engaging female healthcare consumers with blogs
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Engaging Female Healthcare Consumers with Blogs
Virginia Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations
Dan Dunlop, Jennings
April 19, 2012
Marketing to Women
• Market “with” rather than market “to”• Engage and allow for conversation• Communicate shared values• Must feel authentic• Provide value via the relationship– How do you enrich her life?– Sense of community - belonging
Social Networks & Psychology• Social Networks: Supreme community building tools• A gift (and a potential curse) to healthcare marketers• The psychology of social networking:– The importance of connecting; sense of
community– Allows one to create a more vivid personal brand– Sense of empowerment
• The brain reacts to social networking interaction as if they were in-person interactions (oxytocin hormone); Users get the same emotional benefit
• Heightened feeling of trust, empathy and generosity
The Mommy Blog Phenomenon• Deep South Moms Blog• Organic and Green Mom Blog• Mile High Moms• A Mediocre Mom Blog• Frugal Mom Blog• American Muslim Mom Blog• Snarky Mommy• Crafty Mom Blog• Single Mom Blog• Agnostic Mom Blog• Ninja Mom
Why does your hospital use social media? Is there strategic intent?
Hive Marketing • Brings together individuals with a shared
interest (moms, for example)• Allow them to share their passion• Feed them info that confirms their decision to
support the brand• Give them a forum to express their support• Activating them when needed
Important Vehicle for Segmenting Your Audiences
• You are not speaking to a homogenous group• Engage segments of your customer base by
creating vehicles that speak to them specifically• “Social media will prove to be the nail in the
coffin of the one-size-fits-all customer experience model.” Robert Wollan & Nick Smith
• Mommy blog, dad blogs, women’s blog…
Twitter/Facebook/Blog Trifecta
• Power of using these in tandem• Twitter’s ability to reach out• Facebook’s positive character, storytelling
ability and group-building capacity• Blog: long-form storytelling; ability to establish
a brand voice/personality
Hospital Blogs
Seattle Mama DocWendy Sue Swanson, MD
Hospital Blogs
Hospital Blogs
Hospital Blogs
Branded Facebook Page
Hospital Blogs
Merrimack Valley Moms
Merrimack Valley Moms Blog
• How do we engage busy moms?• Lowell General Hospital & Tufts Medical
Center decided to start a mommy blog for the Merrimack Valley Region of Massachusetts.
• Recruiting bloggers via a Facebook contest• The contest’s impact on Twitter and Facebook• Building community: Mommy Blogger Brunch
Merrimack Valley Moms
Facebook Promotion• Posted contest announcement to Facebook
Wall:– Looking for 4 local moms to serve as bloggers– $250 prize and a position as a mommy blogger– Month-long promotion– Entries: write on our Facebook Wall and tell us
why you’d be a great mommy blogger– Extended the contest to heighten interest– Selected 4 local moms and one employee of LGH
Facebook Promotion• Posted contest announcement to Facebook
Wall:– Lots of engagement during the contest– Supporters of each of the blogger candidates would
come to the site and voice their support– Drove Facebook likes and Twitter Followers– The announcement of the winners led to terrific
press coverage– Each blogger brought her own group of followers to
our new community!
Merrimack Valley Moms
Spreading the word via area Facebook groups
Merrimack Valley MomsExamples of engagement on Facebook
Mommy Blog Brunch• Purpose: create community• Encourage the moms to support one another– Comment on each other’s blog posts– Promote posts via Facebook and Twitter
• Teach mommy bloggers how to use Twitter• Explain rules of engagement• Distribute the posting schedule• Video the moms for intro posts
Rules of Engagement
• Keep it positive• Write about your life experiences• Avoid negatives – not here to critique local
businesses• Generally avoid healthcare as a topic• Avoid becoming an expert
Blog Mechanics• Wordpress blog – very easy• Post 4 to 5 times each week• Moms submit word documents and photos• Marketing team edits and posts entries• We supplement with posts about local events
and hospital events• Guest bloggers from the hospital• Marketing team approves comments
Blog Mechanics
• A link to each new entry is posted to the hospital’s Facebook wall
• We Tweet a link to each new post (LGH and Tufts Medical Center)
• We created a hashtag to make it easy to follow the blog on Twitter (#mvmoms)
Engagement & Results
• What we’ve seen so far (launched May ‘10):– 478 comments!! Comments = Engagement– 36,000+ visitors– Average $1,500+ per month– 50 visitors per day
• 15 hours per month to maintain
Results/Outcomes• Community - made up of our target audience• Vehicle for marketing service lines• Vehicle for marketing our affiliation• Press coverage – regional and industry-wide• A model for engagement that can be sustained• Opportunity for year-round engagement• Deepened relationship with target audience• Enhanced social media presence across platforms
Results/Outcomes• MV Moms had 18,153 visits in 2011; 1,500 per month• 412 comments to date; 97 posts in 2011• To date, 231 click throughs for more info about Floating
Hospital for Children• To date, 365 click throughs for more info about Lowell
General Hospital• Blog’s top referrers have been Facebook, LGH website and
Twitter• LGH – now 1,220 Facebook followers• 1,197 Twitter followers• Both grew significantly during the contest
Results
• FY2011: 14% increase in patient volume at the pediatric specialty clinic
• 2,787 new patients across 11 specialties
Merrimack Valley Moms
Merrimack Valley Moms
Merrimack Valley Moms
Merrimack Valley Moms
Feature from Lowell General’s newsletter
Cross Promotion
What We Learned• Bloggers vary in productivity• Need additional bloggers to sustain
momentum and keep interest• Developed a second contest to recruit more
bloggers• Consumers want and expect health content• Challenge securing guest bloggers from
hospital – adding health content
SignatureMoms.com
Signature Healthcare
• In affiliation with Tufts Medical Center• Brockton, Massachusetts• Lost connection with the community• Financial challenges• Leadership transition• Suburban competitors• No social media presence• Blog launched January 2011
Overall Ad Campaign
Supporting Print Ad
Supporting Bus Ad
Facebook Promotion & Engagement
Facebook Promotion & Engagement
Facebook Promotion & Engagement
Results
• 41,000+ visitors to date• 633 comments• 191 posts• 200+ subscribers• Top referrers include Google, Facebook,
Wordpress, Pinterest and Twitter
Blog Traffic – First Six Weeks
• 1,154 visitors during first 6 weeks (contest period)
Blog Traffic
• 2,999 visitors during first 11 weeks
Early Facebook Demographics
• 204 Facebook fans during first 6 weeks (contest period)• 25,160 post views, 252 post comments/likes
Rapid Twitter Growth
• 328 Twitter followers by end of contest• 604 updates
Measure of Online Influence
• Daily News ReTweeted 201 times; 281 online views•http://paper.li/SignatureHlth
Questions:• Should the mommy blog have its own Twitter
feed?• Facebook page?• What are the opportunities to further build
community in real life – in conjunction with the mommy blog? Events? Seminars?
• Should you allow advertising on the site?
Other Types of Blogs to Engage Different Constituents
Blue-Eyed Bride
Contact Information
• Dan Dunlop, Jennings– ddunlop@jenningsco.com– Twitter: @dandunlop & @JenningsHealth– Blog: http://thehealthcaremarketer.wordpress.com
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