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Internet Strategy, Social Networking
Own Your Social Presence June 15th, 2010
NavigationArts is sponsoring the HealthCare New Media conference in Chicago this week. One of the major concerns faced by Healthcare marketers is getting their organizations to embrace (or even allow) a social media presence. I am a huge proponent of asking the question “Why?” when thinking about social media. Defining an appropriate strategy with measurable goals that meet business objectives is the key to success. However, if you are a large organization such as a hospital, you already have a social media presence whether or not you know it or control it.
The Web and especially social media is a platform for consumers to comment, criticize and review everything they do. Today’s Healthcare consumer is educated and will do the requisite research on your hospital, doctors, services, etc. Nielsen’s 2009 survey says that Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most. That information is out there already, which means that you need to monitor it and you should take ownership wherever you can. Taking ownership of your presence by creating official Facebook, Twitter, YoutTube, Yelp, etc. accounts is important for several reasons:
- You can encourage positive input from patients, doctors, donors, or partners, with which you have relationships.
- You can monitor and respond to negative comments in an appropriate and timely way and thus address your customer feedback loop.
- Allowing both positive and negative comments to exist creates more trust in your content and reviews.
- Promoting your official presence minimizes the impact, influence and any confusion around unofficial accounts.
- You can easily put usage guidelines in place.
(Side note: did you know that you can own your business’s yelp account? It is a very nice compromise between an organization endorsed platform with objective and real reviews.)
It is rather surprising how few and how limited the online social engagements of hospitals happen to be. Perhaps some of the largest concerns and roadblocks are around privacy, HIPAA, and ethics. Again, whether or not you have an official presence, these concerns are there because your doctors, nurses and patients have personal and unofficial accounts and groups. Having that official presence helps open up the conversation to put guidelines in place. Dense policies probably already exist, but providing a few clear, straightforward tips about how to be HIPAA compliant and ethically sound and making those a part of the culture and well known is going to be more effective.
Example: Dr. V, one of the speakers at the HCNM conference, says just “Don’t talk about your patients” for ethical reasons.
Example: Another hospital member in attendance says “If you can’t put it on a billboard, don’t put it on Facebook.”
Does anyone else have any simple social media guidelines?
One Comment for "Own Your Social Presence"
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nice post. thanks.
grants for women on June 21st, 2010 at 3:56 am
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