It’s Back! Healthcare’s Only Crowdsourced Survey Call for Questions

We are excited to announce the launch of the Second Hospital Industry Crowdsourced Survey on Digital Marketing! If you are a marketer in the hospital industry, you know how important benchmark data is to your peers and executives. Hospitals compare themselves on everything, using data to stay abreast of their performance, competition and customer behavior, and to inform their ongoing marketing strategies.

Here is what we are looking to accomplish this year:

1) Once again, it is free to participate and as a participant you will get the results first.

2) We’ll keep the questions relevant to you. You will help us determine what they’ll be by submitting questions in the comments area below.

3) The report will include a summary of findings, results for each question and relevant charts and graphs illustrating key points to help you make better decisions for your organization.

A little over two years ago, Mike Stutman our SVP of Strategy lead our inaugural survey where you and your peers provided us with your burning questions on digital marketing. We used them to shape the first ever Hospital Industry Crowdsourced Survey and over 100 respondents provided answers. The survey results were so intriguing that it lead to coverage from several organizations including IHealthBeat, Fierce Healthcare, HealthCare ITNews, AMA, and more.

We’re also excited to announce that this year we’ve partnered with eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, which has served the industry since 1999. They’ve been an incredibly valuable partner, helping us guide the initiative from the start.

Here are some general guidelines to submit a question:

• Submit your question (or idea) by leaving it through a comment to this post.
• Any question related to Digital, Integrated and/or Emerging Marketing in the Hospital Industry is welcome.
• Feel free to submit more than one question/idea for consideration, but please understand that not all of your questions may get asked this time. If you like someone else’s comment please let us know and it will have a better chance of making the final cut.

• Please submit your questions and feedback by Tuesday, June 12, 2012.  After that, stayed tuned for notification of the availability of the survey itself and please take the survey when it is sent to you!
• If you have any questions about this survey, please feel free to contact me directly at:  Matthewd@acsysinteractive.com or (832) 449-5755.

Sample Questions (to spur your thinking):

1)      Do you have a site wide content strategy in place?

2)      What is the one thing patients should accomplish when interacting with your organization online?

3)      Does your hospital have plans for mobile marketing?

4)      Do you have a budget allocated to mobile technology for 2012/2013?

5)      How do you plan to measure ROI from your mobile initiatives? What KPIs will you be tracking?

The above questions are only a few to get your thoughts started.  We are far more interested in the burning questions you would like to ask your peers.  Thank you in advance for your participation.

If you missed the results from the first survey, you can check them out here: http://www.acsysinteractive.com/insights/crowdsourced-2010/

Is Mobile First a Good Thing?

Image Credit- Brad Frost (www.bradfrostweb.com)

(NOTE: We’re beginning a series of blog posts from Bryan Martin. Think of Bryan as our resident “ombudsman”. He’ll provide us with a good dose of common sense and a reality check on our life as marketers)

I’d like to start devoting some time to reigning in on some of the over-hyped technology out there: to give at least a common sense approach to adopting new methodologies, technologies, languages, etc.

And with that: let’s start with what got me on this kick in the first place – “Mobile First” design.

Mobile first – It’s been a term kicked around my office for a few months now.  And at first it sounds like a great idea: “How should this <insert project type here> act/feel/look on a tablet? Once that’s figured out – extend that out to both the phone and desktop.

I used to be a huge proponent of this idea until the idea struck me: If I start making sure that everything I do will look great on a tablet: I’ll start producing stuff that a) won’t work as well as it could on the desktop, and b) be doing so at the cost of 80-95% of the users who happen to be using desktops (the numbers depend on which study you’re looking at).

Please don’t mis-understand, I don’t want come off as some Luddite who wants to go back to the good old days when desktop computers ruled the earth like the dinosaurs they are.  I use my phone and tablet for casual computing more than I do the laptop.  But honestly: have any of you tried typing a blog post on a tablet?   I have: Google dropped the ball by even making the blogger app. This is one example.

What I suggest we actually do, is to look at the problem we have before us: whether it’s a complex web application, a commerce site, or just some brochure-ware site.  look at it.  Really look at it.  If it can be done with “Mobile-First” mentality, then go ahead but go full bore into it – last thing people want is a site that acts radically different on the mobile site vs. the actual site.  And for Pete’s sake use responsive design.  Yeah, the first project is a pain in the arse, but you’re going to have to do it eventually.  I’d suggest using some “compiled” css like SCSS or LESS to help get things right.  And defiantly use a framework like jQuery Mobile. I’d imagine most commerce sites and web comic sites (I’m looking at you, PvP) could fit into this just fine.

Past that:, if it really doesn’t make sense to even be using your application/site on a mobile platform (like Blogger) then don’t waste your resources doing so.

Now, for some sites it does “kinda-sorta” make sense – like the huge brochure-ware sites that most hospitals have become.  It’s a lot of static content, some forms of various complexity, and a very extensive hierarchical menu.  The more complicated forms might need a re-work beyond going responsive, and the menu – well, you’ll have to do what you have to do.  I’m not an IA – but I can say that any menu system I’ve seen would have to be completely blown apart and rebuilt.  And that’s not going to be easy.

Well, those are my 2 bits for today.

Basic human needs: meaningful connection vs. privacy

With the beginning of SXSW, we thought it appropriate to discuss one of the newest trends in social technology. According to the pundits and the press, the hottest technology to emerge in 2012 will be location-aware personal discovery applications. What does this mean? It means that there is technology being launched whose sole purpose is to put you together, in both the digital realm, and more importantly, the real physical world, with others who share your interests.

Apps in this vein, which are already in the app stores and markets, and which are getting great positive reviews by tech thought leaders, include such apps as highlight, Glancee, Sonar and Banjo.

So what does this technology do? How does it work? Once you’ve downloaded the app, it typically asks you to login via facebook. Why you ask? So that the app can scan your friends lists and your interests and then make telling connections between your friend/interests, and others and let you know who’s close by using location-aware services on your phone.

Basically, it will tell you when people are physically near you who share your interests. In some cases, this is pulled from your list of pre-existing facebook friends. In other cases, you’re being introduced to people who you do not yet know, but the software figures you might want to.

If you’re going to a conference like SXSW, or have just moved to a new city and want to meet new folks, it sounds great right? But wait, what about the fact that your socially-enthusiastic teenager has access to this very same person-to-person recommendation engine? Do you want her reaching out to everyone who shares her taste in Eminem? Or even M&Ms? Or even more unnerving to her parents, having her being approached by strangers who happen to be introduced to her via one of these emerging services? Only time will tell if this type of technology has broader application among later adopters of technology

If services like this are to gain traction, privacy concerns will ultimately have to be addressed. Where do you net out? Is privacy worth reducing if it means more meaningful human connections?

Why Tablet Design for Websites belongs at the Adult Table

Recent analysis from Juniper Research asserts that “Ultrabooks like Lenovo’s IdeaPad are rejuvenating the notebook class, offering the user experience of a tablet in a notebook form-factor”.

Net-net: The next generation of laptops and PC’s will be touch-centric and tablet-like.  So what we think of a “desktop” PC experience today is going to be pretty different in a few years for the masses.  I have been using a Dell version of this hybrid laptop and, while far from perfect, it is an early sign of things to come.  You can check it out here

As Apple works on integrating its iOS and Mountain Lion operating systems set for release later this summer, I can’t imagine that they will not soon be exploiting this opportunity in the laptop category.  Regardless, Lenovo, Dell and others are well aware of this threat and have a lot at stake to innovate and make sure they are not left in the dust as another piece of Apple roadkill.  So, expect to see intense innovation in this laptop/tablet hybrid category.

For projects with long horizon time frames (e.g. website builds delivered in 2013+), everyone involved in website development needs to put tablets, touch and mobile at the adult table  and not the kids table anymore.  We need to think first about creating touch friendly and optimized experiences.  Even Microsoft is thinking ahead, creating Windows 8 to be “touch-first”.

A famous quote from Wayne Gretzky perfectly depicts what is called for in this situation:  “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” These words were good enough for none other than Steve Jobs to use when he was introducing a version of the iPhone:  “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been.”

The desktop puck is quickly heading towards a tablet, touch and mobile-centric future.  It is undeniable and unstoppable.  Maybe your competitors are already thinking ahead and playing where the puck is headed?  Maybe your customers are too?  They only thing that is certain:  if you are sitting still, you will miss the puck. And if you do so, it will be increasingly costly and difficult to recover.  So get your skates on and mobilize!