MEET @POLARWISDOM
a ground zero glance at building the
first condition-specific, collaborative
advocacy Twitter feed
an OrganizedWisdom Health project

METHODOLOGY, DECK:
JEN MCCABE GORMAN
• Chief
Patient Advocate,
OrganizedWisdom Health
• Cofounder, NextHealth
(NL)
• Medical Education Evolution
(Ning)
• Tweet all about it

THE FINE PRINT
CreativeCommons Attribution = but you must attribute: Jen McCabe
• •
Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Gorman, OrganizedWisdom Health,
Unported 2009
this means you can share it...(copy, if you alter, transform, or build on this,
• •
distribute and transmit and remix it) MUST distribute under same/similar
license
for NONCOMMERCIAL purposes
•
(shared for the greater good people, questions?
•
don’t you feel all warm and fuzzy?) jmccabegorman@organizedwisdom.com

“WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR HEALTH?”
if you’re asking yourself this question, your social
media efforts are destined to fail...

THE RIGHT QUESTION(S)
what are the benefits of a SPECIFIC SOCIAL MEDIA tool/site/service
•
for the health of MY userbase/audience?
(um, who IS my userbase/audience?)
•

HOW TO FIND YOUR SOCIAL
MEDIA HOME
Don’t assume you know how users/
consumers are talking about the space
you want to address.
GO FISH! Find out what terms they’re
using, what slang, and how often this
shows up in search! results!
we knew we wanted a depression-oriented initiative, with bipolar
•
focus
did web searches using 3 keywords: depression, bipolar (BPD), and
•
major depression (MDD)
searched using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Google, Google Blog
•
search
‘depression’ with most results (2x), bipolar second most ‘popular’
•

ALSO ASK YOURSELF...
engage across professional forcefields?
how does X social media tool/site/service help connect patients and
•
providers? (Myca/HelloHealth)
or does it connect providers and providers? (Sermo, Ozmosis)
•
or people who are patients and people who are patients?
•
(PatientsLikeMe, CureTogether, SugarStats, TuDiabetes)

OBLIGATORY
GENERALIZATION
Health and medical ‘tweets’ (people who use Twitter regularly)
•
including both providers and patients, are increasingly using Twitter to
converse about illness, injury, treatment, and recovery.
Good opening slide to break
benefits of social media channel
‘gently’ to the rest of your
organization.
Be diplomatic when introducing
these channels. No one wants
to feel late to the party.

OUR ‘PREHISTORIC’ STRAGEGY
launch “PolarWisdom” feed (1.15.09) - begin tweeting (Jen+Emily)
•
announce feed on Twitter (Jen, Unity at personal feeds @jenmccabegorman,
•
@unitystoakes, and Unity at OW feed @organizedwisdom)
add self-identified depression, bipolar, psych, mood, health/medical tweets to
•
follower list
looked to recruit external doc; decided to go with our Medical Director
•
Scott Pearlman, MD
after action review = ask Twitter community for feedback
•

WHAT WILL IT DO?
“You’ll be able to read the latest doc-reviewed search results
from OrganizedWisdom Health related to depression, but
you’ll also be able to take quizzes and share other resources.”

@POLARWISDOM
0-400 followers in less than 8 weeks

NICE TO TWEET YOU.
let’s take a closer look at how

WHAT QUESTIONS DID WE
HAVE?
how many Twitter feeds do we need? (depression, bipolar, MDD)
•
what content do we use (already available WC?)
•
how do we get followers/who do we want to follow?
•
who’s responsible for care and feeding?
•
how are we gonna do this (process)?
•
what type of stuff should we be tweeting?
•
how should we skin it? special design?
•
how should we make it interesting, authentic, valuable, yadda yadda?
•

OUR SOCIAL MEDIA SOUL
SEARCHING
benefits of using Twitter to connect with our
OrganizedWisdom audience?

WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE?
WHAT DO THEY DO?
“our audience is anyone searching for health information. It is self-
•
segmented by search topic/WC/category. They segment themselves,
but if they are searching they are our audience.”
Quantcast.com for details on current demographics
•

HEALTH 2.0 = ?
content+community
•
health content = forming partnership, conversation, between patient
•
and provider, or patient and patient, or provider and provider, or well...
yeah. it’s a community thing
•

WHAT KIND OF CONTENT?
where is most need for advocacy - light in the tunnel tweeting?
•
mental illness/mood disorders - stigma
•
depression does not define you
•

TO TWEET OR
NOT TO TWEET....
first, we aim to reduce stigma attached to living w/conditions. If
you’re a cancer survivor, you’re celebrated.
If you’re a survivor of a depressive illness, you’re
derided.

DEPRESSION IS A PART OF
WHO YOU ARE.
IT DOES NOT DEFINE
YOU.

YOUR GOALS.
OUR TWITTERFEED.

WHAT I TWEET
@POLARWISDOM
twitter helps reframe healthcare research, news and content in terms of
•
personal, n=1 context
how does this news/journal article impact me if I have bipolar depression (or
•
know someone who does?)
what kind of resources are available for caregivers? survivors?
•
what is the latest research on medication development, clinical trials, and side
•
effects?
how do I advocate for myself by learning more about my condition?
•

“DEPRESSIVE ILLNESSES ARE OFTEN TREATABLE,
MANAGEABLE CONDITIONS.
THIS FEED IS ABOUT SELF-FULFILLMENT IN THE FACE
OF DEPRESSION -
ABOUT LIVING WITH THE CONDITION RATHER THAN
GIVING IN.”

WE WANT TO ADVOCATE FOR YOUR PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT.
DEPRESSIVE DISORDERS ARE MANAGEABLE ILLNESSES
FOR 70-90 PERCENT OF PATIENTS.
IT DOESN’T HAVE TO COMPLETELY TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE.

WE ALSO WANT TO GENERATE DISCUSSION.
YOUR EXPERIENCES CAN BE GENERATIVE FOR OTHERS.
WE WANT THIS COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT
LIFE GOALS THAT INTEGRATE A
TREATMENT-CENTRIC, RATHER THAN AN
ILLNESS-CENTRIC, APPROACH.

YOU CAN ALSO
“REQUEST WISDOM”
BY SENDING A DM TO
@POLARWISDOM.
OUR GUIDES WILL HAND CRAFT A SEARCH RESULT
BASED ON YOUR SPECIFIC NEED.
AFTER IT’S APPROVED BY OUR MEDICAL TEAM, WE’LL
PUBLISH IT ON @POLARWISDOM.

AND THE PRICE?
gratis

WHY USE THE
TWITTER COMMUNITY?

SHORT+SWEET

PATIENTS RELATE, IN BRIEF,
SUBJECTIVE IMPACT
LIVING WITH DEPRESSION
HAS ON LIVES,

PUBLIC+PRIVATE

@POLARWISDOM EMPHASIZES
CONVERSATIONAL ASPECTS OF LIVING
WITH DEPRESSION USING TWITTER,
A COMMUNITY FORUM FOR PERSONAL
UPDATES WHICH SUPPORTS RECOGNITION
OF THE CATHARTIC EFFECTS OF
TALKING (AND TWEETING) ABOUT LIVING
WITH DEPRESSION.

GOOD = ADVOCACY FOR
BPD

BETTER = EVIDENCE BASED
APPROACH

cognitive
reframing
OUR TWITTER APPROACH MIRRORS
THE CLINICAL APPROACH
“BRIEF SOLUTION ORIENTED”
TREATMENT -
FOCUSED ON WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW
TO
MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER. Consider real-world, brick and
mortar care when designing your
social media strategy.
Our Twitterfeed @polarwisdom
approach (and all our
TwitterWisdom accounts in fact)
are based on ACTUAL CLINICAL
TREATMENT MODALITIES in
behavioral health.

Depression tends to be an episodic,
isolated illness, with significant time
spent alone.
Twitter is a 'safe' at-will forum to share
personal, subjective information about
living well with depression.
It's experiential narrative, shared, in
short, soundbite format.
Journaling, for example, may feel to
intense for someone in the throes of
mania. A tweet, however, is easy to fire
off.
IN OTHER WORDS...
if tweeting about something you’re dealing with helps you get
through the day, @polarwisdom wants to help you do that.

WAIT A MINUTE...
this would work for more than just the BPD community, right?

TWITTERWISDOM MISSION
TwitterWisdom is an internal initiative, composed of
various condition-specific accounts, to use ‘real time’
social media tool Twitter.com to promote healthy living
by populating a daily tweetstream with news, links, commentary,
quizzes, quotes, research, and WisdomCards

Although Twitter.com may seem like a very broad-
spectrum qualitative tool, OrganizedWisdom is a
very metrics-oriented organization.
Our ROWE (all-virtual) work environment means
our team is used to communicating very
effectively using social media and web-based
tools.
This isn't just a “feel-good, slap up some content”
feed - we have developed quantitative
performance metrics for TwitterWisdom.
2 TYPES OF CONTENT
internal+external

WHERE TO GET FODDER
INTERNAL: WisdomCards
•
INTERNAL: HealthCenter
•
INTERNAL (hot!): quizzes, slideshows, FAQs
•
EXTERNAL: Event - staff member attending? livetweeting?
•
EXTERNAL: Blogs (also internal)
•
EXTERNAL: Tweeted links
•
EXTERNAL: News/current events
•

GREAT, BUT...
HOW DO I KNOW
WHAT TO TWEET?

5S THEORY OF
CONTENT SHARING
skip = move on to next one
• The 5s Theory of Content
Sharing.
March 2009 by Rajesh Setty,
\"Life Beyond Code\" blog.
scan = look for highlights, move on
• You want to hit the spread -
where people are touched \"so
much they voluntarily spread it
for you.\"
stop = thank you for triggering thinking!
•
save = and revisit + times in the future
•
spread = share it for you
•

HOW DO WE TRAIN THE
TEAM?
TwitterWisdom FAQs (mission, goals, process) V1.0, 2.0 - composed
•
by Jen McCabe Gorman
Twitter101 Class (open to anyone in the organization)
•
Editorial Calendar review, discussion (monthly phone call, real-time
•
ATM chats as needed, PlanHQ)
‘teaching moments’ using Google chat, Twitter, Bitly
•
internal team strategy chat; best practices, examples
•

Weekly topics that are broad-themed (BPD
and pregnancy) are combined with weekly
features (for example, Monday’s recurring
“things you always wanted to know about” =
tyaw2k).
Then we pull content from internal and
external sources to generate conversation.
DEEP DIVE:
TWITTERWISDOM
EDITORIAL CALENDAR

SECRET SAUCE =
DPSR METHODOLOGY
D (data gathering) = reading email, scanning news %
•
P (processing) = finding relevant link %
•
S (synthesis) = reading the article, thinking about who’s interested
•
in this research, where to post it, do I need it %
Pick a link from your
R (redistribution) = tweet the link %
• email inbox (say
MEDPAGE). Here’s DPSR in
action...where do you
think you should spend
the most and least time?

DPSR PROCESS SPECIFICS =
A SNAPSHOT
select content area (internal/external); Ex = WisdomCard
•
post link to target WisdomCard using Bitly - shorten, ‘sandwich’ with
•
commentary
post follow up comment relating to why WisdomCard is important
•
(weekly editorial issue? hot news? twitter convo?)
try to find news that supports, questions WisdomCard
•
tweet news links (1-10) using Bitly
•

HOW TO ASSESS UTILITY =
QUICK & DIRTY
if of interest to one of your followers (synthesis), include @name
•
and comment (cc)
use TwitterSearch keywords for WisdomCard terms to find tweets
•
who may like related tweetstream (follow, address as above)

BEST PRACTICE = QUANT
RESULTS
Dell makes 1M using Twitter...in 18 mos
•
Blendtees “Will It Blend?” YouTube campaign drives 5x increase in
•
sales
EBM is all about
measuring outcomes.
How could a health
organization do any
different using
communication channels?
Without quant support
you make a weak cases.

BENCHMARKS AND PAA
PAA = pre action assessment (military)
•
obvious stats = ‘public face’ - Facebook fans, Twitter followers if you
•
got ‘em, Digg links, existing web traffic/pageviews
cloudy stats = your ‘kimono’ - SEO rankings, CrunchBase, referrals,
•
customer satisfaction, other biz data
ROI/benchmarks = what are you using now? pageviews? unique
•
visitors? Goog analytics?

Passive ‘monitoring’ of
Twitter - failboat. But if
you must learn the ropes
silently, please do have a
plan in place to
participate. You’ll be shut
out by signing up and not
updating.
IF YOU’RE INTIMIDATED...
default to tweetstream ‘lurking’

OUTCOMES = ?
engagement metrics. this isn’t rocket science - it’s analytics.

WHAT TO TRACK
basics

OUTCOMES = ENGAGEMENT
METRICS
• followers
• DMs
• RTs
• @replies
• PAGEVIEWS

OPEN GOWN =
HOW WE SHARE DATA
• first weekly team strategy • alsoselected quotes, events,
call of the month ‘highlights,’ star followers
EVERYONE gets update on
• ALL ITEMS housed in
TwitterWisdom
public, ‘available to all’
primary staff member working docs hosted in
•
responsible for cloud (Google docs)
TwitterWisdom feed(s)
• anyonecan contribute,
shares followers, DMs, RTs,
anyone can take notes, see
pageviews
exec team feedback

YEAH.
THAT’S GREAT.
BUT HOW MUCH DOES IT
COST?

COST OF DOING BUSINESS:
COUNT IT.
@organizedwisdom we consider social media participation a cost of
•
doing business (part of my job description)
daily COBD line - organizational goal (1/4) = ‘Traffic & Engagement’
•
one primary staffer, support from 3 others (per feed)
•

Ok. I’m sold. I’ll put a
team member in charge
of t weeting for our org.
But how do I measure her
performance?
WANNA TAKE A PEEK
@PRODUCTIVITY?

PRODUCTIVITY METRICS
goal = 50 tweets/week, 10 tweets/day (min)
•
goal = 100 new followers/month (min)
•
goal = 4k PAGEVIEWS/month (min)
•

HOLD YOUR BREATH:
DEEP DIVE INTO BITLY

THAT’S GREAT.
BUT HOW DO YOU
CALCULATE
PAGEVIEWS?

Using what you
track, manage what
you measure!
We track pageviews
using Bitly.com and
‘ABC’
PAGEVIEW CALCULATION
pageviews/visitor(a) x visitors/tweet(b) x tweets/month(c)

Without ret weets and
conversations, it’s just
about slamming your feed
with links.
We’re working to lower
our ratio of t weets/
responses from 10:1 to 3:1.
NOT JUST ABOUT PAGEVIEWS.
go for link-love via RTs

EASY KEYWORD TRACKING
Twittersearch/Summize = daily. Org name, staff member(s), org
•
account, keyword
Google Insights for search = monthly, prior to team call, creating
•
editorial calendar
Google Trends/Analytics = useful for combo terms, phrases
•
(“organizedwisdom+health2.0+jenmccabegorman”)

MORE FEEDS!
NOM NOM NOM
http://twitter.com/ow_mental_healt (mental health)
•
http://twitter.com/owBipolar (bipolar)
• We’re also trying
automated ‘s treaming’
update feeds that
autopopulate when new
http://owDepression (depression)
• subject-area WCs are
published. Shocker -
these aren’t nearly as
popular; more like
http://twitter.com/owDrugsMeds (drugs/meds)
•
http://twitter.com/ow_womens_health (womens health)
•

YUM.
BUT HOW WILL IT FEED OUR
BOTTOM LINE?
Roi. Roi. Roi.

THE REVENUE QUESTION
We won't be supporting bits or bytes of
'paid' content or ads on @polarwisdom
(yet) - although we havenʼt ruled this
out.
Outside companies don't pay me to
tweet.
how does it make money?
• I tweet for myself @jenmccabegorman
and for OrganizedWisdom.com
@polarwisdom.
ads?
•
sponsorships?
•
paid subs?
•

AGAIN - WRONG QUESTION
Answer = both are vital.
How do you generate
value for users, and for
the company, using a
pop quiz - which is more important...
• social media comm
channel?
PRICING
•
VALUE-GENERATION
•

TIED TO
ORGANIZEDWISDOM MODEL
feed, designed by President and cofounder Unity Stoakes, Medical
•
Director Scott Pearlman, MD, and Chief Patient Advocate Jen McCabe
Gorman (with team input throughout!) will act as a platform for
content within a supportive online community
we, the company, will collaborate with health and medical
•
organizations interested in supporting the community oriented feed

BUT HOW WILL PEOPLE
KNOW WHO ‘WE’ ARE?
decided NOT to ‘require’ employees to use personal twitterfeeds, so couldn’t
•
use the @naming convention
use #owfirstname to identify tweets/team member
•
harnesses existing Twitter convention of using hashtags to identify events,
•
keywords, etc and track conversations
@polarwisdom tweets = #owjen, #owemily, #ownicole, #owamy, #owscott
•
team members can CHOOSE to share personal tweetstream if they so desire,
•
or keep it separate from ‘pro’ tweeting

LAST GASP OF RESISTANCE
but what if somebody says something BAD about us?!

SWALLOW. DIGEST. RESPOND.
love hurts.
so does looking at your org through social media’s collective
gaze.

Twitter is NOT just for
Health 2.0 type
companies!
It’s for patients! It’s for
providers!
BONUS SLIDES
for any docs in the room...or those who love ‘em

MICHAEL LARA MD=
HOW I USE TWITTER
http://
mlaramd.typepad.com/
michael_lara_md/
2009/03/how-physicians-
should-use-twitter.html
“I’ve found Twitter to be a useful adjunct to my private practice”
•
3 categories: info collection, info sharing, DIRECT PATIENT CARE
•
doc-doc re: non-urgent matters, office staff-patient appt. reminders
•
(gee, that sounds as useful as the Pony Express)

THE GOOD DOC RE: WHAT
NOT TO TWEET
to communicate directly with patients and their families (what??)
•
to communicate re: ‘urgent’ or ‘timely’ matters (wait, can’t I choose the
•
channel that reaches me most quickly?)
to answer inquiries re: ‘details about patient care’
•

BUT WAIT - JOHN SHARP
SEZ... http://
www.slideshare.net/
JohnSharp/digital-
customer-in-health-
care-1198211
slideshare presentation “Digital Customer”
•
healthcare uses for Twitter = “updating families during
•
procedures” (slide 14/33)
also, “emergency communication”
•

SO WHO DO WE BELIEVE?
and why does the dichotomy matter?

“EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A
BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TWITTER
WORKS. EVERY TEAM MEMBER, FOR EXAMPLE,
SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN A DIRECT
MESSAGE AND
THE PUBLIC TIMELINE.
OUR RULE IS TO TWEET ONLY VIA DIRECT
BUT ASSUME THAT THE
MESSAGES,
TWEET WILL BE ON THE
PUBLIC TIMELINE.”

The “Grandma Use” Rule=
If you wouldn’t say it out
loud to your
grandmother, or a
patient’s family member,
you probably shouldn’t
t weet it.
TRANSPARENCY ON TWITTER
via the public timeline

Your team MUST know the
risks and benefits of using a
given social media channel.
And your organization
MUST have a coherent
strategy on transparency of
those communicating on
these channels.
DO NOT ASSUME ANY
TWEETS ARE PRIVATE
DM or no DM...if you remember 2 words about using social
media, remember “public domain.”

“ANOTHER TWITTER TENET IS
UNDERSTANDING HOW/WHEN KEY TEAM
MEMBERS INTEGRATE TWITTER INTO THEIR
WORKDAY.”
CHEWY GOODNESS:
DISTRIBUTE TWEETS VIA
TWEETLATER Or schedule them using
organizational calendar.
I put hour to t weet an
item right onto our
TwitterWisdom Editorial
Calendar.

WHO’S LISTENING WHEN
WE’RE OFF DUTY?
people don’t tweet 24.7.
well, cough cough, MOST don’t... We are NOT treating
people on Twitter, nor are
we recommending
treatment. However, you
should give people access
to a resource that CAN
help treat them (911,
suicide helpline, etc).

After Liz gave this
feedback at
HealthCampPhiladelphia,
that same Friday we
started letting t weets
know who was on
‘weekend on call’ and how
to reach us (via email).
LET FOLLOWERS KNOW
YOUR TWITTER SCHEDULE
via @lizscherer - are you present all the time? Tweet 9-5, M-F?

AND THEY ALL LIVED
HEALTHILY EVER AFTER.
not quite. but this should be the goal of social media for health.

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To view a copy of this license, visit:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Or send a letter to:
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NICE TO TWEET YOU
jmccabegorman@organizedwisdom.com; (w3rk)
@jenccabegorman
jennifermccabegorman@yahoo.com; (lif3)
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jenmccabegorman

STAY TUNED...
for more on analyzing efficacy, ROI, and tweetstream/pageview
conversion analysis via TwitterWisdom.