This document discusses using social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogging for hospice organizations. It provides an overview of each platform and how they can be used for marketing, fundraising, advocacy, recruiting volunteers and staff. Specific tips are provided for using each tool like creating a Facebook fan page, using hashtags on Twitter, making educational videos for YouTube and writing blog posts. Legal and privacy issues around HIPAA are also addressed.
1. Social Media and Hospice: Effective Use of Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Blogging Tasha Beauchamp,MSc David Cherry Webmaster, Research Scientist Marketing Coordinator Elder Pages Online NHPCO Liza Paul, MSSA, LSW Susan Wallace, MSW, LSW Social Worker Policy Analyst The Mount Carmel Hospice Ohio Hospice & PC Org NHPCO MLC Conference - April 21, 2010 - Washington, DC
Social Media Policies Any new technology brings new issues. Mercurial world of bits and bytes, plus the user-generated content, many surprising perspectives to consider. Already covered HIPAA concerns in terms of what you can post and how to be as protective as possible of confidentiality in your published policies to participants.
Here is what we are planning to cover today. When we first started, we also wanted to include social media for peer-to-peer communications (as in professional uses). Decided this was too much, even for 3 hours, so focused specifically on reaching the general public.
Between us, we got together and looked at how these “Tools” could be of benefit for hospice. While people logically think Sales and Marketing, in fact, there are many other departments who might want to participate, and might in fact find more actual, measurable benefit given the time required to invest. Some tools are better suited than others.
Investing in a Social Media presence, should be treated like any media purchase. You want to think in terms of some basic issues. We will be presenting on these topics regarding 4 different Social Media platforms: Facebook, Blogging, Twitter and You Tube
What makes the Internet special? How is it different from other marketing media you might use or purchase? Multiple media: Audio and video, Fun Interactivity: Bi-directional communication, relationship building. What is hospice if not about building relationships Search-ability: Worldwide web. Blessing and a curse Pre-qualified audience: Cost effective!! 24/7 accessibility: transcend space and time. Midnight in their pajamas Easy/inexpensive to disseminate: relative to print Observe & create community (Facebook, Linked In, Twitter). Remember 2 ears, one mouth 5 MINUTES
Most like print media: Publisher to reader Even broadcast is generally one way: Push communication Excellent way to present resources to an audience
Invite engagement. Remove barriers. Build relationships When you see a page that has text fields, radio buttons, checkboxes, this is 2-way communication. Asking for input from your viewers, and hopefully responding to it. Interactivity is the most concrete action. Means the person is committing to you in some way. Is often the way you deliver services online (exchange of information/registration,donation, purchase of merchandise…)
Instead of one publisher, anyone can publish, either by making comments to the things you say (on a blog), or by having a page of their own (e.g., Facebook, YouTube). Instead of uni-directional monologue, or bi-directional dialogue, is an open conversation: Many-to-many Democratization: Has been considered the democratization of the Net. When time said the Person of the Year is “You”. This is what they meant. We each can have a presence now. Makes room for “citizen journalism” like what happened in Iran. No power brokers mediating information. Community: Because it’s an open conversation, allows people to more easily gather in groups of like-minded folks without having the limitation of time and distance. Everyone gets a chance to speak. Plus, you get to “meet” or reach the friends of your friends, simply by observing who is connected to who. Marketing: How does this apply to marketing: No longer marketing to but rather it’s about getting people excited about your brand and as they talk about it, they are in essence marketing you to their network. Becomes a “marketing with” proposition. In fact, bald faced marketing will have people fleeing. Honest relationship: Cultural expectations and styles of communication. Expectation of the culture is transparency. You become more of a person, not just a brand. Your presence indicates you want to have a conversation with your viewers, not just talk at them. Means you need to show some spirit and personality. Also, like any relationship, you need to show commitment and stick=to=itiveness. Highly engaged: Expectation that you will check frequently and respond. That you will post regularly. (You decide how often). But you are checking because you want to respond to the viewers who bother to say things to you. Even if you don’t publish often, this is a great way to learn about the concerns of your market, and at the least learn what customers think about your industry and your brand in particular.
Instead of one publisher, anyone can publish, either by making comments to the things you say (on a blog), or by having a page of their own (e.g., Facebook, YouTube). Instead of uni-directional monologue, or bi-directional dialogue, is an open conversation: Many-to-many Democratization: Has been considered the democratization of the Net. When time said the Person of the Year is “You”. This is what they meant. We each can have a presence now. Makes room for “citizen journalism” like what happened in Iran. No power brokers mediating information. Community: Because it’s an open conversation, allows people to more easily gather in groups of like-minded folks without having the limitation of time and distance. Everyone gets a chance to speak. Plus, you get to “meet” or reach the friends of your friends, simply by observing who is connected to who. Marketing: How does this apply to marketing: No longer marketing to but rather it’s about getting people excited about your brand and as they talk about it, they are in essence marketing you to their network. Becomes a “marketing with” proposition. In fact, bald faced marketing will have people fleeing. Honest relationship: Cultural expectations and styles of communication. Expectation of the culture is transparency. You become more of a person, not just a brand. Your presence indicates you want to have a conversation with your viewers, not just talk at them. Means you need to show some spirit and personality. Also, like any relationship, you need to show commitment and stick=to=itiveness. Highly engaged: Expectation that you will check frequently and respond. That you will post regularly. (You decide how often). But you are checking because you want to respond to the viewers who bother to say things to you. Even if you don’t publish often, this is a great way to learn about the concerns of your market, and at the least learn what customers think about your industry and your brand in particular.
Is like a public diary: Captain’s log See date at top Frequent entries about a variety of topics. Whatever is on the mind of the writer(s), or the editorial calendar of the company This one is by a hospice music therapy volunteer as a guest writer: Sort of a “Day in the life of” story. Written first person. Notice has nice big photo. Can have videos. Blogs don’t have to be just words, but words are easy.
Easiest way to dip toe in the waters of Web 2.0 Is the most like a webpage. Text heavy. If you can write on demand, you can blog.
Often called micro-blogging because you are only allowed 140 characters. Keep it short and sweet: Digital haiku.
Good for quick insights and announcements, leading people to your website. Here is my twitter page showing me my list of “tweets”, things I have posted with links to articles on my company site You’ll see there are tweeters and then followers: I have 68 followers: people who have decided they want to receive my tweets. And then 7 people that I follow, pictures on the right. Twitter posts (tweets) can be entered via cell phone. But you can also look at your account online to see what you’ve posted.
This is a sample of a “Twitter Feed” of the people I follow. Remember, this is about everybody publishing and everyone else getting to decide whose materials they are interested in. So when I log in to my account, I can dip in and view what the people I follow have been thinking and tweeting about in the last few hours, days. Web 2.0 is very stream of consciousness. I think of it as a river of thought. You aren’t going to be able to necessarily keep up with every post (although it is designed so you can enter and receive tweets via your cell phone), but I can dip my cup in the river and get an interesting sampling of what’s up right now. It is often called the “super now”.
Is a great way to build excitement in the moment.In a non-hospice example, one bakery has a twitter account and they might post: “The cinnamon buns just came out of the oven. The smell is heavenly.” Anyone in the area that is following them will have their salivary glands going and head down to the bakery! Super-now events where you could use Twitter might be at a fund-raiser: Think of reporting on a race or at the Alive Hospice music benefit at the Bluebird Cafe.
Add here that YouTube has the technology to send video out probably faster than your own ISP can. Better to store your videos on YouTube and get the search engine advantages, then have your webmaster put code in your company webpage that will make the video appear to play from your site.
Because is a simple layout, and the same layout for everyone, allows for certain freedoms. Everyone knows to go to the Info page for the basics.
Can upload photo albums for people to peruse. (Can also put keywords into the photos so if someone is on Facebook searching for something you have a photo of--a fundraiser, a Hospice House--your entries will come up.)
The Wall is perhaps the most interesting part. This is where you post entries about what is going on. Small. And then your community of Fans can respond. (See Fans in lower left). Every time you post, the post appear’s on your Fans’ walls, so their friends can see… Entry 1: Hospice looking for a place to show a film. A Fan is suggesting a venue. Entry 2: Hospice announcing a presentation on caregiver resources. A Fan says they like this, which means this will post on the Fan’s wall and all of his/her friends will see. Entry 3: Hospice directing people to LA Times article about doctors’ reluctance to talk about hospice to cancer pts… Entry 4: Announcement of hospice volunteer recruitment with link to hospice’s website… (Links are good!)
Fans start suporting you themselves, “marketing with” Alumni club raised money for hospice Someone responded to share about how wonderful hospice was for their family…
Glad to be here. Welcome everyone. E-newsletters are a medium near and dear to my heart as they allow hospices to very cost-effectively get the word out and promote important activities, like fund-raising, referrals and volunteer recruitment and retention. And they provide a convenient medium for readers to get the information that they want or need. One of those happy marriages of marketing and education. Pat yourselves on the back for taking the first step to learn about this new medium. Tell you a bit about myself. Research scientist, I spent 14 years working on NIA projects, specifically big multimedia interventions for family caregivers. In my private life, I have been a hospice volunteer since 1997 Disconnect. Realized this was a way that I could help. Can’t solve global warming, can’t fix the problems in Iraq. But I can help families get better access to information and services, specifically the fantastic support that is offered by hospices. So, my personal mission is to help hospices make better use of the Internet for outreach, fund-raising, community education, etc. Enough about me. I want to learn more about you.
From Pew Internet and American Life Project, broke down activities by subpopulations Overall Internet Use: Predictable decline as get older. High searching of health info in this crowd. (Compare to 28% of teens.) Email is ubiquitous. A favorite of seniors. The forgotten stepchild. One of the reasons I think e-newsletters are a viable medium with an older adult demographic. Watch videos online may be surprising. As an aside: Convio study on the Wired Wealthy: Of major donors ( > $1000), 52% report going to YouTube at least once in the last year. Read blogs: Is commentary, not news. Tends to be entertaining. Younger generations use the Net for entertainment and socializing. In general, older generations use it for research, to answer a question or solve a problem. Blogs not as strongly embraced in the older generations Social Networking: While big hoopla about Boomers Facebook presence quadrupling, it’s not hard to go from 2% - 8%. But if look at 9% of 77% of the total population, this is not critical mass—YET. Still, depending on what you’re wanting to accomplish, which department has what objective, indeed, it might be.
Let’s look at participation by younger Internet users. If your objectives revolve around this group, you absolutely need to be thinking in terms of social media. These are “Net Natives”. Have never been in a world that didn’t have the Internet. They look to the Internet for socializing and entertainment as well as research. Older generations tend to look mostly to solve a problem: research. High searching of health info in 18-32 yr olds, but more likely for nutrition, STDs, pregnancy and pediatrics. Email is ubiquitous high on the older end here. Notice how low among teens. They are texting (cell phone text messages) and instant messages. Email is passe for them. But very high for 18 and over. Watch videos online is high: I imagine it drops off in 33-44 yo because active parenting and career years. Read blogs: Clearly a younger generation medium 43-49% of 12-32 yr olds. Is commentary, not news. Tends to be entertaining. Younger generations use the Net for entertainment and socializing. In general, older generations use it for research, to answer a question or solve a problem. Social Networking: Socializing and entertainment is obvious here. 65-67% of 12-32 yr olds do social networking. If you are looking to develop a teen program, you MUST have a social media presence.
Glad to be here. Welcome everyone. E-newsletters are a medium near and dear to my heart as they allow hospices to very cost-effectively get the word out and promote important activities, like fund-raising, referrals and volunteer recruitment and retention. And they provide a convenient medium for readers to get the information that they want or need. One of those happy marriages of marketing and education. Pat yourselves on the back for taking the first step to learn about this new medium. Tell you a bit about myself. Research scientist, I spent 14 years working on NIA projects, specifically big multimedia interventions for family caregivers. In my private life, I have been a hospice volunteer since 1997 Disconnect. Realized this was a way that I could help. Can’t solve global warming, can’t fix the problems in Iraq. But I can help families get better access to information and services, specifically the fantastic support that is offered by hospices. So, my personal mission is to help hospices make better use of the Internet for outreach, fund-raising, community education, etc. Enough about me. I want to learn more about you.
Have talked about what these different media are, and given examples of what departments might benefit. Now let’s look at the broader picture of why would you do this? What can you achieve and how will you know you have achieved it. Reasons everyone is paying attention to Social Media. Some of the most visited sites on the Web. Facebook and blogs are becoming a parallel Web. Each one of these sites is becoming it’s own search engine
Which leads to why, from a business point of view, social networking is a factor to reckon with. You can attract attention to yourself by being where people are looking. This is an older Web 1.0 statistic, but it gives you and idea of how to get people to find out about you. Only dedicated hospice seekers will go to your website. You need to reach people by being where they are going and then linking to your company site.
So the first, easiest reason to do social media, and therefore best way to measure your success, is to think in terms of increasing traffic and exposure via your social networking tools. You should be able to see, from your own website, how people are getting to you: “Traffic source”. With more exposure in these other venues, you will have the traffic at those sites (which you can measure) as well as increased traffic at your company site (with data as to where they came from). Website traffic isn’t the end-all, however. You probably have a call to action, or some purpose you are hoping to achieve: More direct-from-family referrals; More donations or participation in fund-raisers, employment or volunteer applications (perhaps from younger applicants). You know how you measure those; just be sure you are also tracking how people heard of you.
But the other side of why people launch a Web 2.0 venture is much harder to measure. How do you measure community? Networking? Is like the difference between quantitative and qualitative research. You need both. The very unique qualities of Web 2.0 falls very much in the qualitative research side. Analytics are offered on many of the tools Number of viewers; sometimes demographics How much time they spend on the page and what they are viewing The depth and quality of the exchanges can be a measure, but wouldn’t hold my breath Can find out # of forwards Who is posting links to your postings (e.g., Trackbacks in Blogs) Less quantifiable, but absolutely valuable: The insights you gain from conversations? Feedback or even damage control?
Not exactly sequential. Often need to create a presence to observe. Can create a low-key presence and then beef up later. Observe: What are others doing? Competitors? People you admire, even in other interest areas. What media do they employ? What seems to generate comments/interaction? What would you emulate? What would you do differently? Determine a strategy: Why want to do this? What do you want to achieve? How will you know if you have succeeded? May want to simply leverage what others are doing. Not post on your own pages so much as post on other people’s or get others to post about you. Which departments are involved? Who are you trying to reach? Which tool is best? Can use aggregators like ping.fm so post on blog and it goes to FB, and Twitter.
Social Media Policies Any new technology brings new issues. Mercurial world of bits and bytes, plus the user-generated content, many surprising perspectives to consider. Already covered HIPAA concerns in terms of what you can post and how to be as protective as possible of confidentiality in your published policies to participants.
A global social networking site. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. You have the ability to create a personalized desk space. Social networking medium to connect with anyone that has a similar interest as yours.
-400 million active users -more than 100 million users have the mobile device facebook appli. -50% of active users log in to facebook any given day. -pages create more than 5.3 BILLION fans! -more than 35 million update their status every day. -more than 3 million active pages -more than 1.5 million of local business have facebook pages. -average user has about 130 friends -average user spend about 55 mins a day in facebook Back in November more than 10 million became fan of pages every day, so it has grown by 10 million in less than 6 months!
Personal Page: Create a personal profile.
Fan Page: The profile page for your Company! Great awareness tool, Event Planning and fundraising. Basic Information of your company Videos and photos Articles of Interest Resources, Event Calendar, etc… MCHgrp. ; MWctr
Mission statement Website information Contact Person
Pictures.
Notes and Causes Through your fan page or group you can open a cause for you agency. It has to be a 501(c)3 and be registered with “guidestar”(database for beneficiary information). Donations are paid the 15 th of every month and they are sent to you via a third party payer source(Network for Good). Network for good will keep 4.75% of the donation.
In order to accept donations through Causes, a nonprofit must be a 501(c)3 that is also registered with GuideStar Online donations must also be enabled in your profile with GuideStar; Once a donation is made on Causes and processed by Network for Good, payment for donations made to your nonprofit are sent on the 15th of each month to the address listed in GuideStar and will include all donations made on Causes during the previous month. For more details, please visit http://www.networkforgoodcheck.org/ .
Departmental Uses: Fundraising: Can utilize the causes features in order to reach an entire group or fan page to donate to your specific cause. Human Resources: Facebook has become a great tool for recruitment and job posting. Marketing, PR and Outreach: By creating a Fan Page you can develop a social networking community. Advocacy: Share important information that will get your community involve and this information will be posted on everyone's page
Social Media Policies Any new technology brings new issues. Mercurial world of bits and bytes, plus the user-generated content, many surprising perspectives to consider. Already covered HIPAA concerns in terms of what you can post and how to be as protective as possible of confidentiality in your published policies to participants.
We are not lawyers. Will not be exhaustive, but it was exhausting. Section that gave us the most heartburn. Kudos in particular to Susan and Liza for their excellent research in this area. Also Allison Gibson, a grad student working with Susan looking at teen use of social media for health promotion activities.
But this is user-generated content. What is our responsibility to protect people from themselves? The jury is still out.
Even though you may have completely non-clinical objectives with your Web 2.0 endeavors, user-generated content may not comply. Where is your responsibility in terms of protecting private information? What about the participant’s self- responsibility? This is what we’re hoping to shed some light on. Things that you could have control over (staff postings), you are responsible for. The more grey area, however, has to do with inappropriate patient self-disclosure, or disclosure of a family member’s situation (e.g., in the context of a family caregiver, for instance.)
It appears that postings on an individual’s page are the individual’s property and since the individual is not a covered entity, no expectation of privacy or need for HIPAA compliance. Some thought that because Facebook and Twitter and these hosting services are not covered entities, no need for them to follow HIPAA procedures. (That said, Facebook has recently upgraded it’s privacy settings so people can more specifically delineate what level of friends can access what level of information--their wall, their address, their photos…) What if a hospital (or hospice) were to set up a social networking site of its own on its own server: For instance, an online grief support group for teens? Because it’s a covered entity that owns the hardware and has control, would need to be encrypted, password protected… What if they set up a Fan Page? The hosting service is not a covered entity, but is the fact that the page is sponsored by or “created by” a covered entity mean that HIPAA regulations are in effect? What about inappropriate comments or posts on a Wall? That’s the unknown. Facebook Group can require an agreement upon joining. But can’t necessarily enforce. If infraction, can kick the person out of the group. Also, can be set up to be secret, meaning the posts and membership do not show up on the personal profile page. But, none of this really guarantees privacy. Who knows if a member is who they say they are? Hackers can get into these spaces. Communications are not encrypted…But maybe HIPAA does not apply because it’s Facebook that actually owns the data???
You are absolutely responsible for what your staff publishes on your official site. You must take precautions PHI is anything that is unique identifiable and could be used to trace back to the identity of an individual: Name, photo, story, name of a relative, email address, voice…But even things like the name/time/place of a funeral. Have more than one person look at postings in the beginning. Need multiple perspectives.
Although these are not suit-proof, they do show an attempt to protect people from themselves.
Web 2.0, as casual and conversational as it is, is a record. It stays visible in perpetuity. What someone might say to a friend on the phone is not as public as what they might tweet, or post on their Facebook page.
But let’s not forget there are astounding benefits social media can offer. Social support has absolutely been shown to improve outcomes for a large range of conditions. And think about the casual information or connections that people might glean that could really help them, not to mention the positives for your organization as people get to know you more and see you as a helpful force in the community. And this media isn’t going to go away. We need to figure out how to use it responsibly with the knowledge we have now, and our best instinct for integrity.
There are early adopters. These are not small players. They have banks of lawyers and have figured out ways to ameliorate the risks.
We’ll be talking about more of these later, not specifically about HIPAA. But talk to your Risk management folks and see if there are policies that would help them feel more comfortable about social media participation
Safest of all is to be in control and host a community on your own server, then you can be much more on top of things like firewalls, passwords and encryption Choose the most conservative of the media for starters: blogging. Although not secure necessarily (unless you set it up on your own server), you will be able to set up your blog so you can review posts and delete them before they are public. Can also set up your Facebook and Twitter and YouTube accounts to notify you immediately when someone makes a post. You can then go check and delete the post if it seems inappropriate. (High time intensive, and how do you handle the weekends? Where is the line about patient responsibility? And how long is too long for an inappropriate post to be up?)
There is a line between the law and what is practical. We all deal with that every day. While HIPAA is a concern, and violations fall more in the context of the government prosecuting you, the truth is the government has not brought many HIPAA cases to court. Increased penalties were recently passed, but there is ample room in the writing distinguishing willful neglect and a breach occuring. The biggest threat with social media is self-disclosure. In other aspects of privacy law, it seems clear that there is an acknowledgement of self-responsibility. This is all very new, but in the interim, while we’re waiting for specific standards to evolve, there are agencies out there participating so we know it can be done. You just need to figure out for yourselves, what technological and administrative strategies will work for you to offset any risks you identify for your own particular usage.
Social Media Policies Any new technology brings new issues. Mercurial world of bits and bytes, plus the user-generated content, many surprising perspectives to consider. Already covered HIPAA concerns in terms of what you can post and how to be as protective as possible of confidentiality in your published policies to participants.
¼ of the ¾ of online middle-aged people read blogs.
Captain’s Log Title of the entry Author Date Ability to subscribe: RSS, email Text and/or photos, videos, polls… Categories: Think of these as file folders. They also tell people the subjects you typically cover. Strategically, they should define your scope and involve the keywords you think your target audience is likely to search for. SEO is one of the main reasons to blog. Archives allows people to access past posts by month Blogroll is a list of links to other online resources you think are useful. Link to your company site (several different places), but also to other educational resources and informative bloggers. Linking currency on the Internet and is how people network, stay useful, and promote their sites (reciprocal linking).
[Alive Contributors] Alive Hospice has many authors. Standard to give a little bio of each. Notice all the links, links, links. Part of blogging is defining yourself as a person who helps others get the info they want. More links, the more you are seen as a resource. The more you are a resource, the more people bookmark you and come back. Return visitors are the holy grail of Internet marketing!
[Alive Leave Comment] Big part of blogging is asking for and responding to comments. Some even allow commenters to be notified when someone else has commented on an entry.
[AliveComment String] Comments appear at the end of articles in chronological order
[WordPress] This is what makes a blog special. Blog software provides a VERY simple interface for creating content on a web page. Is software that exists on the web. Can be inserted inside your web pages (requires programming knowledge), or you can rent space on a server that has it all set up for you. Looks very familiar: Title Text Tool bars - Upload images, videos, music or podcasts - Format your text much like word - Have options for making links, very much like the toolbar on my.nhpco if you’ve used that. Can make drafts and preview before publishing Can determine the categories (strategic file folders defining the scope of your blog) Can set “Tags” to highlight special entries (a person’s name, a company you are featuring…). Smaller than categories. More of them.
[Hospice Experience] Many ways to use a blog: Educating the public about hospice issues (Dispelling Myths)
[Piedmont] Reaching Family Caregivers; not the buttons at the bottom to share on other social media
[Alive TV Show] Nashville NPR did a documentary on hospice care featuring Alive Hospice. Had been using the blog to build up the event. (Notice the previous day’s entry is by a hospice nurse and what it was like to have the camera crew there doing a “Day-in-the-Life of” ride-along.
[Pallimed] Issue about Dept of Transportation not allowing roadside memorials. 3 min video.
[Alive] Bluebird Café, Songwriter concert series where percentage of the proceeds go to hospice
[Alive Advocacy] For advocacy and community activism: Prompting people with links to connect to their congressional prepresentatives, the White House. Link to sign up for NHPCO’s Action Alerts. Very savvy us of the linking power of the Internet: Make it easy for people to take action
[AliveVolunteer] Let volunteers tell their story. Talk about different programs you have (or photos: Pet therapy program)
[AliveSocialWorker] Great story about what it means to work there, to do the work. See the 5 Comments. This was other social workers commenting and adding their own perspective…Good for HR, also good for PR.
[RemCare] By now, I think you are getting the idea of how you can actively use the blog medium to support MANY different hospice endeavors. People search for a topic, your blogpost may come up. You promote your blog locally, people subscribe. Link liberally to your website and you will get SEO advantages…And through all of this, you put information out, people can share information back. Now let’s talk about this medium for communicating with patients and families. Families are wanting digital communication, and the simplicity of the blog interface is ideal. BUT, because sensitive information, you need to have private blogs: with a tunnel to each family individually, password protection, and all of this stored on an encrypted server.
[RemCare] Can be done, but easier to hire others who have set up a system and you plug in. Remcare is such a system. Repurposed blog software, borrowing the easy interface and chronological format, but putting it to new use in a secure environment
When you think of it, if the HIPAA issues can be addressed, the ease of posting makes this a very convenient way to deal with non-emergent questions and observations. Families are asking for digital ways to communicate. These companies offer some options. All can be branded with your name and logo. They each have different strengths. This will be a burgeoning field, especially as the collaborative, cost-conscious and patient-centered policies of health care reform start to become reality.
We think mostly about marketing/PR/Outreach: Reaching the general public. Is a way to cast a wide net. Not much in Sales (Physician or professional referrers). Social workers maybe Fund-raising, promoting an event. Absolutely
[Library] Other information and referral groups can post announcements on their blogs about presentations you will be doing in the community
[Volunteer] Volunteer Center or United Way can post when you are recruiting and have a new training session coming up.
[Huffington] Can get a well read blogger to write about you, or your issue, e.g, the Huffington Post has millions of readers
[BlogRally] Band together with a group of bloggers to blitz the blogosphere about an issue. “Engage with Grace” had 100 bloggers around the country at Thanksgiving promoting this “One Slide” campaign of having families bring up 5 questions pertaining to end-of-life wishes.
The philosophy of Web 2.0 is to get others to be excited about you and pass the word.That “marketing with”. It’s also to get your name and links to your site (blog or company site) out there on the Internet. The more incoming links, the higher your ranking in the search engines. Getting others to blog about you, with links to your site is good. Good to return the favor. Many blogs have a “blogroll” section, or a “Links” section where you can note people you think are especially worth following. You can also comment on other blogs. Many comment fields have a way to leave a link to your site. Don’t do this gratuitously. Try to engage the material and generate conversation. Best to be on target and then casually note your URL.
Most familiar. Can get started very quickly with very little money or time invested up front. Gives you strong SEO.
Many of the same disadvantages of any of the other Web 2.0 medium.
Can be done by the same person, or a group. Nice to have at least one other to bounce ideas off of Should be paid work Some (authoring, monitoring, responding) can be outsourced Pay by the hour (have a budget) or by the piece
Social Media Policies Any new technology brings new issues. Mercurial world of bits and bytes, plus the user-generated content, many surprising perspectives to consider. Already covered HIPAA concerns in terms of what you can post and how to be as protective as possible of confidentiality in your published policies to participants.
Begin with this meaningless tweet… the “what you’re eating for breakfast” tweet, complete with a link to a picture of this breakfast. Address some of the perceptions/ resistance to twitter: From a pastoral blog, the top 10 reasons people don’t use social media . . . we'll leave people behind who don't use it. . . . there is no measurable result or return. . . . its output is untrustworthy. . . . we don't know how to do it; . . . our folks aren't using it; . . . it's all narcissistic; . . . it's a fad; . . . it's unproductive and not a good use of time; . . . we are uncomfortable with issues "transparency" and privacy; . . . it cannot replace face-to-face and personal relationships; (http://www.reyes-chow.com/2009/08/church-social-media.html )
Share examples of extraordinary tweets: 7.8 magnitude earthquake in China Plane landing on the Hudson Ice on Mars The Iranian resistance These are the very big and very rare examples we think of when trying to grasp the power of this medium.
How about on the individual level? Demi Moore received a tweet that appeared to be a person about to commit suicide. She retweeted, and it was picked up by followers, and the person’s location was ascertained. Police were dispatched and the person was taken to a crisis center and received psychiatric care. What about our patients and families? Post re: grandmother’s death located 2/1/10.
What is twitter? Where did if come from?
comScore Media Metrix press release, April 7, 2009. Retrieved from emarketer.com. Twitter is used by more older young adults than their young-young adult counterparts. Over 2009, we saw Twitter grow from being a repository for millions of individual moments/experiences (“What are you doing right now?”) to being embraced by the media, employers and the business community as a new way of accelerating the dissemination of content. For this reason, Twitter has developed a more professional audience/user population than other social media tools.
Perhaps I should reformat this as a table, by the person/department that would be responsible, and what each may use it for…??? Personal updates: Conversations/live feeds: Find example Links: Advertising/fundraising Job posting/Recruitment
Citation: Crowd Science “Social Media Insights: Twitter” 9/4/2009. Retrieved from emarketer.com. Because of the spread of smart phones, and Twitter’s simple use and compatibility with SMS text messaging, it has dramatically shifted the penetration of social media into our everyday lives. Whereas before, social media was relegated to the computer, we now find it everywhere that we can take our phone… i.e., everywhere.
Example of running a contest: Columbus Ballet ran a Valentine’s benefit asking for worst V-Day stories via tweet, and rewarded the best with tickets. For hospice, could look for best ACP stories for Healthcare Decisions Day, or award the person generating most retweets re: Healthcare Decisions Day, ACP awareness
Example of Save Ohio Libraries campaign: informally organized, picked up by celebrity blogs, composed of traditional and new media elements, grew beyond control of the initiators Rep. Ted Celeste reported 14,000 messages in a 12 hour period Governor’s office: 13,360 messages over Fri-Tues span, 10,783 on other issues over few preceding weeks
Remove this slide, I assume? I would of course want to mention #rankings and retweets, which are both specific to twitter
Insert examples: Hospice of the Western Reserve: using twitter for disseminating hospice stories, consumer interest/outreach Hospice of Dayton: used principally for recruiting.
It is simple to join, maintain, requires almost no investment— Because of its immediacy and ease, Twitter creates a sense of casualness and can feel conversational, leading users to over-share or After all, it’s 140 characters. How much harm can you do in 140 characters?
An example of twitter at its best: the example of LaylaGrace, a girl dying from a brain cancer Incredibly relevant, highly interactive, engaging, organizing a community of supporters around something meaningful
If you search #LaylaGrace, you find individuals selling products to benefit this girl’s family, that there are thousands of individuals sending thoughts and prayers. While many families would not choose to go through this journey so publicly, but for those who decide to, how much support can be generated by well wishes, thoughts, prayers, etc. ?
Example of Twitter at its worst, i.e., most dangerous INSERT CITATION Yes, Henry Wiggenbottom is a fabrication, but this example is not too far from the truth. While researching this topic, I came to a person’s twitter account, which linked to her myspace account containing all of the following information: the person’s name, marriage status, husband’s name and years married, her job, place of work, schools where she studied, city location, picture, children’s names and ages, colleges her children attend and their majors, income range, pets, interests, etc. And, her father just entered hospice.
Just a quick demonstration that yes, people do liberally share their travel plans…
This is a little closer to home: examples of people candidly and casually sharing major loss experiences. While we may not be using this technology, our patients and families absolutely are.
As well as our staff! This shows why it is so important to have a social media policy, whether or not you decide to have a ‘presence’ on any of the online social networks/ tools
Should I cover this? I think that these will be pretty common across all of the tools/media. What do you guys think?
Social Media Policies Any new technology brings new issues. Mercurial world of bits and bytes, plus the user-generated content, many surprising perspectives to consider. Already covered HIPAA concerns in terms of what you can post and how to be as protective as possible of confidentiality in your published policies to participants.
Chen was the programmer of the bunch working with Adobe’s Flash to develop the language to stream clips in a web browser Hurley
Not surprisingly that YouTube is replacing traditional television viewing for many users.
All ages are using YouTube. As suspected, the 18-24 population has a larger representation, next surprisingly is the 65+ group. Evenly divided between males and females Average age range 18-55 51% of users visit YouTube weekly 52% of 18-34 year-olds share videos An average YouTube viewer spends 164 minutes online everyday vs. the 130 minutes per day watching traditional television.
All ages are using YouTube. As suspected, the 18-24 population has a larger representation, next surprisingly is the 65+ group. Evenly divided between males and females Average age range 18-55 51% of users visit YouTube weekly 52% of 18-34 year-olds share videos An average YouTube viewer spends 164 minutes online everyday vs. the 130 minutes per day watching traditional television.
Posting a video can pretty much take a life of its own.
Brand Awareness – Videos push your hospice’s brand, often in the same fashion used in traditional television or print advertising A study showed that online viewing led to 82% brand awareness and 18% product recall for similar television ads. Product Advertising – instead of overall brand awareness, this is individual products or services your hospice may offer Retail Promotion – Best practice: highlight individual departments or services within your store/hospice. Great to use in order to help with fundraising events Product Support – Use to support existing customers; consider some of the most common problems and questions about hospice services and create videos addressing those services Product Training – If you have products that your customers use (i.e. mechanical bed for home hospice patients) create a series of short training videos. Save money and time, you can create an archive of product information that anyone can access at any time. Recruiting – Company welcome video for your hospice. Create series of videos introducing individual departments. Illustrate company values, mission, services offered and facilities available.
Inform – Equivalent of an infomercial; shows the viewer how to do something useful, functions as a teaser for additional products and services you offer. Use to EDUCATE viewers. Educate – How-to video; offer useful information that viewers can share with their networks Entertain -
Everything must work together. Need assessment of your patients and families
Repurposed Commercials – Use the same 30-second spot you run on television < Not recommended but a good start; Consider re-edit for YouTube > Customer Testimonials – Several on YouTube by hospices using testimonials from existing staff and hospice patient families Company Introductions – Video tour of hospice facilities Expert Presentation – Help establish your professional credentials and burnish your hospice’s image as the leader in your industry or area.
[Hospice of the Bluegrass] Basic Channel view Info Comments Favorite Share Playlist Flag Uploads
[Hospice Advantage Services] Basic Video view: More common among users Info Comments Favorite Share Comments Playlist Flag Subscribe URL Embed More From: Your Channel Related Videos
[Hospice Advantage Services] Basic Video view: More common among users Info Comments Favorite Share Comments Playlist Flag Subscribe URL Embed More From: Your Channel Related Videos
[Hospice Advantage Services] Basic Video view: More common among users Info Comments Favorite Share Comments Playlist Flag Subscribe URL Embed More From: Your Channel Related Videos
[Hospice Advantage Services] Basic Video view: More common among users Info Comments Favorite Share Comments Playlist Flag Subscribe URL Embed More From: Your Channel Related Videos
Passive use example
Social Media Policies Any new technology brings new issues. Mercurial world of bits and bytes, plus the user-generated content, many surprising perspectives to consider. Already covered HIPAA concerns in terms of what you can post and how to be as protective as possible of confidentiality in your published policies to participants.
This is a strategic decision. Will differ by the medium and the audience. Your chance to project a personality for your business (or a part of your business). What do you want it to be? Want to have a broad enough range of topics, but not so broad as to lose the interest of your participants. Think in terms of keywords or categories and rotate through them. What might people be searching for? What is of interest for your fans? If trying to reach younger employees, will be talking about working conditions and the rewards If trying to build excitement about fundraising event, say a Run to Remember, talk about races, marathons, memorials… Things that might attract people involved on that level. If trying to reach family caregivers, certainly stress, finances, specific symptoms and diseases How personal do you want to get. If you have a charismatic leader, or blogger, this is a chance to let that personality shine. There’s a hospice that has an incredible writer whose prose would bring people on the listserve to tears, he could capture the tenderness of the moment in such a compelling way. But what if he leaves, gets discredited… Some have multiple authors, both to spread the load and create a range of personalities. Not super personal, like what you had for breakfast. But a peak behind the curtains is often expected, and welcome. “A day in the life of…” Forbidden topics: Stories, photos, videos about clients unless you have permission and release Language Physician-assisted suicide Trade secrets, proprietary information Opinions/controversy/libel (Electronic Frontier Foundation: bloggers liability issues)
Should have a single coordinator in house, but can have many authoring arrangements Whoever you choose must to author: Be able to write well for he medium, produce easily and on time. (Good for the long haul) Judgment you trust within guidelines you have provided Pay for the output (per post?) Make sure it’s valued, not just heaped on an already full plate. Outsourced (PR or journalist background) Advantages: More objective, would not get defensive, used to writing for others Disadvantages: May not know company culture or see land mines on the horizon Disclaimer: Postings are not necessarily reflective of the company’s views Vetting process: Nice to have a committee the Coordinator can turn to when in doubt. Especially when responding to negative or incendiary comments, or a contribution that seems dicey in some way. Needs to be a quick process. Some options: - Note at the top any 3 rd party materials and any links - Checklist about releases for stories, photos, videos Whose baby is this? Development? HR? Volunteers? Marketing? Should legal see everything? Proofing: Try not to have poor grammar. Misspellings now and then are forgiven, but is always better to have someone proof ahead of time. Fresh eyes. Credibility issue. Time limits: Social Media can suck your time up like nothing else. Relationship oriented. Very compelling. Does require frequent monitoring/responding Set a budget of time (X min/day)
Huge topic. Recommend Electronic Frontier Foundation: www.eff.org Rules of thumb: Obviously releases for the use of identifiers (HIPAA) but even of volunteers or others So much of the Internet and Social Media is about making connections, that linking is encouraged. If you give credit (that transparency) and link to the author or original source, you cover a lot of ground there. Can always ask persmission. Will often be flattered, welcome the link, and may in fact start a networking relationship with you! General guidelines based on “Fair Use” The less you quote directly the better (2-4 sentences rather than a whole page) Is your use in any way stealing their thunder? Could you be construed to be the author and therefore benefit from the work? More favorable if you take the work and change/add something to it (commentary, small corner of the graphic…) Becomes a creative work of your own. “Transformative use” Government materials are public domain. Our taxes paid for it. Anyone can re-publish.
Do you really control your brand? Do you Google your business regularly, or have Google alerts set up to be notified when your company is mentioned somewhere else? What about searching blogs? Facebook? Twitter? With user-generated content, all kinds of people can be saying things about you and you don’t even know about it. Not to scare you, but you may want to start paying attention. If someone posts something on your Social Media site, it’s a great opportunity for you to respond to the issue and give it the perspective you want to have shared: Honesty and transparency. Can have an inclusion policy that will cover you ethically if you decide to delete, or not publish a post. Monitoring often will give you the shortest turn around and most notice so you can respond quickly Only on a blog can you hold a post before it’s published. Best to publish it with most of the flavor the person included, but post your response at the same time. Part of establishing a Social Media presence is setting up a response process. Perhaps all negatives go to Marketing, the CEO, a committee…Who vets the response? Grace, empathy, non-defensive. This is the human side. Authentic responses are expected, as is accountability. If there is something to apologize for, apologize. Can even ask for feedback about ways you might have handled the situation better…Great customer/community research vehicle. Can even thank people for helping to make you the truly responsive organization you wish to be.
Do you encourage employees to be part of the community, spark conversation, etc.? Official authors, vs. commenters. Fantastic way to harness enthusiasm, including on their personal networks. “ The disclaimer”: About personal views not necessarily the views of the company Balancing act between their freedom and a code of conduct as an employee. Remember too, young adults donot have a completely mature pre-frontal cortext until 25 years old. At same time, want to capture that enthusiasm. Guidelines help. ;-) Recommend Social Fish Employee policy Guidelines: www.socialfish.org)
Imagine when telephones first came out. The hoopla around that was full of all kinds of fear and distrust. This is an evolving media. Ithas so much potential, even to the point of possibly being a way we actually deliver care in the future. Policies should be friendly and educational. Encourage things to do as well as things to avoid. Should have accountability and a fair process for addressing consequences of an infraction. Consider talking to your liability insurance folks about your participation and finding out what coverage, if any, you need. Best to make friends with it and be part of shaping the conversation. (The conversation may be going on without you, which might be even worse!)