Ask the Expert with Ben Dillon In a recent discussion on the SHSMD list serv, a member asked: “For those of you with more than one hospital and/or multiple facilities…are there multiple Facebook pages for each hospital or do you consolidate your Facebook presence into one location? Do you also have service line or departmental Read More
If your service area covers three states, and your health system’s name only includes one state, it’s time for a change. That’s what Iowa Health System concluded in 2013 when it changed its name to UnityPoint Health. The change was more than just a solution to a geographic misnomer. It represented an overhaul of the Read More
If you Google “deadly cancers” you’ll probably find a link to the Top Five Most Dangerous Cancers in Men and Women on page one of the search results page. The article and infographic was posted by Iowa-based UnityPoint Health, the fourth largest nondenominational health system in the U.S. UnityPoint has been busy optimizing its website Read More
By Spencer Hunt What’s the best strategy for hospitals using LinkedIn? Consider these two examples. The updates Vanderbilt University Medical Center posts on its LinkedIn page frequently congratulate doctors on their awards and promotions. Advances in malaria and scoliosis research are celebrated, and job openings at the Nashville hospital—particularly for nurses—are featured. Almost 500 miles Read More
by Jennifer Redmond Only in this day and age would a high school student’s tweets garner the attention of White House staffers and earn a spot in national headlines. But that’s exactly what happened as the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama made its way up the trending charts in mid-November 2014. Accompanying the sardonic hashtag were unappealing photos Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson How does a healthcare marketer cut through the noise of all of the advertising and promotional messages directed at consumers today? Obviously, the answer involves sending the message through the right media at the right target, but some health systems are adding a new tool to the marketing mix—brand journalism. “This Read More
by Cheryl L. Serra What can you do with five minutes? As healthcare marketers are discovering, you can pack a lot of tears and tissue-grabbing—or guffaws, giggles, and sing-alongs— into five minutes. Healthcare organizations are increasingly turning to the power of video to showcase the emotional aspects of what they do, leveraging the relatively short Read More
by Ted Balowski Having an effective Web presence is critically important for a hospital or healthcare organization, but how should that presence appear for a brand with more than one location? Is it a good idea for a brand with multiple locations or offerings to consolidate efforts? In the past decade, there have been profound Read More
by Peter Hochstein A surgical team in blue scrubs stands silently in a circle under the intense lights of an operating room. They reach out to hold hands. Then one of them speaks: “Lord, we invite you to be the center of everything we do this morning. We ask you to be our hands and Read More
by Mike Maloney and Katrina VanTyne In 2012, Google published a landmark study about the hospital selection process, “The Digital Journey to Wellness.” According to the study, 75 percent of searches by prospective patients revolve around four specific areas: conditions, diseases, symptoms, and departments. Our web team at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT, Read More
by Mark S. Gothberg Conventional Thinking Often Wrong With its total national awareness far below that of Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cleveland Clinic decided to take a novel approach to building the brand. In March 2012, Cleveland Clinic launched Health Hub, a site very different from the organization’s primary website at www.clevelandclinic.org, and Read More