Make Sure You Know Where the Emergency Brake Is

Anyone who knows me, or reads this blog, knows that I am a strong proponent of social media as a big part of the overall marketing mix. As part of an effective communications package, every organization needs to use a combination of social media tools to speak directly with their audience.

Although social media is intended to be somewhat unfiltered, some organizations – particularly hospitals – are governed by laws and privacy issues that can preclude an unfiltered stakeholder engagement. For that reason, it is important to craft and vet a social media response protocol prior to engaging in these new, and operationally-different, media tools.

As part of your social media effort, you need to develop a comprehensive social media policy. This policy will provide needed checks and balances for all of your employees and external stakeholders who could potentially contribute content or comment on any of your company-controlled social media properties. It should also provide guidance on moderating comments and input from the general public.

Your goal should not necessarily be to control and manage the message and tone of social media communication with your various publics. Rather, your goal should be to ensure that the dialogue is fair and adheres to standards that you’ve thought through and pre-set for propriety and privacy.

TAKE THE PLUNGE!

I’ve come to the conclusion that social media scares a lot of people. That is understandable. It’s new. It involves unfamiliar protocols and nomenclature. It seems so easy and natural for 16-year-olds, yet is a different world altogether for those of us who still remember where we were when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

Nonetheless, social media is here to stay.

So it’s time to take the plunge. Here’s what I recommend: a staged roll-out of social media tools and channels, so that you don’t “bite off more than you can chew.” Start small. Join and use Facebook (really use it; don’t be a bystander or wallflower). See what others in your industry are doing. Become a fan of sites that are delivering the kind of information you wish you were delivering about your company. Your Facebook experience shouldn’t be defined by the number of “friends” you have, but rather by the quality of contacts and experiences you can generate.

Keep a record of the kinds of information and resources you’d like YOUR company’s fan page to deliver. And yes, check out your competitors and what peer companies in different parts of the country (or even the world!) are doing.

And when you are ready, launch your page, keeping in mind it is NOT a website, which can sit fallow for months. Social media IS customer and stakeholder engagement. Be prepared to engage!

Time for Hospitals to Embrace Social Media

It’s time for hospitals to embrace social media.

Interactive online technologies, or “social media,” allow online users to search for and share content, and have become an indispensable tool in today’s communication mix – except, it seems, at smaller community hospitals. Social media sites are firmly entrenched as the primary method for online dialogue and communication for a good deal of the population today, covering people of all ages.

As part of an effective communications package, every organization needs to use a combination of social media tools to speak directly with their audience. Failing to do so risks alienating your patients and your community. Worse, it allows – and perhaps invites – the dialogue about what’s happening within your hospital and its service lines to be driven by outside, often unreliable sources.

Latest estimates show that over 500 hospitals in the U.S. are using some form of social media – and many are using multiple social media tools. If you are a healthcare marketing pro, isn’t it time to get YOUR hospital on board?

Hospitals need to Embrace "Marketing"

Just about every hospital I’ve dealt with has a “marketing” department. Why did I put “marketing” in the dreaded quotation marks? Well, because “marketing” means so very many different things to individual hospitals or healthcare systems.

In some cases, “marketing” means “fund raising.” To others, it means sending out press releases on health and wellness programs. Still others equate “marketing” with “advertising,” (generally resulting in little more than a shameful waste of money, if you ask me).

In truth, (according to the American Marketing Association):

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Hospitals are quick to point out that they are doing the latest procedure, that they have the most modern equipment, and they generally provide high-tech services. Isn’t it time for hospitals to move into the 21st Century with their marketing?

A Very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's hoping your Christmas is a very blessed and wonderful one, filled with all of the truly good and important things in life -- and perhaps a little "razzelberry dressing" and more than one "woofle jelly cake."

Here's a little something from me, courtesy of the first, and still the best, animated Christmas special EVER produced for television. (Music by Julie Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill, by the way!)

Merry Christmas, and best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010!

How to Be a Good Client

Here's an early Christmas (or a late Hanukkah) present for those of you out there who hire agencies.

Ryan Greives writes a quick primer on what it takes to be a good client (click here) for a PR firm. Almost all of this is certainly applicable to ad agencies, design firms, and interactive shops as well.

If you hire any type of marketing communications firm, this Top 10 list is required reading. By following these simple suggestions, you will get your firm to work harder and to always do their absolute best for you.

If I might add an additional point: Know that all we want is to make you look good. We are not out to take your job (we are on the "agency side" because that's what we love to do). And we are not out to grab the glory. No, our "glory" comes from having a satisfied and appreciative client who pays our bills in a timely manner. Making you look like a superstar to your CEO, your Board, or whomever signs your paycheck is the best possible outcome for us.

Hope you have a very happy holiday season, and my best wishes for a very successful and rewarding 2010!

And the Gold Medal Goes to...

Well, maybe our client Vision Research won't be on the medal stand in Vancouver, but their technology will be helping American Olympians and the American viewing public to better understand just what goes into a winning performance.

NBC, which is covering the Olympics, has enlisted the Vision Research ultra-high-speed Phantom camera to "slow down" the action of Olympic athletes, giving them and their coaches information that can lead to a winning edge.

At the same time, the television viewing public gets to see amazing details and things that give a far greater appreciation to the physics of sport.

Check out this report (click here) from Lester Holt on the TODAY Show, breaking down how US Olympian Julie Chu generates so much velocity to her slap shot.

Vision Research cameras serve a wealth of important functions, slowing down even the fastest motion to allow the analysis of motion that is far too fast for the human eye, and even beyond the capabilities of traditional film and video cameras.

I don't know about you, but I think this stuff is REALLY cool! For a gallery of ultra-high-speed video shot with Vision Research cameras, click here.