At long last, we are finally writing something about swine flu. Although we do specialize in healthcare marketing content and strategy, we usually avoid getting involved on specific medical subjects.
However, swine flu—or H1N1, whichever you prefer—is unlike most recent diseases, viruses or illnesses in that it so captures the public’s attention. Whether it’s a legitimate cause for concern or not is again something that we believe is out of our jurisdiction and best left to the medical experts.
But it’s articles such as “Atlanta ERs Brace for Flu Onslaught” that get our attention, if for any other reason, we are an Atlanta-based company, and news about clogged, inefficient emergency rooms because of H1N1 in our community is obviously relevant and important to us.
Of course, this is not a situation that is exclusive to Atlanta; it’s something that is affecting hospitals all over the nation. And it is why we encourage hospitals to help the community by helping themselves—starting with using some of the many best practices for healthcare marketing:
• Use SEO: Even without doing keyword research, you can safely assume that phrases like “swine flu Atlanta,” “H1N1”, “Fulton County flu shots,” etc. are hot phrases right now. Well, use that to your advantage!
Write content that integrates those keywords so that you can deliver information to community members that seek it. Along with Website content, also consider this when writing blogs.
• Social media: If you still aren’t convinced that social media isn’t a viable technique for promoting your hospital, maybe look at how your competitors or other leading hospitals in the nation that have embraced it.
Most likely, they are not only using social media as an effective channel for communication H1N1 information, but they are implicitly establishing themselves as community leaders.
No, they are probably not being followed on Twitter by every single person that gets their messages. However, that’s not how social media works.
Remember, it’s viral. For example, person A (that does follow that hospital) retweets the hospital’s message. Person A’s Twitter friend, Person B, retweets it. Person B’s friend Person C puts it on their Facebook page. Person’s C’s Facebook friend does the same, but also puts it on Digg…and so on and so forth, except for another hundreds or thousands times more.
• YouTube: YouTube videos are one of the most underappreciated ways to get a presence at the top of a search engine results page (SERP).
Unlike traditional SEO where the emphasis is on your Website’s content, a YouTube video with carefully written tags can catapult you to the prime SERP real estate.
Does your hospital have a trusted and reliable partner to build, manage and plan your online marketing strategies? AVID Design offers free assessments for Websites, content, strategy and more.
At long last, we are finally writing something about swine flu. Although we do specialize in healthcare marketing content and strategy, we usually avoid getting involved on specific medical subjects.
H1N1 is not just a scary illness, it’s something that it causing unnecessary strain on many ERs—which is something hospitals can possibly counteract with online communications.
However, swine flu—or H1N1, whichever you prefer—is unlike most recent diseases, viruses or illnesses in that it so captures the public’s attention. Whether it’s a legitimate cause for concern or not is again something that we believe is out of our jurisdiction and best left to the medical experts.
But it’s articles such as “Atlanta ERs Brace for Flu Onslaught” that get our attention, if for any other reason, we are an Atlanta-based company, and news about clogged, inefficient emergency rooms because of H1N1 in our community is obviously relevant and important to us.
Of course, this is not a situation that is exclusive to Atlanta; it’s something that is affecting hospitals all over the nation. And it is why we encourage hospitals to help the community by helping themselves—starting with using some of the many best practices for healthcare marketing:
• Use SEO: Even without doing keyword research, you can safely assume that phrases like “swine flu Atlanta,” “H1N1”, “Fulton County flu shots,” etc. are hot phrases right now. Well, use that to your advantage!
Write content that integrates those keywords so that you can deliver information to community members that seek it. Along with Website content, also consider this when writing blogs.
• Social media: If you still aren’t convinced that social media isn’t a viable technique for promoting your hospital, maybe look at how your competitors or other leading hospitals in the nation that have embraced it.
Most likely, they are not only using social media as an effective channel for communication H1N1 information, but they are implicitly establishing themselves as community leaders.
No, they are probably not being followed on Twitter by every single person that gets their messages. However, that’s not how social media works.
Remember, it’s viral. For example, person A (that does follow that hospital) retweets the hospital’s message. Person A’s Twitter friend, Person B, retweets it. Person B’s friend Person C puts it on their Facebook page. Person’s C’s Facebook friend does the same, but also puts it on Digg…and so on and so forth, except for another hundreds or thousands times more.
• YouTube: YouTube videos are one of the most underappreciated ways to get a presence at the top of a search engine results page (SERP).
Unlike traditional SEO where the emphasis is on your Website’s content, a YouTube video with carefully written tags can catapult you to the prime SERP real estate.
Does your hospital have a trusted and reliable partner to build, manage and plan your online marketing strategies? AVID Design offers free assessments for Websites, content, strategy and more.
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
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You might be one of our blog readers but not one of our newsletter readers, so as 2009 draws to a close, we thought we would provide our blog readers (and our fans) with a look back of this year’s hot topics featured in our monthly newsletter, 
