This document discusses strategies for hospitals to engage mothers through social media, specifically mommy blogs. It provides examples of successful mommy blog initiatives like Merrimack Valley Moms run by Lowell General Hospital and Tufts Medical Center. The blogs helped the hospitals build communities of local mothers, deepen relationships with their target audiences, and increase engagement on social media platforms. The document also outlines best practices for running a mommy blog, including recruiting bloggers, promoting posts, and establishing rules of engagement.

1. Engaging the Mommy Audience: Hospital Mommy Blogs Brooke Tyson Hynes, Tufts Medical Center Dan Dunlop, Jennings March 27, 2011

2. Marketing to Moms Market “with” rather than market “to” Engage and allow for conversation Communicate shared values Must feel authentic Provide value via the relationship How do you enrich her life? Sense of community - belonging

3. Social Networks & Psychology Social Networks: Supreme community building tools A gift (and a potential curse) to healthcare marketers The psychology of social networking: The importance of connecting; sense of community Allows one to create a more vivid personal brand Sense of empowerment Studies have shown that the brain reacts to social networking interaction as if they were in-person interactions (oxytocin hormone); Users get the same emotional benefit Heightened feeling of trust, empathy and generosity

5. The Mommy Blog Phenomenon Deep South Moms Blog Organic and Green Mom Blog Mile High Moms A Mediocre Mom Blog Frugal Mom Blog American Muslim Mom Blog Snarky Mommy Crafty Mom Blog Single Mom Blog Agnostic Mom Blog Ninja Mom

6. Understanding the Social Mom http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

7. Why does your hospital use social media ? Is there strategic intent?

8. Hive Marketing Bringing together individuals with a shared interest (moms, for example) Allowing them to share their passion In the case of brand advocates, giving them a forum to express their support Feeding them information that confirms their decision to support the brand Activating them when needed

9. Important Vehicle for Segmenting Your Audiences You are not speaking to a homogenous group So to most effectively engage segments of your customer base, you can create vehicles that speak to them specifically “Social media will prove to be the nail in the coffin of the one-size-fits-all customer experience model.” Robert Wollan & Nick Smith Mommy blogs are exactly that kind of tool

10. Building Up Equity for a Rainy Day “Green Stamps” analogy Market traditional services Circumvent traditional media when necessary Take messaging directly to audience, unfiltered Allow for conversation and engagement

11. Twitter/Facebook/Blog Trifecta Power of using these in tandem Twitter’s ability to reach out Facebook’s positive character, storytelling ability and group-building capacity Blog: long-form storytelling; ability to establish a brand voice/personality

12. Hospital Blogs Seattle Mama Doc Wendy Sue Swanson, MD

13. Hospital Blogs

14. Hospital Blogs

15. Hospital Blogs

16. Branded Facebook Page

17. Hospital Blogs

18. Hospital Blogs

25. Merrimack Valley Moms

26. Merrimack Valley Moms Blog How do we engage busy moms? Lowell General Hospital & Tufts Medical Center decided to start a mommy blog for the Merrimack Valley Region of Massachusetts. Recruiting bloggers via a Facebook contest The contest’s impact on Twitter and Facebook Building community: Mommy Blogger Brunch

27. Merrimack Valley Moms

28. Facebook Promotion Posted contest announcement to Facebook Wall: Looking for 4 local moms to serve as bloggers $250 prize and a position as a mommy blogger Month-long promotion Entries: write on our Facebook Wall and tell us why you’d be a great mommy blogger Extended the contest to heighten interest Selected 4 local moms and one employee of LGH

29. Facebook Promotion Posted contest announcement to Facebook Wall: Lots of engagement during the contest Supporters of each of the blogger candidates would come to the site and voice their support Drove Facebook likes and Twitter Followers The announcement of the winners led to terrific press coverage Each blogger brought her own group of followers to our new community!

30. Merrimack Valley Moms Spreading the word via area Facebook groups

31. Merrimack Valley Moms

32. Feature from Lowell General’s newsletter

33. Mommy Blog Brunch Purpose: create community Encourage the moms to support one another Comment on each other’s blog posts Promote posts via Facebook and Twitter Teach mommy bloggers how to use Twitter Explain rules of engagement Distribute the posting schedule Video the moms for intro posts

34. http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

35. http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

36. Rules of Engagement Keep it positive Write about your life experiences Avoid negatives – not here to critique local businesses Generally avoid healthcare as a topic Avoid becoming an expert

37. Blog Mechanics Wordpress blog – very easy Post 4 to 5 times each week Moms submit word documents and photos Marketing team edits and posts entries We supplement with posts about local events and hospital events Guest bloggers from the hospital Marketing team approves comments

38. Blog Mechanics Each new entry is posted to the hospital’s Facebook wall We Tweet a link to each new post (LGH and Tufts Medical Center) We created a hashtag to make it easy to follow the blog on Twitter (#mvmoms)

39. Engagement & Results What we’ve seen so far (9 months): 208 comments!! 13,273 visitors Average 1,500 per month 50 visitors per day 15 hours per month to maintain

42. Merrimack Valley Moms Examples of engagement on Facebook

43. Results/Outcomes Community - made up of our target audience Vehicle for marketing service lines Vehicle for marketing our affiliation Press coverage – regional and industry-wide Developed a model that can be sustained Opportunity for year-round engagement Deepened relationship with target audience Enhanced social media presence across platforms

44. Results/Outcomes LGH – now1,016Facebook followers 786 Twitter followers Both grew significantly since contest started 128 click throughs for more info about Floating Hospital for Children 210 click throughs for more info about Lowell General Hospital Blog’s top referrers have been Facebook, LGH website and Twitter

45. Merrimack Valley Moms

46. Merrimack Valley Moms

47. Merrimack Valley Moms

50. What We Learned Succeeded in creating community Need to expand that community Bloggers vary in productivity Need additional bloggers to sustain momentum and keep interest Looking into a second contest to recruit more bloggers Challenge securing guest bloggers from hospital – adding health content

51. SignatureMoms.com

52. Signature Healthcare In affiliation with Tufts Medical Center Brockton, Massachusetts Lost connection with the community Financial woes Leadership transition Suburban competitors Lack of marketing infrastructure No social media presence

53. Overall Ad Campaign

54. http://signaturemoms.com/

55. Supporting Print Ad

56. Supporting Bus Ad

57. Facebook Promotion & Engagement

58. Facebook Promotion & Engagement

59. Facebook Promotion & Engagement

60. http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

61. http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

69. Questions: Should the mommy blog have its own Twitter feed? Facebook page? What are the opportunities to further build community in real life – in conjunction with the mommy blog? Events? Seminars? Should you allow advertising on the site?

70. Other Types of Blogs to Engage Different Constituents

72. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9889617/

73. Contact Information Brooke Tyson Hynes, Tufts Medical Center BTysonHynes@tuftsmedicalcenter.org Twitter: @TuftsMedicalCtr Dan Dunlop, Jennings ddunlop@jenningsco.com Twitter: @dandunlop & @JenningsHealth Blog: http://thehealthcaremarketer.wordpress.com