I presented this webinar for Ragan Communications on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011 with colleagues Ryan Paul and Tripp Underwood. It covers how to use blogs, Facebook and Twitter to accomplish your health care communications and marketing goals.
2. Today’s agenda Overview (20 min) Why social media? From SEA to shining SEA The three C’s of social media Blogging (15 min) Facebook (15 min) Twitter (10 min) Q’s and A’s (15 min)
3. Why social media Our jobs have changed Our tools have changed Our audiences, their needs and expectations have changed Incredible opportunities to inform and engage, all while building your organization’s brand
4. Social Media at Children’s Blogs Thrive: pediatric health Vector: science and innovation Facebook 19 pages Departments and programs such as Heart Center, Advanced Fetal Care Center, Cleft Lip and Palate Twitter 15 feeds Some overlap of Facebook pages, but most are general SocialText CHB about to launch internal collaboration software Complete listing at chbos.org/socialmedia
6. SEA: Strategic Strategize: Let your goals be your guide Reputation building? Volume building? Name recognition? Thought leadership? Patient support? Execute: Use the right tool for the specific goal Assess: Was it successful? If yes, evaluate what went well and replicate. If not, that’s OK. Learn from successes and failures. SEA to SEA
7. SEA: Tactical Share Find great stories, personalities, voices, images, videos Give yourself time to share the content you create Engage Identify and connect with those most likely to be interested in a topic or story Share your content in as many ways as possible Be personal—and not just when you need something Return the favor Amplify Use internal resources to spread the word Then get help from others outside your organization SEA to SEA
8. SEA: TacticalThe Three C’s of Social Media Coordination! Collaboration! Communication! SEA to SEA
9. SEA: TacticalHuddle Encourages the three C’s ½ hour EVERY DAY Reps from social media, media, web, physician and patient comm, etc Can respond to news in real time… Plan for the week ahead… And look down the road in a strategic way Huddles help you get your ducks in a row. SEA to SEA
10. Blogging Children’s has two blogs: Thrive: Pediatric health, wellness and parenting Vector: Science and innovation Benefits: Two-way communication Share timely, relevant news and info Real-time feedback on content Control messaging SEO benefits Brand building
11. Blogging Just do it—but be smart Decide what your blog is—and isn’t Don’t build it on your own: great, simple, EXISTING blog platforms—use one HIPAA disclaimer Don’t be afraid to fail Follow the data
12. Blogging Different medium, same rules Great stories, organizational benefit, separate yourself from the pack Let others do the talking Doctors, nurses, patients, parents, employees Find and cultivate strong voices Make illness, recovery and challenge come to life If it’s a no-brainer, don’t waste your time Fireworks safety on July 4th, tooth-brushing tips during Dental Health Month
13. Children’s on Facebook Facebook.com/ChildrensHospitalBoston 507,000 likes as of February 21, 2011 Largest hospital Facebook page in the world 19 total pages (more: chbos.org/socialmedia) Facebook is:Facebook isn’t: Wall posts and comments — Websites Photos — Blogs Custom tabs — YouTube
14. Children’s on Facebook Great way to push out content More interaction than blog comments …but that doesn’t always relate to clicks Even negative comments are a good thing Our posts have been viewed over 88 million times (equals $225,000 in ad savings)
16. Connecting on Facebook Don’t use it only to push your content Create something that will engage your audience 57% of our Facebook audience is women between ages 18-44. What do moms like? People on Facebook love to talk about themselves. Give them the opportunity.
18. Children’s on Twitter 15 Twitter handles, all separately maintained 11,500 total followers @ChildrensBoston and @ThriveChildrens are the most widely read and shared See chbos.org/socialmedia for a full listing
19. Twitter 101 It’s all about who you know. Like Hollywood or high school, the company you keep on Twitter says a lot about you. Connect and interact with reputable, likeminded groups and organizations that can help you spread your message—and you theirs. When it comes to followers, quality over quantity is key.
20. @Positives vs. @Negatives Benefits Real-time communication Personal touch Cheap and easy to maintain Challenges Unpredictable Extremely limited window of opportunity Twitter-verse is overpopulated; it can be difficult to stand out
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22. Avoid tweets that don’t push conversation forward or contain relevant, timely information
29. The last word Let each tool do what it does best Share the good stuff; make a plan for dealing with the bad stuff You can’t buy buy-in Health care’s compelling, important, always relevant—communicate that
30. Contact us Matt Cyr – Director, Patient and Family Communications @mattcyr or matthew.cyr@childrens.harvard.edu Ryan Paul – Social Media Specialist @RYANdashPAUL or ryan.paul@childrens.harvard.edu Tripp Underwood – Writer/Blogger @ESUIII or tripp.underwood@childrens.harvard.edu
It’s your site. You have responsibilities to your patients and contributors. Don’t let it be a free-for-all. Plus, this will help with the selling of the idea to administration.Talk about Boston Med (microsite, media, FB, Twitter, etc). Talk about using all the tools at your disposal – in the right ways, and not every tool at every opportunity – to get your messages out.Make people feel comfortable with what you’re doing. If you seem too cavalier, they won’t go for it. Know your internal audiences and address their particular concerns.
I loved LeeAase’sline two weeks ago: Proceed until apprehended!Take calculated risks – we went outside our ISD because they couldn’t do what we wanted them to. But we went through a process with them first to let them know what we wanted to do. We gave them the chance to say they could do it, but it became clear that, ultimately, they couldn’t. That way they couldn’t say we completely went around them.Related to first point. Our CMS is terrible and our IT wasn’t able to build the functionality we needed. WordPress has been amazing.It will fail if you try to make it everything to everyone. Be clear who your audience is, what your purpose is and. Knowing what you DON’T cover is as important as knowing what you do cover.Not everything will work. We’ve had content we thought would be very successful that fell flat. We’ve had functionality that we thought would work that didn’t. Be flexible enough to account for failures and successes – and don’t stick with something if the data is showing that it’s just not working.
Who’s linking to you?Who’s talking about you?Where are people being referred from?Where are they going after your blog?What terms are they searching to get to your site?
Have a plan in place to handle bad comments, angry customers, etc