No excuses: ANY organization can measure return on investment (ROI), provide excellent customer service and share engaging content.

1. It’s Social Business (Not Social
Media)
Jason Lauritzen, Social Media Specialist | November 5, 2013

2. ROI
What is it?
Return on investment (ROI) is a business metric. It is media
agnostic. All your efforts—in every area of your company—
are focused on driving positive returns.
You only need two formulas to calculate ROI.
ROI as net dollar: (gain from investment – cost of
investment)
ROI as %: gain from investment – cost of investment
cost of investment
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3. ROI
Why hospitals are special when it comes to measuring ROI
We’re not trying to direct someone to an e-commerce site
to buy 10 widgets, so what do we need to keep in mind?
The lead-to-conversion time for a patient can be quite
lengthy, e.g., it’s not uncommon for it to take over six
months.
Insurance and similar factors can erode contribution
margin.
Always remember: ROI divorced from cost is a
meaningless metric.
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4. ROI
The biggest no-no when it comes to measuring ROI
Every problem that organizations have with measuring ROI
stems from violating the #1 ROI no-no. What is it?
Turning ROI from a business metric into a media metric.
If you do this, you deserve to have condescending Wonka
say things like
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5. ROI
Don’t be seduced by media metrics (KPIs)
Key performance indicators
(KPIs) are media metrics.
That bacon meme I
posted got 500 likes!
Aww …. Yeah!
Their allure is that they’re
generated in real-time and have a
number, generating a false sense
of business success.
KPIs estimate reach and
engagement—nothing more.
Don’t lose your way: The goal of social media is not to be
good at social media, but to be good at business via social
media. These are two entirely different things.
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6. ROI
Don’t go down the rabbit hole …
Just because you write a formula, doesn’t mean it can
measure what it claims.
Value of a like (VOAL) formula:
L / UpM x (LpD x 30) x (C / L) x CR x ACV = Value of a like
Impression value:
All impressions from SM x CPM average / 100
Alice’s Adventures In Poor
Business Measurement
ROI can only be measured based on the cost of the investment and return.
Estimating averages is dangerous as it gives the expectation that every time you
see some type of activity, it generates a value of X. ROI is specific and unique to
each customer’s actions.
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7. ROI
Or in the opposite direction of, “Why bother?”
“What’s the ROI of your mother?”
- Gary Vaynerchuk
“What’s the ROI of putting your pants on in the morning?”
- Scott Monty
What’s wrong with these quotes?
They confuse brand equity with lead measurement and
operational efficiency.
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8. ROI
Patterns may exist, but be careful
Contribution margin
Beginnings of a pattern emerging.
Could more Facebook shares equal a
higher contribution margin?
“Yes! Correlation is
causation.” Whoa, not so
fast. Is a mixed-media ad
campaign running? Do you
simply have more patients
during this time of the year,
e.g., flu cases in the winter?
= Total contribution margin ($)
= Shares of Facebook posts
Time (Q1 through Q4)
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9. ROI
Everyone has a funnel. What does yours look like?
Common problems:
•Directing consumers to too many
different points of contact
•Not planning ahead and involving key
parties, e.g., call center manager, web
team, etc.
•Using technical hurdles as an excuse to
not bother setting up a funnel
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10. ROI
Follow the ball
If you’re designing a campaign,
give yourself plenty of lead time,
e.g., at least 1 month
You want more than one
capture point, so you can
cross-compare results for
accuracy.
Build links with Google’s URL
builder, then feed them into a
shortener like bitly.
Bare minimum, using a
process like this guarantees
you can count the number of
patient referrals via social
media.
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11. ROI
Measuring your efforts
Total registrations:
14
OR
Reach
Act
San Jacinto: 2
Sugar Land: 5
Houston Methodist: 5
Willowbrook: 0
West: 2
Convert
If we have contribution margin data because 5 out of 14 of these registrants later
spent money at our hospitals, how would we calculate the ROI?
Net dollar: $5,500 in contribution margin – ($250 for Facebook promoted post + 2
hours of labor) = $5,198
ROI %: ($5,500 - $302) / 302 = 17.2%
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12. CONTENT CURATION
The “content is king” mantra
What’s the source for the often-quoted
mantra, “Content is king?”
A 1996 Microsoft column written by Bill Gates
Yes, content is important, but interpretations
around its implementation are misleading.
Webinars, consultants, agencies, all tout this
saying and turn it into recommendations like:
•You must produce x number of infographics
a quarter
•Social media sucks, blogs rule
Sorry, Bill: Content
isn’t king; brand equity
is.
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13. CONTENT CURATION
The generic content gold rush
It requires resources to produce authoritative,
high-quality content.
With so many organizations focused on trying to
“win search,” you’ll get buried quickly.
Now, with everyone targeting search phrases and
building out generic blog posts (that usually don’t
provide more info than Wikipedia), Google will
start giving more weight to brand equity
measured via social influence.
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14. CONTENT CURATION
When it comes to search, social matters … a lot
Source: SEO Ranking Factors – Rank Correlation 2013 for Google USA by
Searchmetrics
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15. CONTENT CURATION
Advantages
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16. CONTENT CURATION
Facebook example
Tag for original content creator
URL specific to Facebook
Free image from Wikipedia
Engagement from community
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17. CONTENT CURATION
Google +, Twitter examples
Key points:
•Author recognized
•Reduced labor costs
•Establish crosspromotional
relationships
•Create trust, brand
awareness
•Bolster SEO
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18. CUSTOMER SERVICE
The “why” of customer service
If you only take one thing away
from the “why” of customer
service it should be this:
Every interaction—good, bad, or
neutral—is an opportunity.
Customer service is not just for
dealing with problems. It’s the
totality of all your interactions with
the public.
Think of your social spaces as virtual front doors.
Would you ignore someone standing in your
business? Of course not. So, your customer
experience needs to seamlessly translate to the
social space. At Houston Methodist, we call this
the Methodist Experience.
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19. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Benefits
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20. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Mapping out a plan
When you go to legal, don’t be
general. Give them specific
scenarios so they don’t shut
down your ideas right away.
E.g., responding to Foursquare
check-ins to offer assistance,
but not general tweets about
health problems
E.g., responding to posts during
business hours in 10 minutes or
less; 1 hour or less outside of
business hours.
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21. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Twitter example: foursquare check-in
User check-ins via foursquare and tweets it. We pick it
up via Twitter search. You can also use this foursquare
setting to make sure check-ins are tied to your Twitter
handle:
We respond in 1 minute. Our goal and standard
response time during core business hours: 10 minutes
or less.
Us acknowledging the user nets a brand endorsement.
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22. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Facebook example: patient assistance
Patient posts on Houston Methodist Facebook
wall.
We respond in 5 minutes—on a Saturday
morning, asking for clarification and offering
our assistance.
Remember: Your social customer service
should be seamless translation of your inperson customer service. We call the hospital
to get more info on the patient.
Via phone, we get with patient liaison to
determine patient’s room # and ask them to
deliver a TV guide and check on them.
Customer gets their TV guide and is happy.
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23. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Facebook example: Dealing with HIPAA
Patient’s family member appreciates the care a
family member received and posts on a
community hospital’s wall, but violates HIPAA
by identifying them by name.
We thank them, but inform them of federal
privacy laws and invite them to resubmit it
without the name. Due to HIPAA, we are
obligated to hide their post.
Family member happily obliges. Note: Most
individual’s innately understand patient privacy,
so HIPAA violations are rare and in the cases
they happen, a simple explanation straightens
things out.
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24. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Facebook examples | Be a resource
It would be easiest to tell the potential patient
to call a phone number, but we always opt to
provide a lot of information up front, so they
are more likely to call a phone number or visit a
webpage.
Don’t be afraid to share information from
sources other than yourself. The consumer is
going to remember who helped them, not
necessarily who authored the information.
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25. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Twitter example: Billing frustration
Complaint received. Moved
“offline” to private, direct
messaging via Twitter.
Director of service quality, ER unit
and billing company contacted.
Billing address error rectified.
Additional information is gathered
via Twitter direct messaging.
Patient agrees to email us
additional information.
Win-win scenario: Patient is happy
the issue is resolved and the ER is
aware of potential billing issues.
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