As I prepare for the drive down to Columbus, Georgia to meet with Columbus Regional Healthcare System’s marketing team to kickoff the 2010 social media projects that we do in collaboration with them, I can’t help but keep thinking about a LinkedIn forum question I recently read about measuring social media ROI.
Looking past the dollar value of healthcare social media’s ROI is the key to better appreciating its contribution to a hospital’s marketing efforts.
For those not familiar with the acronym (which would be a total shock, considering the focus of this blog!), ROI stands for “return on investment.”
Since healthcare marketing budgets are often criticized because they aren’t directly related to a hospital’s primary purposes—to heal the sick and injured and to prevent illness—“proving” its value is often best done with ROI yardsticks.
Not the New Kid on the Block Anymore in 2010
Thinking about getting into healthcare social media is so 2009. The hot topic now is not about if a hospital should integrate social media into its marketing strategy, but instead is about how much it should invest, either in regards to time or money—which often translates into issues such as hiring or retraining staff, hiring social media consultants and content creators like us, etc.
As with anybody that puts an investment of time or money into something, they will be more willing to do so if they can have some assurances that they’ll get something out of it—which was usually easily done with old school ROI metrics. For example, in the past, all one had to do was to spend “x” dollars on a print ad, track the conversions, and then determine whether the campaign was a success.
Online hospital marketing isn’t so black-and-white, and social media clouds a healthcare marketer’s ability to clearly define the goals, objectives and parameters that contribute to a quantifiably “successful” campaign.
So enough preamble. Unless you have advanced degrees in economics, accounting and other skills that let you “prove” something that is too complex to define with simple arithmetic. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider hospital social media in terms of what it’s supposed to do: connect your hospital or healthcare system to the community, rather than being just another interruptive advertising tool.
Here are five ways to start rethinking social media ROI:
1. Put a price on new contacts. Every new Facebook fan or Twitter value has tremendous value, especially if you are providing useful content that improves your hospital’s trustworthiness, commitment to the community, transparency, etc.
2. Put a price on participating in blogs and online forums. How often are you stepping outside of your own Tweets and blogs and engaging in the conversation, such as on blogs? This very blog is a perfect example. If you are reading, why not share your thoughts? As with most blogs, our blog is intended to be an interactive forum.
3. Put a price on every bad thing that is said about your hospital. Here’s a personal example: I very recently criticized a certain cable TV and Internet provider on Twitter, and within minutes, I was contacted by their customer service. Instead of letting me fester and continue the attack on their brand with others that were inviting me to their blogs that encouraged similar criticism, I instead was working out my problems with the company.
4. Put a price on every good thing that is said about your hospital. Could there be any better return on investment than an honest and unsolicited compliment?
5. Stop putting prices on things. The march of time has proven to make everything in life more complex—why should tracking ROI be any different? If there is one thing that defines social media, it’s that it’s viral, geometric and exponential nature.
Do you have suggestions for ways to measure healthcare social media ROI? Is this something that is a concern at your hospital? Has it prevented your entry or expansion with social media?
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
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on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Analytics and Metrics, Blogs + Blogging, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Web 2.0.
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Very nicely put, Avid, although I would disagree that “thinking about getting into social medial is so 2009″! Many of my health care clients (I write their marketing materials) are still debating Twitter, etc. I think mostly they are dreading getting started, as opposed to being uncertain of the value. (One marcomm staffer equated it to having a root canal.) But, I do like your five points about ROI. I suppose you could make some assumptions and crunch some numbers about each new Twitter follower. It might be fun.
I have yet to see an objective study which demonstrates the value of money and resources spent on social media, either in terms of referrals or fundraising. Any suggested reading?
Jane: We also have many clients that are still debating social media.
My point about it be “so 2009″ is that persuading hospitals to get into social media is becoming futile and redundant. It’s now at a point where if you aren’t in, you are going to be playing catch-up for a while, which is never an optimal position.
I’d rather focus on those that have embraced social media and help them stay ahead (or at least not fall behind).
Sheldon: If you don’t already, subscribe to eMarketer.com’s newsletter and daily updates.
Among other useful data, stats and research, they regularly report on social media. But again, as my blog attempted to illustrate, looking for hard quantitative figures is counter to one of the things that makes social media so invaluable: It’s a highly effective MODE of communication, rather than another TOOL for interruptive marketing.
Otherwise, the best thing that I’ve read about all of this is “Inbound Marketing” by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shaw.