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With the plethora of media options, marketing channels and consumer touch points, integration is essential for maximizing marketing success.

In the not too distant past, marketers had a rather small number of options for its marketing message.  TV, radio, print and outdoor was about it.  Then traditional advertising mediums began to offer new alternatives.  Cable television, satellite radio and custom direct marketing.

But then the web showed up.  And the choices became seemingly endless:

• Websites/SEO
• Search marketing
• Web advertising
• Email
• Social media
• Tablets
• Mobile
• Apps
• Blogging
• Gaming

And the list could go on and on.  There is strength in this enormous growth of marketing options.  There are new ways to reach consumers, we can target them more narrowly (demographically, sociographically, geographically and psychographically), we can sometimes measure effectiveness more effectively and we can be much more creative with our media options.

But it creates fragmentation.  Fragmentation of our brand’s message. …

About a month ago, I received a request from one of my practice partners.  They are working with a patient with a number of chronic, hard-to-treat medical illnesses that may or may not be part of a single syndrome or underlying problem.  Despite the fact that this physician is an excellent clinician, they have struggled to put the pieces together and are worried that they are missing something.

The e-mail they sent me reads “i have a patient with an odd constellation of chronic medical problems…it seems to me something might tie these together…i mentioned to the patient the crowdsourcing idea on twitter and he was open to trying this”

I have spoken with this physician, but I have not spoken personally with the patient yet.  I have not taken any steps to crowdsource this patient’s illness because I am honestly not sure how best to do it…or even if…

Kristi Eells @Kristi_Eells

Recently, I’ve been out and about on the town checking out some pretty interesting awesome local healthcare events.  So, I thought I’d take my next couple posts to report back on the key takeaways for each, and recap the things that I found to be the most interesting and helpful from each event.

Women in Healthcare Management’s (WHCM) 2012 Spring Forum: Social Media in Healthcare

This panel session was made up of four women who together provided a very well-rounded overview of the benefits and pitfalls in healthcare social media – sharing details and perceptions of how healthcare organizations are using social media to revolutionize healthcare delivery in communication.

Panels included:

• Donna Tolley, Director of Marketing at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
• Rhonda Mann, Chief Marketing Officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Mary Pietrowski, Sr. Director of Digital Strategy & Marketing for Hologic, Inc.

I’ve recently given a keynote at the Doctors 2.0 and You event and the summary is now available. I hope the video will also be available soon.

According to Mesko, an obstacle preventing many medical professionals from entering the world of social media is a fear of information overload. The solution to this problem is the ability to filter information. Social media crowdsourcing often fails because creators do not take the time to carefully create and curate a community that can sustain and develop itself. Mesko has found that once a trustworthy community is assembled, social media’s possibilities to filter and deliver healthcare information are unparalleled.

Webicina.com  just published a new curated selection, this time focusing on internal medicine.

You will find all the great blogs, news sites, communities, mobile apps, search engines, Twitter users, Youtube channels and many more dedicated to internal medicine.

Enjoy!

A study of nearly 1,500 adults in May proves that Facebook users are engaging with brands on Facebook. The research, performed, by Burst Media, found several positive insights for brands hoping to reach their consumers on the social networking site:

1. Nearly 50% of the respondents “Like” brands on Facebook.

Promising to brands and advertisers, nearly 50% of the respondents like brands on Facebook. The majority of users follow brands on Facebook to keep up the latest content, to share this content with friends and family (earned media!), and share their comments and opinions. This is great news for brands, and displays the importance of creating content around your brand that your followers can read, share, and comment on. It goes to show that users aren’t interested in following brands for advertising purposes, but instead for actual content around the brand and whatever it is promoting (for example, sales and…