I’m sitting at the Healthcare Marketing Strategies Summit in Orlando over the past few days and watching the tweets that have been posted about it through the various attendees. If you don’t know, you can follow the discussion through the use of hashtags. This event has a hashtag of #HMSS2011.Most folks probably use a twitter client such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. Have you heard of Twubs though?

Twubs.com = Hashtags made useful. From their Web site:

1. Twubs are Twitter groups built around content aggregated from #hashtags.
2. You can view the full social landscape of a Twub with tools such as our Live Tweet Feed which pulls in external images, videos and links, and our Tweetups & Events Scheduler.
3. You can Start searching for your favorite topics now and take full advantage of these and many more useful Twub features to connect and share with people of similar interests.
4. You’ll see quickly who are the top contributors so that you know who to listen to and who you may want to invite to a tweet up

So you may want to figure out a strategy for using Hashtags in your organization events and create an official Twubs page/group. This would be a great way to aggregate content during and after an event. You could use it at press conferences, Classes/Events, Foundation events, patient educational events… the list could go on and on.

Andy Darnell | Director of Web Development | AVID Design

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So you finally have a social media strategy nicely integrated into your hospital Website’s strategic marketing plan, where it will:

a.) Expand your hospital’s network

b.) Increase your hospital’s brand awareness

c.) Build relationships within your hospital and throughout your community

Tweet, tweet. How to get your hospital more retweets.

You know the ins and outs of Facebook and YouTube, the mechanics of blogging and how to post and share stories on Digg and Delicious, but you’re having some difficulty with Twitter—mainly, connecting with your followers and not ignoring them.

Here are a few quick tips on getting more retweets for your hospital:

• Send a direct message when someone begins following your hospital. A simple ‘thank you for following us’ will do. People like this kind of direct interaction because it makes them feel special that you took out some time to say something, then they are more apt to interact with you.

• Follow new followers back because you probably have something in common with them, whether it be a staff member that works at your hospital or a non-profit health organization such as the American Red Cross.

• Respond to tweets if someone asks a question or posts something of interest to or about your hospital. Let people know you are hearing them.

• Use hashtags frequently, but only if relevant to your tweet content.  We use #hcmktg and #hcsm quite often.

• Tweet more than once a day with hospital news, upcoming health fairs or events or a new blog post by your hospital’s CEO. There are tons of things going on daily at your hospital, so there surely is something to tweet about.

• Retweet followers tweets…simple as that. If you want your tweets retweeted, then retweet some tweets of your followers.

AVID Design can help your hospital form a solid social media strategy to address your Website’s goals and needs. Contact us today to learn more about integrating a social media strategy into your hospital’s marketing plan.

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The feel-good hit “Why Can’t We be Friends?” by the ‘70s funk band War makes it difficult to resist the cozy sentiment of universal friendship.

For doctors and patients, there are some reasons why we can’t all be friends, at least in regards to social media.

But in 2010—especially in the context of social media and healthcare marketing—the song’s power lacks the ability to provide a simple answer to a simple question. After all, the question of whether doctors and patients should be social media friends is one that is frequently discussed online—and one that is convoluted because there are many valid arguments that support both sides of the argument.

However, there is a simple answer:

• Doctors can be social media friends with patients.

• Patients can’t be social media friends with doctors.

Patients—and hospitals—should not expect their physicians to be active participants in online marketing and communications. That includes patients actively seeking out doctors on Facebook, Twitter, etc., or hospitals requiring physician participation in social media.

As with many other companies that want to embrace social media to foster a relationship with its customers, online/social media only works when there is an honest commitment to engagement. Mandating physicians to participate does not support this concept.

Furthermore, when patients cross the precarious line between the personal and professional relationship they have with their doctors when they seek an unwitting physician, it could very well result in him/her to cancel his/her accounts.

However, if a doctor should decide that he/she wants to embrace social media to be a resource or ambassador, that needs to remain his/her own decision. By granting doctors the power to make an independent decision, it:

• Improves the possibility of dynamic, positive social media experience.

• Creates a template for resistant physicians to enter.

But how would a patient know if his/her doctor was socially (media) available? Good question. That is when the hospital can promote the type of communication in their online and offline marketing communications—or the doctor can take the initiative to advise his/her patient that social media is an open channel of communication.

What do you think? Do you agree? What is your hospital’s policy or approach to this question?

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Sure we’ve all heard how great social media is for your hospital and how sometimes it’s difficult launching a social media strategy because of a little thing we like to call governance. But, if a proper governance policy is in place, social media can work wonders for hospitals. Here are some reasons why “the powers that be” at hospitals should encourage and embrace social media usage:

There are several reasons as to why hospitals should use social media.

• Higher visibility: Blogging, social networking and social bookmarking are highly—and some would say more—effective in reaching online users versus reaching them solely through your hospital’s Website.

• Greater communications: Social media tools are a powerful way to listen to your patients and obtain a better understanding of them, as well as an easier way to reach the media for news stories and press releases.

• Lower cost: Publicize and promote causes, hospital events, health fairs, support groups, etc. without having to spend tons of advertising dollars or inflate your marketing budget.

• Monitoring: How do people really perceive your hospital? Hear what they say, accept criticism (if that’s the case) and respond honestly.

• Internal brand awareness: Social media helps users engage and interact with several different communities internally and externally. Our  July newsletter actually discusses this more in detail.  Check it out!

AVID Design is an award-winning healthcare and hospital online marketing consultant with experience in developing effective hospital social media strategies and governance policies.

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That headline might seem like a classic study in contrasts, if not hypocrisy. After all, many hospital marketing consultants—including us—advocate hospitals to not firewall or otherwise restrict hospital employees’ access to social media.

Tommy Pischedda: Not a good person to emulate when predicting the longevity this social media “fad.”

However, we certainly don’t want to advocate unchecked or irresponsible social media usage—especially in environments such as hospitals where mistakes or accidents due to inattentiveness can be the between life and death. It is precisely that kind of risk (among others, such as perceived risks of privacy) that has forced some hospitals to take an extreme all-or-nothing approach to social media. Increasingly, the result is a “nothing” decision that has the obvious results.

Of course, one of the problems with any type of extreme thinking is that by default, it eliminates the potential for discovering new ideas—and an outright ban of social media certainly does that. (We’ll examine this subject in more detail in our July newsletter feature story).

Make Social Media an HR Issue

Rather than trying to predict the problems social media might cause (at the peril of the advantages it can deliver), leave the determination of what is an acceptable or appropriate usage of social media to your human resources department and managers.

More specifically, instead of attempting to cast a one-size-fits-all social media governance policy across your organization (which most often results in universal restrictions), let your employees have access to social media…but let it be one of the first factors that are assessed if there are any indications that they are slacking off or otherwise not fulfilling their obligations and responsibilities.

Sure, that means you have to trust your employees to use their time wisely…but don’t you already, especially at a hospital?

That trust extends to what they might say in a social media setting. A popular fear is that hospital employees might use social media to criticize the hospital. Well, if that’s the situation they (or your hospital) are in, you’ve got much bigger problems than their access to social media…which, by the way, is just as available outside of the hospital as it is inside.

Remember: Your employees are adults…treat them as such. If you prohibit social media in the workplace, they’ll find a way to access it, either by circumventing your firewalls, using mobile devices (often while away from their desks on “bathroom breaks” or “visits to other departments”).

But again, should you encounter any of these conflicts or problems, let HR resolve them. Don’t deprive the rest of your employees or your hospital of the tremendous advantages and benefits that social media provides.

Don’t be a Tommy Pischedda

Who is Tommy Pischedda? He is Bruno Kirby’s limo driver character in the film This is Spinal Tap. Cynical of modern rock stars that don’t share his admiration of old-school crooners like Frank Sinatra, Pischedda proclaims that “rock music is a passing thing…it’s a fad,” highlighting the humorous pretense that it’s Pischedda that is out of touch with what is now and is going to be the future.

Social media, like rock music, is not a fad. It’s not a “passing thing.” It’s here and is only going to become more ubiquitous—much like the telephone in past decades or e-mail in past years. Considering that a mobile “phone” is not just a telephone, but also a device that does e-mail and social media, it’s even more hard evidence that these modes of communication are becoming more a part of our everyday (and every moment) lives.

So go ahead…get behind social media at your hospital. The reasons are many and are scattered throughout the rest of our blogs.

But also go ahead and take more appropriate measures toward those that abuse social media at work. Nobody wants a nurse or a doctor or a security person or anybody that is supposed to ensure the health and safety of our loved ones to be distracted with writing a Facebook comment or reading Twitter, regardless if it’s for personal or professional reasons.

But don’t think that restricting their access will prevent that…nor will it ever give you the opportunity to realize the amazing value that an all-hands-on-deck social media culture can add to your hospital.

AVID Design offers hospitals experienced social media strategy and content creation—including blog writing and social media content.

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