Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’
Interview
Jamey Shiels Interview
posted by Jason Fleck @ March 4th, 2009
Jamey Shiels is the Director of Social Media at Aurora Health Care. I was given the opportunity to ask him some questions on the impact social media is having within the health care industry. Jamey represents a position that wasn’t heard of five years ago within any industry. The times are changing from traditional to digital media and Aurora Health Care is embracing the transformation.
Here were his responses:
1. What is your background in health care?
My background in health care is limited. Aurora was interested in my experience based on spending 10 years in the non-profit sector as the communications director for The Salvation Army as well as 6 years in the agency environment with 4 of those spent with digital agencies. My diverse background has allowed me to transition quickly to the needs of a non-profit health care organization. As a non-profit, Aurora Health Care can focus on providing the best possible care for their patients. It also allows us to provide extensive community benefit programs to those who may otherwise be unable to access care.
2. How do you see social media changing the health care industry?
Social Media is going to play a key role in the future of the health care industry. Social networks are already supporting conversations between patients around diseases, treatments and other health related topics. If health care providers want to provide the best possible care, it’s imperative for us to listen to these conversations and participate where appropriate. As a patient-centered organization, social media tools will play a critical role in our delivery of care and in identifying what is most important to the patients we serve.
3. How does Aurora Health Care plan to use social media to reach their patients or connect with their community?
Aurora is taking a broad approach that will help us to listen, engage, and interact with patients. We want to identify where the interactions are happening and be very careful, strategic and transparent in how we interact. We’re creating a presence on key networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube to support our overall mission and values but will be exploring specific niche opportunities to engage in and provide value to the community and patients we serve.
4. Patient privacy is a key issue when dealing with health care, but recently I’ve been reading articles where bloggers are debating things such as individuals being able to view test results online. What are your thoughts on this?
Aurora provides a secure, private environment called MyAurora where patients will be able to access confidential health care information as well as tools that will help them manage their health care experience and wellness programs. Our communications and activities in social media will promote this service where appropriate but we will continue to maintain the highest level of confidentiality and security. The value of an accessible electronic health record will be a key to provide the best possible care and is something Aurora has committed to providing.
5. Do you think it’s important for hospitals to join the conversations their patient are having about them online?
I think it’s important for any organization to join the conversation. It’s especially important for health care organizations to find a way to engage. Health care is extremely personal and emotional and many individuals have questions, seek resources and support outside the walls of hospitals and clinics. By joining the online conversations, we can continue to provide care that improves outcomes for individuals. With respect to the conversations patients are having about their hospitals, it is an excellent opportunity for us to learn how to provide better service to those who come through our doors.
6. What are your thoughts on sites like WebMD?
Sites like WebMD can be valuable resources as individuals are researching and looking for health care information. I think it’s important for individuals to make sure they consider the source of information as a resource and not necessarily a diagnosis tool. WebMD is a great source for information but reinforces the need for health care providers to participate in the online experience. Aurora has experts, technology and information that is proven, tested and backed by health care professionals. By making those resources available to patients we can provide integrated care at the right time, the right place and in the right way.
7. Is Aurora thinking of starting their own informational content site?
Aurora has a health information section of the web site that features hundreds of pages of content on health related information. This section of the site is one of our top-visited areas and serves as a valuable resource for patients.
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Social Media
Do incentives work?
posted by Jason Fleck @ February 25th, 2009
Earlier today, I was directed - on Twitter - toward a contest at Smashing Magazine. However, this contest wasn’t your typical contest. Like usual, there were decent prizes offered, but to enter, you had to comment below the post with your location and what the weather was like outside. Still nothing earth shattering, right?
Well, the catch to this contest was Smashing Magazine wouldn’t give away any of their prizes until their comment count reached 5000 entries. Let me tell you, that’s A LOT of entries. Right now, it’s over 8100 entries which is over 81 pages of comments. I can honestly tell you I’ve never seen so many comments on one post.
Result? They’ve probably pulled in more readers, more subscribers, and more ad revenue off that single blog post than the combined cost of the three prizes. Mission successful? I do believe so, yes.
Another example of a successful incentive campaign is the ShoeMoney Twitter contest. In this contest, Jeremy Schoemaker offered entrance to his contest by following him on Twitter and sending out a simple tweet:
Just entered to win a flip minoHD. Just follow @shoemoney and retweet. http://xr.com/fliphd”
What were his prizes? 2 flip mino’s and a possible MacBook Air if his follower count surpassed 20k. His follower count never hit 20k, but he did get over 6k followers in under 3 weeks. Mission successful? Most definitely.
The moral behind these two examples is that it doesn’t take something with a large monetary value like a car to motivate people to spread your cause. Sometimes all it takes is a fun gadget and some imagination.
Are there any other cool contests going on right now? Let me know by commenting below.
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Interview
Cory Hartlen Interview
posted by Jason Fleck @ February 2nd, 2009
I was given the opportunity to demo the super sweet, super solid Radian6 social media monitoring solution. The nice guy on the other end of the line was Cory Hartlen, one of the account managers for Radian6. After he gave his demo, he allowed me to ask him a couple of questions dealing with social media. Here are his responses:
What exactly is your background in social media?
My background in social media is not very extensive. I started like everybody else viewing different blogs as a way of extracting different information. I was in the financial industry before this and started actively engaging in social media for some clients that were asking hard and tough question that I might not have had an answer for, so I started looking at different blogs and different financial news sites as a way of being able to extract information for clients. I had an opportunity in the last three months, I do believe it was the first of September that Radian6 came across my radar and I was completely blown away. I thought it was such an incredible tool and the ability for it to do what it does I thought was something so neat. Why wouldn’t I want to be a part of it given the state of the financial industry at this moment in time.
…so for other social things that I guess I’ve done. I had been a bar tender for almost a decade and I was a stand up comedian as well. So a lot of my social experience comes from that.
From your interactions with your clients and just being a part of Radian6, what do you think are some of the larger problems companies face when diving into social media, and does Radian6 help alleviate any of these huge problems?
Yes. The biggest thing I find is intimidation. People are intimidated by the space. Now, people that are new to the space, don’t exactly know how to take it on. They prefer to be ignorant and not listen as opposed to at least find out what people are saying. I find the Radian6 tool allows people to grow through social media so in the beginning they can use a bottom-up approach by using the name of their company and see what people are saying about them or perhaps one of their product lines. Then as they grow, they can start to participate in the space by locating the specific areas of the space that are important for their brand and their company. So if they decided to develop an engagement strategy they now have a full list of conversations that are happening so if they choose to participate they now have a tool they can do that with.
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If everyone at Radian6 is as friendly and helpful as Cory, they have a great staff there. I also contacted Amber Naslund through Twitter and she was extremely helpful answering the questions I had. They offer a powerful tool that can be used to engage your customers. Keep up the good work!
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Social Media
Massive response for a miniature ad
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 21st, 2009
Today’s blog post comes from guest blogger Alex Gelhar. Show him some love and comment below.
This morning a coworker forwarded me an article about Miller High Life buying a 1 second advertisement during Super Bowl next weekend (Feb. 2). My first thought was quite literally, “That’s crazy,” but as soon as that gut reaction subsided, I was intrigued.
I wanted to know how a 1 second ad could be effective, and after following the link in the article to the promotional website 1secondad.com, I found out.
The site features rejected takes of everyone’s favorite beer man Windell Middlebrooks filling his one second of fame with everything from catch phrases to painting a picture of the Miller High Life can. Also, there were longer videos of Windell riffing on the ludicrous prices associated with the Super Bowl, from tickets to concessions to advertisements.
Why’s this effective? The Super Bowl is renowned for having the greatest commercials. There are even websites devoted to rating the best Super Bowl ads.
Yet with the reported cost of a 30 second advertisement totaling $3 million dollars for 2009, MillerCoors has found an effective and possibly cheaper method of promoting their brand.
On the MillerCoors website, Senior Brand Manager Kevin Oglesby explains the logic behind the miniature ad.
“Just like our consumers, High Life strives to make smart choices. One second should be plenty of time to remind viewers that Miller High Life is common sense in a bottle.”
That isn’t to say MillerCoors paid pennies for the ad. They had to drop tons of cash for the shoots, website creation, and eventual placement – even if it was less than $3 million. However, the fact that it’s already being hyped online and generating tons of buzz for a commercial is astounding - a 1 second commercial no less. Google the ad or check the Twitter chatter if you need more proof.
In addition to the ad itself, the pre-game publicity and viral response will score MillerCoors tons of attention. For example, while walking around the office I heard “Miller Time!” and other catchphrases echo out of offices, along with subsequent chuckles. And all of this promotion is costing MillerCoors nothing.
While other corporations drain millions in online banner advertising, MillerCoors has embraced the future and accepted new media into their marketing plans. Through PR, promotional websites, and a viral campaign, more people will probably be playing “Where’s Windell?” on February 2 instead of watching the other commercials or even the game for that matter.
This IS social media at its finest.
If this campaign proves successful, and I think it will, it might help usher in a new era of corporate marketing.
Movies have already embraced this trend, as films like The Dark Knight and Tropic Thunder used multiple websites to promote their eventual box office smashes (check out whysoserious.com and rainofmadness.com for examples).
Is it too bold to assume stuffy old corporations that resist change like the plague could embrace such technological advancements? Who knows? But they better decide soon, or risk losing their brand recognition amidst the tides of the recession.
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Social Media
Is there such a thing as TOO viral?
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 16th, 2009
Well, apparently Carl’s Jr. thinks so. I, however, do not and here’s why.
As the saying goes, “any publicity is good publicity.” Carl’s Jr. released an online coupon to 276 lucky contestants to receive a free burger. This coupon was then passed around online through HUNDREDS of message boards and bargain-hunting websites until Carl’s Jr. had to shut down the promotion from too large a response. Finally the story ended up on Wired.
That’s WIRED.com people - A HUGE News site and magazine that covers technology, culture, business and politics. And it’s Google PR (page rank) is 9/10.
The reason Carl’s Jr. ended the promotion was because they were afraid to run out of burgers. And my response: SO? How many of those coming in with coupons for a free burger purchased a drink and fries? So what if they ended up giving out more free burgers than they had originally intended - even though I’m sure meat is the most expensive product to give away for free…
To capture the amount of exposure they received would have cost them millions in advertising. If they would have ran with the idea, it would have been a great way to introduce new customers to a product they probably wouldn’t have tried before. I mean if the burgers sucked, why would anyone want to copy the coupon?
The problem with their situation is they should have anticipated the ‘viralness’ (see I can make up words) of their offer. Who’s going to want a free burger? Answer: everyone. In the future, they’ll have to tailor their campaigns to fit their goals.
Even though they discontinued the promotion, they still received great exposure. Good for them. Now how is this measured? Did this accidental viral campaign increase their sales or customer count? Only time will tell, but I guarantee it didn’t hurt and those numbers are definitely measurable.
In our current economic climate, this is the kind of advertising businesses need to focus on. Let your customers advertise for you for FREE. Maybe you’re not giving away free burgers, but is there an incentive you can offer to your clients or potential clients? I bet there is.
So what do you think? Is there such a thing as TOO viral?
The social media tools available are cost-effective and a great way to reach out to your audience. Let us empower you to use these tools and hype your brand.
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Social Media
Even my mom has a Facebook account
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 14th, 2009
Earlier last week, my mother - who I love dearly - signed up for a Facebook account. I found out - not by a phone call, but through that automated email from Facebook (that we all love…) stating she had added me as a friend.
Being intrigued, but against my better judgment, I accepted her friend request and navigated over to her profile page. She had already added all my other siblings along with her old college roommate she hasn’t talked to in the past thirty years!
Honestly, I was surprised to see her on Facebook, but is it really that strange? Social Media is becoming a larger part of our everyday lives. It’s not just those in their 20s or 30s - the baby boomer generation is becoming more technologically savvy too and it’s time we - as a culture - realize that. They’re starting blogs and hosting podcasts. They’re surfing through the archives at YouTube and submitting their own videos. They’re now interacting together through ways other than a phone call.
These people, just like my mom, are your customers, employees and competitors. They’ve embraced the fact that social media exists and it’s now a part of their daily lives. When are you going to put your commercials in front of these people on YouTube or alert them of a new product or event on Facebook? The answer is now. These tools greatly increase your brands exposure and we can show you how it’s done.
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Social Media
Tweetbacks: The future of blogging
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 13th, 2009
Blogging hasn’t changed much since it’s inception. Someone writes a post then readers comment on that post. Pretty simple. Tiered comments and buttons for social bookmarking have surfaced, but ultimately, blogging has been unchanged for the past ten years - until now.
Yesterday, Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella) released his new WordPress Plugin: TweetSuite. TweetSuite includes a variety of features and widgets (you can click the link above to see the entire list of features) with TweetBacks being the most important.
TweetBacks allows others to tweet or retweet your blog post. When someone does this, their tweet (picture and all) is then added below your post - comment style - and is also accompanied by a retweet this button. TweetSuite is an efficient way to increase exposure to your blog. With Twitter on the rise, TweetSuite will be a must for bloggers in 2009.
Stay tuned. I’ll let you know how I like it once it’s installed!
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Social Media
The Good (Internet) Samaritan
posted by McKenna @ January 12th, 2009
A recent Tweet from a frustrated mother whose 3-year-old wouldn’t sleep got me thinking: How does the Good Samaritan concept apply to the Internet?
This particular Tweeter, who goes by the name Thordora, got the cops called on her. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a story beyond her Tweet – her daughter was safe and sound in her bed. But the story has sparked renewed interest in other stories like it, especially the sad tale of Abraham Briggs.
This brings up the question of anonymity, right to privacy and all that fun stuff when using the Web. But for many people, those concepts are hoity-toity ideas that have no bearing when a child’s (or anyone’s) life might be on the line.
A lot of people – especially mothers – have taken Thordora to task for writing that Tweet. One blogger on ParentDish said “she got what as coming to her.” She continues:
“There is such a thing as social responsibility over the Internet. People use the web to create a community. As with a real community, those in a virtual simulation care for and are concerned about all the members, even if they’ve never met. They’re also just as vigilant about protecting that community.”
So when do we use social media for the social good? Is that even important? If you had read this Tweet from Thordora, what would you have done?
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Online Marketing • Social Media
Web 3.0?
posted by Jason Fleck @ December 29th, 2008
Read Write Web (RWW) posted earlier today that ZigTag (a somewhat intelligent social bookmarking service) is now live to the public. ZigTag knows the meanings behind your tags. In other words, if you tag something NY it knows it’s the same as New York, New_York, or New+York.
For those of you just catching up, a tag is a word or group of words that allows you to quickly identify content. Tags are now a part of Web 2.0 which allows users to quickly siphon through a large amount of information to find exactly what he or she is looking for.
Towards the end of their article, RWW posed the question:
Is this really Web 3.0?
I don’t think so. Web 3.0 is supposed to be all about the intelligent web. Dictionary.com defines intelligence as:
A capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.
RWW suggested that Web 3.0 could quite possibly be a system that knows what we would tag something and would actually tag it for us. As soon people start talking about computers thinking on their own, it makes me think of “The Terminator” and artificial intelligence. We’re definitely not there yet. But it gets me thinking - why does there need to be such a drastic change from Web 2.0 to 3.0? Will the next shift be a quantum leap or a glacial shift? Will it be Terminator, or self identifying tags?
Web 2.0, summed up, was all about social media. While some of the greatest minds online are saying Web 2.0 has already come and gone, the larger question is: are we looking at Web 3.0 or are we in some later release of Web 2.0 - say Web 2.200.1?
Whatever the case may be, in the near future we’ll see social media continue to be integrated within all aspects of our online lives in everything from searching to buying. And, whenever it does come, social media will still be the foundation of Web 3.0 - which is why you should be building your online community (ie: like Google) now if you haven’t already.
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AgencyThink • Social Media • Trends
Writing print’s obituary?
posted by McKenna @ December 24th, 2008
At a recent company meeting, a coworker stressed that all of us, every employee of Avicom, must become skilled in video and social and online media. Not just in using it for personal use, but supporting it in a meaningful way for our clients. He said we must build our individual skill sets to include video, multimedia, Web and social media – and whatever else might be coming down the pike.
And all I could think was: Really? We must? Who says?
Most of my background is in newspaper reporting and copywriting for printed marketing materials. These skills have served me pretty well in my career. So I felt a little chagrined that I was being told to abandon my hard-earned experience to chase emerging technologies and ways of communicating. I kind of resented the assumption that print has less value – or none at all – just because new technologies are changing how we communicate.
But in the end, it’s not my coworker’s opinion that counts. I want to hear from clients: How do you plan to use print and online media or video in 2009? Are you changing your media mix in the face of new technologies? In your marketing efforts, is print dead?
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