Using online video to engage your community

Random ideas:

• Invite patients, care-givers and/or other employees to submit videos to some kind of contest
• Video Ask our Expert??? Great way to get doc videos up and engage with our community

The Doctor is On-line

Virtual Doctor - survey

Hello Health

Baby boomers and social media

New York Times article about the use of social media by boomers

Facebook

Fan site vs. Group
Hospitals with a Facebook presence seem to be equally mixed between fan sites and groups. Most of my research points to fan sites as being more effective.

Twitter for business

Life-streaming behind the firewall
Yammer offers Twitter-like functionality to enterprise networks

Internet demographics articles

Senior Females Storm Facebook

The number of US women over age 55 using Facebook grew by 175.3% since September 2008, making mature females among the fastest growing demographic groups on the social network, according to statistics released by independent blog Inside Facebook.

The number of men over 55 also grew dramatically during the same four-month period (up 137.8%), but women over 55 still outnumber men in this age group by almost two-to-one, MarketingCharts reports.

2009 Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report: 276% Growth in 35-54 Year Old Users

In October 2007, I wrote about “Facebook Demographics Direct From Their System” that gave an account of Facebook’s demographic composition using a few statistics that might be interesting to marketers. Ten months later, we followed up with “Facebook Demographics 2008 Update - It’s Getting Older In There” which showed that the fastest growing group, the 35-54 year old segment, grew at a rate of 172.9% in that period.

Whee! New numbers on social network usage

Interesting numbers from cnet

Seismic Shift in Internet Age Mass

According to surveys through 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online. Generation X (not Y) is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email.

Social media a great platform for healthcare

Some complimentary and reinforcing facts:

iCrossing conducted a study in January 2008, and found that the internet (59%) is the leading source (followed by doctors at 55%) used to find or access Health and Wellness Related Information in the past 12 months. And following the docs was the influence of relatives/friends/co-workers (much of which is probably accessed online).

Study finds social media equally influential to conventional outlets
Tech decision makers give user-generated sites equal importance to traditional media sources when considering tech purchases, according to a new study by Hill & Knowlton. But when it comes to establishing a company's reputation, analyst and traditional media relations are still most influential.

St Jude's on Twitter

Here is the Tweet:
StJude: “There’s nothing we can do,” his physicians said. Then Cooper came to St. Jude. http://tinyurl.com/crrbcr

Here is the beginning of the story from the St. Jude's web site:

“There’s nothing we can do,” his physicians said, when they discovered that Cooper Winters had an extremely rare disease carried on the X chromosome. Then Cooper came to St. Jude.

If he lives to be 100, Jeremy Winters will never forget the quiet joy of holding his newborn son in the predawn hours of August 2, 2006. Grinning with pride, Jeremy kissed Cooper’s soft head and felt the baby’s perfect fist close around his finger.

If she lives to be 100, Shanna Winters will recall with heartbreaking clarity the day she planned Cooper’s funeral. Picking out a coffin for her 4-month-old. Feeling hot tears course down her face. “There’s nothing we can do for him,” doctors had said, as, tethered to a respirator, Cooper labored for every breath.

But Shanna and Jeremy Winters prefer to remember the day they took their son to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There, clinicians and researchers would perform a truly memorable feat—saving Cooper’s life.

Incredible!!!!!

Thoughts on Twitter/Social Media

Several people have been very generous with their ideas and their time. They have helped me form the following thoughts on the use of Twitter and other social media tools in health care.

• FaceBook and MySpace are places to go to meet people you know. Twitter is where you go to meet people you want to know.
• Social media is about making yourself available. You should have a presense, no matter what you communication strategy is.
• Give people the opportunity to engage with you/ Establish a presence
• Trial and error is a big part of the startegy
• Trust your people. It's not about the web, it's about communicating
• If people want to find you, are you there?
  

UPDATE: 2/4/09
Here comes more:

I read an interesting piece inspired by a cab ride that gave the advice to, "Get users talking to each other and then give them the tools to spread the word." It started me wondering how we might do this on our website. Can we create a safe and welcoming environment where current and past patients will want to come, tell their story and engage?

I immediately interrupt my excitement about the idea with thoughts of how to handle any negativity that might enter the room. But could WE learn more from the negatives than we do from the positives? Are we dedicated enough to turn them around and create new evangelists? How might we do it and could we do it publicly? I need to think about it more, but could be quite an adventure!

3 Takes on Social Media System from the Rock Stars

John Jantsch

Chris Brogan

Amber Naslund (Radian6)

Which tools, how often and how...

The New Fund-Raising Math of Social Networks

On his blog The Agitator he suggests that charities with at least 100,000 donors should be able tap social networks to raise more than $500,000 for an “urgent project or need.”

Link to the prospecting article

From the research I have been doing onto fund-raising through social media, I have found the the most successful campaigns are very targeted. It is difficult to an entire organization, but it is relatively easy stir the collection emotions of the community when the focus is narrowed and the perceived results are tangible, especially if they can be given a face.