Today is Social Media Day. It is the celebratory day of “technological advancements that enable everyone to connect with real-time information, communicate from miles apart and have their voices be heard,” according to a post on Mashable’s Website.

Happy Social Media Day! Hospitals need to embrace social media too!

Social Media Day, created in 2010 by Mashable—the popular news source for all things digital, social and technological—is a global event where folks can meet up in their community to connect and socialize.

There are numerous events and meetups going on all day today!

Are you attending any social media meetups in your community? We want to know!

Hospitals and Social Media

While on the topic of social media (on such a festive day), did you know that hospitals can and should engage in this (social) media revolution?

Social media provides a lot of opportunities for hospitals, such as:

• Lower costs

• Higher visibility

• Greater communications

• Internal brand awareness

• Patient/visitor perceptions through monitoring

If you don’t have social media for you hospital, maybe it’s time to rethink that and integrate a strategy into your marketing plan. After garnering mad popularity (and not only with the kids–with businesses too) and having its “own” day, I would say that social media is here to stay, and that it’s definitely worth having for your hospital.

AVID Design can help you develop an effective hospital social media strategy that maximizes your hospital Website’s goals and integrates seamlessly into your marketing plan. Contact us today to find out more.

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No one was perhaps more excited than I was the other night when I heard the news that leaked about Motley Crue and Poison co-headlining a summer tour (along with the New York Dolls)—arguably the biggest (and hottest) concert for 2011. The tour, thus far, dubbed as Glam-A-Geddon, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Crue, the 25th anniversary of Poison and the 40th anniversary of the New York Dolls.

Poison on the left, Motley Crue on the right.

With rumors circulating late last year about a potential tour between these two hugely popular bands from the 80s through portions of the 90s, (between both bands they’ve sold over a combined 100 million records with 24 top 40 hits) and the public dispel of these rumors by certain members of Motley Crue (about touring with a “fake” pop-glam band (Poison) that they never had a decent relationship with even though they share the same reasons for doing what they love), I never thought it would happen.

I am happy to say that I was wrong.

The idea of this…two huge, influential and significant bands, who came out around the same time, sharing the same love and passion, but having a divided relationship (consisting of spats throughout the years) and vowing to never tour together, sort of reminded me about a feature story we wrote for our October 2010 eNewsletter entitled, “Overcoming the Healthcare Marketer and Hospital Foundation Disconnect.”

It’s somewhat similar in the sense of the integrated relationship of your hospital’s marketing department and your hospital’s foundation. Both of these departments share similar responsibilities of frequently and effectively communicating messages to promote brand awareness and calls-to-action within their communities. If these two departments synthesize their efforts, the connection could produce some real advantages for their hospitals…or in the case of Glam-A-Geddon, it could end up being a concert of epic proportions benefiting themselves (marketing and foundation departments), their business (hospital) and their fans (patients and the community).

So, this “similarity” might be a stretch, but it gave me a good reason to promote AVID Insight, our eNewsletter, and some of our past feature stories, as well as blog about the bands I love and respect.

Read the full feature story here about how to overcome the healthcare marketer and hospital foundation disconnect.

Are you an AVID Insight eNewsletter subscriber? Sign up today to receive advice on healthcare strategy, info on trends in healthcare marketing and healthcare seminar announcements.

AVID Design is a leader in hospital Website design and development. Contact us today and let us design your Website to make it go from dull to glam!

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It sure looks like it.

Straight from beating out two of Jeopardy’s all-time top performers earlier this month, the artificial intelligence question answering (QA) computer system built by IBM—aptly named Watson, after IBM’s very first president—will soon be moving this type of technology to healthcare for medical applications.

Commercial offerings from Watson technology should be coming to healthcare in 18-24 months, according to IBM and Nuance Communications, Inc.

What Does This Mean for Healthcare?

Since Watson has the uncanny ability to interact in natural human language through a wide range of applications and processes, “it holds enormous potential to transform healthcare effectiveness, efficiency and patient outcomes,” said IBM in a statement.

This means that a computer system built like Watson could be created to acquire information from numerous medical libraries, medical journals and patient’s records to aid physicians in retrieving pertinent information much quicker than if they were to scour through these medical journals on their own.

This so-called tool for physicians has the potential to help with:

• Improved patient safety and physician accuracy

• Reduced time for physicians to evaluate patients

• Personalized treatment options for patient’s specific needs

• Diagnosing and treating patients faster with the most current information available

Watson Technology…Coming to a Hospital Near You…

While IBM is partnering with Nuance Communications Inc. (a computer software technology corporation that specializes in speech and imaging applications) to further develop and invest in research for Watson technology within the healthcare realm, collaborations and commercial offerings are expected to be available in 18-24 months.

What do you think?  Would your hospital and your physicians adapt this type of technology?  If applied accordingly, do you think it could have a positive effect on healthcare?  We’re interested to know what you think!

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Aside from everyone talking about Lady Gaga’s unusual performance Sunday night at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards and Christina Aguilera taking a slight tumble during an Aretha Franklin tribute, the big shocker of the night was the group Arcade Fire nabbing Album of the Year, prompting many folks to ask “Who is Arcade Fire?” (me being one of them).

Who is Arcade Fire? Well, they are 2011 Grammy winners for Album of the Year.

Yeah, I’ve heard the name before, but knew nothing about the band…that is until I Googled them and realized that many people were wondering the same thing. This got me thinking…how much do people know about your hospital?

Who Are You—Who Who Who Who?

Your community may know your hospital’s name and where you are located, (and in the case of Arcade Fire, if you are from Canada and/or an indie rock music fan you may know them) but do they really know about your comprehensive services, cutting-edge technology, experienced staff of doctors or why you are a leading healthcare provider within your community?

There are several things you can do so your hospital is recognized in the community, from sponsored blood drives, to health fairs to charitable events to PSAs. But perhaps the most significant thing your hospital can do is evaluate (or re-evaluate) your marketing efforts and develop an innovative and creative branding campaign that encompasses these things, plus many more. Even if you already have a hospital brand and an image, you can always refresh it to reposition it.

Cuz I Really Wanna Know

Develop a brand strategy that sets you apart from other healthcare organizations and think about what makes your organization unique to give you an advantage over others. Sure, analyzing your marketing efforts and developing a branding campaign for your hospital can be difficult, and there are several facets to it, but with the right strategy, you’ll be getting recognition and more people will be talking about your hospital rather than asking about your hospital.

Do people know your hospital’s name but nothing about you from your marketing efforts? When was the last time you took a look at your marketing efforts and re-evaluated them? Are you doing all you can?

AVID Design specializes in brand analysis and brand strategy development, and can provide integrated marketing strategies as solutions to reach your marketing goals.

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Closing out this year, we decided to publish yet another “Top [insert number here" blog post.

Hey look...even Wayne and Garth had a Top Ten list! Schwing!!!

As tired as we were about hearing (and writing) about social media–no way, way–you guys sure seemed to like reading about it.

So, without further ado, here are our top 10 blog posts of 2010:

1. How to Setup an SMS Text Message Donation Service for Your Hospital
2. The Caduceus: Origins and Meanings
3. Five Ways to Measure the ROI of Healthcare Social Media
4. Top 5 Emerging Social Media…for Hospitals?
5. Hospital Website Standards and Best Practices… Does Your Hospital’s Website Live Up to the Standards?
6. Google Caffeine Impacts on Healthcare and Hospital SEO: Now What?
7. Friending Hospital and Healthcare Competitors? There’s No Question
8. Hospital Hurricane Preparedness and Digital Signage
9. iPad and Hospital Marketing: Let’s Start the Conversation
10. How Many Hospital Facebook Pages Should You Have?

Happy New Year,  we’ll see you in 2011–Party on!

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