Google+ Twitter Equals Marketing Opportunity

This week, I broke down and created a Twitter account. Yes, I have hopped on the 140 characters-or-less bandwagon. Scads of healthcare organizations are my fellow riders and many of them are veteran tweeters.

Shameless plug: follow me @anna_webster for my newbie tweets. Though I understand that being connected I should "friend" "follow" and "circle up" – the results may be information overload.  By the way, you should also be following @healthleaders.

I am currently combating SPF --- also known as – social platform fatigue. If you're like me, your inbox is constantly at the brink of spam spill-over and need a ven diagram for all your friends, foes, followers, and flocks. But, social media isn't going away and healthcare leaders should take advantage.

According to the 2011 HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey:

• 18% of leaders say their marketing efforts do not include a social media element
• 36% of leaders say social media is effective or very effective

Facebook continues to dominate as a social media platform, with 79% of respondents saying they use it for promotions. Twitter trails as a close second with 62% of respondents saying they use it as a promotion platform. There are both pros and cons to joining the ever-increasing league of Tweeters.

My thoughts on Twitter: Good for live coverage at events, data mining, or stalking healthcare celebs (@Paulflevy and @Atul_Gawande). Bad if you have A.D.D. or if you are @RepWeiner.

The platform is a conversation where everyone is talking (or tweeting) at once---very similar to healthcare as a whole. Turning down the noise is determined by who you follow. If you are just getting started try these suggestions:

• @HealthLeadersMedia –industry news
• @Gienna – healthcare information technology (HIT)
• @CherClarHealth –healthcare quality
• @Kevinmd – social media's physician voice
• @Atul_Gawande – author, surgeon, and quality advocate
• @Anna_webster – healthcare marketing
• And check out this list of the HIT100

One problem I have with Twitter is that it broadcasts your posts to your entire audience of followers. Many times, healthcare marketers want to be more targeted and specific. Using Twitter as a messaging tool can be good for broad announcements such as a new CEO or the opening of a new facility, patient wellness education, or a published news article on your organization.

"To move to integrative marketing goes beyond social media use and requires a micro level of customer understanding," says Eric N. Berkowitz, PhD, Professor, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts. The investment in this level of sophistication is significant not only in terms of the data mining tools, but also the individuals needed to drive the integration of the sophisticated data mining processes to the marketing strategy.

Berkowitz makes the point that healthcare marketing leaders must be able to talk to individuals on a one-to-one basis, knowing their unique healthcare needs and issues. And, as these patients' healthcare needs evolve and change, the organization would learn and respond to these changing needs in the communications it sends.

Twitter has this one-on capability via direct messaging. But Google+ may be a better tool for one-one-one contact.  More targeted marketing efforts should head for this option, in my opinion. Say you are marking a gender-based service line and want to target the ladies but not the gentlemen. Google+ may be the solution.

The platform is similar to the "like" option that is available on Facebook. When someone finds something they like on the web, they can give it a +1. The number of +1's a site has, can indicate popularity.

Where Twitter stops, Google+ can pick up the conversation because it gives the option of preaching to different audiences by sorting your contacts into groups (or circles). For example, I can broadcast the latest to my circle of cockapoo enthusiasts and craft other messages for work appropriate audiences.

"Large systems with multiple hospitals could send out one message to every contact in the system or just a handful of volunteers at one small hospital. To all patients or only to those who are interested in one particular topic," writes Gienna Shaw, HealthLeaders senior editor.

"Multi-person video chats are just one example—healthcare organizations could use them to conduct small group meetings among remote employees or even as focus groups among patient advisors," she adds in a recent column, 6 Google+ Positives for Healthcare.

Critics are saying Google+ could easily knock Facebook off the map.

In conclusion, don't be afraid to use the technology to get the conversation started. Twitter can be a healthy distraction and valuable tool if used correctly. Hmm, I might just make that my next Tweet…