What Every Hospital Communicator Should Say – In 140 Characters or Less

Can you relate?

Why Twitter in healthcare?
All 14 hospitals listed on the 2010-2011 U.S. News Honor Roll are using social media.
78% of U.S News Best Hospital List are engaged on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.
The Mayo Clinic calls the social media revolution “the most far-reaching communications development since Gutenberg’s press.”*
* http://socialmedia.mayoclinic.org

Your customers are talking about you. Do you know what they’re saying?
“ The old 1-800 style of customer service is slowly being eroded. Companies are recognizing that every interaction matters…” –Jenny Comiskey

Twitter is not just for the youngsters.
More than half of Twitter users are 35 years and older.
The number of users between 18-24 is 13 percent*.
* digitalSurgeons

How we did it…
In late 2009, RMH Healthcare launched: www.facebook.com/RMHHealthcare www.twitter.com/RMHHealthcare www.youtube.com/RMHHealthcare

How we did it…
In early 2010, we added: www.facebook.com/RMHHeartCheck www.twitter.com/RMHHeartCheck

How we did it…
In May 2010, RMH launched: www.twitter.com/HollyatRMH

How we did it…
January 2011, we added: www.facebook.com/RMHW ellnessCenter www.twitter.com/RMHWellnessCntr

How we do it…
RMH social media sites are maintained daily by web specialist Ryan Hildebrand and media specialist Holly Martin.
RMHHeartCheck and RMHWellnessCntr are updated by trained staff in those departments.
Steve Gilman, RMH Marketing and Brand ID manager, oversees and monitors social media content.

Tweeting our hospital move! 215 views.

Tweeting our hospital move! 223 views.

Next steps in RMH social media
RMH Blog
Facebook fan pages for strategic service lines
Facebook group pages for RMH support groups
Physician involvement

Goals of a Social Media Strategy
Building Community
Customer Service
Selling
Prospecting
Branding and Awareness
Fundraising -Excerpt from “Twitter Success Stories,” MarketingProfs 2009

How Businesses Use Twitter
Branding and awareness – 84%
Networking – 78%
Community building – 77%
Brand reputation management – 51%
Customer service – 44%
Prospecting – 30%
Selling—20% -MarketingProfs 2009

Five-Steps to Create Your Strategy
Choose an audience
Stakeout
Setting goals and tracking
Decide who you are as an organization
Recurring tasks
http://mashable.com/2008/11/15/twitterspeak/

Branded Twitter Account

Individual Twitter Account

Hybrid Twitter Account

Worth Pointing Out
It puts a human face on the company
It provides a “listening station” for monitoring your company’s brand
It will help create visibility for your company
It provides a platform for unveiling important news
It establishes you as a “thought leader”
It is “FREE” marketing
It takes less than 20 minutes a day
Source: http://michaelhyatt.com/how-to-convince-your-boss-to-twitter.html

Get the “Green-Light” from Admin
IT obstacles
An introduction to Twitter
The show goes on with or without you
“ FREE” marketing
Provide examples

Establishing a Voice
Connect tone of voice and brand
Have a core social media team help evaluate your voice, but not dictate it
Focus on patient stories, community wellness, classes, programs, services
Keep it positive, make it personal
Beware the pitfalls of oversharing

It’s a conversation
“ Reporting has always in some ways been a
collaborative process between journalists
and their sources. But increasingly, there’s a
merger between the source and the content
producer.”
--Vadim Lavrusik, Mashable.com
September, 2010

Growing your Twitter Presence
Be patient
Grow organically
Give people a reason to follow you
Know how to handle negative comments
Leverage already existing micro-communities

Rules of Engagement: Interaction
Follow people and organizations who are important to you
The “Golden Rules”
Be friendly
Be genuine
Be personal
Timeliness is key

Measuring success
50 percent of businesses use Twitter-based metrics to chart their success
44 percent simply track Web traffic data
23 percent track personal interaction
23 percent use URL tracking services (like bit.ly)
22 percent don’t use quantitative metrics.
* MarketingProfs 2009 survey

What does success look like?
Twitter isn’t about follower count.
It’s about real-time interaction with customers.
Ask yourself:
Are you having conversations?
Are people re-tweeting your posts?
Are they clicking on your links?

Connect with patients on Twitter
Tracking tools are key.
Relationship-building helps this process happen organically
Let your followers get comfortable with your voice and what you have to offer
They will approach you when they have a need

Branding Your Twitter Page
Naming
Profile picture
Descriptive bio.
Professional background
Twitbacks.com
Twittergallery.com
Cross promote

Mayo Clinic’s Branded Page Profile picture Account name Descriptive bio. Custom background

Inappropriate Posting Can:
Get the Company, and you, in legal trouble with the U.S. and other government agencies, other companies, customers or the general public.
Diminish the Company’s brand name by creating negative publicity for The Company, owners and partners as well as yourself or your team.
Cause damage to The Company by releasing non-public information or proprietary information.
Cost you your job at the Company. Source: http://www.marketingzen.com/10-steps-to-creating-a-social-media-policy-for-your-company/

Creating a Social Media Use Policy
Is it all just common sense?
Think of it from two angles:
Employees (internal)
Public (external)
View examples of others’ existing policies
www.socialmediagovernance.com

Guide to Social Media Policy
Who’s in charge?
Have a crisis plan
Remember confidentiality (HIPPA)
Make employees aware of the policy
Policy should be easily accessible to followers
Let it be known what will happen if someone breaks the policy
Read more www.marketingzen.com

Monitoring Tools
Set up searches for:
Organization name
Abbreviated/slang terms
Keywords
Competitors
Names of key people
Special events
i.e. our hospital move

Posting and Account Management
Post to multiple accounts
Shorten links automatically
Insert photos video
Schedule tweets
Set up searches for monitoring
Notifications

Daily Routine Using TweetDeck

What Every Hospital Communicator Should Say – In 140 Characters or Less

by RMH Healthcare

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