Gone are the days when health care marketers were full-time professional storytellers — focused on how best to package stories and engaged in one-way conversations.

Today, storytelling is just a part of the job of health care marketers. With the rise of social media, health care marketers must be focused on facilitating conversations and sharing information.

In this video from a presentation by Dan Dunlop of Jennings — a North Carolina-based advertising and branding firm — the opportunities for social media in health care are highlighted. Dunlop works to clear up some of the fears or misconceptions that some health care marketers may have regarding social media in the presentation, “Demystifying Social Media & Making It Relevant to Healthcare.”

For health care organizations first embarking on a social media strategy, there’s no definitive formula for what works and what doesn’t work. Perhaps the greatest tool health care organizations have for developing a social media strategy are others’ success stories.

The Significant Science blog recently interviewed John Sharp of Cleveland Clinic, which has successfully rolled out a social media strategy that includes blogging, microblogging and participation on other social networking sites.

Here’s what Sharp had to say about the stakeholders within healthcare organizations that should be involved in launching social media efforts:

Managing social media in health care organizations requires a broad assembling of stake holders who are of a common mindset. These should include: marketing, public relations, information technology, medical education, medical librarians and clinical staff including physicians and nurses. The mix should include early adopters as well as those relatively new to social media to provide a balance. Additional stakeholders to consider are: a patient representative, an attorney (at least as a consultant), and employee communications.

Additional takeaways from the interview include:

• The future is mobile. The marketing team at Cleveland Clinic is now working on optimizing wellness tools for the mobile web.
• Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 are two of the most important, useful conferences for health care marketers embarking on social media.
• Health care organizations should develop a social media policy for employees, paying particular attention to the security of individual social networking sites.

• 36% want to see what other consumers say about medication or treatment.
• 34% using social media
• 46% using health portals
• 67% using search engines

From How America Searches: Health & Wellness by iCrossing and Opinion Research Corporation

Here’s the full presentation:

Once you develop a Social Media Program for a Healthcare organization, it can be a challenge getting everyone on board.  Many decision makers are not familiar with using social channels and there are industry regulations to be aware of.   Showing that the target audience communication preferences, information discovery trends can help. Presenting competitive social media participation can also motivate action – at least testing.  Pilot programs can be very effective at demonstrating a proof of concept and business case for further investment in social web participation.