Social Influence Marketing Strategies & Tactics to Win Customers

Lots of helpful hints for using social media to win business.

How do you see social media marketing for hospitals progressing over the next few years and what can hospitals do now to get a leg-up on their competition?

As a professional who is actively involved in helping hospitals and health care systems develop social media programs and policies, I am happy to address this topic.

I fundamentally believe that social media will transform communications and revolutionize hospital public relations. If hospitals embrace social media in the relatively early stages, the advantages over their competition will last for years to come. The later a hospital waits to get in the game, the more work, money and time it will take to make social media effective.

To get a leg-up on the competition:

1. Treat social media as a “program,” not a project. Build a plan. Learn about the multitude of social media options – there are thousands of channels. Become well-versed in the business advantages and disadvantages of the different types of social media – video sharing, social communities, micro-blogging, virtual worlds, etc.

2. Establish your organization’s name on social media channels. There are a limited number of identities out there. If yours is taken, you may have to resort to unintuitive options. Stake your claim.

3. Educate everyone – your C-suite, your employee population and your department. Social media is new to many. It is also misunderstood. It is your job to educate everyone appropriately and build advocacy from within first.

4. Test. Don’t do everything! Experiment and discover what works and what doesn’t. Be smart and selective. Don’t post every video to YouTube or spread your messages too thin among channels. Move quickly and stay nimble.

5. Commit to reporting your findings. Treat this program with the importance it merits. If you report your success or report choices to drop channels or convey specific messaging, it will help you map your program and support your planning strategy. You will also discover that by building awareness of your fans’ comments, you will find even more support for your program (internally and externally).

6. Use with care and take the high road. Do not use these channels casually. You are representing your brand. Don’t fall into the trap of marketing to your listeners. This is a conversational medium. Never use this as a gorilla tactic to slight the competition. Always be honest and transparent.

7. Understand the business value and use of the channels. It is fundamentally different establishing your organization’s identity in social media from your own casual social use. It is a business tool with measurable value.

8. Create a policy. Don’t leave your organization unprepared. Every hospital or health care organization has to understand the proper use of social media and how an employee should represent him or herself online.

9. Be creative and sincere. The public can sniff out a professional and will quickly lock you out. Speak as a person. Ask, ask, ask what they want to know or track about your organization. The public is in charge. Remember, they are bombarded by messages, so creativity counts.

10. Jump start your program with a professional. It is a challenge to get started and maintain momentum for your social media program. Bring someone in to help you with workshops, planning and even internship programs.

Drop me an email if you’d like more information, Elizabeth L. Scott escott@ravennewmedia.com.

Health System Uses Social Media to Recruit Physicians

Health System Uses Social Media to Recruit Physicians – www.healthleadersmedia.com

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What is the key to creating a successful long-lasting branding campaign?

Specifically, what aspects should marketers especially consider when crafting a campaign that will have a long shelf life?

A long shelf life for a branding campaign should be a requirement of new advertising and promotion development. Concepting, production, editing, designing and execution of a campaign is an expensive endeavor. You don’t want to spend your marketing dollars on new development every year or even every other year. It’s too expensive! I challenge you to think about your branding campaign as your ‘little black dress’ or your ‘favorite tailored suit.’ It never fails. It is a well-respected and classic piece of your wardrobe that can withstand trends and lots of wear.

Your Branding Campaign = Your Little Black Dress/Your Favorite Tailored Suit
Your branding campaign, just like your little black dress or a perfectly tailored suit, is meant to establish a go-to, classic foundation for your ever-changing “accessories.” You want to be known for your brand, just as a designer is known for a signature style. Coco Chanel can be picked out of any lineup – classic suiting, pearls, scarves and quilting handbags. Ralph Lauren is known for his classic, semi-casual polo style.

As marketers, we often find our conflicted. By the nature of being in a creative profession, we tend to like campaigns that are fresh, new, breakthrough and creative (trendy). Consumers tend to gravitate toward the familiar, comfortable, easily understandable and repetitively memorable (classic). Fortunately, we can support both in branding campaigns.

Keep Your Campaign Relevant = Keep Your Look Fresh
A solid, classic branding campaign should be able to keep a shelf-life of 3 to 4 years without any major changes. Consider a cycle such as the one below. Resist the temptation to mix it up too much or you will muddy your campaign.

Evergreen Elements
Mark/logo
Tag
Color language
URL
Voiceover/music

Changeable Accessories
Imagery elements
Patient stories
Videography style
Sub-fonts
Formats (TV, print, online, mobile)

To Change or Not To Change?
Your creative staff, as well as your vendor, will want change. Challenge them to think about platform creativity. How can we effectively translate our print version to a Flash version for use on web sites, social media platforms or mobile media?

We, marketers, often forget that our exposure to a campaign from concept to execution is much more intense than the campaign’s exposure to the public. We ‘wear out’ a campaign (in our minds) far quicker than the public. Keep it classic.

Elizabeth L. Scott
CEO & Principal Consultant
Raven New Media & Marketing

What is mobile media's role in health care?

Any thoughts about the future of mobile technology use by health care consumers or clinicians?

New media makes the world go round

Let’s chat and challenge each other as we discuss health care, new media, web innovations, social media, technologies, usability, mobile evolution and sim world opportunties.