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Listen in as our crack squad of healthcare marketing strategists discuss ideas, campaigns and more. Plus, enjoy an occasional guest appearance by some of our favorite industry friends.
The news, insights and links of the week—conveniently bundled for weekly consumption.
(Because you’re understandably too busy to pay attention all the time.)
There are definetly signs to look for in determining if your organization should invest in a new brand strategy. The term rebranding is accurate; your organization already has a brand. It may not reflect what your organization is or wants to be. It may not differentiate you from your competition. Or, it could just be something that has "evolved" from the amalgamation of all the things patients, physicians, the competition and your employees choose to say about you. Concrete indications of the need to rebrand can include: Low patient satisfaction scores. Losing market share. Consumers choosing to receive care from other providers when you have a demonstrably better clinical program. Before you Begin the Process Ensure that you and your senior leaders are defining the term "rebranding" in the same way. While you may be envisioning an entire review of what your organization represents and whether or not it fits the business strategy, your senior leadership could be thinking just a new logo and business cards.
 Got the “can’t keep up” flu? Give a look to this week’s Weekly Roundup.
Retail clinics. They’re here. They’re gone. See the link to the Wall Street Journal’s health blog that says there may still be life in them yet. Allina, Minneapolis-St. Paul’s largest group of hospitals and clinics, is partnering with CVS Pharmacy-owned Minute Clinics. Wal-Mart will follow suit and partner with local providers according to the article. If you want to get smart and I mean really smart about episode-based payments or what some refer to as “bundled payments” that many say will figure into the future of health care reimbursement, follow the link to Deloitte Health and download their free 24-page report. I think it’s worth a little heavy-lifting reading to get this important perspective. Have you ever heard of Lee Ase? I’m sick of hearing about him but he keeps saying good stuff so he’s in here this week as well. There are also links to blogs and articles on quality reporting websites, and Dan Dunlop on Fundraising and Social Media. Have at it. Use what you can and leave the rest. Retail Clinics Move Further Into Health-Care Mainstream by Jacob Goldstein, writer for The Wall Street Journal Health Blog Episode-Based Payment: Perspectives for Consideration from Deloitte Social Media Reformation by @Lee Aase, Social Media Manager at Mayo Clinic How to convince Leaders that Social Media is Good for Your Hospital by Nancy Cawley Jean, Senior Media Relations Officer/Social Media & Research at Lifespan HOME #17 – Podcasting as Part of Your Hospital Online Marketing Strategy by @Chris Boyer Social Media Specialist at HealthGrades Healthcare Marketing: Think You Have SEO Figured Out? by @Jimmy Warren, President of TotalCom Communications MedTouch Launches Hospital Quality Measures Website, @MedTouch Social Media Release Patient Satisfaction Surveys Make Great Marketing Tools by @Rich Hachenburg, Founder of Competitive Edge Fundraising and Social Media – Ragan.com Article by @Dan Dunlop, President of Jennings Branding & Advertising Agency
 photo credit: cjc4454
Welcome to the first edition of the HTK blog link round up. We will vet and pass along insightful healthcare marketing posts from various industry publications on a weekly basis for our readers. Have a look at them and feel free to lend some additional resources in the comment thread. Also when possible we’ll note authors’ Twitter profiles addresses for easy following, as noted by the “@” sign before each name. Mayo Clinic Using Videos, Blogs to Reach Far-Flung Staff by @Lindsey Miller, Writer for Ragan Communications 5 Key Mistakes Companies Make in Social Media by @Reed Smith, Owner of The Nformation Group Healthcare Marketing: It’s All About Trust by @Jimmy Warren, President of TotalCom Communications Why Healthcare Marketers Must Embrace “Attraction Marketing” by @Eric Brody, President of Trajectory 5 Ways to Make Your Healthcare Content Online Different from Others by @Ahava Leibtag of Aha Media Group How Healthcare Institutions Talk To You by @Jay Parkinson M.D., Co-Founder of Hello Health Global Conversations by @Lee Aase, Social Media Manager at Mayo Clinic Healthcare & Social Media: LinkedIn Group Discussion Transcript by @Dan Dunlop, President of Jennings Branding & Advertising Agency Shutting Down Social Media? Not Here. by @Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Isrel Deaconess Medical Center Microsoft’s interactive H1N1 Tool – A Useful Two-Way Communication Channel? by @David Harlow, Health Care Lawyer and Consultant, Harlow Group LLC
Posted by Joanne Cirillo on October 3rd 2009 in SHSMD Conference 2009 | 3 comments It was a reluctant audience at the SHSMD Senior Symposium session, Social Media 201: Advanced Tools and Advanced Ideas. Senior Symposium attendees are individuals who have 20+ years of experience in healthcare and who are working in executive positions.Most of the audience looked like they were waiting for a root canal, and that they would prefer having one if it meant they could avoid having to “deal with” social media within their organizations. Others spoke of patients’ hardwired “need to share.” Presenter Albert Maruggi, founder and president of Provident Partners as well as host and producer of the Marketing Edge podcast, is a man passionate about his subject. His message to healthcare marketing executives is that they should tap into what social media can do for networks of individuals brought together by a common illness or the need to share stories. Sharing and coming together is wired into our DNA
Maruggi began with the premise that the urge to share is hard-wired into our DNA. The need to share and to be recognized. “That’s what this is about, it’s not about Twitter,” said Maruggi. Referencing the 2003 book Linked by Albert Laszlo Barabási, he drew some parallels that fit the audience to a T. “There be dragons there!” wrote the ancient mapmakers, marking off the frightening unknown. As adventurers explored every region of the world, the monster-marked patches gradually disappeared,” wrote Barabasi. Maruggi didn’t stop there in trying to make his point. Soon he’s talking about Reed’s Law (a mathematical explanation for the power of a network) but just when you think he’s about to swing out into the stratosphere never to return, he’s back talking about how online networks of cancer patients are no different than your local Chamber of Commerce, that is, small groups with a common interest or purpose sharing and being recognized. “We’ve Lost Control”
As the group began to engage with Maruggi an interesting theme emerged. Audience members clearly identified social media as an enemy to be fought, thinking only of how a bunch of unknown “somebody’s” out there would be publishing bad things about them. “At least in the past we had some amount of control,” said one “veep” and a lot of other heads bobbed in agreement. This is crazy talk. There was no control pre-internet, pre-Facebook, or pre-Twitter. Employees were always out there saying bad things about cost-cutting, poorly served patients were always out there complaining and on and on. Clearly the prevailing view was that when you said “social media” they heard “reputation management”. Online reputation management is certainly a topic worth discussing but Maruggi brought the conversation back around to what can be gained from tapping into smaller networks of people concerned with diabetes treatment, or supporting each other through lifelong gastric disease. “Take a page from big pharma’,” said Maruggi. He went on to provide an example of how pharmaceutical companies find out who the influencers are within a community of physicians. They ask physicians, who do you talk to when you need information about the latest heart medications? Dr. Smith? Great, let’s see how many other physicians say Dr. Smith. Fifteen physicians say Dr. Smith? Let’s go talk to Dr. Smith about our new medication. Assuming they have a good product to sell and Dr. Smith gets on board, they are able to use the power of an informal network that looks to a respected colleague for recommendations. Using another example, this time of Amy Tenderich, is a woman diagnosed with diabetes 5 years ago and author/editor of the Web site, Diabetes Mine: A gold mine of straight talk and encouragement for people living with diabetes. Maruggi identified Tenderich as someone who has garnered a large following and is well respected when speaking or writing (see coverage of her diabetes advocacy at http://tinyurl.com/3t24pt) on her topic. If Amy Tenderich becomes a fan of your diabetes management program you can probably influence your market. To end the session, Maruggi shared an example of a health system that is doing a great job with social media, Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago. Here’s a link to a page on their Web site that highlights the social networks Swedish Covenant offers to its patients, http://www.swedishcovenant.org/socialnetworks. Great stuff. Sadly, the audience of leaders seemed unconvinced as they filtered out of the room. It will take a lot more convincing to get this executive level to see social networks as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Not for PR practitioners only—a good read for marketing communicators, as well. Aside from my desire for substantially fewer pages and less repetition (the latter which would, of course, result in fewer pages), Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR, (2009, FT Press) by Brian Solis and Dierdre Breakenridge, provokes serious thought about a new world for PR practitioners. Edward Bernays, one of the originators of modern public relations, once wrote, "The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people. Of course," he added, "the means and methods of accomplishing these ends have changed as society has changed." Society has done a whole lot of changing since Bernays wrote those words possibly 70 years or more ago, but not a whole lot has changed in the practice of public relations. As a student of public relations, I recall learning that the discipline of public relations is about creating or clearing a channel for true communication to flow, and then managing that flow to achieve an environment of interaction, whether it be sales, services, participation, etc. In practice, I was sometimes dismayed to learn that clients themselves didn’t understand PR, and wanted, instead, a quick fix to their reputation, deserved or not, or publicity—also deserved or not. (There’s a faded post-it always at my elbow on which I long ago scribbled, “Is it newsworthy?” It’s my reminder before bothering news media with non-news.) The authors of Putting the Public Back …, both principals in their respective companies and noted writers and speakers on assorted marketing and public relations topics, have compiled an impressive amount of evidence to support the fact of stagnancy in at least some PR practices. They make a strong case for the gradual but persistent erosion of PR’s own reputation and suggest that embracing the new world of social media will help PR recover its standing. Solis coined the term “PR 2.0” back in 1999, eons ago in social media time. He recognized that new channels of influence were arising, and it was time to learn the ropes. “PR 2.0,” say the authors, “was born through the analysis of how the Web and multimedia were redefining PR and marketing communications, while creating a toolkit to reinvent how companies communicate with influencers and directly with people.” So it’s time to recognize that two-way communication is back where it belongs. Clearing or creating a channel for honest conversation is once again the goal. A single news release disseminated to media outlets is no longer adequate (if ever it was). Rolling up your sleeves and learning about the journalists about their on and offline publications and programs, about the bloggers and their blogs and their readers is now de rigueur. And if you don’t, you’ll be left behind. Way behind. The real meat of this text (and it really is a textbook), lies in Parts II through IV. Solis and Breakenridge have provided in-depth recommendations for the PR (and marketing) professionals of the future: · Blogger relations. Not every blog is created equal, and the sheer numbers of them can be off-putting. Fortunately, there are tools that rank them and determine their authority on any given subject, and the book cites a number of them. Learn, too, about how to communicate with bloggers and how to be thought of as a resource rather than a PR spammer. · Social media releases (SMRs). A well-written release is still a valuable tool and is not to be replaced by the SMR. But SMRs are a whole different animal and can spark conversation in a multitude of ways. · Video news releases (VNRs) 2.0. Arguably even more valuable than the earlier version, VNR 2.0s are less expensive and can reach far more people than their predecessor. · Corporate blogging. This chapter is worth the price of the book itself. · Technology doesn’t override the social sciences. This is about modern communications and about what people online will and won’t tolerate. · Social networks: the online hub of your brand. If nothing else, read pages 173 and 174 for a valuable top ten list on how to target people through social or traditional media. · Micromedia. The power of these bite-sized nuggets. And it’s not just about Twitter. The authors are upbeat about PR today and in the future. They call it a renaissance for public relations. Not the best-organized text in the world, but wade through it anyway. As Seth Godwin, author of Tribes, suggests on the book jacket, ignore this information at your peril.
Posted by Joanne Cirillo on October 1st 2009 in CRM, SHSMD Conference 2009, Social Media | 1 comment 
photo credit: Andy G
The SHSMD session Best Practices for Building Profitable Growth and Measuring ROI was really two presentations rolled into one. Both presenters, Preston Gee and Jeff Couzens are from Trinity Health, which is based in Novi, Michigan. Gee’s portion was a well-articulated, tactical process for framing the discussion for and making the distinction between, profitless and profitable growth. Read: not all volume is good volume. He provided the audience with a tidy system for “valuing” service lines based upon a set of criteria and targeting resources to those of highest value. And before you ask, financials weren’t the only criteria. Good solid content. But to be honest, I was more interested in the second portion of the session during which Couzens led us through one of Trinity’s key tactics for patient acquisition and retention – customer relationship management. Many of you are now saying “yadda, yadda, yadda” because you’re already devoting budget dollars to this tactical tool, but here’s the thing – this guy told the story warts and all. I like a success story as much as the next gal, and this is one. But give me somebody who’ll throw you a few bones about what they learned from their missteps and how they course corrected and I’ll follow you anywhere. Both of these guys know what they are talking about. Trinity is the fourth largest Catholic health system in the country with $7 billion in revenues, 45,000 full-time equivalent employees, 33 owned hospitals, long term care, hospice programs, and senior housing across seven states. Preston Gee is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Marketing for Trinity Health. Gee is a thought leader and frequent speaker at national health care forums. Over the course of his 20-year career, he has published more than 250 articles on operational strategy, and he recently completed his ninth book, Service Line Execution 2.0. Jeff Couzens is Vice President of Marketing and Planning for Trinity Health’s western region. He is responsible for supporting market-facing growth initiatives and developing related marketing infrastructure, with a particular focus on brand strategy, market research, CRM, and portal development Framing the discussion
Couzens began by offering up goals for CRM: improve services to customers and use customer information for targeted marketing. What’s not for a CEO to love? And they need to love it because this tactic needs to be well executed and it can get pricey. Effectively implemented it can be a great way to eliminate the waste of mass media to get to small niche groups in need of particular clinical care. The tie-back to Gee’s presentation related to the initial part of any CRM process, identifying the profitable growth opportunities. Pretty straightforward stuff (although if you want to talk about the need for cost accounting and a good decision-support function I’m totally up for that) and I thought his next process element was much more interesting. Developing the Customer Strategy
This would seem like every marketer’s bread and butter, but especially if you’ve worked in the industry for a while and have a mature and fully developed clinical service line, such as heart care, it can be a step that is quickly passed over. Couzens shared his customer strategy for an effort designed to get potential, qualified, and current patients into Trinity facilities for heart screenings. The first part, defining the target audience is detailed and black and white. Without this level of targeting you are not really doing CRM you are doing good ‘ole direct mail. Trinity’s target audience qualifiers were: - A demographic and psychographic profile
- Patients and non-patients 45 years-of-age or older who are at risk for a heart attack, defined as smokers, obese individuals and those with a family history of heart disease
- Patients who have a diagnosed precursor to heart problems such as hypertension, diabetes, arrhythmia, or COPD
- Patients who had been admitted to the ED for chest pain in the past.
As if that list didn’t make me happy enough, he went on to emphasize the importance of identifying the behaviors that are preventing people who meet the above criteria from seeking care or adjusting lifestyle factors. I started loving this guy. I don’t know if Marketing made educated guesses, or based it upon clinical program staff input, but I want to remind all marketers that YOU CAN ASK SOME PEOPLE FROM THE TARGET GROUP. Just ask ‘em. It’s good validation for your internal input. Also, patients speak a different language than clinicians who have read studies about why people don’t seek care. Why do you care about the language? Because when you know it you can work with your creative team to use that language in the mailing piece! Your market message should meet people where they are in their head and heart. That’s a good all-around motto for marketers. Trinity’s identified barriers to seeking care among the targeted population were: - They may know and understand the precursors to heart disease, but do not feel that they are at risk because they live healthy lifestyles, and do not “feel” sick.
- They do not know that there are tests that can evaluate risks for heart disease.
Trinity’s creative and messaging addressed those behaviors, using the idea of “peace of mind” and “what you don’t know may surprise you.” Couzens’ presentation did go into candid detail about how results were measured but enough of pumping this guy up. Suffice it to say that the campaigns they have executed would be deemed successful by the most skeptical CFO and that they hold themselves to a high standard. The presentation ended with a few of the major lessons Trinity has learned from its CRM targeted marketing efforts. - Focus on routine screenings and low cost services to remove internal barriers and stay well within the boundaries of HIPPA regulations.
- Be a broken record about your results internally.
- Incentives work, but beware of HIPPA, Star, and Anti-Kickback. Using “free” and “offered to all” are important concepts.
Posted by Joanne Cirillo on September 30th 2009 in SHSMD Conference 2009 | 3 comments 
By 2020 there will be at least 10 percent fewer hospitals, a provocative statement or the bloody obvious depending upon your POV I guess. And this was only the beginning of a presentation by Don Seymour, President of Seymour Associates in the SHSMD Connections 2009 workshop entitled “Hospitals 2020: How Fundamental Economics, Clinical Innovation, and IT will Reshape the Healthcare Delivery Model.” This guy is no carnival palm reader in a tye-dyed dress either – in case you’re wondering. He has been working as an adviser to hospital boards, CEOs and medical staff leaders for over twenty-five years and has served as the Executive Editor for Futurescan™ (AHA’s annual healthcare trends publication) since 2004. Don told me that he had “two main points” for his audience at the conference today. First, that the world is changing from a supply driven economy to a demand driven economy and second, that the take-away for all hospitals and provider organizations is the realization that they [hospitals] need to become more specialized, more integrated, and “more connected” in order to respond to the demand environment. He would tell you that the hospitals that remain after what seems to be the ramp up of the most robust period of provider organization consolidation since the 1990’s will be those who master “rules-based”, a.k.a. evidenced-based medicine and who focus their resources on what is best vs. good for the patient. The New Environment
What else? Let’s explore how this new demand driven economy acts across all industries. This new environment includes a growing expectation that people will have increased access to information, products, and services. This access will provide them with more choice, faster delivery, and will be available in any location they want it. It is a take-no-prisoners demand for speed and personalization. What are the ramifications for healthcare? People will ask you what a procedure costs and they will ask five other providers as well. Everyday your patients will ask you more and more questions and they will expect a timely, informed answer. They will want to get information about you and about their care when they want it, not when you want to give it to them. They no longer want to ask a question and get a brochure for an answer – they want a personalized response.
The problem with hospitals and physician practices is that they haven’t seen any hospitals or physicians practices go out of business because they didn’t deliver a care experience on the patient’s terms. But in this hyper-competitive environment that day may be just around the corner. *co-presented by Dan Grauman, President of DGA Partners
Posted by Joanne Cirillo on September 30th 2009 in SHSMD Conference 2009 | 1 comment  2,372 health care Twitter followers If you follow health care social media on Twitter you are probably following Ed Bennett. Over coffee with Ed this morning at SHSMD Connections 2009 we talked about what a “wow” it was to turn around and have 2,372 followers. He just laughed. Ed also comes with some street cred. He is the Director of Web Strategy at the University of Maryland Medical System and also maintains THE list of which health care systems are using Twitter. This makes it easy for the rest of us to keep up with how the best and the brightest, along with the fearful and tentative, are using Twitter to engage with their public. We had a fast paced and rambling conversation, both thinking out loud, and when I left him he was back to studying a few notes for his afternoon non-Twitter presentation, Patients in the Digital Age: Key Tactics for Taking Your Marketing Online. He was in good company with two co-presenters from Google’s AdWords. The consistent theme of all the speakers at the conference is already clear – health care organization’s need to find, develop and engage patient populations or health interest networks where they live and that place is somewhere in the digital world.
Posted by Joanne Cirillo on September 30th 2009 in SHSMD Conference 2009 | Be the first to comment!  Coverage from the Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development – SHSMD
As I write, I am jetting my way to sunny Orlando, Florida where I will be reporting from the SHSMD Annual Conference. For those of you who couldn’t break away this week, I intend to be your eyes and ears, act as skeptic and convert, and yes, perhaps indulge in a few moments of fellowship (and those cocktails with the little umbrellas) with our colleagues from around the country.
Seven hundred attendees will be able to choose from 4 general sessions, 10 workshops, and 66 concurrent sessions over the next three and a half days. I will be burning up the soles of my red Polo deck shoes as I report to you via blog, Tweet, and photo, the most interesting, provocative content I can find. I will cover the strategic as well as tactical and you can count on hearing the down low on social media, engaging your patients, and how to deploy your limited resources in the smartest way possible. Subscribe or set up your RSS feed to get HTK’s special SHSMD conference blog at blog.htklatky.com or come back to www.htkklatzky.com. I’ll be Tweeting at “healthmarketing” so become a follower fast and don’t miss a single highlight. My job is two-fold: keep you in the know and stay hydrated. Turning off all electric devices……….
Anyone on Facebook knows how easy it’s become to know each other’s business. And by business, I mean personal life. And by life, I mean health. When a friend or contact has had a major life event, it’s often on the radar right away. It could be the birth of a child or grandchild, a death in the family, surgery or a hospital stay. People are ever so quick to reach out and express support. So, considering that healthcare is as much “relationship business” as it is empirical science, it’s natural that social media is being increasingly integrated into healing and recovery. Online sites are popping up almost daily it seems, to engage and support people during their diagnosis and health care treatment. Some examples include Dailystrength.org, PatientsLikeMe.com, OneRecovery.com, MedHelp.org, and Upopolis.com, to name just a few. More and more hospitals, clinics and treatment centers are taking the lead in facilitating their patient’s access to these sites. My not-so-bold prediction for 2010 is that you’ll see even more providers offering to help link patients to the appropriate networks. Why? Because you are strengthening your relationship as a provider of resources that empower patients. Fact is social networks really can help providers help patients, and help patients help themselves. Let’s say you’re a treatment center with a client who can’t physically make it to every support group meeting, so a network helps the client stay in touch. Or you’re a hospital lacking child life specialists but want to give patients and families a taste of those resources. When you see these social networks—and others I haven’t mentioned—as tools that can further your overall holistic health and healing environment goals, rather than something to be feared, there’s a real possibility that healthcare marketing of the future could become a true two-way conversation. Kind of like the patient visit. And reaching out to lay a hand on somebody’s shoulder. Here’s an additional resource on this topic from PewInternet. http://www.pewinternet.org/Commentary/2010/January/Strategic-Learning-for-Health-Care-in-2010.aspx
Healthcare marketing is addicted to the testimonial. It’s easy to see why. People love hearing stories about other people. A well-done testimonial that feels genuine can cut through the clutter and reach consumers on a purely emotional level. That’s why marketers love them. That’s why we still recommend them for our clients from time to time. But testimonials aren’t the only way to tell a story. Or to make an emotional connection. Imagine if Levi’s relied on testimonials to sell their jeans: "I love the way my jeans treat me like an individual! Have I told you how much state-of-the-art technology was used to manufacture them?" Instead, Levi’s “Go Forth” campaign dug up an old wax recording of Walt Whitman’s “Pioneers! O Pioneers” and matched it to breathtaking cinematography of beautiful people who go forth, living their lives with infectious abandon. It’s an inspiring approach that tells us more about the people who wear Levi’s than the company that sells them. (All too often, testimonials do the exact opposite: Featuring real people who spend absolutely no time talking about themselves.) Look around and you’ll see that most products have abandoned the testimonial for fear of looking insincere. Services, on the other hand, can still get away with such personal stories. But that doesn’t always mean they should. Consumers make decisions about the products they buy and the services they use based on identical criteria: How does this make me feel about myself? How does it make me feel about life? We rarely see healthcare marketing that celebrates life the way Levi’s “Go Forth” campaign does. But isn’t that what healthcare is all about? Life. As healthcare marketers, that’s our territory. We should claim it.
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