35 Theses on Why Social Media are
Essential to Healthcare’s Future
Lee Aase
Manager, Syndication and Social Media
Mayo Clinic
13th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference
#hcic
November 2, 2009

About Lee Aase (@LeeAase)
• B.S. Political Science
• 14 years in politics and government at
local, state, national levels
• Mayo Clinic since April 2000
− Media relations consultant
− Manager since 2004
− Media Relations/Research Comm
− Syndication and Social Media

A Grandpa who appreciates the
power of Facebook

Healthcare Reform

Health Insurance Reform?

Healthcare Reformation!

Thesis #1: Air was the
original social medium

Mayo Clinic and Word of Mouth
• 91 percent of patients surveyed say
they have said “good things” to an
average of 40 people after a Mayo visit
• 85 percent say they recommended
Mayo to a friend
− Advised an average of 16 to come
− 5 actually came

Sources of Information Influencing
Preference for Mayo Clinic
Word of mouth 84
Stories in the media 57
MD recommendation 44
Advertising 27
Internet/Websites 26
Personal experience 24
Mailings to home 18
0 20 40 60 80 100

#2: Electronic tools merely
facilitate broader, more
efficient transmission by
overcoming inertia and
friction

#3: The mass media era was
a temporary anomaly

Evolution of Community
• Local: Pre-1930
• National: 1930-2005, made possible by
mass media
• Global: Post-2005, individuals members
of multiple communities of interest
without regard to geography
• Succeeding levels build upon earlier
stages without completely supplanting

#4: Social media are the
third millennium’s defining
communications trend

#5: Social media affect every
industry; technology grows
those effects exponentially

Businesses Already Revolutionized
• Music - iTunes vs. Tower Records
• Classified Advertising - eBay, Craigslist
• Bookstores
• Movie rentals - Local, Blockbuster, Netflix
• All mass media
• Video cameras
• See The Innovator’s Dilemma; TI Solution
and TI Prescription - Clayton Christensen

#6: Social media were
originally about relationships,
not technology. They still are.

#7: Hand-wringing about
merits and dangers of social
media is as productive as
debating gravity.

#8: Neglecting social media
≈ pilots ignoring gravity and
has similar outcomes

#9: Mass media will remain
powerful levers that move --
and are moved by -- social
media buzz.

EVP for Philadelphia Phillies

#10: Social media strategies
can’t compensate for an
inferior offering or bad service

United Breaks Guitars Breaks United

#11: Social media strategies
can help make a product,
service or experience better

#12: Failure to understand
social media = media
malpractice

#13: Social media offer
unprecedented opportunity
for transformational change
and productivity

#14: Strategic thinking about
social media is no substitute
for action

Tips on Personal Steps to Explore
• Establish a permanent personal email
• Get profiles in Facebook, LinkedIn
• Get a Twitter account
• Get a Flip camera (or iPhone 3G S?)
• Create a personal YouTube account
• Start a personal Blog

Starter Steps for Nonprofits
• Claim your Twitter “handle”
• Create a Facebook “fan” page
• Create a YouTube channel

#15: You can hear a lot just
by listening

A Story from Twitter

Ensuing Conversation

#16: Social media tools
make mass media power
available to anyone

#17: Social media are free in
any ordinary sense of the
word (or at least ridiculously
inexpensive)

Total Cost for Mayo Clinic
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter
$0.00

Cost for a Standard Definition
Flip Video Camera
$149.99
HD available for an additional $50

podcasts.mayoclinic.org

newsblog.mayoclinic.org

sharing.mayoclinic.org

Yearly Cost for a
Customized Blog
$75.00

Cost for Your Global TV Station
and Publishing Platform
$300.00

#18: As I approaches zero,
ROI approaches infinity

#19: MacGyver is the model
for social media success

The MacGyver Mindset

Mayo Clinic Medical Edge
News Media Syndications

First Foray in New Media
• Existing Medical Edge radio mp3s
• Launched Sept. ‘05; Downloads up
8,217 percent Oct. vs. Aug.

Step 2: More, Longer Podcasts

#20: Social media enable
authentic communication if
you don’t purposefully
complicate things

Key Tool: Flip Video Camera*
• Affordable for all campuses (and you)
• Recording interviews (with tripod)
improves existing processes
• Authenticity without writer’s cramp
• Provides potential blog resources
− Audio of full interview
− Video excerpts
• Limited group of video editors to ease
adoption, ensure quality

Case Study: Simple Storytelling
• 8:45 a.m. Colleague mentions article
coming off embargo at 3 p.m.
• Interviewed M.D. via Flip at 10:20
• Edited video and had password-
protected post on blog by 11:55 for
pitching
• Uploaded files to YouTube channel
• WSJ Health Blog used video

#21: Technology makes
things possible. People
make things happen.

#22: Social media are an
essential part of a balanced
communications diet

Basic Social Media “Food Groups”

#23: Almost all Web surfers
use social media today

#24: Compelling content is
much more valuable than
advertising time or space

The Octogenarian Idol Story
• Alerted to interesting video of elderly
couple playing piano in Gonda atrium
• Video shot by another patient and
uploaded to YouTube by her daughter
• Video had been seen 1,005 times in six
preceding months since upload
• Embedded in Sharing Mayo Clinic,
posted to Facebook, Tweeted on 4/7/09

The next day...

Six days later...

April 22

Sunday, May 3

May 4

Cinco de Mayo

May 10

May 11

May 12

May 15

Early Morning May 26

May 26, 2009: Live in Studio
Good Morning America

Results to Date
• More than 4.8 million views on YouTube
• >1.4 million views on Sharing Mayo Clinic
• From 200 views/month to 5,000 views/hour
• Validation of Thesis #26

#25: If you’re remarkable
enough, your customers will
create content for you

Jillayn Hey’s “Remarkable” Story
“One statement has stuck out above all
of the medical jargon written by the
surgeons and various nurses who cared
for me, and that is this: ‘patient's stay
was unremarkable.’ Well, although
things went fairly smoothly after a
difficult surgery, I would like to say that
there was nothing unremarkable about
my experience with Mayo.”

Therapeutic Storytelling...
“I recently read an (Utne Reader) article ... (which said) that
through telling our personal stories of illness and disease, we
assist in creating a new story of wellness that facilitates
healing and in turn directs a person towards recovery. This is
just one aspect that Sharing Mayo Clinic provides. It is not
only an opportunity for many patients and perhaps future
patients to tell their unique stories to work their way towards
health but it also provides a voice for its employees to share
parts of their daily work which I know must include joy and
sorrow as some of us become well and some of us
unfortunately do not. In my opinion, this is just another area
that Mayo is ahead of the curve in caring for its patients and
obviously their employees as well.”

#26: Your mileage may vary,
but you’ll go a lot further if
you get a car.

Answers to Objections
• “But what about the cost in staff time to
maintain all of these social media
platforms? They’re not really that
cheap!”
− AT&T free phone service in 1969
− Pitney Bowes free fax machines and
supplies in 1989
− YouTube, Facebook and Twitter free in
2009

Thesis #27: A Step Beyond 7 Habits

“8th Habit” Opportunity
I can go to any group, and I do it all the time, all over the world, and I
ask a simple question: “How many honestly believe that the vast
majority of the workforce in your organizations possess more talent,
more intelligence, more capability, more creativity, more resourcefulness
than their present jobs require or even allow them to use?” Literally,
almost everyone raises their hands…. Think of the loss of what we could
call “voice,” of people’s intelligence, capability, creativity. And yet I
can ask the next question: … “How many feel pressured to produce
more for less?” and you know what, the same amount of hands go up.
Now just put those two questions together: Here there’s this enormous
capability and talent and intelligence, and also this great pressure to
produce more for less, and they’re not able to even use it.
-- Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey’s “8th Habit”
Going beyond effectiveness to greatness
“Find your voice and inspire
others to find theirs”

#28: Paying for advertising
while not taking advantage
of FREE social media tools
isn’t particularly astute

A Story from Facebook...

Tamiko says...
“I’ve had lots of people ask me about the
YouTube video and I’ve told at least 30
people they should go to Mayo. ”

“Kids will take a chance.
If they don’t know,
they’ll have a go.”
-- Sir Ken Robinson, TED 2006

#29: Your kids aren’t smarter
than you are. They’re just
not afraid to look dumb.

#30: You can save enough
using free social media tools
to pay for expanded efforts

Healthline becomes
Medical Edge Weekend
• Host is Mayo Clinic M.D. with 20 years
local radio experience
• Previous syndication not feasible
− 1999: Unlikely profitable
− 2008: $20K/month unavailable
• Opportunity for creative application of
social media tools

The DIY Syndication Plan
• Production continues at KROC-AM
• Segments delivered to affiliates as
mp3 files for next week’s broadcast
• Topic for live production posted to
blog, promoted via Twitter
• Listen live through audio stream from
flagship station
• Podcasts posted 9 days later

Early Results
• Already a “win”: formerly local program
now on >10 stations, including Montreal
• Gradual growth is practical because costs
are nearly $0.00
• Unbridling a physician’s passion
• Significant new social media content
• Questions “tweeted” from four continents
• Follow #mayoradio or @mayoclinic

#31: Unforeseen implications
of social media are more
likely positive than negative

#32: Healthcare organizations
should thoughtfully engage in
social media

#33: Social media will
decrease diffusion time for
research and innovations

A Personal Patient Perspective
• Mysterious anemia
• Good News/Bad News
• Tweeting the diagnosis
• Immense response
• Practical support

Applying Patient Perspective to
Research Promotion

Applying Patient Perspective to
Research Promotion

#34: Challenges of
introducing social media in
healthcare are not unique

#35: Social technologies will
transform healthcare

How can we accelerate the pace?
• Free/low-cost practical experiments
− On-line chats about research findings
instead of just surgical tweets
− Journalist-level access to embargoed
research findings for bloggers
− Virtual support groups w/medical pros
− More collaboration within and among
organizations via Yammer, Twitter, etc.
− Share case studies within industry

If you have an iPhone, Let’s Bump!

If not, contact me by...
• Googling Lee Aase or SMUG U
• @LeeAase on Twitter
• aase.lee@mayo.edu
• Continue conversation at #hcic, #hcsm,
#hcmktg (Twitter), via SMUG comments
and...

Via the Original Social Medium
(See Thesis #1)