
Subscription Cancellations
After all of the work it took to get a subscriber, it’s always a shame to lose them when they unsubscribe. However, just because they unsubscribe to one of your Website’s features doesn’t mean that you are fully divorcing yourself from that person.
Similar to a subscription confirmation, use the cancellation confirmation page or e-mail to extend a new opportunity to keep the user engaged with your content.
E-mail Signatures
Every person to whom you or anybody at your hospital sends an e-mail has the potential to join your ever-expanding roster of social media and blog followers.
Adding something even as simple as “Follow Us” or “Join Us Online” with links to your blog and key social media accounts
Offline Marketing
This is perhaps one of our favorite examples. Although print and other traditional “offline” media have taken a backseat to online marketing tactics, it doesn’t mean that there can’t be some overlap. On the contrary, the more overlap—or integration and interaction—the better.
For instance, if you run a print ad, don’t just stick your hospital’s URL at the bottom of the page. Instead, try to connect your ad’s message to your Website’s functionality. An example: Instead of touting your hospital’s awesome doctors, invite the reader to use your Website’s physician directory to find a physician and then make an online appointment.
Speaking of calls to action, why not take a moment to visit our Website to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter?
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
AVID Design is an award-winning interactive healthcare marketing consultant.
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
So, you finally got that shiny new blog site for your hospital…or perhaps you’ve had a blog that has gotten a bit stale. Either way, we often hear about the challenge many hospitals face with finding things to write about for their blog.
 Frustrated or have writer’s block with your blog? Don’t worry…there’s always something to write about! Although most advice for blogs usually suggest that you write copy that will attract visitors and be useful for them, there still remains the looming question: what exactly is that for hospitals?
1. Commentary from hospital leadership and physicians. At best, hospital administrators are attributed to sterile, predictable quotes in news releases. But with a blog, they express themselves in more of a personal manner.
Additionally, if your blog is enabled for comments (which it should be), it encourages the “social” nature of a blog’s designation as a kind of social media.
2. Your hospital’s service lines and centers of excellence. Use your main Website’s list of services and centers as your index for top-level subjects, and then use your blog as a bridge between them and readers that might not be finding you through SEO, PPC or other means of attracting traffic.
3. Local and regional healthcare advice. If you are in Minnesota in January, a blog about preventing sunburns might not work…but a blog about ways to properly prepare and nourish your children’s bodies for harsh winters might. Or, if there’s a spike in a particular illness or infection, use your blog to provide tips for prevention, treatment, etc.
4. Volunteerism and special events. Although you are probably also covering these topics in your Website’s news section, there’s no reason that you can’t give additional nods and announcements in your blog. Even a collection of photos and a few captions can go a long way with showing appreciation and connecting your community.
5. Top “x” lists. These types of blogs are always extremely popular, and here’s your chance to quiz your hospital’s experts to get qualified information. For instance, what are the top five things that somebody preparing for heart surgery would want to know?
Bonus tip: Along with integrating SEO best practices into your metadata and blog copy, be sure to localize your content with your city and state whenever applicable or appropriate.
This is hardly an exhaustive list of topics for hospital blog content. What others do you use or suggest?
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
AVID Design offers hospital and healthcare Website content creation, optimization and consultation.
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