When looking at different healthcare providers, many factors can influence your final decision. Factors such as a clinic’s location, insurance coverage and the physician play an important role in this decision but what about social media?

Today, the answer for many is: Yes! According a survey conducted by Brafton, an online news and content agency, a social media presence makes a “strong impact” on a patient’s decision on where to go for care.

Brafton reports, “Pregnant women and new moms are especially active on the web and social media when searching for information or products.” Tie that finding in with the fact that 23 million American mommies use Facebook every day and you should have a pretty good idea as where you can find your female, specifically “mom” audience online.

60% of major hospitals have jumped on the social media bandwagon as well (in a good way), but there are still many who have not. If your brand or hospital isn’t utilizing social media to start conversations with patients, I think now is a great time to take that step!

Need help starting the conversation or have some additional advice? Leave a comment below!

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Health Care Social Media Summit hosted by the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media and Ragan Communications. Speakers ranged from doctors to social media experts to patients, all parties who are leveraging social media to help people live healthier.

The conversation at the conference centered on how hospitals and doctors can use social media tools to connect with patients. HIPAA and AMA guidelines rightly protect patients’ personal information, but they also create obstacles for sharing helpful health information online. For instance, a majority of health care organizations represented at the conference still block social media sites for employees and/or patients. It seems a tad ironic that health systems that trust doctors with patients’ lives don’t trust them enough to responsibly use social media on the job.

Among all the “talk” about how to balance the need to preserve the uttermost respect for patient information and the desire of patients and doctors to connect online, stood Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson — a mom and a pediatrician who is sharing her insights on how to keep kids healthy. Dr. Swanson passionately and intelligently relayed how she believes social media is a powerful tool to save lives. That’s the ROI of health care social media she argued — the life of a boy whose mom’s Facebook friends help diagnose his potentially fatal condition or the mom who learned how to correctly put on a bike helmet from a blog.

Swanson practices pediatrics half-time and writes three blogs and produces one video blog each week for Seattle Mama Doc. The blog is filled with personal stories, videos about vaccinations, and practical information, like how to stop a nosebleed. The Seattle Children’s Hospital compensates Swanson for producing the blog content. Swanson argued that doctors should be compensated for the time and effort they put into connecting with patients online.

She encourages doctors to engage with patients online. She argues that patients still trust doctors and view them as people, which is a powerful position. She feels that as a doctor she needs to be confident enough to give the same advice in an exam room as she does to millions of people online. She also encourages doctors to do more than what HIPAA asks by always ask for permission before sharing details that could point to a patient’s story and never offering opinions anonymously online.

Overall, I was struck by Dr. Swanson desire to save lives. She knows moms like her are looking for reputable information on how to care for and protect their children. She also understands that her ability to relay health information through her expertise as a pediatrician and her personal experience as a mom can keep kids healthy.

Dr. Swanson is a powerful communicator, and I’m excited to see how other doctors follow in her footsteps and start to communicate with their patients.

As consumers increasingly find themselves connected to the world by the Internet, marketers need to stop and think about what this means for their upcoming campaigns. Well, at least we have put on our thinking caps.

As our own office is primarily controlled by smartphones, keeping us connected 100% of the time to the digital world, and as devices like tablets start to eat away at traditional mediums like newspapers and magazines, where should turn to cut through the clutter?

Acsys Interactive conducted a study to better understand the changing landscape for healthcare marketers. Respondents from around the country took this survey and one of the most impactful and game-changing insights that came out of the study is that digital is gaining ground on the traditional marketing mix – print, direct mail, radio, etc.

A majority of participants expect digital to move away from its current supplementary role in their campaigns and play a more prominent role.

• 36.6% of respondents said that by 2013 the balance between traditional and digital will completely shift to digital elements making up the majority of their marketing efforts and…
• 49.5% said that the two will be used equally.

The power of digital is growing because consumers are bombarded by so many messages everywhere they turn, and as a constantly evolving medium, digital has the power to upset the marketing norm. Videos, games and apps are just the beginning. Digital allows marketers to intertwine all messaging mediums used in a single campaign and create a multimedia platform capable of interacting with the consumer.

In healthcare, we see this trend growing and according to this survey, the inflection point of importance between traditional and digital campaign elements, according to over a third of respondents, seems to take effect by 2013.

Where do you see digital going in the future? Is it set to eclipse traditional elements such as print, direct mail and radio or will it be another element, equally as important, but not the lead component?

For years men have joked about the female psyche and its infinite mystery – but being a woman myself I often am at a loss for what women want, especially when it comes to marketing.

Women account for 80% of healthcare decisions and 85% of all consumer purchases, a.k.a. women are in control of the purse strings.

So how do advertisers tap into this lucrative market? Even if there isn’t a cut and dry answer to that question, I do know women can no longer be put in a box. Today, we are continually establishing ourselves in the workplace and exploring more diverse lifestyles, as a result, women don’t want/can’t be labeled. They believe the many facets that make up their lives make them unique and therefore many don’t relate well with overgeneralized ads.

Sarah Haskins created a mocking, yet insightful video to show how yogurt manufacturers have used generic marketing to reach women. Although brands in the past have gotten away with this approach, the marketplace has become oversaturated with messaging to women, thus making the prospect of reaching each woman with a single message less effective.

Right or wrong, recent in-house research conducted by Lawrence & Schiller is proving that when messaging to women, marketers need to go deep. It is all about what women think and feel, rather than their demographics. For example, when talking to women about healthcare, are they truly looking for “better health” or are they really seeking the ability to live the lifestyle they had before an illness or injury, or are they looking for comfort and guidance when going through life’s milestones such as becoming a parent for the first time?

 When creating a campaign, especially one centered on a woman’s lifestyle and health, you must discover what connects them to the brand, what they ultimately want or need, and how the product or service can help achieve that.

As digital media and highly defined metrics become a larger part of delivering marketing messages, advertisers are looking for ways to relate the metrics of digital media to traditional media.

There are digital ways to track traditional media, but the over-arching metric among all media is still  impressions. This leads to the question, if digital metrics are more detailed, is digital better than the traditional? Not at all! They are meant to work together to target consumers throughout the purchase cycle. This makes knowing when and how to reach your audience essential.

Tara Payne Mueller, digital & media strategist, and Laura Mitchell, digital strategist, discussed how goals and messaging are important in evaluating your campaign metrics in May’s L&S Boot Camp Webinar – Message Delivery: Metrics Across Digital and Traditional Media.

Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large, undefined group of people or community. Fittingly, this definition came from crowdsourcing giant Wikipedia. The idea of crowdsourcing isn’t new, but with each day it is reinvented through new platforms and uses.

Quora and Formspring are social networking sites that use their network to crowdsource answers, similar to a Q&A system. These sites allow users to ask a question and receive responses from others within the network. Respondents can also rate each answer to help ensure accuracy.

Crowdsourcing has seen most of its early growth in social media, but it hasn’t stopped there. The practice is also making a name for itself in corporate America. Why is that?  According to WIRED Magazine, businesses are using crowdsourcing as a tactic to save company resources, “The labor isn’t always free, but it costs a lot less than paying traditional employees. It’s not outsourcing; it’s crowdsourcing.”

The FDA “Bad Ad” program is an example of using this technique to “crowdsource” monitoring of pharmaceutical drug advertisements. The FDA implemented their “Bad Ad” program last year, requesting medical professionals to report any healthcare and pharmaceutical advertising potentially violating FDA regulations.

According to Advertising Age, to date, the FDA has received a total of 239 “red flags.” Of these, 54 percent were from healthcare providers, 31 percent from consumers and the remaining portion from a variety of other sources. Only one of these red flags has resulted in formal action by the FDA, leading some to give the method mixed reviews.

These examples show how crowdsourcing has been implemented by organizations to essentially “outsource” certain tasks, but I don’t believe this is the end of the road for crowdsourcing uses and innovations. As the Ideavibes Blog points out, “As more companies embrace crowdsourcing and find innovative solutions for crowdsourcing, it truly proves that crowdsourcing is constantly evolving.”

Crowdsourcing has grown from a social media trend to a time and money saver for businesses. The challenge in some cases, such as the FDA Bad Ad program, remains maintaining reliability.

The Internet and social media have fundamentally changed the pace of business, compressing time and rewarding speed. News breaks over minutes, not days. Companies can develop or refine products and services instantly based on customer feedback or events in the marketplace.

As a result, public relations has changed forever. Traditional media outlets are no longer the inpenetrable gatekeepers. Citizen journalists (whether they think of themselves that way or not) are reporting more updates from more locations than professional journalists could ever hope to cover. And businesses have an unprecented freedom to share their stories directly with key audiences – customers and potential clients.

This shifting landscape provides business with an opportunity never before seen. It’s called Real-Time PR… the mindset of finding and engaging with emerging story lines before they become old news.

Real-time PR was the topic of April’s L&S Boot Camp Webinar. Lawrence & Schiller’s Dave Haan, Director of Public Relations, and Lindsey Philips, PR Coordinator, presented the three “D”s at the foundation of real-time PR:

• Detect conversations about your brand
• Deliver the right messages to the right audiences
• Decrease your response time

People are willing to go to great lengths in order to save money, some brave the crowds of Crazy Days sales and Black Friday, while others cut coupons or play the “waiting game” for an item to go on sale. Shopping around for the best deal isn’t a new concept, but are we prepared to “shop” for healthcare? 

After reading about a woman who decided to start shopping for healthcare after her husband was placed on a new insurance plan with a high deductable, I realized how healthcare shopping may be a growing trend. Due to the increase in out-of-pocket costs, some of the most significant changes in decades are coming to hospitals in order to make price information more transparent to patients.

Hospitals such as Henry Ford Health and Oakwood Healthcare have already begun to make prices of common procedures available on their websites. Other hospitals are also starting to make more basic pricing information and pay plan data available, in order to accommodate the growing number of potential patients looking for this information.

As patients begin to ask more about pricing upfront, they will be less likely to undergo a procedure without requesting a second opinion or for options to reduce cost. This calls for healthcare facilities to be more transparent with pricing information as well as put employees in place to help patients through the “shopping” process.

Whenever I have a new ache or pain, I tend to venture online to do a little researching on what could possibly be ailing me. This has become a common practice for many people today. Health websites like WebMD & Patients Like Me are frequently visited by curious individuals.

Interestingly, according to a study done by National Research Corporation, 41 percent of respondents are using social media as a health care resource. And this absolutely makes sense – our social network is typically who we turn to when it comes to many issues, including health.

In addition, a vast majority of the survey respondents, 94 percent, actually turn to Facebook for diet and exercise tips, as well as health education multimedia. Being able to access a broad range of health information is not only valued, but also widely utilized.

The prevalence and importance of Facebook is incessantly regurgitated in marketing circles. However, it is a valid point and nod to the fact that the social media platform has become an important part of people’s lives. It has also become a game-changer for marketing strategies.

Preference is given to a health care organization’s Facebook page over its traditional website due to the ability to quickly interact, communicate and view the conversations and postings of peers.  A plethora of information is all in one convenient location, right alongside your online social community.

Health care organizations need to consider these findings and work towards expanding their social media presence. Providing education, tips, events, videos and conversing with followers are all possible via social media.  Creating a community and being a resource for patients via social media will build an even stronger communications network.

What do we know about women? Women are influential, social, and online – especially when it comes to making decisions about their health or the health of a loved one.

When looking at how best to engage women, it is important to know women want to make educated decisions about their health and the health of a loved one. That’s why eight out of ten women search for health information online, they want to be well informed and play an active role on the road to recovery.

Two out of three women say they are the main decision maker in their family for healthcare related services. This insight elevates the importance of developing messages relevant to women, even in healthcare areas other than those which typically target women, such as breast cancer and OB campaigns. Extending female targeted messaging to other areas of healthcare, for example, talking to the wife, the mother, the sister of a man in need of a prostate exam, can open a door to a new group of advocates for your hospital services. Think about it, who is behind many of the healthcare decisions in your home?

Tapping into this network of decision makers and family influencers, even when the service itself isn’t female specific, can grow your awareness and word of mouth marketing. Focus on areas where women can use their influence as an encouraging family caregiver and key healthcare decision maker.

Just last week, I had a rather eye-opening experience while at the doctor’s office. At registration, I witnessed the panic of staff when a patient who did not speak English was trying to register. Furthermore, the appropriate interpreter was not available for this patient’s appointment.

When fighting an illness, the last thing one wants to do is have a language battle as well. There are currently over 170 languages spoken in the United States alone. As a healthcare provider, how do you deal with this type of situation? How many patients are unable to get the proper care due to language barriers?

With the help of a new device, known as the Phrazer, those language barriers can be easily broken down in the doctor’s office. Not only is this device able to translate the patient’s language to English, but it is also able to collect the patient’s information, medical history, symptoms and complaints.

The device utilizes interactive, pre-recorded videos of a doctor speaking the patient’s preferred language. This is used to gain an understanding of the patient’s symptoms. During this process, vital signs are continuously monitored, alerting medical professionals if immediate care is needed.

All the information the device collects is summarized into a medical record. It is fully compatible with all Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems. Phrazer is currently in trials, but can be expected to be on the market by this fall.

From a marketing standpoint, why is Phrazer important? With this device, healthcare organizations are able to reach a wider audience. Opportunities that may have been missed or passed by can now be seized. A language barrier is no longer a hindrance, and providing quality healthcare to all patients is now entirely within reach.

In 2011, as consumer demands across industry lines continue to rise, people will expect health products and services to do more than ever to help them reach and maintain their personal goals.

People will be looking for the most effective ways to incorporate good health practices into their daily routines. They will still be found at their neighborhood grocery store counting the calories in food items, but those kinds of practices will be supplemented by using smartphones, gaming systems, and other innovative mobile devices to get in better shape.

This is evident in the rise of interactive video games focusing on at-home exercising such as yoga, pilates, and weight-lifting. One of the newest devices on the market is the Xbox Kinect, which can read your body movements and act as your personal trainer when doing workouts at home.

A study conducted by Research2guidance, “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2010-2015” looked at the rate of mobile application adoption, coupled with how consumers/healthcare providers are embracing mobile devices, and have projected that 500 million people will be using mobile healthcare applications by 2015!

Healthcare providers can tap into this trend by giving consumers a way to easily incorporate new health practices into their lives. Cleveland Clinic, a regional healthcare provider, launched their own mobile app encouraging iPhone users to be active in their “Let’s Move It” campaign. This mobile application keeps track for how far each user walks and will also allow users to compete with one another in friendly competitions.

Looking ahead to 2011, we can plan to see more products offering convenient ways to exercise at home. We can also plan to see more consumers using their mobile devices to download healthy living apps similar to the one provided by Cleveland Clinic.  What is your healthcare facility doing to be a part of it?

Of the top 10 most common New Year’s Resolutions, five deal with either losing weight or quitting bad habits to live a healthier, happier life.  

In 2011, people will not only look to be “well-thy,” many are also starting to view good health as a status symbol. For them, maintaining good health is as important to some consumers as having the biggest, newest or most expensive “It” item.

We see this trend growing through the addition of healthier food items at fast food restaurants and the increasing popularity of fitness-focused products such as Sketchers Shape-Ups. Vending machines with healthy options in schools, walking routes laid out in office buildings for employees, and organic grocery stores are just the beginning of people’s desires to lead “well-thier” lives.

Whether it is a New Year’s resolution or an adoption of the changing 2011 consumer environment – losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle will be the “It” thing on many people’s To Do list. A study by The Hartman Group found 73% of US consumers consider being physically fit important to being ‘well.’ The study also cited that 74% of consumers believe that being physically fit is equally important in ‘feeling good about themselves’. 

Healthcare service providers can take advantage of this trend by understanding that “healthy” is the new “happy” and that consumers are now viewing good health as ‘status’ and are assigning that extra value to it. So let’s raise our glasses on New Year’s Eve and give three cheers to a “well-thier” us!

The holiday season is one of my favorite times of year. Not for the gifts or the aromas of delicious treats filling homes and even workplaces, but for the spirited electricity coursing through people that comes with shopping, getting together with family and holiday vacations. In addition to the regular hustle and bustle that comes with the season, this year’s holidays will be a bit more energetic as we close 2010 with many industries grappling with one of the most comprehensive changes to federal legislation in decades–healthcare reform.

2011 marks the official kick off of the newly passed healthcare reform initiatives signed into law back in March of this year. While many businesses are working to understand how the laws will change their internal health plans, many consumers are feeling just as flustered with what the new laws mean to them.

Despite constant media coverage and heated debates surrounding healthcare the last eight months, a Pew Research study conducted earlier this year showed the average consumer still none the wise about healthcare reform. Even the majority of those who will be most affect d by the law, Generation Y 20-somethings and young families, have tuned out the chatter.

It seems as though a canyon-like gap exists between consumer understanding and the more than 2,440 pages of healthcare legislation. They’re not sure what is different, how it affects them and what, if anything, they’re suppose to do next.

This gap, while daunting to some, is the prime target for healthcare markets looking to capture new audiences and build brand loyalty with the introduction of the first changes in January. By informing consumers of the new laws and regulations and inviting them to take a more participatory role in healthcare, markets can turn apathetic generations into millions of insured, protected individuals and families.

Only 871 hospitals use social media. With over 5,000 hospitals in the U.S. this doesn’t even account for 20% according to Ed Bennett’s Social Networking List. That statistic astonishes me since the use of social media has grown exponentially since its introduction with Facebook and YouTube, among hundreds of other networks.

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, one of the most recognizable names in healthcare, believes this number is too low and social media can be a valuable asset to hospitals.  Because of this thinking, Mayo Clinic created the Social Media Center to help revolutionize how hospitals use social media. The center will provide workshops, training, and consulting services to educate hospitals on how to better utilize social media.

According to iHealthBeat, healthcare organizations are “risk adverse” and have difficulty accepting new technologies such as social media. However, iHealthBeat sees many benefits from using social media such as being able to potentially better engage patients and their community, aide with current marketing tactics and overall communications efforts, as well as grow their presence with online patient communities.

From a patient’s perspective, social media can give them access to others living, and learning to cope, with the same illness. One such patient wrote,   “These people and their stories become an emotional lifeline.” Another patient wrote, “Social media has become a part of my health care regime, and something I’ve come to need as part of my survival toolkit.”

Imagine the added benefit to patients if their hospital created the platform to facilitate these kinds of conversations as well as participate in them. Social media platforms can also serve to break down the barriers which exist between the patient and staff; hopefully leading to better outcomes and a stronger reputation for the hospital and its caregivers.

The world of communication is changing and even though many healthcare facilities have yet to utilize social media, we can see the benefit that such a tool provides. Hospitals will be able to empower and build better relationships with patients, as well as voice their message to a greater audience comprised of online patient communities and their local community.

Some things, like porn and public relations, are notoriously difficult to define.

In 1964, Supreme court Justice Potter Stewart famously opined on the definition of obscenity when he wrote, “…I’ll know it when I see it…”.

I think the same can be said for PR. You may not be able to recite a textbook definition, but you’ll know it when you see it.

If something gets you talking about a company, its products, people or services, then in my opinion it’s PR. Sometimes a carefully crafted campaign sparks the conversation. Other times PR springs from an unexpected part of your business… like customer service.

Recently, while driving across South Dakota with my boss, we decided to refuel and grab some lunch in Oacoma. As I pulled off the interstate he specifically directed me to the Shell station which was located across the highway from the convenience store and fast food place we were planning to visit.

“Why not fill up where we’re going to eat?” I asked.

“Because the owners are great people and I like to give them business,” was his answer.

Sure enough, as soon as we walked in the owner gave my boss a warm greeting and even asked about his elderly parents who had stopped with him only once before! They talked about business, the weather and the upcoming election like old friends. I was amazed not only how the owner remembered a customer she only sees periodically but how many details she retained.

Great customer service? Absolutely. Good public relations? You bet.

It got a customer talking, starting a positive buzz that continues even now as their story spreads on this blog, Facebook and Twitter. And the next time I’m in Oacoma, you know I’m stopping at Dakota Shell.

That looks like the definition of good PR to me.

Shopping for the latest shoes and accessories, among other things, seems to be at the top of most women’s online shopping list. But what about shopping around for their health information?

Surprisingly, a study by Burst Media says that 90.1 percent of women between the ages of 25-34 years of age search online for health information, in comparison to 66.9 percent of men of the same age group.  Women are also more likely to go online for their health questions and concerns rather than to their friends and family.

These women are driving web usage, especially in the area of medical sites, and they are transforming the type of sites people will visit for health questions and concerns. User-generated content (UGC) sites, similar to a blog, forum, or chat room, are a growing trend. However, keep in mind that many of these women are not professionals and that their opinions or experiences will not be true for everyone.

For curious and health conscious women – and men – who want to know more, check out the WebMD and Mayo Clinic websites.

A few years ago the headline was “A Gift,” last year a major merger with MeritCare in Fargo. Today, Sanford Health is taking another leap forward, emerging as a new organization under one name, a new symbol and refreshed mission, vision and values.

We at Lawrence and Schiller have worked with Sanford Health to develop the “Today’s Pioneers” campaign including TV and radio ads and a series of internal videos.

While many may regard the plains as the last place to transform healthcare, Sanford Health believes that this is actually the perfect place.  After all, the people of the plains have a long history of seeing possibilities where others see none, working hard to get things done and helping our neighbors.

With their vision to influence health and healing across the globe and provide innovative patient care here at home, the people at Sanford Health are truly “Today’s Pioneers.”

So, you have a throbbing headache, a strange rash or a distinctive muscle twitch – what is the first thing you do?

If you are like me and many other people, you’re likely to head directly to your computer and do a little searching to see what could be the cause. Sometimes, the information can be very valuable and educational. Other times, it can shock, scare and leave you questioning even more.

Cyberchondria, a condition stemming from online medical-related searching, is becoming a somewhat common ailment. Those who do their own medical research are finding alarming, anxiety-causing information, leading them to believe they have illnesses that are way beyond the common ache or pain.

The internet is a great tool and has certainly changed the way we gather information and make decisions. However, we always have to remember that everything that we see online should not be taken for absolute canon. Anyone can set up a site and put information on it. So, credibility of the source always needs to be taken into account.

My suggestion is that if something does seem wrong relating to your health leave it to those who work in medicine for a living. Go see a medical professional; they have the educational backing, expertise and experience to properly diagnose what may be wrong.

And along those same lines, if those same medical professionals are keeping a strong presence online through social media, blogs and other channels, they will hopefully be able to rein those cyberchondriacs back into the doctor’s office.

As frightening and painful as it may seem, there once was a time before smartphones and high tech digital devices. With the advancements and benefits these products have provided so far, it is often hard to imagine life without them.

Today, there are many phone applications and texting services designed to influence behavior and improve health. And with smartphones essentially becoming an extension to our limbs, this could not be a better combination.

Upon searching the terms “health” and “exercise” within BlackBerry App World, a number of applications appeared, encompassing various facets of the term. Exercise regimens, calorie counters, the ability to connect to friends working out, weight loss programs, statistics trackers and general healthy living practices are all options we can access via our mobile device.

When these offerings are right at our fingertips, it is hard to come up with excuses not to participate. Our health can be greatly changed by something as simple as downloading an application and following the often basic, straightforward procedure.

The smartest designed and most successful apps keep things basic and do not require too much thought. When there are just a few clicks or buttons to push, users are likely to use it; however, if the app requires several steps, people are more likely to get discouraged.

Health Txts is a text service that allows consumers to choose relevant health related messaging and have it sent to their mobile device. The service is free for three months, but must be reactivated at that time. Standard text messaging rates do apply.

FitBit is a digital device that tracks exercise activity, sleep patterns and calorie consumption and burning. The device can be synced with computers, where the data may be uploaded, viewed and shared with friends, family and coworkers. Additionally, users can collaborate and set goals with their connections. The FitBit runs at about $99 and can be purchased directly from the website.

The path to a healthier and fit lifestyle gets easier every day. And the future will only bring about more evolution in this mobile health arena.