Jan 28 2010

Is Social Media the “Road to Nowhere” for Hospitals?

January 28, 2010 – 8:00 am

By Jenn Riggle

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Hynek

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Hynek

It can be if you don’t know where you’re going.

And according to new research from Greystone.Net, this seems to be the case — only 1 in 3 hospitals have a social media plan.

I’m not quite convinced of the accuracy of this research, which reports that 9 in 10 hospitals/health systems are currently using some form of social media. While I love the idea that so many hospitals are using social media, Greystone.Net’s percentage of engaged hospitals seems overly optimistic. According to Ed Bennett, whose blog provides an ongoing list of hospitals engaged in social media, 540 hospitals, or 10 percent of the nation’s 5,010 community hospitals, are currently using social media in some form or another.

However, the fact that only 33 percent of hospitals (and again, I think this number is high) have a social media plan is problematic, since these efforts are not tied to strategy or to hospital marketing and business plans. In fact, I hazard to guess that many hospitals are simply setting up Twitter accounts, posting videos on YouTube and creating Facebook pages without thinking how they can use these tools to support their service lines and improve communication with the community they serve.

To take the analogy further (with the help of Former Vice President Al Gore) hospitals are simply traveling down the information superhighway without a road map. Not knowing where they’re going, it’s highly unlikely they’ll arrive at their destination. Chances are, they’ll get lost.

Greystone.Net’s research also shows that hospitals have not budgeted for social media projects or hired employees to manage these programs. This could be a recipe for failure, since social media efforts are time intensive efforts that require research and engagement – and without resources, these duties fall on the health system’s PR and Marketing Team, who are already strapped dealing with the day-to-day activities of the hospital.

So I thought I’d take a quick look at two health systems of different sizes and resources which have taken systematic approaches to harnessing social media and have had tremendous results:

1.  Aurora Health Care, a 13-hospital integrated delivery network in Milwaukee, Wis., has mastered Twitter. The health system has more than 6,000 Twitter followers (@Aurora_Health), when many other hospitals have hundreds. One reason Aurora Health has been so successful is that it understands that social media is not a broadcasting tool, but instead, is about conversation. Research shows that nearly 20 percent of Aurora’s tweets or posts are conversational in nature.

In addition, Aurora Health “live-tweeted” during a double-knee replacement surgery to help promote its orthopedics service line. As a result, not only did the number of its followers increase from 900 to 2,000 and it generated a national media placement on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” but it also received 20 inquiries about knee surgery, 14 who actually had the surgery performed.

2.  On the other end of the spectrum, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, a small Florida health system, doesn’t have a huge marketing team, but it has done a great job with social media. John Domansky, a healthcare consultant and blogger from Iowa, ranked the hospital as a “Best Practice” social hospital for its engaging Twitter account, easy to navigate Web site and active Facebook page. In fact, according to an article in the Tampa Bay Medical News, Facebook drives 4,000 people, or 5 percent, of Sarasota Memorial’s monthly Web traffic. This comes just after the Web site address and search engine traffic.

Social media holds great promise, but hospitals need to allocate resources and integrate social media efforts with their existing marketing and business plans.

Two-thirds of hospitals don’t have a social media plan. The question they need to ask themselves: Do we feel lucky?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (36)
Jan 22 2010

Conan Interruptus – Socializing Old Media

January 22, 2010 – 12:15 am

There is nothing like a PR disaster to get the ol’ buzz rolling, and the ongoing mess surrounding NBC’s evening lineup has added some fun for those of us who don’t have to deal with it from the inside or for any of the sparring camps representing the hosts.  The move to push Conan O’Brien off the air is particularly interesting in that it represents yet another example of the new age in broadcast – Socialization of Old Media.

The celebrities in charge of these shows often call attention to the failings of their networks, but this “conversation” about the juggling of the lineup got authentic awfully quickly. In  the old days firings were handled offline and quietly. In this case, the offended parties took their feeling directly to the small communities that surround late night programming on NBC and the Jay Leno Show. And Conan provided his supporters with some bits that showed his comic smarts in much the same way as his antics during an earlier interruption of his show (see clip here). Conan Interruptus

About the fight, Conan quipped he could go “star in a Lifetime original movie about a woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her network.”

All the one-liners zinging back and forth resembled nothing so much as a video Tweetfest.  I’m hoping that this fracas represents an evolving balance between the legalistic corporate speak of old and a new transparency in the world of television.

It was refreshing to see the fallen heroes of late night speak their piece in such an open manner. Radar online’s report on the Charlie Rose interview with NBC top dog Jeff Zucker this week sported a comment about Zucker being “what’s wrong with NBC.” Zucker tried not to cry over the $40 million + out of pocket for O’Brien and team, but did succumb to some strained explanations of the situation.

What’s also interesting is the way these studio matters have had an outsized influence on traditional and social media. Variations of The Tonight Show search became a trending topic on Twitter in recent weeks  – ironic, perhaps, for the anti-Twitter O’Brien. What’s not interesting is the debate in some circles about what the network did to Conan. Puhleese! He’ll survive and thrive, paraphrasing Jerry Seinfeld from a story by Sheila Marikar of ABC.

For PR people, the opportunity to observe such a crisis closely and to see the entertainers be so true to themselves was both a little refreshing and a little alarming. It’s a brave new world when such conflicts can’t be sanitized and controlled. I like it better for now, but many companies aren’t particularly well equipped to deal with similar crises scaled to their situations.

As for our late night TV “crisis?” David Carr reported this week in The New York Times that NBC didn’t kill these shows. We did. We have some affection for them, of course, but in a world where we get plenty of news fed to us all day, with the ability to see the reruns on a variety of channels the next day and where our friends are at work to keep us in the loop, well…we just don’t need late night TV like we used to.

I’m kinda glad the recent NBC conflict  spread in such a social way, aided by the principal players being themselves. It reminded me that TV can still be fun.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing, Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (4)
Jan 20 2010

Nothing’s permanent, not even death.

January 20, 2010 – 9:00 am

By Wyatt Wood

It seems to be a reoccurring trend, at least in the blogosphere, to step back and evaluate the balance that time spent online (largely spent in social networks) affects our lives. This desire for balance is a good move; considering the research showing damaging physiological changes created by increasing use of social networks and the associated decline in face-to-face contact. So it’s time to unplug.

Should a social network be obligated to allow a user to vanish? It can be simplified as who owns the content. The article 10 ways social media will change in 2010 expounds on the idea that a battle over content will erupt is a very real concern. And a social network profile is really just content, albeit juicy content for advertising impression research and trends.

In the case of Google, they have explicitly stated that they do not mine the data – with a note that they could and that government institutions can as well:

YouTube Preview Image YouTube Preview Image

*It should also be noted: Google provides many ways for a user to clear cache and attempt to remove themselves or content from its engine’s clutches.

“Nothing’s permanent, not even death.” – from the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. So what if you want to do more than take a break from social media? Now with morbid flair there is a new tool encouraging users to clean the slate and “meet their real neighbors again.” The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, apparently seems to be working, Facebook recently blocked the service from their network, citing privacy violation. However given how the service works, by blanking out entries rather than deleting, I think it may help expose the fact that it’s not affecting the privacy of users – rather the information being gathered by advertisers.

How successful is this service? So as a consumer of social media, I take at face value all the “data” about my interaction online as well as the actual content that I “create” is monitored and valued to the larger community. Whether services like Suicide Machine are effective or not do not matter – rather I think they provide a good stimulus to the conversation about finding the balance between the real life and the social network persona. What are your thoughts about vanishing your online presence?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Wyatt Wood | Posted in Branding, Social Networks | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
Jan 14 2010

The Digital Kids of Generation X

January 14, 2010 – 11:57 am
Photo courtesy of Pink Sherbet

Photo courtesy of Pink Sherbet

By Jenn Riggle

Music soothes the savage beast – and my pre-teen daughter.

As the mom of two tween girls, ages 9 and 11, there’s always a lot of drama in my house. My youngest is a Chatty Cathy with an opinion on everything, while my oldest is a woman of few words – just eye rolls, sighs and one-word sentences. Most of the time, you find her in her room with her nose in a book or on YouTube watching music videos.

However, the one topic she’s always willing to talk about is music and what songs she wants to add to her iPod.

So we’ve become an iPod family. I spend a lot of time on iTunes and have gotten the hang of coordinating multiple playlists, one for each member of the family. My youngest is a Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift fan while my oldest listens to Panic! At The Disco, Green Day and Daughtry. My job is to keep everyone’s music separate (heaven forbid my oldest listen to a Kelly Clarkson song) – and then I add their music to my iPod so I know what they’re listening to.

And it appears that my kids are not alone in their early adoption of technology. Media giant Disney just completed a survey of 3,000 European tweens (ages 8 to 14) and have dubbed this group Generation XD, the digital children of Generation X (cute name, but I’m not sure it’ll stick).

The research found these kids are very comfortable using computers and playing videogames, but still value face-to-face interactions:

  • 95% feel that the Internet and computers are important to them
  • Face-to-face contact is still the preferred way to meet up with friends (30%) above texting (15%), online chat (14%) and mobile (8%)
  • 55% feel the Internet improves their life by helping them talk to their friends outside of school
  • Homework (59%) scores second only to gaming (74%) for the most common uses of the Internet

And while I have to admit, I don’t like all of my daughter’s music, she’s always excited when I knowingly bob my head when one of her favorite song comes on the radio. In turn, she’s gaining a new appreciation for older music and recently added Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” and The The’s “This is the Day” to her playlist. Of course, it didn’t hurt that M&Ms used the last song in one of their advertisements.

The good news is that we’ve at least found one thing we can talk about.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (4)
Jan 13 2010

Social Media To The Rescue

January 13, 2010 – 1:27 pm

With all the buzz over the earthquakes in Haiti it seems that real time search combined with social networks are making strides in the relief efforts. Yesterday evening I watched traditional media coverage of the large search and rescue operations on standby while online Twitter and Facebook covered the efforts and situation that were happening on location.

According to Google the number of blogs covering the Haiti crisis:

Google Trends shows how quickly the search has become a hot topic:

It’s not a matter of who is the journalist or news anchor in the case of social media, concern over ownership of retweets or information privacy is out the window. In the case of crisis the network moves the news in order to expand the communal concern rather than respond to ratings.

Recently, an interesting thought was raised about how Social Media has become the news to Traditional Media. In comparison to being a reactionary channel for branding I think involvement in social media has a way to push communication past a professional news pitch to something that hits closer to home. In the case of Haiti news, almost instantly there were charitable actions being shared through the community.

There is great potential for new tools to help maintain the momentum by showing where the money that is being donated is being used to enrich the community. So when the dust settles where will that leave efforts in Haiti? Does Social Media have the ability to extend past the flash of the news to create a sustainable relief effort? If it is to be successful there needs to be a connection past generating the buzz and awareness to continuing the action of support. The ability to store the data from the buzz even has potential to help with generating action plans for the future.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Wyatt Wood | Posted in Social Networks, mobile, social cause, social media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (8)
Jan 7 2010

A Tale of Two HIPAA Violations

January 7, 2010 – 10:58 am

By Jenn Riggle 

Photo courtesy of Hoggheff aka Hank Ashby aka Mr. Freshtags

Photo courtesy of Hoggheff aka Hank Ashby aka Mr. Freshtags

It sounds like something out of a Charles Dickens’ novel. While most of us were busy preparing for the holidays, two stories were unfolding in different parts of the country where hospital employees lost their jobs because they of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violations.

The first story takes place in Houston, where 16 hospital employees were fired for accessing the medical record of a medical resident who was hospitalized after being shot during an attempted robbery.

According to George Hulme’s blog for Health Information Trust Alliance, this looks like a simple case of hospital employees “snooping” to find out confidential patient information. The sad thing is that even though the employees may have accessed the medical record out of concern, they didn’t have the right to do this simply because they worked there.

The National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) reminds us that HIPAA requires hospitals to deliver “appropriate sanctions” when employees violate the law. But rather than using this incident as a teaching opportunity and suspending them and offering more HIPAA training, the hospital quickly terminated the 16 employees.

Another thing to think about: How was the hospital able to identify the people who viewed her record? Hulme hypothesizes that the hospital was monitoring and logging patient record access and was alerted to the increased interest in this patient’s medical record. Truly, Big Brother is watching you.

The second story takes place in Mississippi where a hospital administrative assistant was forced to resign because hospital officials believed that a tweet she sent to the Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour violated HIPAA regulations.

According to news reports, the governor wrote on his Twitter page that he was, “Glad the Legislature recognizes our dire fiscal situation. Look forward to hearing their ideas on how to trim expenses.”

The employee sent a tweet to the governor saying, “Schedule regular medical exams like everyone else instead of paying UMC employees over time to do it when clinics are usually closed.”

While the employee clearly references a check-up the governor had at the hospital, no real patient information was shared. In fact, according to reports, the employee didn’t believe she violated privacy laws. She’s quoted as saying, “I wasn’t really jabbing at him…That’s just what people do on Twitter.”

Maybe the biggest mistake this employee made was making a snarky comment to someone in a position of power. This comment wouldn’t have been appropriate if she sent it to the governor via e-mail or said it to him in person – let alone made it in a public forum like Twitter. Her tweet referenced a past hospital visit and implies that the hospital gave preferential treatment to a patient – which made both the hospital and the governor uncomfortable.

While these are completely different stories, they both show that hospital employees are unsure about HIPAA regulations and how they apply to them.

The Takeaway: Hospitals need to share stories like these with their employees to help bring clarity to regulations that often seem murky and confusing.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (18)
Jan 6 2010

Holiday Resolutions For Social Media

January 6, 2010 – 1:56 pm

As I gathered with family and friends over the holidays this year I did something amazing: I didn’t check Facebook or Twitter!

Rate your social media participation over the 2009 holidays (12/23/2009 – 01/04/2010)?

 1 – Declined a lot
[ 45% (14 votes) ]
2
[ 13% (4 votes) ]
3 – Stayed about the same
[ 32% (10 votes) ]
4
[ 3% (1 votes) ]
5 – Increased substantially
[ 6% (2 votes) ]
Other





We all heard about how social media was influential for increasing e-sales by “efficient, low-cost way for retailers to communicate directly”. So we know retail is listening to the power of social media.

How well did it personally connect people with people during the holidays? Personally I found it hard to engage users online when I had so much going on IRL (in real life). To communicate I reverted back to the old way of communication – email and phone. So much for new technology/networks when parts of the family are still figuring out dial-up.

So what does this activity mean for engaging this year on a personal or brand level? Taking a thought from Dan Zarrella’ post about predictions social media marketing evolution. The user base of most online networks are demanding a more targeted and personalized experience. This stems from the fact that ultimately the user wants more than a face to a profile – there needs to be in real life connection. It’s been proven model for business – so there should be no difference for personal connections. TrendsSpotting’s 2010 trend pre­dic­tions in 140 characters – emphasizes the fact that personal connection will take social media to the next level this year.

In conclusion this year I hope to find the right balance between real life and social media relationship. What is your resolution or personal goal for social media engagement?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Wyatt Wood | Posted in Internet Marketing, Social Networks, market research, social media | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)
Jan 5 2010

New Year – Same Old Aught Decade Hang Ups

January 5, 2010 – 2:13 am

 

By Mike Mulvihill

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Photo: Courtesy Optical Illusion 

First the good news – business loves social media.  A January 3 update to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research annual survey on the adoption and practice of social media by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., found that more businesses are experimenting and engaging with social media.  Among the survey respondents, 91 percent of companies report they incorporated at least one social media service or tool in 2009. Literacy and awareness was also on the rise with roughly 75 percent stating that they were now “very familiar” with social networking. Conversely, there was an impressive drop in Inc 500 companies that did not use social media at all, which plunged from 43 percent in 2007 to 9 percent in 2009.

Among smaller business, the trend lags. A November 2009 survey  produced for area Chambers of Commerce in North Dakota and Minnesota asked about their use of popular social media platforms for maintaining either Personal and Business connections.  For business leaders in four Midwestern markets, Facebook is the social media platform of choice. Facebook is the platform most frequently mentioned as the site used by respondents (70 percent personal use; 43 percent business use). LinkedIn was the platform next most frequently mentioned as the site used by respondents (23 percent personal use; 41 percent business use). Twitter (17 percent personal use; 19 percent business use) was about even with Blogs (15 percent personal use; 20% business use) as the third most frequently mentioned platform used by respondents  Three others in the survey lagged significantly in use by respondents – My Space, MSN Live Space and Wikis.

As Larry Weintraub covers in his Smart Marketing blog, these businesses have likely zeroed in on the four reasons to use Social Media for your business – Marketing, PR, Market Research and Customer Service.

Now, here’s the bad news.  Control is still a major issue, especially at larger companies. According to a nationwide survey conducted by Robert Half Technology, 54 percent of 1,400 companies surveyed completely restrict employees from visiting social networking sites. Another 19 percent restrict use for business purposes only.

Businesses are increasingly using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for marketing purposes, but those same companies don’t want employees logging on during work hours.

The Robert Half spokesperson said employers find social networking a waste of time. “It takes away from primary responsibility. When socializing on sites such as Facebook, we lose track of time.”

A secondary concern companies mentioned is the potential for employees leaking confidential information or sharing thoughts that may reflect badly on the company.  The spokesperson said that many of these companies are still trying to set boundaries.

 So while business increasing embraces the desire to “push out” info using social media, they still have not gotten over the fact that they have engage communities by trusting people to have conversations with customers, suppliers and their many other stakeholders.

 I’d love to see a survey of how many of the 91 percent of companies using social media are failing miserably because they still just don’t get the fact that every employee is an ambassador, whether at the supermarket, a cocktail party, the kids soccer match or when active on a social media site. They trust their salesmen to represent the company unsupervised, but can’t trust their employees to use social media responsibly. Seems like there’s still a lot of growing up to be done in 2010.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Blogging, Case Study, Internet Marketing, PR, Social Networks, communications, market research, social media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)
Dec 17 2009

Is Santa Real? Searching for Santa in Social Media

December 17, 2009 – 12:24 pm
Photo courtesy of Andre'-Pierre

Photo courtesy of Andre'-Pierre

by Jenn Riggle

Christmas is right around the corner and once again, my nine-year old is asking me the age-old question: “Is Santa Claus real?”

I’ve told her that like every good manager, Santa delegates some of his jobs so he can focus on preparing for Christmas. She understands that the Santa at the shopping mall isn’t the real Santa, but he works for him. By the same token, parents also help Santa – and that we have his cell phone number in case we need to let him know that we’re staying at a relative’s home for the holidays or, heaven forbid, we need to tell him to skip our house this year because we haven’t been good.

I think it’s wonderful that my daughter believes in the magic of Christmas and secretly believes that a gnome lives in the tree in our backyard, but I don’t want her friends at school to make fun of her. So I did what I always do and went to the Internet to look for answers.

I read Chad Skelton’s blog that asked the question: Is it wrong to lie to your children about Santa Claus? I thought his article was insightful, but I don’t want to be like Maureen O’Hara’s character in the classic movie, “Miracle on 34th Street,” a hard-working divorced mom who wants to protect her daughter by teaching her not to believe in fairy tales – or Santa.

I found a couple of sites where you can send a letter to Santa, but they hadn’t been updated in a couple of years, so that didn’t help my cause.

So I looked elsewhere and learned that @SantaClaus is on Twitter, and according to National Public Radio, he’s not using Twitter lists to help him track who’s Naughty and Nice. Although I have to admit, I wouldn’t mind it if he gave lumps of coal to the scantily clad women on Twitter who randomly follow people. I also found @MrsSantaClaus on Twitter and it turns out she has a lot more time to talk to kids at this time of year.

Santa Claus also has over 1 million followers on Facebook, but most of them seem to be adults asking Santa not to forget them this year.

But the best evidence we’ve found that Santa is real is that you can follow Santa’s travels around the globe on the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site. In fact NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), an organization that works to protect the U.S. and Canada from air attacks, has been tracking Santa since 1958.

I found an article that quoted Canadian fighter pilots, who are going to escort Santa as he flies over the region. And on YouTube, there’s a message from U.S. Air Force General Gene Renuart, Commander of NORAD, that explains how NORAD tracks Santa on Christmas Eve.

Children of all ages can call and e-mail Santa trackers for updates beginning at 4 a.m. MST on Christmas Eve. You can also track him on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr – and if you’re an OnStar subscriber, you can get updates in your car.

According to my daughter, if the U.S. government believes in Santa, that’s good enough for her.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (20)
Dec 16 2009

The Ghost of Christmas Future

December 16, 2009 – 2:20 pm

The holidays are fast approaching, and with it, the time of year known for selfless generosity.

While social media is helping shoppers avoid in person holiday sales and still get a great deal, it’s not all about buying the gifts, which is on a strong surge. With the true spirit of the giving season, the act of giving, social media is making an appearance to make giving front and center.

In the past, the big organizations brought the holiday giving campaign to the people with in-person, crowd based campaigns. Now, organizations like the Salivation Army are using social media to extend their reach with a personal touch through Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. They even offer tools for dedicated volunteers to help spread the message.

YouTube Preview Image

The Baltimore Sun has an interesting article about charities using social media to add another avenue for giving:

Organizations such as the United Way, Salvation Army and the American Red Cross are using Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to reach younger volunteers and donors.

Facebook fans of the Salvation Army can create virtual kettles on their pages and ask their friends to make donations without ever visiting a real storefront kettle. The United Way and Red Cross are tweeting their latest news of families helped and fund drives launched.

No one can yet say whether the new social media are effective ways to raise money, but that’s the goal, charities say. “We’re hoping to get this new audience, and we hope in the end there is a fundraising component with it,” said Amrit Dhillon, communications director for the United Way of Central Maryland.

Taking into account that the economy has been hard on everyone, Beth Kanter articulates a good process for making your holiday charitable giving decisions. The Red Cross found in a recent study that in spite of the economic downtown that most people anticipating donating more than $25 this year during the holiday season. Maybe by using Social Media these charities have a chance of getting those donations by interacting with their audience when they are at their computers, more able to donate online.

All year we’ve heard of social media is being used to change the world: Make Your Mark, SM4SC, 12 for 12k, Social Media for Social Good, Twestivals, Tweetsgiving and countless others. I think it is exciting to see these efforts extend to our holiday traditions and continue the support of those around us in need. Using social media for holiday giving is making it’s mark – but lets not forget that it’s all about the impact.

For a sprig of humor for your holidays, David Alston wrote a great post about transitioning the tradition of Santa into the modern tech world.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Wyatt Wood | Posted in Internet Marketing, Social Networks, communications, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (6)