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

Understanding the Social Mom

http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

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

http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

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

http://signaturemoms.com/

Supporting Print Ad

Supporting Bus Ad

Facebook Promotion & Engagement

Facebook Promotion & Engagement

Facebook Promotion & Engagement

http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

http://tinyurl.com/4pqu2cp

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