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I’ve just returned from beautiful Sitges, just outside Barcelona, Spain where I gave the joint opening keynote with Fabian Bolin, Founder of War on Cancer, at the HIMSS Europe Conference.

I speak at and attend many, many conferences across the globe, but this was a stand-out experience for me. It wasn’t just because there were interesting sessions  – let’s be honest, we could get a lot of this information from watching a webinar – it was those conversations that happen outside the main auditorium that interest me the most.

With Pablo Barredo, founder, La Fundación Diario De Un Cuidador and Erik Gerritsen,  Secretary General of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (note: you cannot replicate the charisma and dynamism of these two online!)

I met some amazing people who are passionate about digital transformation. I arrived with no great expectations – a little conferenced out even this early in the year – but I returned with renewed energy and hope for the future of healthcare.  I made some really great connections in terms of future work collaborations, but more importantly to me, they are people whose vision for a better future for patients I share.

The location this year in Sitges was stunning. It’s a beautiful coastal town and I am already planning a return visit to explore it some more.

The fact that the conference took place in a purpose-built hotel was unique to me and it worked really well in making the experience more relaxed and intimate.  Congregating in the delightful garden made it feel more like a gathering of friends than a sterile conference hall ever could. More conferences should do this and if I ruled the conference planning world, they would!

A shout-out to Pascal Lardier and Kim Mancha for being so accessible and approachable to new ideas throughout the planning process. Consummate professionals, I  loved working with them and their hard-working behind the scenes team.

Finally, at the risk of this sounding like some kind of cheesy Oscars acceptance speech, I also want to send out a special mention to the wonderful patient advisory board, Shane, Pierre-Mikael, Mitch, Dee, Emilie, Victor, Fabian, and my two co-conspirators Mitch and Pablo.

I arrived at HIMSS to attend a conference, but I left with so much more. Here’s to new friendships, fruitful collaborations, and renewing acquaintances again next year.

See you in Helsinki!

 

A new study published this month in Journal of Medical Internet Research analyzes the types of content US hospitals post on their Facebook pages and how hospitals’ Facebook activities differ with regard to content types.

The study authors, Nima Kordzadeh and Diana K. Young, point out that whilst health care organizations “have widely embraced social media as a means to educate the community on health topics and increase patient loyalty and satisfaction, little is known about the content these organizations actually share when using social media channels.”

The researchers collected and thematically analyzed more than 1700 Facebook posts made over a 3-month period by 17 US hospitals. They identified a list of 13 unique health social media post themes and classified those themes into thematic groups.

Thematic Analysis

The most frequently used theme was sharing health information, which appeared in 35.81% of the posts analyzed. Such posts sought to provide health tips and advice to community members.

Recognizing special days and recognizing employees were the second and third most frequently used themes, respectively, with 14.95% and 11.82% of the posts containing those themes. The researchers expressed surprised at the frequency of these themes, nothing “the content was geared more toward stakeholders internal to the organization, although most previous literature has focused on social media as a tool to connect with external stakeholders.”

In addition, the researchers found many of the posts involved more than one theme, and selected sets of themes co-occurred frequently. For example, 25.4% of the posts recognizing special days also included content to share health information, and approximately 38%  of the posts announcing research activities also included content to share health information.

Principal Findings

 

The results of this study showed most posts in the sample could be classified as serving 3 purpose groups:

•  announcing and reporting
•  recognizing
• sharing activities

Within the announcing and reporting purpose group, the authors found the sampled institutions used Facebook to broadcast information relating to donations opportunities, upcoming events, research activities, and organizational news. They further found that recognizing posts were used to acknowledge employees and special days, whereas sharing posts were used to disseminate health information as well as patient success and feel good stories.

Conclusions

The study concludes with a recommendation that hospitals and clinics that are expanding their social media activities or are starting to embark on social media strategies can use the results of this study to better formulate their activities on Facebook.

These results can be used as a benchmark for the health care institutions that want to establish a social media presence to communicate with the public audience and for the smaller clinics and hospitals that want to further expand and improve their activities on social media websites.

Further Research

The authors point to further research opportunities including investigating the following questions:

1. Does announcing events on Facebook increase attendance?
2. Does acknowledging employees increase their organizational commitment, morale, and satisfaction?
3. Is sharing health information via Facebook an effective approach in raising awareness about diseases and medical issues in the community?

Another avenue for future research, suggested by the authors is to examine the content generation process in terms of who is responsible for posting contents on health care organizations’ Facebook pages, and whether their expertise is in health care (eg, physicians, dentists, and nurse practitioners) or in social media marketing.

Such research should investigate how the content provider impacts the type of content shared, the manner in which it is shared, and the resulting level of audience engagement. This can ultimately influence the overall effectiveness of health care organizations’ activities on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Furthermore, future research can examine user engagement in different types of posts to understand the extent to which each content type can draw users’ attention and trigger their reactions in terms of liking a post, leaving a comment on it, or sharing it with others on Facebook.

In a statement that will have many of us nodding our heads in agreement, the authors conclude that “understanding user engagement is important because it can transform one-way, provider-to-consumer information dissemination activities into two-way or many-to-many communication processes. In this way, the “social” aspect of such platforms as Facebook can be realized more meaningfully, adding value to the health care organizations’ activities in virtual environments.”

Kordzadeh N, Young DK, Exploring Hospitals’ Use of Facebook: Thematic Analysis, J Med Internet Res 2018;20(5):e190

Updated. Since first writing this post, Click To Tweet has launched a Google Chrome Extension that makes it even easier to use the tool on any website you visit. Now, you can create and share a Click To Tweet link just by clicking a button in your Chrome browser. A Click To Tweet window will appear pre-filled with information about the site you are on and make it easy to customize and create a new link.

Click to Tweet is a cool free tool which generates one-click tweet boxes or links that can be shared through your website, your blog, or via email. It’s a powerful way to increase social shares and highlight quotes, stats, and key takeaways for your content marketing.

Here’s a good example of how it looks on a blog.

And here’s how to do it for your own blog or website.

Step One: Sign in with your Twitter account.

Step Two: Write the message that you want others to share in the box provided.

Step Three: Click the “Generate New Link” button to create a custom link.

Step Four: Share the link and track the activity of each link over time.

Whoever clicks on the link will have the message automatically added to their Twitter status box- they simply click to tweet.

Try it now and see for yourself!

I just love reports, don’t you? 

Firstly, Social Media Examiner’s annual marketing industry report, published last week, threw up these findings:

• A very significant 94% of marketers use Facebook (followed by Instagram at 66%). Two in three marketers claim Facebook is their most important social platform. However, only 49% of marketers feel their Facebook marketing is effective and 52% said they’ve seen declines in their organic Facebook reach in the last year.
• Facebook ads reign supreme: Facebook ads are used by 72% of marketers
  (followed by Instagram at 31%). Nearly half of all marketers increased their
  Facebook ad activities in the last year and 67% plan on increasing their use of
  Facebook ads over the next 12 months.
• Facebook Messenger bots pique marketers’ interest: While only 15% of
  marketers are using Messenger bots, 51% plan on using Messenger bots in the
  next year.
• For the first time in years, generating leads has become more of a focus for marketers than cultivating a loyal fan base. This could be a sign that metrics and automation are becoming more important than engagement.

You can download the report here.

Secondly, a content marketing report from True North Custom and Healthcare Insight based on data from a survey conducted in 4Q17 among 53 healthcare marketing professionals who work for hospitals, urgent care centers, physician practices, and other healthcare organizations, found that the rise of content marketing in the healthcare industry continues, with steady growth in usage. 

However, measuring content marketing effectiveness is (still) slightly behind the adoption curve. Some 36% of respondents say their organization’s content marketing efforts are very effective, and 58% say they are somewhat effective.

Only one-third of respondents say their healthcare organization has a documented content marketing strategy.

Measuring ROI

Increasing the ability to demonstrate return on content marketing investment remains a challenge. The majority of respondents (65%) consider themselves successful at tracking ROI, compared to 44% who responded the same way last year. However, only 10% consider themselves very successful at tracking ROI.

When it comes to measuring impact, website traffic is the most popular way to do this.

Content Marketing Goals

Content marketing goals remain consistent with top-of-the-funnel priorities like Brand Awareness, Engagement and Patient Loyalty holding the top three spots for the third consecutive year. 

Marketing Tactics

Social media reigns supreme, followed by eNewseltters and video taking the top three places in marketing tactics.

According to Becker’s Hospital Review in an article on healthcare marketing trends for 2018, “Health-related video content is in demand. There is a whole market for qualified physicians to provide health information through videos without offering clinical advice.” 

Social Media Distribution

No surprise that Facebook tops the poll when it comes to organizations promoting their content on social media. YouTube is also extremely popular testifying to video’s growing influence, and I am happy to see Twitter is still hanging on in there. 

Recommendations

The report concludes with three recommendations.

Create a documented strategy

A well-documented strategy will help your brand message rise above the noise. Mapping out your plan avoids what Convince & Convert Founder Jay Baer calls “random acts of content” and involves the use of personas, journey maps, editorial calendars, and other tools that set your brand and content apart from the pack.

Leverage Email Marketing

The large majority of people who visit your website or subscribe to your e-newsletter aren’t ready to make a healthcare decision. This is where content can play a crucial role in keeping them engaged while building affinity for your brand as a trusted resource. And while email is a leading channel for delivering content, many healthcare organizations never tap into that potential. A well-designed email nurturing program has proven to be an effective tool for building an audience and advancing them through the buyer’s journey.

Make Sure Everyone Is On Message

Rather than losing your prospect at the most critical point in the campaign, coordinate with your call center or intake team to integrate tracking mechanisms and create scripts that facilitate the lead intake process.

You can read the report in full here.

What do you think of these two reports? I don’t think there are any real surprises – we’ve been hearing for years that many healthcare organizations don’t have a documented strategy in place and struggle to measure ROI.

• Facebook still reigns supreme, but I wonder how effective it truly is considering the lack of metrics employed to measure its effectiveness?
• LinkedIn and Instagram are in joint place in terms of social media marketing, but should this be the case? They are two very different platforms and I wonder if marketers are using each of them effectively?
• I am pleased to see YouTube high up the rankings – this is a good strategy for healthcare marketing.
• And while people either fall into two camps of loving or hating Twitter, I personally see many robust healthcare conversations take place on this platform.
• Finally, Pinterest and Snapchat are under-utilized and there’s a real opportunity here for us to own this space.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these reports. What are your observations? What’s working for you? Where do you recommend healthcare marketers should focus their attention going forward?