mommyjenlin

In my last blog, Rise of the Social Media Function , I focused on how companies need to best organize their marketing team(s) to leverage social media to connect with prospects, customers and their markets. I'd like to add another dimension to this discussion: social media within your own corporate community. I've invited Caroline Dangson, IDC's Social Media Research Analyst, to provide her insight and perspective on this important area. "Thanks Michael. Hardly a day goes by without a company announcing layoffs. The U.S. jobless rate in February marked a 25-year high of 8.1%. Organizations are scrambling to hold on to business under incredibly limited resources. The workloads of 651,000 jobs lost last month are now being picked up by the workers who remain. This means an incredible shifting of roles and responsibilities within American businesses. And with that, a shift that is disrupting information flow within the enterprise. Information is money, and the loss of

This is a test. Quick, what is the fastest way for you to build your brand in the community? Well, besides providing outstanding patient service and support, high quality care and so forth. Try proactive media relations! Each morning, someone in the marketing department should be scanning the newspapers, news wires such as the PR Newswire and the Business News Wire and other media outlets to see the hot healthcare topic of the day. Once identified, look to your medical staff or your internal employees to see if you have any content experts. Find the angle about why this is important. Develop some materials such as a news release or statement, get some times the physician or hospital spokesperson is available and pitch them to the media. Put the materials on your web site. Use the news wires for a regional release. It's all about speed, reaction and first to the media. It's summer and that means a slow news period! Two articles in the WSJ today worth commenting on. Outpatient

Many opportunities exist for B-to-B marketing organizations in the social media space. . . .and they're not all limited to what you can do with Twitter, Linked-In and YouTube. Just a few of these opportunities include: Establish a direct, relevant connection with your customers as a source of voice of the customer for new product development (e.g., through an on-line community) Improve customer satisfaction (e.g., enable customers to share experiences on-line by creating a self-running community where customers can interact with and learn from their peers) Increase the speed for troubleshooting and R&D by reducing the distance between customers and engineering Join the on-line technical conversations about your products that your customers are already having, by either leveraging your own community or listening to and participating in other companies' communities Best-in-class organizations are adding a new social media role to their organization to capture these opportunit

With the Senate yesterday introducing a HC reform bill, its clear that the battle lines are being drawn between a government insurance option vs big insurers. Expect the Obama PR team to hammer big insurers and enhance the public already aving a strong dislike of healthcare payors. What does that mean healthcare providers ? Watch the battle closely, you will have to choose. What to do. LEVERAGE, LEVERAGE, LEVERAGE... Marketing departments should be working with senior leadership and in their communities to get a pulse from all constituent groups, not just favorites on the topic of healthcare reform. As issues develop create media statements for local press on why you do or do not support. Consider offering your facility as a town hall meeting place. Find out where your docs are at. Help them understand the issues and develop PR/Media kits for them to use. Consider web site updates and links to various organizations. Become the local expert source for commentary and opinion. Get leaders

House Democrats have just introduced a 1,000+ page healthcare reform bill. Buckle up, Life is going to change as we know it. Healthcare marketing departments now is the time to start proving your worth and doing some serious marketing. Otherwise, don't need you in the new environment.

Saving money? Okay, who is kidding whom? Pharma gives up $80 billion for healthcare reform for Medicare Part D. Hospitals get on the bandwagon and give up $155 billion in Medicare funding. Total savings $235 billion. Is it real savings or just slowing the growth? Medicare and Medicaid programs are never really cut, just the rate of spending growth slows. Its just the gov doing their own cost shift dance. You, me, we all pay for these "savings". Biologic drugs for diseases under reform? Pharma now wants legislation passed giving them a 13 year exclusivity on biologically derived drugs before biosimilar generics can be introduced. Granted they are complicated and expensive to produce, but really, 13 years to recover costs? Nonsense! I say 6-7 years max and then bring on the generics. Its not reform, just the same old game with different clothes. Hospital marketing departments, time to tack action! So hospital marketing and pr departments, what are you doing to drive chan

Mayo Clinic has no marketing budget, only PR. They have never done a direct mail campaign, print or electronic media advertisements or any other traditional types of marketing. Yet everyone knows who they are and what to expect in the way of customer service and quality. So Quality + Reputation + PR = Success . So on a local level, why do hospitals spend endless dollars on misleading ads and claims when the answer to market success lies before their very feet?

As discussed in my last blog entry, Are you Ready for Marketing's 2010 Annual Planning Process? , the IDC CMO Advisory Practice is “in the thick” of collecting surveys for our 2009 Tech Marketing Benchmarks study. We expect to collect detailed marketing investment data from nearly 100 hardware, software, and services vendors. With this is hand, we will be well prepared to provide our insight and guidance to tech marketers for their annual planning process. I'd like to invite Seth Fishbein, a senior IDC analyst on our team, to provide a preview of some of this research, focusing on CMOs’ marketing automation priorities for the coming year. A more comprehensive analysis of this topic will be included in IDC’s 2010 Marketing Investment Planner, due out in late September/early October. "Thanks Michael. Based upon interviews with leading tech marketing executives over the past month, the following three areas represent some “low-hanging fruit” in the marketing automation space

With major cuts in funding coming for hospitals, the only way to survive is to get back to the core. Meaning, what are those core services and programs that regardless of what happens in the world of healthcare, will pay the bills and create market strength and position for you. Its hard to exit programs and services. I have been saying for years that hospitals can not be all things to all people anymore. That means hard choices. It also means a de-marketing program for all those classes of trade that you exit from. It will require organizational strategic planning, a willingness to tackle the scared cows, close collaboration with your physicians, intense internal communications and a solid de-marketing and communication plan to sell it to the community. You will be required to collaborate with your competition. Hard to admit you can't do all things well. If you want to survive, you have too. Find the expertise to assist you along. De-marketing is an area where hospitals have littl

Video releases Next year how about your healthcare organization producing some video release of with docs explaining what happens when a firecracker goes off in your hand. Use a crash test dummy. Great visual for media. Put it on your favorite public access channel too. At the very least place it on your web site. Hospital pay raises I know lots of people who are not getting raises in hospitals this year. But somehow there is always money for the CEO and senior team for a job poorly done. Can you say like, do the right thing and not accept a raise? Time for a new marketing book Your marketing is making you look stupid . How is that for a title? Starting on the next great healthcare marketing book and consulting tour. Its time for the industry to wake up and do it right before healthcare reform comes along and the playing field is leveled. How do you spell differentiation? Healthcare Reform Speaking of healthcare reform... any clue on how you attract those individuals who can afford to