I stopped by the SHSMD Annual Conference the other week and a quick glimpse at the agenda told me that people were vibrating with excitement about the potential of Social Media and Web 2.0. Every other session seemed to promise answers to the big question: “What’s in it for me?”

Always interested in broadening my perspective, I stopped by a couple of the sessions. Instead of meaty answers based on unique results, the sessions I attended offered bland and broad commentary focusing mainly on how the presenter’s presence on Site X had driven traffic to their parent site. “There has to be more than that,” I thought to myself as I shuffled out onto the San Francisco streets with the rest of the confused mass.

It all got me thinking about:

• What we’re doing
• What it means
• Why we’re doing it
• What comes next

So…

Twitter

What?

A ‘micro-blogging’ service that allows you to ‘tweet’ < 140 character messages out to your ‘followers’. Perfect for quick updates from friends, finding out the latest news and keeping up-to-date on your favorite causes.

Why?

This is the one I’m most excited about right now. At Scripps Health we mostly syndicate our news and events out through the service. However, the medium lends itself well to personal interactions with potential (and existing) patients looking for more information. We have almost 90 people ‘following’ us right now and have already had two situations come up where the ScrippsHealth account was able to jump in and offer some recommendations to confused consumers.

Companies like Zappos have been lauded for addressing consumer gripes directly through Twitter. As more and more of our patient demographic group gets comfortable with the service I believe that the patient interactions for healthcare organizations on Twitter will become more frequent.

[http://twitter.com]

Facebook

What?

The latest in a long and illustrious string of ‘social networks’ that allow you to connect yourself to your friends (real or perceived) and gossip, pester or chat with them.

Why?

We’re doing a lot on the Scripps Facebook page – pulling in videos, syndicating news stories, attempting to connect with the audience via updates, posting little galleries of event pictures – but the ultimate goal is to connect with a broad and deep cross-section of the San Diego (and national) healthcare worker demographic. There are lots of nurses on Facebook and having that ‘connection’ with them in our pocket is a great way to drive employment referrals and fill tough positions. There is the added bonus (for us) of brand cohesion and loyalty someone gets when they become a ‘fan’ of Scripps Health.

[http://facebook.com]

YouTube

What?

A video sharing website owned and operated by the internet behemoth Google.

Why?

For Scripps, YouTube mainly represents another platform to reach a broader audience. Every video posted on Scripps.org is first posted to YouTube, from Human Resources promotional material to physician interviews. This broad swath of video content has attracted thousands of video views and resulted in some direct inquiries about our services from people far outside our geographic market.

[http://youtube.com]

What comes next?

Those are the big ones right now but we’re continually experimenting with new tools, monitoring our presences on smaller sites and looking for new opportunities. We have asked the whole organization to get involved – news stories and events start on our website but take on a life of their own when they spread beyond its borders. Customer service and patient satisfaction is becoming something everyone can address from the comfort of their office.

Along with our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) efforts, we’re now looking more at SMO (Social Media Optimization) which requires an interesting blend of customer service, technology management and constant listening.

The syndication opportunities offered by sites like YouTube, Digg, Eventful or Reddit are exciting but the real potential of this space is the ’social’ aspect of it all. [ed: Newsvine, Slashdot, Pownce are also good ones - and if you're still hard up for more social networking sites check out Wikipedia's list]

We are being offered the chance to connect with our patients and potential patients on an individual basis. We’re being offered the opportunity to go beyond marketing and have a real impact on the patient experience. That, in my humble opinion, is worth much, much more than any amount of referral traffic to your homepage.

• The Twemperor is Woefully Under-Dressed
• It’s Still About Your Web Site

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am and is filed under Marc Needham. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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