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/

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?

What a Google Hangout can do for the New York Giants. And your Brand…

Who doesn’t love Sports and Social Media?

We like Facebook pages, follow athletes on Twitter, watch their videos on YouTube, and create all sorts of websites, clubs, wikis, younameit in their honor.  But can they be really, really social? Can they bring an athlete into your living room for a one-on-one conversation with them? Or better yet, bring 5 passionate fans from around the country, before the biggest media, sports spectacle in North America, to have a 15 minute chat?

If you’re the New York Giants, Linebacker Mark Herzlich, and five lucky fans chosen through social media alone, why yes you can..

This quick blog post will be:
- A brief recap of what the New York Giants did right, and a couple suggestions on how to improve the experience
- How this Hangout could apply to you and your brand.
- A brief look at the video of the actual Google Hangout for the thousands of Giants fans out there, and the few hearty Giants fans in our office that are surrounded by Patriots fans…

Feedback on the Experience
- Obviously, terrific use of Social Media to galvanize sports fan, for a specific team, from all corners of  the globe.
- Google made it a social, within a social, experience. A nice by-product of this Google Hangout is that the five of us on the Hangout are now connected, and will stay connected for a long time to come. Before, during and after the Hangout, we shared stories, goofy ideas, tech tips, and life stories and memories. Sounds hokey, but it’s not. That’s what social media is. Sharing a collective passion for a brand, product or service with other people, using platforms like Twitter, PATH, LinkedIn and Facebook. Remember the platform is just the tool….
- If I were the NY GIANTS, and had the resources, I would immediately publish this content right away.  Yes, the Hangout was “private” but Mark said nothing personal that he wouldn’t say to reporters in the locker room. Imagine all the Giants fans and  Boston College grads and teammates who would have loved to seen this. So, I’ve rolled the dice here a bit and pushed it up to YouTube. If they ask me to take it down, I will, but not without a little push back from me…(this is just the first 5 minutes with introductions and first round of questions)

Advice for your agency or brand
-If you are a college or university, haven’t you already considered a Google Hangout for “open-houses” or interviews for far-away candidates?
-If you are in real estate, financial services, or sales, why not use this this platform for collaboration, or information sessions (with content that is pre-approved for highly regulated industries)
-Consumer Products- Can you say Focus Groups?

So, I’m probably forgetting plenty of people, but thank you to everyone who made this possible. Pat Hanlon, Nilay Shah, The Giants, the NFL, the tech guy in the hotel room who set it up, Google, everyone.

Oh, and GO GIANTS….

P.S. My new Google Hangout Friend, Jeremy, will soon be posting the entire video in much better quality, in a few days, stay tuned.  Follow @acsys or @goodridge on Twitter and we’ll ket you know when it is up.

What’s Your Crisis Plan with Social Media?

If your company doesn’t have a Social Media plan for a crisis, you’re sunk.

A recent unfortunate issue (from many perspectives) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) provides us with a example of how complicated and fast-moving an emotional issue can evolve in social media.  Let’s review what happened, what CHOP did /didn’t do, and offer up some actionable advice for you and your social/PR team.

Background

• A Mom with a developmentally delayed daughter was eagerly awaiting her daughter’s potential new kidney transplant. She met with a doctor and social worker at CHOP and was told that her daughter was ineligible for a transplant because she was, in their words “mentally retarded”.
• Mom blogged about her less-than-positive experience with CHOP.
• A day later, an online petition was started, the parenting and healthcare blogging community took up her cause, and the web was abuzz with her story. The twitter hashtag #teamamelia was even a trending topic on Twitter for a few hours last week.
• Hundreds of angry moms and dads then took to CHOP’s Facebook page and vented-and are still venting today....

CHOP’s response

• 3 days after the original blog post (a Friday) they posted the following on their Facebook Wall- statement #1



• The following Monday they made statement #2 as their “Welcome Tab”. You weren’t able to comment or read their Wall without reading this first

• No Twitter response from their Twitter handle (@chop)

Reaction

• Smart move to put up statement #2 as a “gate” on their Facebook Wall as a quick and easy way to educate and inform angry (and some supportive) fans before heading over to CHOP’s wall
• Do you notice the difference between statement #1 and statement #2? The first one looks like a legal disclaimer, the second one is much friendlier, right? Don’t you think they should have started with statement #2 as the crisis began?
• They did NOT respond via Twitter, which in this case, was ok. They did not need to disseminate additional breaking news. The story was already out there. If it were Tylenol recalling aspirin, that’s an entirely different story.
• There is an unsubstantiated rumor that they initially deleted the first batch of negative comments on Friday. If true, that’s a definite NO-NO.

Recommendations
So, what can we learn from this, and recommend to our Corporate Communications, Public Relations, or Social Media teams?

1. ALWAYS be listening. Use a Social Media Monitoring service (or at the very least, daily Google Alerts) for company mentions. Include key words of notable employees, doctors, spokespeople, financial officers, etc.  If CHOP had been actively listening, perhaps they could have quickly approached the Mom with a response the next day? An email, a phone call, or if possible, even an in-person visit from someone from the hospital? At the very least, a quick acknowledgement of the issue, not silence.
2. Have a Plan. Obvious one, right? Make sure you have the appropriate channels lined up and ready with a statement. At the VERY least, have a pre-approved statement that’s already cleared to go. For example, a Twitter-ready statement could read.”Our team has just learned of (insert crisis here) and will respond shortly. Thanks for your patience”  For those of you with multiple twitter accounts- identify one account as the Crisis account.
3. 24 Hour approach. Remember, this incident got social media “legs” over the weekend. Have appropriate resources ready.
4. Watch your language and tone. Don’t speak in corporate mumbo-jumbo (see statement #1) above. Honesty and sincerity goes a looooong way.
5. Use video. Have someone always on call to be available for a one minute or less, video statement. It doesn’t have to be shot in a studio with HD cameras and makeup. Just make sure you have a microphone (cordless or not) a tripod (no-one likes a shaky camera) and obviously practice this a few times. Having a face or voice to humanize your response goes a long way. Here’s an example of Domino’s quick response after the infamous “prank” video.

So, are you ready for a crisis?