HealthCareCommunication.com

7 ideas for physician content marketing

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:20 GMT

Not many physicians have heard of content marketing. But it’s a new way to keep current patients engaged and to attract new patients.

Content marketing involves the creation and sharing of content for the purpose of acquiring customers. It is the art of communicating with customers and prospects without selling.

“Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing works. Companies like Proctor and Gamble, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and John Deere have embraced this new way to attract customers. Small businesses and independent entrepreneurs are also using it.

“Consumers have simply shut off the traditional world of marketing. They own a DVR to skip television advertising, often ignore magazine advertising, and now have become so adept at online “surfing” that they can take in online information without a care for banners or buttons (making them irrelevant).”

So, how can physicians use content marketing? It starts with creating content that is valuable and relevant to your patients and adding that to your web site, blog, or patient newsletters. Here are seven ideas for content to help get you started.

Practice changes: keep your patients updated on any practice changes, such as adding a new physician, change in office hours, new practice services added, etc.

What you do: if you are a family physician and you offer sport physicals for students, explain what you look for during a sports physical. If you offer travel medicine exams and immunizations, explain why these are important.

FAQs: keep track of the questions your patients ask and answer those in-depth.

Video: people read less and watch more. YouTube is now the number two search engine, after Google. And patients are searching for videos to answer specific questions, such as “What can I expect after my colonoscopy” or “Should I have a PSA screening?”

Adding video to you site is not complicated. Use a flip camera to create a video introduction of yourself and your practice. Is there a health topic you feel strongly about? Create a video explaining why the topic is important and what steps you want your patients to take.

Health in the news: Let’s say a new study has been published on colon cancer screening, and the study has been misconstrued by the media. Set the record straight for your patients by posting the correct information about the study on your web site and encouraging your patients to see you if they have any concerns about colon cancer.

Health topics relevant to your patient base : Think about your patients and what most concerns them. What top 10 patient conditions do you treat? Write a short blog post about each of them and encourage patients to seek treatment for these conditions from you.

Importance of immunizations: there is a lot misinformation out there about vaccinations. Explain to your patients why vaccines are important and how they should discuss their concerns with you. Provide links to reputable web sites and credible information about immunizations.

A version of this article appeared on Affynity Web Solution s blog.

Learn how to switch health care communicator hats

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:18 GMT

Do you struggle with all the hats you have to wear as a health care communicator? In one day, you jump from writing for a print publication to churning out website content to pushing a press release to posting on your organization’s blog and Twitter feed.

If so, you’ll want to join us Tuesday, July 23 for our Health Care Summit for PR and Marketing Communicators at the Gleacher Center in Chicago.

In the opening keynote, “Healthcare communicators: How many hats can you wear?” Steve Crescenzo, CEO of Crescenzo Communications, a highly sought-after consultant, writer and seminar leader, will show you how to:

Shift gears. Change your style when you move among blogs, traditional stories and press releases, podcasts, print and the Web
Apply traditional journalism rules for great writing to every vehicle and audience you write for
Inject personality and character into your content for social media
Master the two kinds of writing needed to succeed in today's communication
Tell your health care organization's greatest stories to its most important audiences

Check out the conference agenda to learn more about the other presentations we’ve got planned.

Infographic: Health care spending in the US and the world

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:17 GMT

Stack up the health care numbers and you may be surprised what you see.

For each 100,000 people, the US has:

More deaths from disease and injury
Higher infant mortality
More obesity

Take a look at this infographic from BestMasterOfScienceInNursing.com to learn some of the factors that make us spend so much on health care.

(View larger image.)

Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital blog shines in Health Care Awards

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:16 GMT

Illuminate Blog takes top honors in the Best Blog category of Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards for 2012. The Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital blog outshines many others—from the way it grabs the visitor on the home page to the helpful, inspirational information it provides throughout.

We congratulate the Palmer Children’s team that collaborated on the winning effort.

The blog’s cheerful primary colors, engaging photos, well-designed navigation, succinct home page text, and prominent social media integration drew our judges in immediately.

The blog posts added even more light to the fire of judicial enthusiasm, drawing up the sentiments of parents, knowledge of physicians, and more, and using online writing elements such as bulleted or numbered lists when appropriate and narrative when needed for a storytelling style.

It would be impossible to count the number of blogs our judges have viewed in the last few years, yet seldom has one had such a strong impact on first glance. Not only are the blog posts inviting and the social media elements easy to use, but the home page includes prominent links for donations, subscriptions, and contact information.

As they planned the blog, Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital team members wanted to create “a place where people come together to discuss topics that parents, families, and kids face in everyday life—not just topics faced inside the walls of a hospital.”

With articles on everything from child safety to child development to talking to teens about sex, the blog became the foundation for a Facebook page which grew to 20,000 fans in four months and is now approaching 30,000 fans. We have no doubt Illuminate’s look and substance played a big part in reaching those numbers.

To view the winning blog, click here.

You could be a winner in 2013

Want to tell us how great your hospital or health care agency’s PR and marketing communications are? Submit your entry now for the 2013 Ragan’s Health Care Marketing and PR Awards.

Final deadline is May 24, 2013.

View all 2012 winning entries in our Special Edition.

App and infographic help with gluten-free eating

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:15 GMT

Wonder what the scoop is on eating gluten-free—why it’s important for some people and how to avoid foods that can exacerbate celiac disease, an autoimmune digestive condition?

This infographic from Alex’s Gluten Free Spots sheds light on the disease and an iPhone app helps users share information about restaurants with gluten-free fare.

(View larger image.)

The finalists for the 2013 PR Daily Awards

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:14 GMT

When we initially called for entries for the second annual PR Daily Awards, it was hard to imagine being blown away any further by the exceptional work we recognized in 2012.

Then the entries came.

From companies, brands, and corporations to agencies, firms, and nonprofits, the breadth of this year’s entrants not only varied in size and industry, but ran the gamut in terms of their varied successes and notable efforts.

The hard decisions needed to be made, and today we’re delighted to recognize the best of the best.

Here are the finalists for the 2013 PR Daily Awards:

Traditional

Best Crisis Management
Brinker International
Hellerman Baretz Communications for Capitol Petroleum Group
MAVERICK for the Toronto Eaton Centre
Peak Communicators for Canada West Veterinary Specialists (CWVS)
Planit for Chesapeake Shakespeare Co.

Best External Publication (Print or Online)
Adfero Group for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
Broward Health/Fort Lauderdale Media Associates
Florida Realtors
KCETLink
Lahra Carey Media & Communications for Quest Serviced Apartments
UCB, with Biosector 2
UMass Lowell Office of University Relations

Best Infographic
Gregory FCA for CA Technologies
GroundFloor Media for Oskar Blues Brewery
InkHouse Media + Marketing for Bullhorn
Matter Communications
MSR Communications for CPP
NASPE/AAHPERD
Slingshot SEO for HCC Medical Insurance Services
Version 2.0 Communications for Acme Packet
VerticalResponse
Weber Shandwick for NIKE

Best Op-Ed Piece
Fifth Ring for Raytheon Professional Services
Gregory FCA for CAST Software
Noble Strategic Partners for the Smoke-Free Texas coalition
Marcus Group for New York-Presbyterian Hospital
U.S. Department of Labor
Version 2.0 Communications for the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
Weiss PR for SECU Credit Union

Best PR White Paper
Varsity
Walker Sands Communications for Infogroup

Best Product Launch
Alpaytac Marketing Communications/Public Relations for CardNinja
BlackBerry
Child's Play Communications for Reading Rainbow
Konnect PR for Pure Fix Cycles
NYU Langone Medical Center
RF|Binder for McGraw-Hill Education
Version 2.0 Communications for Panjiva
Walker Sands Communications for HarperCollins

Best Publicity Campaign
Cantor Fitzgerald and its affiliate BGC Partners
Edelman for Citrix
Hollander van der Mey for the Dutch Video on Demand Association
Ketchum for DoubleTree by Hilton
Symantec Corp./Connect Marketing for Symantec
University of Utah Health Sciences

Best Speech
Diageo North America
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.
U.S. Green Building Council
Zipcar

Best Traditional Campaign
2K Games
Affect for Radware
BlackBerry
CRT/tanaka for Cambria Suites
GreenRubino for Washington State Fruit Commission
Grow Marketing for Birkenstock USA
RF|Binder for Abine
RF|Binder for Ameriprise Financial
RF|Binder for the NYU Stern School of Business
Weber Shandwick for Mars Chocolate North America

Best Traditional News Release
Gregory FCA for CAST Software
Hunter Public Relations for Arby's Restaurant Group
Primum Marketing Communications for MRPC

Digital/Social Media

Best Blog
Adfero Group for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
General Electric
Kaiser Permanente
MD Anderson Cancer Center
MSR Communications for Bluewolf
PATH
Walmart

Best Electronic Newsletter
Diageo North America
Hunter Public Relations
M/C/C for Harris CapRock
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
U.S. Department of Labor
Westbound Communications for San Bernardino Associated Governments

Best Email Pitch
Ketchum for DoubleTree by Hilton
LS2group for Ford Motor Co.
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District

Best Facebook Page
Gregory FCA for Friendly Planet Travel
Marketing Support for Adobe Echosign
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Piedmont Healthcare
Marcus Group for Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L)

Best Location-Based Campaign
Dotted Line Communications for Ask.com
MWW for McDonald's
National Car Rental

Best Mobile Strategy and/or Campaign
(Winner will be named in the Special Edition.)

Best Online Newsroom
MWW for Nikon
Powell Tate

Best Podcast
Dixon Schwabl for Greater Rochester Enterprise
MD Anderson Cancer Center

Best PR Video
Canyon Communications for Rain for Rent
M/C/C for Chuck E. Cheese's
The Nebraska Medical Center

Best Social Media Campaign
Bailey Lauerman
CRT/tanaka for BISSELL Homecare
Lynn University
M/C/C for Chuck E. Cheese's
MSLGROUP, MSL China for Alpenliebe, Perfetti Van Melle
Mullen for Century 21 Real Estate LLC
MWW for Nikon
Walmart

Best Tweet of the Year
Dixon Schwabl for the Heritage Classic Foundation for the RBC Heritage
GroundFloor Media for Oskar Blues Brewery

Best Use of Twitter
Arketi Group for the Technology Association of Georgia
CerconeBrown for Seventh Generation
Mx Group for JMC Steel Group
U.S. Department of Labor

Best Viral or Word of Mouth Campaign
Feather River Hospital
Impetus Agency for American Pet Products Association
Nature Conservancy

Best Website Launch
American Automobile Association (AAA)
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
Coca-Cola Co.
CRT/tanaka for the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council
Intellectual Ventures
University of Utah Health Sciences

Annual Report

Best Annual Report
Concurrent Technologies Corporation
OCC
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
University of Utah Health Sciences
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

Branding and Marketing

Best Branding Campaign
Alpaytac Marketing Communications/Public Relations for Turkish Airlines
BlackBerry
Ketchum for DoubleTree by Hilton
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
Piedmont Healthcare with Tailfin Marketing and Big Table Agency
RF|Binder for Band Aid Brand
RF|Binder for Band Aid Brand
Susan Magrino Agency for Hendrick's Gin

Best Cause-Related Marketing
Bailey Lauerman
California Earthquake Authority and American Red Cross
Cantor Fitzgerald and its affiliate BGC Partners
Flagger Force Traffic Control Services
NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA)
Children's Medical Center of Dayton
U.S. Green Building Council

Best Content Marketing/Brand Journalism
Gregory FCA for Yoh
rbb Public Relations
Securities America

Best Event Marketing
Dittoe Public Relations for the Western Golf Association (WGA)
Global Gateway Advisors and Polylog PR for the National Business Center for APEC in Moscow
Hollander van der Mey for the Dutch Video on Demand Association
Ketchum for DoubleTree by Hilton
King County, Washington
Peppercomm for Tyco
RF|Binder for Band Aid Brand

Community Relations/Special Campaigns

Best Community Relations Campaign
Ameren Missouri
Bailey Lauerman
Bullfrog & Baum
Diageo North America
Effect PR for TTNET
Griffin Strategies for LBJ Express
O'Malley Hansen Communications for HanesBrands

Best Corporate Social Responsibility
Abshire Public Relations for Parker's
CRT/tanaka for Charles Schwab Foundation
Diageo North America
Effect PR for TTNET
Pioneer Services, a Division of MidCountry Bank
PR Newswire & Mullen Advertising for Men's Wearhouse
PR Partners for Walmart de Mexico y Centroamerica (Walmart Mexico and Central America)
Weber Shandwick for Vital Voices and Bank of America

Best Fitness/Health Campaign
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Hollander van der Mey for the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare & Sports
MWW for McDonald's
NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA)
Peak Communicators for the Canadian Diabetes Association
University of Michigan Health System Public Relations and Marketing Communications for University of Michigan Transplant Center

Best Green Initiative
Dixon Schwabl for Zotos International
Ogilvy Washington for LG Electronics
O'Malley Hansen Communications for HanesBrands
Suasion Communications Group for Concord Suites
U.S. Green Building Council
Walmart

Talent

Best Client of the Year
DoubleTree by Hilton, submitted by Ketchum
Babiators, submitted by Konnect PR
Avigilon, submitted by Peak Communicators

Best PR Team
Aflac
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Dixon Schwabl
Florida Realtors
USACE Galveston District

Lifetime Achievement Award
(Winner will be named in the Special Edition.)

PR Rookie of the Year (Agency or Corporate)
Jackie Gogel, Cognito
Brandy Stone, Konnect PR
Reina Porritt, Minnesota Sports & Entertainment
Amber Rice, Noble Strategic Partners

Grand Prize: Best PR Campaign of the Year

Cantor Fitzgerald and its affiliate BGC Partners
Griffin Strategies for LBJ Express
Hollander van der Mey for the Dutch Video on Demand Association
Murphy O'Brien Public Relations for Mukul Beach, Golf & Spa
National Safe Boating Council for the National Safe Boating Council
Peppercomm for T.G.I. Friday's
RF|Binder for Band Aid Brand
Communications Group (tcgpr) for Skyline International Development
Nature Conservancy

We thank all those who entered.

Get more information here about the 2013 PR Daily Awards.

Infographic: Everything you want to know about naps

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:11 GMT

Perhaps, like this health care editor, you missed the commemoration of National Nap Day on March 14. It doesn’t mean it’s too late for you to learn a factoid or two about napping—or even to take a little snooze.

We found this illustration on Daily Infographic, with all kinds of information worth knowing, such as:

Five types of naps (from the 10 to 20-second nano nap you take at your desk to the 50- to 90-minute lazy-man’s nap that rests you so much you can’t sleep at night)
A siesta championship in Madrid netted the top napper a prize of 1,000 euros.
Napping enhances mental abilities by 9 percent.
Google’s napping pods rent for $795 per month.
Brahms napped at the piano as he composed his lullaby.

(View larger image.)

The 3 essential elements of viral video

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:10 GMT

Who wouldn't want a video to go viral?

Exactly.

There's no secret, winning formula, but there are three elements that will help its "shareability."

Gil Wolchok of Synaptic Digital explains what those are in this interview with Ragan Communications CEO Mark Ragan:

Writers, stop turning verbs into nouns!

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:08 GMT

an we feared.

We at Ragan.com warned you about "vampire words" that suck the life out of your copy.

Now it turns out that other forms of undead abound in writing. We're talking about nominalizations: verbs or adjectives that have been transmogrified into nouns, to ugly effect.

In a frightening echo of our own warning, writer Helen Sword states that these words "cannibalize active verbs, suck the lifeblood from adjectives, and substitute abstract entities for human beings."

Sword stated this last summer in The New York Times and a terrifying video, and this spring the Newspaper of Record twice revisited the topic, lamenting "Those Irritating Verbs-as-Nouns."

In the latter piece, author Henry Hitchings cites these examples:

"Do you have a solve for this problem?"

"Let's all focus on the build"

"That's the take-away from today's seminar"

and, quoting from a British hit,

"Would you let me see beneath your beautiful?"

(Then again, I'd rather not.)

Sword shows how to conduct a de-zombification—er, to clean up—a sentence:

Bad: The proliferation of nominalizations in a discursive formation may be an indication of a tendency toward pomposity and abstraction.

Better: Writers who overload their sentences with nominalizations tend to sound pompous and abstract.

OK in small doses

Hitchings says that "nominalizations aren't intrinsically either good or bad. Yet, used profusely, they strip the humanity out of what we write and say."

He notes two types of nominalization:

A. Those that add a suffix, so that the verb investigate becomes investigation (and nominalize yields nominalization).

B. "Zero derivation," in which a word is switched from verb or an adjective into noun without the addition of a suffix, such as the examples above.

When future bards someday sing of the heroes who defended beleaguered mortals against the zombies, they will remember Dr. Annetta L. Cheek, board chair of the Center for Plain Language. I reached her by phone in her car, and, after swerving to run over a flesh-eating noun, she warned that nominalizations are a common problem in bureaucratic writing.

"We can't just 'analyze data,' we 'conduct an analysis of data,'" Cheek said. "We can't just 'manage' something, we 'assist in the management of.'"

Verbs are the strongest part of speech in English, Cheek said. "To the extent that you take your verbs and turn them into nouns, you're making your writing weaker," she added.

Tapping other braaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnssss…

Still worried about the shadowy un-nouns lurking on our streets after dark, we sought out the word warriors at Grammarly.com. Head of Communications Allison VanNest asserts that "nominalizations tend to make writing more difficult to understand. However, it is not wrong to include nominalizations in your writing if they help to make it more concise or reinforce your main idea."

VanNest cites Brian Wasco of The Write at Home Blog, who states:

"One reason nominalization makes for flat, bland writing is that it leaves out people. Nobody does anything in a sentence like: 'Taxation is subject to the potentiality of intentional misrepresentation.' It's both clearer and more interesting to say, 'I am tempted to cheat on my taxes.' Good writing contains actions and actors."

Ragan.com Executive Editor Rob Reinalda is known as the Word Czar and regularly banishes employees to Yakutsk, Siberia, for style and grammatical goofs. Reinalda also carries a sawed-off shotgun on his commute to deal with zombie nouns.

"A major problem is that people today write blog posts, 'professional' emails, and other official missives with the same casual tone as they do their Facebook updates," Reinalda wrote. "Striving for the conversational has resulted in the reckless slapping together of words without regard for parts of speech or even proper usage."

A troubling trend

A piece in About.com praises the flexibility of the English language in constructing nouns from other speech parts. Yet it cites a quote that suggests that something bigger is going on.

"At the present moment, everybody seems to be going a bit nuts with noun creation," Ben Yagoda, author of "When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It," is quoted as stating. "Journalists and bloggers seem to believe that a sign of being ironic and hip is to coin nouns with such suffixes as -fest (Google 'baconfest' and behold what you find), -athon, -head (Deadhead, Parrothead, gearhead), -oid, -orama, and -palooza."

Then again, writing "at the present moment," would surely get Yagoda in big trouble with the Word Czar, as would dropping the timorous "seem[s]" twice into two subsequent sentences.

Let us allow a final word to Sword, whose very name fills us with optimism that the forces of good will slay their evil enemies:

A paragraph heavily populated by nominalizations will send your readers straight to sleep. Wake them up with vigorous, verb-driven sentences that are concrete, clearly structured and blissfully zombie-free.

5 tips to make social media measurement easier

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:02 GMT

Ah, the three words most community managers and social media pros fear most—“social media measurement.” Unfortunately, measurement is a beast that must be tamed to justify your efforts, improve your effectiveness on social media channels, and monitor progress.

Here are some quick tips from our most recent #RaganSocial Twitter chat on measurement—and why you should stop avoiding it:

1. Set clear goals: Don’t blindly measure likes, re-tweets, shares and more. Have a strategy. Your measurement plan—and your social media strategy—should reflect your company’s business objectives.

Is your company trying to market a particular product? Measure how effective your posts about the product are. Are people sharing, liking, and engaging with the posts?

Perhaps your company is trying to brand itself as offering a specific service. Measure how much you’re engaging with people in your industry and if people are beginning to see your company as a thought leader in that space.

2. Stay organized: Use an Excel document and consistently track the goals you’ve set for yourself. I’ve created an Excel doc with tabs for each social network on which Ragan has a presence. Every Monday—because I like alliteration, Monday Measurement—I track the following:

Referrals from social media back to our websites using Google Analytics

Which posts were shared most: Were they informative? Did they contain clever images?

The demographics of our followers

How many new followers we have and How many followers we’ve lost

The times of day and week posts are shared most

The performance of specific links for things such as conferences and webinars.

And much more!

3. Use your tools: The following tools can be extremely helpful:

Hootsuite—Monitor and track engagement.

Bit.ly—Create links and analyze their performance.

Google Analytics—See if social media is drawing people to your website.

Facebook Insights—Analyze your Facebook page, from your Facebook page.

LinkedIn Analytics—Analyze your LinkedIn group.

EdgeRankChecker—Analyze your Facebook page based on Facebook’s algorithm, EdgeRank.

Social Mention—Search your company’s name or anything else in which you’re interested, to find out what people are saying about you. Be careful with sentiment, though. It doesn’t track this very well.

4. Take it to the C-suite: Even if your boss believes in social media, it’s important to share your findings. Here are some quick tips on how to talk social media with your boss or clients:

Skip the social media-speak. Speak plainly.

Keep business goals in mind and explain how social media is helping achieve business objectives.

Don’t overwhelm them with statistics. Choose the standout information and present it clearly—perhaps consider using graphs.

Explain what the statistics mean. Use metaphors and examples when necessary.

Keep them in the loop with regular meetings

5. Apply what you’ve learned to your social media strategy: Your social media strategy should always be changing. New platforms spring up frequently and heavy hitters like Facebook and Twitter make changes often. Use the information you’ve gleaned from measurement to inform your strategy.

Have you noticed that people engage with pictures more than plain text on Facebook? Have you determined that your audience is best reached at a particular time of day? Constantly review your data and use it to help make your social media life easier!

Join us every Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET for the #RaganSocial Twitter chat! For more information and topic information, check out our Facebook group.