What does the rise of Snapchat mean for brands? How big is Snapchat’s audience? Is it only for Millennials?
If you’ve been wondering what the answers to these questions are, and how you might use Snapchat in your marketing, then take a look at this new infographic created by MDG Advertising, which outlines some key usage data for Snapchat, along with notes on how brands are using the platform to best effect.
Let’s start by looking at the stats. 150 million people use Snapshat every day, with 400 million snaps sent daily. That’s a bigger daily active user base than Twitter! Snapchat grew as much in one year as Twitter has in 4 years combined. The app is expected to add twice as many users as Twitter and Pinterest in the next year.
So what’s the audience demographic? Is it skewed towards Millennials? Right now Snapchat is used most by those aged 25 and under, but adoption by an older demographic is growing.
Have brands jumped on the Snapchat phenomenon? Interestingly not. The number of brands who say they are currently using the app as part of their marketing strategy is only 5%. This represents a unique opportunity for your brand to be an early adopter and lead the way on the platform.
Of those brands who have ventured onto the platform, how are they using it?
So finally, the big question. Is Snapchat right for your brand? If you want to connect with a younger audience, yes, you should probably be engaging on the platform. Otherwise, the advice is to wait and see. Keep an eye on what other brands are doing and start formulating a strategy for when you judge the time is right to jump on board.
Have you started using Snapchat for your marketing yet? What ways are you using it to engage with your audience? Or what might be holding you back from establishing a presence there?
Last week I was delighted to present at the National Lipid Association’s Scientific Meeting in Philadelphia on the topic of social media and its role in clinical trial recruitment. You can view my slides below.
I also had the honor of chairing a social media panel with Dr Martha Gulati and Dr Katey Rayner.
It was a super experience and as I pointed out in my talk, I would never have imagined myself speaking to these clinicians, nurses, and researchers, if it wasn’t for Twitter. It still gives me a thrill to think how far a tweet can take you. It was by meeting Dr James Underberg, President of the National Lipid Association on Twitter that I found myself on my way from Ireland to Philadelphia for this meeting. So never underestimate those connections you make online – you just never know how far they may take you!
The social channels we use are less important now than ever before. Today, it’s all about how you tell your story.
Convince and Convert recently created a short video which explores the idea that stories are becoming the new newsfeed of social media. It’s less about what social network you use to reach your audience. What is important today is how you tell a story.
Snapchat changed the game when it evolved from a messaging app to a storytelling platform. Now stories are integrated as part of Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. Stories are becoming the new newsfeed of social media, and you can’t avoid stories because your customers aren’t using Snapchat. So when we think about how to make content for social media, we need to be thinking in stories, and not in posts.
The presenter shares three elements essential to producing good stories:
Use vertical video
Create a chronological narrative sequence
Add overlays such as text, filters, stickers, and emoji
Key Takeaways
Carefully choosing your social channels no longer has the impact it once had on your marketing success.
Many of the new feature roll-outs on top social platforms have focused on storytelling.
Forget about reaching your daily quota of posts, and focus more on the stories you share.
The first time I read this quote from Dana Lewis, moderator of #hcsm the premier tweet chat on healthcare, I was gripped by the notion of how Twitter and in particular tweet chats could influence the way we practise healthcare.
Social media is a radical shift in the way we communicate. The healthcare conversation is no longer a one-way narrative but is evolving into a global, participatory discussion. One of the most powerful ways I see this happening is in the modality of the tweet chat. The role Twitter plays in breaking down patient/provider barriers, disseminating and expanding the reach of healthcare information, widening social networks and co-creating a collaborative model of shared health information is one of the most exciting developments in social media.
What Is A Tweet Chat?
For those who may be unfamiliar with the phenomenon of a tweet chat – it is a pre-arranged chat that happens on Twitter through the use of updates called tweets. It includes a predefined #hashtag which links the tweets together in a virtual conversation. Most tweet chats follow a common format of a moderator who introduces pre-arranged topics relevant to the chat and keeps the conversation on track. The chats usually last one hour and a transcript of tweets is available after the chat has ended.
Symplur is doing an impressive job of compiling all of the healthcare hashtags and providing chat transcripts in The Healthcare Hashtag Project. The goal of the project is to make the use of healthcare social media and Twitter more accessible for the healthcare community as a whole (a full list and a tweet chat calendar of meeting times can be found on the Symplur website).
What Is The Impact Of Tweet Chats On Healthcare?
As a relatively new technological innovation, the use of Twitter as a modality for health communication is only now beginning to be explored with particular emphasis on the role Twitter may play in contributing to health based conversations directed at individual, community, and societal levels.
Many times, people’s choices in terms of Personal Health Practices (PHP) are context dependent and socially constructed. Healthcare tweet chats have tremendous potential to motivate participants and encourage change. Much of this change comes from peer-to-peer support which has been shown to be highly effective in motivating change. Many participants share conversational and informational knowledge that they believe is valuable both to themselves and others.
Tweet from participant in the #BCCEU (Breast Cancer Social Media Europe) tweet chat
Studies show that individuals enrolled in meaningful social networks have protective properties in terms of overall health and wellbeing. Healthcare tweet chats provide participants with a sense of community and valuable opportunities for meaningful exchange and positive interactions.
The impact of digital technology in healthcare is leading to changing expectations by health consumers who, along with a desire to share information and connect with others, increasingly want to interact and engage with their healthcare providers. Twitter has also facilitated the emergence of the “patient opinion leader” an individual who is seen as an expert in chronic conditions such as cancer. Gunther Eysenbach refers to this group as “Apomediaries” – individuals that assist in the process of information searching but do not act as a gatekeeper.
So, what’s in it for healthcare practitioners?
Dr Bryan Vartabedian (@Doctor_V) of Baylor College notes of social media “the greatest value of this medium is the breakdown of barriers that have traditionally come between doctor and patient.” It is encouraging to see the increasing participation by doctors in many healthcare tweet chats, reaching out and sharing information, but also listening too.
Twitter offers opportunities for healthcare to reach out to patients in new and valuable ways.
These [social media] tools help us reach so many more people; we can bring shared interactions into our practice and that is powerful … This isn’t an addition to your job. This is part of your job. This is a conversation, and that is what we are trained to do … This is where our patients are these days and this is where we need to reach them. We can engage learners, patients and peers, and we are not limited by geography or time – Farris Timimi, M.D., medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
Another striking feature is Twitter’s crowd-sourcing capacity which allows health consumers, researchers and practitioners tap into a global source of advice, support and information. Twitter also provides a unique opportunity to learn from patients’ direct experience shared during these chats.
If healthcare innovators and providers wish to remain relevant and connected to digitally enabled patients, they need to go where the conversations are – more and more those conversations are happening on Twitter and the evolving dynamic of the tweet chat is the best place to find them.
Reference
Eysenbach, G. (2008). Medicine 2.0: Social networking, collaboration, participation, apomediation, and openness. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(3), e22. doi:10.2196/jmir.1030
I’m so honored to have been invited to give the opening keynote address at the 3rd #HealthXPh Philippine Healthcare Social Media Summit this week. I love this year’s theme of “Social Media & Health Research: Connections that Matter.
My presentation highlights social media as a dynamic platform to conduct research on a global scale and to amplify and disseminate research findings. I focus on an understanding of some key characteristics of social media which can be leveraged for research purposes, such as interactivity and real-time communication on a global scale. What this presents is an opportunity for conducting research with an existing audience of highly targeted, motivated and connected patients.
I recommend tapping into the power of existing patient networks through social media as a means to mobilize and accelerate research faster than ever before. However, I stress that online communities are not just there to be taken from, but also given to. So I challenge researchers to consider how they might build trust and authenticity with a community of e-patients.
I finished my keynote presentation by sharing some best practice tips and left the audience with a final challenge to go beyond a basic level of social media activity to become exceptional digital communicators. I ended with one of my favourite quotes from social media marketing guru Seth Godin.
Storify is a platform that allows you to tell stories using elements from the social web such as tweets, Flickr photos and YouTube videos. There are so many ways to use the Storify app; one of my favourite ways is to capture tweets from a live event and turn them into a visually compelling story.
If you are new to the Storify app, follow my easy step-by-step guide to help you create your first story.
1. Log-in using Twitter or Facebook.
2. Click on Create New Story which will open a blank platform for you to create your story
3. On the top right hand corner you will find media sources to curate the elements of your story. You can search Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Google for elements to include.
4. Start by adding a headline for your story and a brief description so people will know what your story is about.
5. You can search for elements to add to your story from your chosen media sources.Once you find something you want to add drag it over to your story. This drag-and-drop method is what makes Storify such a great platform to work with as it keeps all of the original links and functionality of the original source and embeds them into your story.
6. Now add your commentary – this step is optional but it is a great way to personalise a story and add your own unique voice. For instructions on how to add a cover image, click here.
7. It is easy to make changes to your story. To delete an element hit the X in the right corner; to reorder elements in a story simply drag and drop.
8. When you are happy with your story, hit publish.
9. You can then notify people who have been quoted in your story, helping make it go viral.
10. You can also share your story on social networks and embed it on your website or blog.
At first glance Storify may seem like a complicated platform to master, but my Storify tutorial shows you it is really quite easy and fun to tell a story online.
Twitter has announced the launch of Moments analytics, a new tool which will show you a range of stats for each Moment you create, including ‘Opens’, ‘Unique opens’, ‘Likes’, ‘Shares’ and ‘Completion rate’.
Moments allows you to curate a series, or gallery, of tweets revolving around a particular theme, such as a developing news story or cultural meme. I’ve been a fan of the feature since Twitter unrolled it to all users late last year. However I seem to be in a minority of users. There just hasn’t been the uptake. This is a shame because I do think it has potential. Here’s an example of a recent Moments story I created:
This week it is my great pleasure to interview endocrinologist Iris Tan, MD, MSc, who teaches at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. A TedX speaker, Iris is one of the co-founders of the #HealthXPH tweet chat and annual healthcare and social media conference.
Hi Iris, I’ve been an admirer of your work since I first started following you three years ago on Twitter. In that time I’ve watched your social media presence evolve and grow year-on-year. Can you tell us how you use social media in a healthcare context.
IT: I started a Facebook page www.facebook.com/EndocrineWitch in 2012 as an experiment to see if I could get photos with short captions about health to go viral. I’ve been trying ever since! One particular post on polycystic ovary syndrome which I shared last July 2015 is still active and according to Facebook, has been seen by over 4 million people. I am continuing this Facebook page as my contribution to uplifting health literacy in endocrine disorders. There are after all less than 300 endocrinologists in the Philippines which has a population of 100 million. If you’d like to know more about this, take a look at my TedXDiliman video at https://youtu.be/MQAe_2rLb6M. All my Facebook posts are written in Filipino and archived at http://www.dokbru.endocrine-witch.net.
I co-founded the #HealthXPH tweet chat with Dr. Remo (@bonedoc), Dr. Gia Sison (@giasison) and Dr. Narciso Tapia (@cebumd) in 2014. Weekly, we discuss topics related to the practice of medicine and its intersection with technology and social media. Our format was inspired by the #HCLDR chat. In 2015, we held the first #HealthXPH healthcare and social media summit with the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development. Our plenary speaker was Pat Rich (@pat_health) who came all the way from Canada. This is now an anticipated yearly event attended by medical educators, health bloggers, patients and students from various health professions.
I began incorporating social media as part of my teaching strategy in graduate school where I teach health informatics in 2012. I subsequently won a teaching award from my university, the University of the Philippines system Gawad Pangulo for Progressive Teaching and Learning in 2015.
You mentioned your first foray into social media was using Facebook as a tool for public health. Had you been familiar with Facebook or any other social media before you used it for this purpose?
IT: I joined Facebook in 2008 because I was organizing a reunion and trying to find my high school classmates. I started my Facebook page in 2012 after seeing grumpy cat. I joined Twitter in 2010 as an assignment in graduate school. I was studying health informatics but going to the US for a week to attend the Endocrine Society meeting. To make up for my absence, my professor asked me to live tweet the conference.
I love that you were an early adopter of live-tweeting medical conferences! Is Twitter one of your favorite platforms – or do you have others?
IT: I enjoy Twitter the most because of the serendipity of meeting like-minded people through retweets and chats. I’ve found mentors on Twitter who have helped me in my professional life. Hosting the #HealthXPH tweet chat is a stimulating intellectual exercise from thinking about the topic, to writing the pre-chat blog post and moderating the discussion.
I find that maintaining my Facebook page has helped me become a better communicator at my clinic. As I write my posts in Filipino and try to avoid medical terms, it is easier now to help my patients understand complex endocrine disorders.
So endocrinology is a topic which obviously interests you. Are there any other topics you are keen to follow through social media.
IT: I’m interested in the use of social media and technology for healthcare because of my health informatics background. Aside from #HealthXPH, I try to join the #HCLDR chat where I’ve met many of the people I follow. I lurk in diabetes chats listening to persons with diabetes at #DCDE and #DSMA. As a professor in medical school, I’m also interested in medical education. I follow #MedEd, #TEDEdChat and #FOAMEd.
You are a very experienced and expert social media user – what advice would you give to any healthcare professional who is just starting to use social media?
IT: Don’t tweet or post anything that you wouldn’t say in person. Remain professional at all times. #HealthXPH has a manifesto on maintaining medical professionalism while on social media at www.healthxph.net/manifesto.
That’s a very useful guide – thanks for sharing it with us Iris. Finally, would you like to share a favourite quote with us?
Everything you want is on the other side of fear – Jack Canfield
Thanks Iris for taking the time to share with us your experience of using social media in your work. I’ve really enjoyed learning more about how you got started and I look forward to seeing how you and your colleagues will evolve healthcare social media in the Philippines.
Is your New Year’s resolution to build a stronger personal and business brand online in 2017?
The start of a new year is the perfect time to review your social media marketing to determine what’s working (or not) for you. If you’re on social media simply for the sake of being on social media, see this as an opportunity to step back and think about why you’re doing it.
I’ve put together a comprehensive list of 17 tips to take your social media marketing to new heights of success in 2017 – read my 17 Ways To Rock Your Social Media in 2017.
Here’s a more condensed version if you only have time for a shorter read.
Health Care Social Media 