With a boom in health related blogs, information sites are now gravitating toward social media.  Patients are increasingly sharing medical experiences and seeking advice from other patients who share similar health concerns.   Online communities are giving patients support, personal experiences, and direct answers – something they cannot always get from experts.

While patients are gravitating toward social media, a recent ClickZ article shares that some healthcare marketers seem to be hesitant:

• WebMD has recently lost ground to rival online communities, such as MedHelp.org.  In an effort to fight back, WebMD launched  Health Exchange putting community content on the front lines.  Marketers have been invited to create branded posts and host consumer discussions about health and wellness for the site, but as of April 5, no marketers had signed on.
• Sharecare, a yet to be launched site from WebMD founder, Jeff Arnold, plans to provide users with info from several points of view including celebrity physicians, hospitals, high-profile health authors, local providers and other users.  The site was projected to launch in early 2010 but has now been pushed out until summer.

With over 60 million consumers sharing health experiences online and over 200 hospitals a part of social networking communities, it’s safe to say social media is of great importance to the healthcare marketing mix.  Are regulations and compliance issues hindering marketers from taking the plunge?  The importance of growing patient communities to healthcare marketers will continue to increase as a large and highly accessible consumer base.

If you’re new to Twitter, it’s hard to know what tactics to implement.  And even harder to know what effective tactics to implement.

Here’s a list of 5 Twitter Tips for Healthcare Professionals to ensure you’re utilizing the service to its full potential:

1. Stay confidential – Don’t mention any information that can identify clients or patients. Don’t write anything where a patient could identify themselves – it could be embarrassing for them or break client trust.
   
2. Share information – Do post the link to a great article.  Do retweet great information that aligns with what you are trying to achieve.  If someone writes something you don’t agree with, do post your apposing view and provide links to evidence. Respond to mentions as much as you can.
3. Think simple – Don’t use jargon. Don’t use a big word where a small one will do. Don’t use three words where one will do. If you need to clarify a tweet, link to a blog post or article on your website.
4. Know your audience – Do determine who your ideal follower is before getting started. Do aim for your posts to align with what they would like to hear. Your Twitter account may rank high in search engine results, so you want to ensure your messages would be appropriate for clients, workmates and potential employers to see.
5. Be engaging – Do work with those in your profession or industry to get more evidence based positive health messages out there. Do follow them, retweet their posts and engage in conversations by replying to their posts. Social media is not competitive – it makes the pie bigger, it doesn’t eat into your piece.

Follow these tips to create effective, meaningful and goal-oriented posts.  If you keep confidentiality and your goals top-of-mind, you’ll be able to see the benefits of social media services like Twitter.  If you haven’t already, create your Twitter account now and be sure to follow @healthcareos for updates, tips and news.

How do hospitals measure their social media ROI? Are they simply tilting at windmills like Don Quixote? Too often, we find ourselves counting the number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers or the number of people who viewed You Tube videos, trying to justify engagement in social media.

However, the bigger question is whether hospitals can afford not to engage.

The post goes on to highlight 8 reasons why it’s no longer an option for hospitals to ignore social media in the marketing mix. We’ve summarized a few here:

• Improve customer service: When problems arise (i.e., a patient is unsatisfied with his or her hospital experience), hospitals can respond immediately and resolve the issue.
• Reach younger health care consumers: While most health care marketing dollars are spent on reaching the Baby Boomer segment, social media efforts can reach the 25-34 year old audience.
• Find blood donors: The article cites one hospital that has organized two blood drives via social media — using Twitter to promote and allowing sign-ups on Facebook.

Has your hospital integrated social media into its marketing mix? How did you convince hospital executives to move forward with the plan?

But a recent blog post from SmartBlog on Social Media’s Merritt Colaizzi suggests there may be some hope on the horizon. Despite the added layer of complexity resulting from government regulation, several standout health care and pharmaceutical companies are helping to get the social media ball rolling, including:

• ZocDoc puts patients in touch with physicians, allowing them to book appointments online, as well as provide ratings.

• Hello Health allows patients to create a profile and add a doctor to their “team.” The patient and doctors are then connected via e-mail, IM or video chat.

• TIAA-CREF participates in teal-time discussions and offers advice about retirement on myretirement.org, Facebook and TC_Talks on Twitter (pictured below). It even has its own Apple iPhone app.

Tell us about your own standout story of social media marketing in health care.

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.”

Clearly, 2009 was a year of new beginnings for the health care industry — particularly in regards to the acceptance of social media channels like Twitter. But as we move into 2010, will that acceptance shrink, remain stagnant or skyrocket?

We don’t have a health care Twitter crystal ball. But we do have an interview with Phil Baumann, registered nurse and author, by HCPLive. Baumann shared with HCPLive his predictions for the future of Twitter for health care marketing:

Since writing 140 Health Care Uses of Twitter, I’ve been very impressed with the spike in interest in using social technologies in health care. On Twitter alone, there’s a growing community of patients, doctors, nurses, healthcare marketers and others passionate about bringing about changes in health care. I was particularly impressed with the rise in Twitter chats to spur discussion, such as Health Care Social Media (#hcsm). …

I look forward to 2010. My prediction: 2010 is going to be a huge year in social media in general. We’ll start to get over the shiny-new-toy mentality and get into a more let’s-get-on-with-it approach. Healthcare will probably proceed much more cautiously than other industries, but I believe the continued and growing public discussions will help catalyze the revolution.

Additional points made by Baumann on the future of Twitter for health care marketing include:

• FDA’s November public hearing on social media — the first of its kind — demonstrates the dire need for more attention to social media in pharma and other related industries.
• Saleforce’s introduction of Chatter, a social networking tool to help businesses keep tabs on sales and customer service, shows the power of micro-sharing as a communication and collaboration medium.
• If additional major players — SAP, for example — enter this market, health care organizations are more likely to adopt micro-sharing.

What predictions do you have for widespread adoption of social media channels by the health care field?

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.

And with Twitter being one of the fastest growing social media tools of recent years, it’s a good place for hospitals to start.

For hospitals unsure of how to use Twitter to reach health consumers, SMUG (Social Media University, Global) blogger Lee Aase provides some examples of how hospitals have been using Twitter.

Aase’s list is not exhaustive of all hospital Twitter activity, of course. But it includes Tweets on surgical cases, medical presentations and training, medical research and more. Here is a sample of some of the Twitter activity referenced:

• The first hospitals to Tweet a live procedure in the emergency room was Henry Ford Health System (@HenryFordNews) and Bill Ferris (@Billfer).
• The Mayo Clinic (@mayoclinic) recently conducted a Twitter chat with @vmontori regarding an article on diabetes and blood-sugar control.
• Aurora Health Care (@Aurora_Health) Tweeted a knee operation – and received a good amount on media attention for it, as well.
• Angie Anania (@angieanania) of HealthOne Presbyterian/St. Luke’s in Denver Tweeted a recent surgical procedure and teamed with the area CBS affiliate to promote through media coverage.

It’s clear from these Tweets that some hospitals are beginning to truly understand the potential impact of reaching out to patients, patient family and other medical personnel via social media.

The pharmaceutical industry is slowly venturing into the world of social media. And like with any advance into uncharted territory, there are obstacles to overcome before the ultimate goal is reached.

The Shed blogger Daniel Siddle takes this all into consideration in a recent post discussing the merits of social media in the pharmaceutical industry and the ways in which it can benefit from interaction with customers.

The post initially mentions the obstacles the pharmaceutical industries faces in terms of marketing products:

Cost: Marketing pharmaceuticals is expensive, especially because it can’t be done until after the drug receives New Drug Approval (NDA).

Agency Regulations: Agencies like the Food Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMEA) implement rules on how pharmaceutical companies can interact with the public and how information passes between the two.

Intellectual Property Concerns: While a drug is being developed, the company developing it doesn’t want to say much about it because of the fear of losing a competitive edge.

Siddle suggests that social media has the potential to address two of these concerns for pharmaceutical marketers:

Cost:With social media, companies can reach out to consumers before achieving NDA without the large financial commitment involved with more traditional marketing. Research can be shared and consumers can provide creative input much earlier in the process.

Intellectual Property: Social media enables entire companies to take part in the marketing of a potential product, though time will have to answer the questions of keeping intellectual property and the privacy of employees safe.

Learn more about how social media can provide opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry by reading the full blog post.