Snow, story telling and St. Cloud
One of the things I look forward to most in my career is speaking at conferences, and the MHSCN conference is always one of my faves. Lots of familiar faces, great dialogue, a good sense of humor from attendees. Last Friday was no different. My topic was “Joe Public Doesn’t Care About Your Hospital,” the idea that 50-75% of a typical hospital’s consumer audience doesn’t care about what the hospital has to say, and even prefers not to hear from the hospital. (For more on this topic, see online article.) Most in attendance seemed to agree with this contention, and despite it being the last session of the day and with a growing snow storm outside, the group has a great 20-minute dialogue during the Q & A section.
One of the lines of conversation centered on story telling and its ability to break through the clutter and appeal to a non-caring Joe Public. A speaker earlier in the day had rightly advocated for the power of storytelling, but an attendee asked: if we’re all telling patient stories, how are we supposed to stand out from one another? See what I mean – great question! Especially after I had just finished using one of our campaigns as an example of story telling and reaching Joe Public. My answer was that story-telling itself isn’t the problem – it is a powerful marketing tool. The problem is the sameness with which they are typically used in hospital marketing. If you can find a different and/or more compelling way to leverage patient stories, you will have a better chance of grabbing the attention of Joe Public (which is what we believe was behind the success of the campaign I mentioned – you be the judge.)
There was also a lot of discussion around the use and effectiveness of social media as part of the marketing mix. Of course, if the argument is Joe Public doesn’t care about your hospital, he sure isn’t going to friend your hospital on FaceBook or follow your Twitter feed. But if you can find ways to make your message relevant to Joe P., then having exposure through social media is just one more way to allow for that next step, that next connection. The key, of course, is relevancy. In the end, I stated that while social medial tools like FaceBook or Twitter are as of yet unproven in their effectiveness for hospital marketers, the ROI of using them is still positive, as the costs are so low. While I wouldn’t make the success of your marketing objectives dependent on social media, there’s no reason hospitals shouldn’t be exploring their use.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next conference!
Potentially-related posts:
- Story on Mayo Clinic’s social media efforts has quotes from Bevolo
- Newspaper strikes back – oh, and it’s a great healthcare story
- Fun campaign launches for a great cause
This article was posted by Chris Bevolo on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 10:36 am, and was filed under Branding, Marketing, Strategy.
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