Get Satisfaction
Most hospitals and healthcare systems undoubtedly use a clipping service — someone to monitor the media and send “clippings” when the organization appears in a paper or other media outlet. While important, hopefully this isn’t the only way healthcare marketers “listen” to the word on the street. What the media has to say is one thing. What patients, visitors, employees and partners have to say is another.
Wouldn’t it be great to receive “clippings” when these folks rant or rave about quality of service — or, better yet, be a fly on the wall in the midst of a conversation? New services are popping up that allow just that. And, yes, they are ethical.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Twitter — a recent phenomenon in social networking. GetSatisfaction.com is a new service that taps into Twitter filtering millions of conversations, rants and raves based on product or company name. If I wanted to get a feel for what people were saying about Apple, for example, I could enter the company name and get the low down.
I plugged in a few local hospitals and didn’t get any results. But this service and the channel it monitors are only in their infancy, so that’s no surprise. Given the nature of the web, however, I also wouldn’t be surprised to see results tomorrow.
As the popularity of Twitter and other social networking outlets continue to rise (here’s another one that just popped up: plurk.com), filtering tools such as GetSatisfaction are going to become invaluable to healthcare marketers. So, hit that bookmark button and be sure to start checking these resources from time to time.
have you guys seen brand tags? much less robust offering than GetSatisfaction but still a quick glimpse into consumer mindset. could be a very insightful app for hospitals or doctors too.