Online reviews

I have been seeing new studies that address the impact of online reviews - and it appears their importance is second only to word-of-mouth. What has been interesting about this, is that while only a small portion of web users are contributors, the majority of web users are considered "watchers or readers" and many companies discount sites or online reviews because of this. I believe that marketers should not overlook these as they are disproportionately influential in purchasing decisions. See Rubicon's study on this: http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/online-reviews-second-only-to-word-of-mouth-in-purchase-influence-6968/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Online marketing

I've been seeing lots of information about the growth of online marketing and activities, and marketers are wondering how much to invest in this fairly new medium. While most are not doing banner ads, the range seems to be somewhere between 9-12% of advertising budgets allocated to online, with it projected to grow slightly every year.

SEO seems to be the other area getting alot of focus and resource as well so that hospitals can devise a plan to increase the rankings, or improve the quality and volume of traffic on the web. This is a complicated process and needs to be handled by an expert. You need to understand if the services they offer will actually drive more visitors who are prospective patients or customers.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile seems to be the hottest new marketing opportunity, and all indications point to marketers shifting some budget dollars to this very targeted, measurable and more cost effective medium in favor of traditional media. The Mobile Marketer newsletter offers some great resources for mobile commerce and mobile advertising. Most important, depending on the population and number of mobile users in your hospital's service area, you will want to have a useful mobile site so consumers can access pertinent information from your website, like phone numbers and directions. Hospital marketers should also consider targeting younger users via mobile for outpatient services and elective procedures. Appointment reminders would also be another great differentiator.

How blogs can impact your business

It was fascinating to read the articles about how quickly bloggers undermined the latest Motrin Mom ads, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132622. Health care organizations need to quickly recognize the impact consumer-generated content can have on their businesses and develop strategies to both engage with and monitor social networking. As I heard one speaker this past week say, 'social networking is like air". It is not going away, and organizations need to determine how to embrace this new medium. There are a number of great guidelines and policies out on the net in the private sector to review and emulate already, and way that organizatations can start simply without requiring huge amounts of resources. Hospital legal and IT departments need to be made aware than consumers are viewing and writing about their organizations, and hospital employees need access to what their consumers are saying.

Social Media

At the Greystone Internet conference yesterday, I listened to Shel Holtz, a web communications guru, and he shared many practical examples of how organizations are using social media and really engaging consumer segments by utilizing all the social media to make the human connection. He encourages transparency, authenticity and ethical behavior and believes that not filtering negative information will add credibility.
I really liked the way he simplified social media into the following platforms:
Conversation-enabled publishing
-blogs and podcasts
Social Networks
-LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook
Democratized content networks
-wikis, Digg, bulletin board, Dell IdeaStorm
Presence networks (micro-blogging)
-Jaiku, Twitter, Pownce
Content-sharing sites
-YouTube, Flikr, del.icio.us
Virtual Networking
-SecondLife, There.com
He had some wonderful examples, like DeLoitte, who created a recruitment video called “The Green Dot.” He also talked about the consumer involvement in product development, and referenced the Dell ideaStorm site, MyStarbucks (which I belong to) and the P&G Connect and Develop site, which now drives a majority of their new product ideas.
There was some dialogue and questions about the legalities and risks of blog information, and he suggested reviewing IBM’s social computing guidelines for recommendations. Great stuff…