We’ve got a special profile this time around. Dan Fuoco has done a top-notch job at Detroit Medical Center, leading their social media presence with a personal touch while innovating with surgical events, catchy videos and a clear strategy for his hospital.  Read closely, Dan has a lot to share.

Please introduce yourself

Dan Fuoco, Public Relations & Marketing Representative, Detroit Medical Center. I have worked at the DMC for 2 ½ years. I am responsible for coordinating events, interacting with members of the media, researching health issues while monitoring competitors and their statuses, and updating our main web site. As we moved into the new world of social media, I became a part of the team that manages DMC’s social media brands: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, as well as our DMC Social Media website and Blog page.

Tell us about your hospital and the department where you work.

The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) is the leading academically integrated system in metropolitan Detroit and the largest health care provider in southeast Michigan with more than 2,000 licensed beds and 3,000 affiliated physicians. Our hospital system consists of 9 main hospitals (each with their own set of social media pages seen here) located in both the Downtown and Metro Detroit area, which include DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan, DMC Hutzel Women’s Hospital, and DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. We are known for our quality, cost-effective care, accessible, responsive, & personalized service and innovation & academic stature.

What got you interested in social media?

The idea of communicating with individuals and sharing common interests grabbed my attention with major sites like Facebook and Twitter. With Twitter, the short bursts of communication that they provided seemed to confine one’s message, leaving only the most important information. In essence, Twitter makes us cut out the fluff that comes with leaving an email or direct message (different from a “direct message” from Twitter).

What aspects of Social Media do you focus on for your hospital? (Brand monitoring, customer support, outreach, marketing, etc.)

Although all aspects are touched at DMC, I focus on Brand Monitoring for Social Media. Brand Monitoring for Detroit Medical Center consists of careful placement and statistical analysis. I find that the best times to communicate with our audience is around 12:00pm (eastern time for us) because that is the universal time for lunch and what do most of us want to do on our lunch break? Check our social networking accounts. Why? Because a good number of workers are still forbidden to do so during work hours by their management. So one of DMC’s goals is to strategically place our message so that once the average individual has logged on [to a site like Twitter] this message would scroll through their feed potentially gathering the most eyes-per-update and making the entire process seem like a coincidence. By performing this little slight-of-hand trick, I am able to see the clicks as I’m monitoring the brand.

Is there a particular Social Network that you prefer for your hospital program?

We use Twitter the most but the message really determines on the platform. For instance, if we are updating the status of an event in a real time (like with our recent live “daVinci robot” surgery), then we would use Twitter. If we would like to engage our audience directly about their experience at one of our hospitals or pass on some important information about our hospital system and want to provide a summary, we might use Facebook or our DMC Blog page. It really depends on the type of message.
What are the goals of your social media program?

The Detroit Medical Center would like to be a preferred source of information and interactivity in the community. Communication is key and social networking provides the one-on-one communication that allows individuals on both ends to share information about themselves and thus creating a meaningful relationship. That is true social networking. Just like in our traditional marketing efforts, we want to be recognized for our world class health care and expertise also in the social media/health realm.
What’s your opinion on trying to measure ROI for your social media efforts?

The components to accurately measure social media effectiveness per each social media account is challenging. Obviously, with a call-to-action opportunity (with us including links/phone numbers in our Facebook/Twitter posts), we can measure call volume to our DMC call center or hits at dmc.org following a release of information.  If it’s a specific campaign generating information about a specific event, again, it’s the response to the call-to-action that we are able to measure closely in form of registrations/referrals. That helps us see potential business or activity.

How much staff time do you and your team devote to social media a week? How much do you think is right?

Our DMC official “Social Media Team” consists of myself and 2-3 individuals (including marketing/social media manager @Julian_Bond) helping to manage every main DMC corporate social media account along with the ones from each of our eight hospitals and takes up a large amount of my time. I’d say I spend 12-15 hours a week managing our various social media accounts. Much of this consists of interaction and building rapport with our consumer/fan base while the other half is spent both coordinating events (such as our LIVE Doctor Chats over Twitter and covering sponsored events with local sports teams like the Detroit Tigers) and providing content for our blog or social media page.
Did you need to “sell’ social media to upper management

When I first StumbledUpon (pun intended) social media, the whole idea wasn’t well received. As I researched this new platform, I quickly found some benefits that would help me state my case.

I wouldn’t say I had to “sell” the idea of social media to upper management but I did show the benefits of publicity and promotion that wouldn’t hurt the tangible budget. DMC’s VP of Marketing, Dee Prosi, was completely supportive and allowed me to test social media for DMC.  I feel strongly that it was one of the best decisions I’ve made to help this organization.
Can you share a success story?

We actually have a couple of different brief success stories with one being helping with ROI and the other with health awareness/word-of-mouth.

YouTube ICU-2 Handwashing Video

Back in January, our Social Media Team along with our creative director and chief medical officers came up with a fun idea to help raise awareness of our regular handwashing procedures in our ICUs in the form of a “video dance contest” in which eash hospitals’ ICU staff would come up with a creative dance to show the two steps of cleaning hands (which is defined as “hand washing” and “hand sanitizing”) thus naming it “The ICU-2 Dance”. We posted the videos on our DMC website for our employees and public to vote on the best video and then took all of the videos to combine them into piece to place onto YouTube to be seen to a broader audience with the intent of spreading awareness about handwashing. After recently posting up the video seen above, about a week later one of our big local news stations had seen it posted on our DMC Twitter page and then a couple of days had come over to our hospitals to do a story on it which aired on the news the same day . Between this and a great number of RT and mentions from the health online community (mainly from the #hcsm group on Twitter), our video has received a nice numbers of views in the very short time that it’s been featured.

Birmingham Hip Surgery

We coordinated a surgery for our Birmingham Hip Replacement procedure at one of our hospitals to be covered live via Twitter (with step-by-step details of the surgery) and Flickr (with pictures of the procedure itself). The procedure went over well with both the public who viewed live and participated in our interactive Q&A and our internal hospital staff who viewed via post-surgery chat and pictures, and we also received a couple of referrals from viewers who saw the procedure live and then signed up for a consolation on the surgery a few weeks later. The ROI on this procedure to our hospital system is at around $8k each, while the social media promotion behind it was completely free with the use of Twitter and Flickr (w/o any web ads, etc).
What advice do you have for Hospitals considering a social media program?

The best piece of advice that I can give is to keep your communication channels clear and connect all social media accounts as well as total messaging across the system. In other words, if you are working with a team, make sure each member is on board with the game plan and will communicate that strategy concisely.

There is a true advantage to having different social media accounts to cross reference and cross promote. Having information about your homepage or Twitter account on your Facebook account assures that your brand is well represented. LINK your accounts to each other.
What changes do you think we’ll see in the future in terms of how hospitals use social media?

I see a greater range of interaction. I think @PhilBaumann said it best with his list of “140 Health Care Uses for Twitter”. Some hospitals across the nation have already implemented some of those ideas.

I would also like to see more live doctor participation whether that be written (Twitter, FriendFeed) audio (podcasts) or video (YouTube, Seesmic). Doctors are the gatekeepers to our heatlhcare concerns and in the future, I hope to see more doctors on the web offering advice and general help via personal profiles or their hospital.
Any final thoughts?

With our use of social media, we believe that the sky is limit. Social media is still a very relatively new platform to its end-users and we’re happy that we’re on board with the great progress that it’s making every single day. We believe that social media is another layer in the entire communications/marketing spectrum on top of the established traditional media that we still use mainly on a daily basis and realize that not everyone in an age group(s) is as engaged in using social media as others. With that, we still use our regular communication mediums (print, TV, etc) for promotion while also keeping up with and using social media wisely as not to miss out on the main medium that the new generation of people including myself have already started to now use regularly.

Our next profile is with Chip Harman,  web program manager in the Veterans Health Administration. Chip is an inspiration for anyone working in a multi-hospital system, as he is responsible for web communications, including social media,  across 153 medical centers. I’ve been fortunate to meet Chip in person, and co-present with him at a local social media group. I value his advice, and I’m very pleased that he can share his experiences here.

Please introduce yourself

I am Chip Harman, web program manager in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), part of the US Dept of Veterans Affairs. I worked in the US Dept of State doing similar website work for 20 years. My wife is a clinician at a local VA hospital, so while I work in an office environment in Washington, I get secondhand reports of what goes on in a hospital. Her work matters more for Veterans, but I feel lucky to be part of VA.

Tell us about the VA System and the department where you work.

Among the 24 million Veterans in the US, about 6 million are under the VHA health care system which is comprised of  and 153 medical centers  with 1400 sites of care as well as a very famous research wing. There are also a number of national health care programs, like homelessness and suicide prevention. Congress scrutinizes how we spend the taxpayers’ money and how well we treat Veterans, and  Veterans’ organizations pay close attention to our work, and aren’t shy about letting us know what they think.; we also have many champions who recognize our good works. We also know that we provide some of the best medical care in the world, using medical technologies developed in cooperation with the medical academic and military communities without whom we could not do our work. We also have some of the best medical information systems; our EHR systems are famous and constantly evolving and improving. My favorite piece of VA news this month: We now have a national Director of Reproductive Health. I think that is *so* cool; the VA now has gynecologists on staff!  This really is NOT my father’s VA….

What got you interested in social media?

The potential to reach people on their own terms. Social media are many things to many people, and it is fun kind of challenge to figure out what works. The fact that it is always changing – evolving, I always remind people – is one of its attractions for me. I first started with Facebook simply for social reasons. I find it fun on some levels, intriguing on others. I don’t play Farmville. Or Mafia Wars. I have re-energized my interest in delicious.com, but I need to learn more about how to interact with it. Twitter also intrigues me, and I love using it for professional development, among other things.

What aspects of Social Media do you focus on at the VA?

Facebook gets lots of attention because of its popularity, and this is a good thing. We are using it at many of our local medical centers in a kind of informational mode, but the engagement is there, too. We get lots of comments, some negative, but in general the local fans love their local hospitals.  Negative comments are the biggest challenge. They can be harsh, and time-consuming to develop appropriate responses. But responding is the best demonstration of interest in your audience. Twitter is coming along more slowly, and I personally feel that has the greatest utility for things like emergency communications.

Is there a particular Social Network that you prefer for your program?

Facebook hits our demographics pretty well. Our surveys show that our percentage of Twitter users tracks closely to the entire US population. We’ve been advocating and supporting Facebook pages for our Medical Centers for about a year now, and most of them see steady growth in getting fans. Twitter will be slower, and some may never use it for significant outreach because of a lack of internal interest.

What are the goals of your social media program?

Information and engagement. I remind our folks often that we need to drive Veterans to our official .GOV websites for the authoritative information, but operating in Facebook means we have a level of engagement not possible anywhere else. Facebook can be lighthearted but it can also draw people into the messages we are trying to put out there – that VA has the best care, and that Veterans returning from recent conflicts can get help their fathers couldn’t (but can now). It’s a tough sell for a large organization like VA.

What’s your opinion on trying to measure ROI for your social media efforts?

ROI is tough for any governmental organization to gauge. What we look at right now is a growing audience as a sign of acceptance, the level and frequency of engagement and links of usage from our social media to our “traditional” web presence as our best measures of success right now. But that is likely to change as the internet and social media and government budgets evolve.

How much staff time do you and your team devote to social media a week? How much do you think is right?

The most time-consuming aspect is setup and learning. We have multiple staff in my office working on materials for our DC-based Facebook presence, but at the Medical Centers it is a different story. The people in VA who work most closely with the Veterans who have most recently returned – what we call “OEFOIF” (Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom)– are the most enthusiastic. Usually the public affairs staff directly manage the social media, but they often get significant help from the OEFOIF staffers who work day-to-day with the Veterans. They probably spend about two hours a week total on Facebook. I am trying to convince folks that by repurposing information for social media, you will be able to extend your reach with all forms of media. I also try to help them find time-saving measures, like writing up some materials in advance, and to schedule postings. Time is a big challenge for us.

Did you need to “sell” social media to upper management?

Yes. Like any large operation, it is a question of priorities. There was general acceptance of the idea of using social media, but the practice is trickier. Our network still blocks some key resources on the web, and we have to work with the network and security folks to demonstrate business needs. We aren’t terribly different than many other health care systems in that way. Congress expressed interest in seeing that VA examine the use of social media, especially for younger, returning service members. What amuses me now is seeing that our age groups on Facebook is a nice bell curve with a peak at about age 50. What I didn’t see coming was management’s discomfort with employee use of say, Facebook. The perception is that it is a time-waster. Personally I take the view that those who waste time will do it any way they can. Opening Facebook helped many folks understand the value of Facebook for engaging with the audience.

Can you share a success story? Something that has proved the value of social media for your organization.

We recently had a comment on one of our platforms from a Veteran that indicated he need some serious counseling, that he might commit suicide. We have had such experiences before, and we had a process for mental health counselors to contact him (while respecting his privacy), and he accepted our offer of help. More typical is a Veteran who feels that the care is not adequate. Sometimes the comments are just venting, and that is fine, but there are many instances where we have engaged with the Veteran to help them find appropriate services. We don’t encourage social media as a channel for getting health services since there are serious privacy and other issues involved. Emergency communications (power failures, floods) are the easiest demonstrations to prove the worth of social media. Twitter has helped Medical Centers alert the media and their patients to facility closures, for example.

What advice do you have for Hospitals considering a social media program?

Look at what others are doing, learn from their experiences. Don’t paint a rosy picture to management, but look at how this will engage your medical community with an existing community. You have the chance to enter the conversation, learn from it and sometimes shape it. The traditional public affairs view is that the organization can control the information about you, but no one has ‘controlled the message’ about your facility since it first opened its doors. (I actually heard a hospital director say out loud in a meeting, “But we’ll lose control of the message.”) That’s echo chamber stuff. My advice is that social media is essential today, and you need also to calculate the risk of ignoring it.

Any final thoughts?

We are trying to provide another channel for Veterans to use. We spend a lot of time talking about success of health research, treatments, medical staff and programs that readers are not likely to know about. Some topics seem boring to me, and then we’ll get lots of sustained reactions and comments that remind me of how much I need to learn about our Veterans. Social media provide a great means of engagement to learn about our audiences.

Our next expert profile is with Ryan Squire. I had the pleasure of meeting Ryan in person a few weeks ago at the conferences in Austin, but I’ve known him by reputation for over a year. Ryan has a personal, conversational style that is very effective in the Social Media community he runs for The Ohio State University Medical Center.

Please introduce yourself

I am Ryan Squire, Program Director for Digital and Social Media at The Ohio State University Medical Center.  I am a husband, dad, and believer that we can improve people’s lives by personalizing medicine, and maybe more importantly personalizing their health care experience.

Tell us about Ohio State and the department where you work.

Ohio State Medical Center includes a top-30 College of Medicine, six hospitals, and a unified physician practice network of primary and specialty care practices.  We have more than a dozen research centers and institutes.  We have more than 6.8 million square feet of space in more than 70 buildings, all run by over 14,000 faculty, staff, and students.  I knew Ohio State was the largest University in the country, but I had no idea of the size of the Medical Center until I started here in April 2009.  Our Communications and Marketing Department is a shared service at the Medical Center, which means that we support everyone: the College of Medicine, University Hospitals, The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute and OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Ross Heart Hospital and our primary care network.  In addition, our media relations team works with reporters, bloggers, and our experts to get the word out about the plethora of research and innovation happening across the Medical Center.

What got you interested in social media?

I became interested in social media while the managing editor at WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio.  We needed to make our product more relevant to our viewers (and the companies looking for an advertising solution).  We worked very hard to change our product from TV-news-first to content-first.  TV is just one way people wanted to get information; we realized that we could also get them news and information even quicker using social media.

The news we were delivering was more balanced and accurate because our customers were able to be a part of the process.  We used to ask them “what question would you ask if you had a chance,” but suddenly, they had that chance, every day.  We were one of the first local TV stations in the country to embrace this technology because it was the right thing to do for our customers.

We also realized the power social media had to influence customer decisions.  During the elections of 2008, there was great question about media bias.  We used social media to confront those questions head on—a tactic that worked very well for us.  Customers wanted all sides of the story, and after the first time we demonstrated our commitment to that, they held us accountable.  It was a revolutionary experience, both for local media and for me personally.
During the same time, my daughter had been dealing with some health issues.  I was appalled by the lack of responsiveness of the health care providers we met… at all levels of the system.  When I found out that The Ohio State University Medical Center was not only looking to start a social media program, but to also embrace the culture of patient and employee empowerment that comes with it, I saw a huge opportunity to work for a world-class institution and do some good.

What aspects of Social Media do you focus on at OSU Medical Center?

We are currently focusing on our policy and education.  With more than 14,000 potential marketers, it is very important to me that we get social media right and help our employees understand their roles and responsibilities.

We continue to use social media to provide information to our local community about medicine and their health.  We tell our own stories to help journalists understand the scope of the work going on at OSU Medical Center, and we look for ways to provide exceptional customer service.

Is there a particular Social Network that you prefer for your hospital program?

Different audiences get their messages differently.  Even inside the Medical Center, we have people who need email and others who would not open their email program even if they knew they would win money.  Our external audience is just as diverse, so I believe it is important that we use as many of the big tools as possible while looking for new ways that people want to receive and will act on the messages we provide.

We currently use WordPress blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in many different ways.  We are also deploying SharePoint internally to help our employees collaborate, find, and share information quickly.

What are the goals of your social media program?

Our short-term goal is teaching the power these tools have and the intent we have to use them; not a small task when you are dealing with a population that is incredibly diverse.  To get there, we have engaged leaders from across the Medical Center, our legal team, compliance staff, IT security, HR, top leadership, nursing, researchers, and physicians.  We work through concerns and questions by educating.

The initial goal for using social media was to augment our existing communications and marketing programs.  That goal remains.  At the Medical Center our mission and promise is to “improve people’s lives by personalizing health care.”  Personalized Health Care is a highly scientific goal, one that would have health care teams understand an entire person, their habits, their environment, and their history, so that we can personalize their medicine to keep them healthy or get them better when they are sick.  The big problem I experienced is that we do not have a way to gather that extremely detailed information, or deliver care based on it because there has been a breakdown in any kind of relationship between patients and their health care providers.  I think social media can help us to rebuild those relationships and that is my grand goal.

What’s your opinion on trying to measure ROI for your social media efforts?

I think that return on investment is extremely important, even more so when you consider that we are a public institution and tax dollars are on the line.

Any investment that we can make to revolutionize the patient’s relationship with health care is positive as long as we are, building relationships, trust, and ability to communicate with their providers.  Return on that investment will mean more trust in the system and more people participating in health care to stay healthy (not just get better).  The measurements for that are a healthier population, cheaper medicine, faster cures, and happier customers, or in other words, goals we had already established before social media tools came along.  Easy, right?

How much staff time do you and your team devote to social media a week? How much do you think is right?

My job is spent 100% on building programs that will allow us to connect with our internal teams and our external patients and customers.  I would say that maybe 5% of the Communications and Marketing team’s time is spent doing the same, and my goal is to get that to a healthy 45-50%.  We still have to do some of the things that we have done historically, but I think there is definitely some things that we can let go of because they aren’t improving people’s lives by personalizing health care.  We don’t ever ask, “how much time did you spend building the relationships you need to sustain your business today?”  Why not?

Did you need to “sell” social media to upper management?

Because we deal with so many employees and management in so many different parts of the organization, there has been some need to educate people about the benefits of social media.  Facebook, with all of its ability to connect people, can also consume people’s time… a lot of time.  That translates to lack of productivity in the mind of a manager.  For someone who does not use social networks, they are just another time wasting website.  However, to your employees who use facebook or twitter to communicate with their family and build trust networks (even if they do not realize they are doing that), facebook is as essential as a phone to call home.  We cannot expect engaged productive employees unless we empower them with the tools to be engaged in all facets of their life and our business.  Our upper management gets that and as all management at OSU Medical Center understands what these tools can accomplish access to them does not need to be sold.

Can you share a success story? Something that has proved the value of social media for your organization.

We have turned around numerous customer service issues… some while the situation was going downhill.  We have provided value to reporters on deadline when their story sources turned them down and they turned to social media for some help.  Most recently, we held our annual Personalized Health Care National Conference and live blogged the entire conference.  We posted video, pictures, text and the slides of every presenter who would give us permission so that the conference was more than just a two-day lecture, but a base of information to work from publically, so we could see our ideas come to life between this year and 2010.  You can find that blog here.

What advice do you have for Hospitals considering a social media program?

Understand your culture first.  Get to know what type of culture must exist for social media to thrive responsibly.  Be honest with yourself about the work that it will take to build that culture and the results will be well worth your while.  Do not limit your potential by looking at social media as a communications and marketing tool, look at social media as the way your customers should expect to do business with you… personalized, responsive, engaged.

Any final thoughts?

One thing people often bring up about social media is that while using social media, we give up the ability to control conversation.  A fallacy of business is that you ever could control conversation about you or your brand.  People have always talked about you, good, bad, and indifferent.  Social media lets them do that in a more public forum, but it allows you to be in that forum every single time; what you do with that opportunity is up to you and your customers if you choose to let them be a part of the process.

Our next interview with Deborah Braidic, who manages social media (and many other projects) at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. She is responsible for a comprehensive program that includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin, and a wonderful Blog. Deborah maintains fresh and engaging conversations in these communities, and is great example for other Childrens Hospitals.

Please introduce yourself
I am Deborah Braidic, Web Content Manager, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and I am delighted to be interviewed here on Found in Cache.  I’ve been at Childrens for 4.5 years split about half and half between the fund-raising side of things and the web content side of things.

Tell us about your hospital and the department where you work.
Our hospital has got over a century under its belt as a center treating children and just over 3/4 of a century as an academic medical center affiliated with the University of Southern California.  We treat roughly around 90,000 patients each year.

We make the unabashed claim in some places of having the highest ratio of medi-cal (medicaid) patients of any other comparable hospital in the nation.  This makes us fanatically proud of our status of being listed as a U.S. News & World Report hospital.

What got you interested in social media?
I have to admit that our team was interested in social media and social networking for some time before we were permitted to approach the throne.  And for a long time, we labored under the suspicion that they would probably never let us do it anyway.

You can imagine our delight when our CEO returned from a conference and wanted to know more about how social media might benefit the hospital.

We took the opportunity to put a proposal together and, to our surprise, it was accepted with a minimum of weeping and gnashing of teeth.   I think what helped was that our VP of fund-raising stood up at our first “pitch” meeting and basically said “I think we would be stupid if we didn’t do this.”  I think we owe a lot to that one comment.

What aspects of Social Media do you focus on for your hospital?
I would say that we focus on a little bit of everything at this point – we monitor our brand, we provide customer service outreach when called for, and we use the platforms to share “feel good” updates about our hospital and what is going on within our walls.  For the most part, we attempt to keep our outgoing messages consistent with our overall branding.

Is there a particular Social Network that you prefer for your hospital program?
My personal preference is Facebook because it allows people to provide us with unsolicited and solicited comments about how we are doing, both as a hospital, and as a communication channel on Facebook. I feel that the users on Facebook have the highest degree of connection to us as well.

What are the goals of your social media program?
I would have to say that our goals are probably shifting right now and I can’t say too much because I haven’t gotten my new “evil schemes” approved yet but my belief is that we have taken a pretty passive approach to social media thus far, and this was part of our plan to listen as much as we possibly could.

But now, we’re finding ourselves stepping back and saying, “OK, well our plan was to create devoted fans,” and we definitely have people following us but would we consider them “devoted fans”?  The only way that we will know this is if we begin broadcasting in a way where we know whether we can get anyone excited to “do” anything online on our behalf.

This is something I am currently giving some careful thought to in order to adjust our strategy in the next few months.

What’s your opinion on trying to measure ROI for your social media efforts?
Ah – the age old question.  I heard a quote (or probably saw it on twitter) that measuring ROI on social media is like measuring ROI on the concierge in a hotel.

My opinion is that measuring ROI is about as easy as measuring the depth of someone’s feelings.  I recently met, for the first time, a mom of one of our long-time patients who underwent an innovative surgical procedure as a young boy at our hospital.  She shared with me, “you know, I probably am not going to keep going to the hospital’s website again and again, but to have the updates arrive in my Facebook feed really makes me feel connected to the hospital.”

That feeling of connection is tough to measure but my hope is, that when we really need it, we will be able to bank on the feelings of those closest to us.

As for how I personally feel about social media ROI, I think that a beautiful, elegant way to measure it is on its way to us soon – I probably won’t be the brilliant mind who comes up with it, but when it does, we’ll be grateful to be able to apply it and get on with business as usual with new information.

But even if we get to the point that we can’t prove that our ROI is amazing, I think with some experience under our belt, we’ll be that much quicker to adjust based on the ROI metrics.

How much staff time do you and your team devote to social media a week? How much do you think is right?
How much time we devote to social media each week really depends on which week it is and how much is going on at the hospital.

Weeks where we have a lot of public activities, I may put in as much as 10 hours working with the various groups throughout the hospital to put the messaging out.  A normal week though includes anywhere from 3-5 hours a week.

I don’t know that there is a right amount of staff time.  I think the more important factor is how much the person dedicating the time really cares about the fans, the followers, and the organization’s messaging.

Can you share a success story? Something that has proved the value of social media for your organization.
I have to say that the success stories for me have been things that people posted to, mostly, our Facebook page, without prompting, and without us providing them a solicitation to comment.

Just recently an individual posted a comment that he would do anything to work at our hospital.  Another individual posted a few months back that, based on our photos and interactions online, it convinced him that we really do our utmost to take care of our patients (paraphrases for both).

I have to admit that this is how we wish to be perceived in the community and to have this kind of unsolicited feedback is amazing and very gratifying.

What changes do you think we’ll see in the future in terms of how hospitals use social media?
My feeling is that hospitals, and this includes our hospital too, will find better and better ways to truly engage their fans rather than just “putting out an update.”  I’m already beginning to see that other hospitals are putting out fewer updates in a single day and recently, I saw an online “best practices” list indicate that one update per day is max for Facebook.  I felt grateful and relieved that we were already (for the most part) abiding by that rule without prompting, but I am sure that we’ll see more “best practices” come out that will adjust our thinking about what really represents true fan engagement.  This will be fun to see.

Any final thoughts?
My final thoughts are that, even though it might be tough to convince your higher-ups that your hospital would benefit from engaging in social media, it’s really not that big of a deal.

We worried that we would get slammed by angry parents or that something would go viral that was none too flattering for us, but (and I have my fingers, elbows, and legs crossed as I say this), none of that has happened.  Life for our hospital has gone on as per normal, with the exception that, if we do have some particularly good news, we get to share it with people who care about us, directly, in a way that is fun and integrated nicely into their lives.  And that’s fun!

Our next profile is with Bill Ferris of Henry Ford Health System.

Please introduce yourself
My name is Bill Ferris, I’m one of two managers in the Web Services department and I have responsibility for our intranet site as well as our social media efforts. I’ve been at Henry Ford Health System for 12 years but I primarily worked here as an industrial engineer until I went over to the web full time in 2008.

Tell us about your hospital
Henry Ford is an integrated delivery system consisting of 7 hospitals, a health plan, a 1000 member medical group, home health products, hospice, dialysis, pharmacy, pretty much we cover the entire spectrum of healthcare.

The web services department reports to the senior VP of marketing and public relations. We have 10 people in the department that make up about 8 FTE’s and we provide the web support for most areas of the health system.

What got you interested in social media?
I started blogging personally in 2001 and have maintained a blog about the Detroit Tigers for the last 8 years. That hobby/job kept me interested and relatively current on new and evolving web technologies and platforms. I’m also a dabbler so I tend to sign up for whatever the new/hot/free service is.

I first saw it as a great business opportunity when I was struggling with a car dealer. I posted a complaint on Twitter and a couple hours later I had a response from GM asking how they could help. That’s when the light bulb went on for me and I signed up Henry Ford for a Twitter account that same day.

What aspects of Social Media do you focus on for your hospital?
Our first endeavor was Twitter and that was started for the purpose of patient listening and service recovery. Of course we also use these media (YouTube, Facebook, Blogging) as another way to extend the brand/message as well as for patient education opportunities.

Ideally we are able to better connect with our patients and other physicians, that’s kind of the dream, but I don’t think we’re there yet and we’re still feeling our way around.

Is there a particular Social Network that you prefer for your hospital program?
We’ve had the most luck and drawn the most attention from Twitter due mostly to the Twitter surgeries we did. The ease of use and simplicity of the platform is so attractive and it’s a personal favorite of mine. I don’t think we’re doing enough though in terms of conversing. I’d love to do more of that but like many, we’re stretched pretty thin.

What’s your opinion on trying to measure ROI for your social media efforts?
I think it is important so that you know what is effective and what isn’t effective so you can better allocate your internal resources. But I view it as kind of the “Check” part of a PDCA cycle. The nice thing about most social media efforts are that the I is minimal from a capital perspective so you don’t need a full blown ROI study before deciding to do something. Try it, evaluate it, and move forward from there.

Now if I want to justify an increased staff to participate in social media, I do need to show that our efforts are having an impact.

How much staff time do you and your team devote to social media a week?
I do about 15 hours a week right now and I’m pretty much it for many of the endeavors. We do have a couple provider authored blogs where the writer and typically a marketing manager spend a few hours a week doing content. We also have someone who produces podcasts and some of our videos. What I’d really like though is someone to have the bandwidth to really participate in conversations on Twitter and Facebook.

Did you need to “sell’ social media to upper management?
Not at all. There are some skeptics, but most of what we’ve done we’ve done it without having to sell it too much. We’ll try something and then show them the results after the fact. I think I’m pretty lucky in that regard. People ask how we got buy-in from senior leaders to do the Twitter surgeries and my canned response is “we showed them the CNN piece.”

Can you share a success story?
I’ve alluded to it a couple times, but the Twitter surgeries were a huge boon to us. Roughly and conservatively we estimate that it resulted in over 400 media hits and a $500k in ad value which is pretty good since that was the secondary goal. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive and the doctors enjoyed doing it for the most part.

What advice do you have for Hospitals considering a social media program?
Try it. Start small if you have to, you don’t have to participate in every facet, but start doing something. The cost is minimal and we’re at the point now where people are expecting it .

What changes do you think we’ll see in the future in terms of how hospitals use social media?
I think hospitals will go as far as patients let them. I still struggle with the balance of being available and participatory while not being intrusive. I think the patients’ and their willingness to share and converse in a public electronic format will drive what happens next.

It is my great pleasure to present the next profile. Chris Lindsley and I work together at UMMC and the success of our Web program is due to his management and editorial skills. Chris also manages the daily updates to our Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts.

Please introduce yourself
I’m Chris Lindsley, and have been the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Web Site Editor for the last 8 1/2 years. I’m in charge of content development and day-to-day operations of the award-winning umm.edu site, which has more than 60,000 pages and receives a high level of traffic — 90,000 visits a day.

Tell us about your hospital
The University of Maryland Medical Center is an academic medical center located on Baltimore’s west side, just blocks from Camden Yards. Our mission is to provide residents of Baltimore, Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region with a full range of care options, including state-of-the-art minimally invasive approaches. It also includes educating and training the next generation of health care providers and conducting world-class clinical research that can help to save lives.

Our 7-person Web team is within the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, which includes media relations and internal communications staff. We do not report to either marketing or IT.

What got you interested in social media?
Seeing the ability it offers to engage with others interested in health care and the Web, as well as the ability it provides to know what is being said about UMMC and being able to respond. It’s about being part of the conversation, and we’ve found that based on our followers, fans and subscribers on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube that people seem to appreciate our social media efforts.

What aspects of Social Media do you focus on for your hospital?
I focus on our social media content as well as checking to see what others are saying about us, or to us, and following up with those interacting with us in a timely manner.

Is there a particular Social Network that you prefer for your hospital program?
No. They all serve somewhat different roles.

Twitter allows us to share UMMC news and information with others, as well as other health-related news we think our followers would be interested in. It also allows us to monitor and react to what other hospitals and health-related businesses are doing, and to solicit ideas, feedback and advice from a wide range of people interested in health.

YouTube gives us a great platform to showcase our 170+ videos to the world. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about our videos on the UMMC site via our feedback form, and so adding our videos to YouTube was a natural next move.

Facebook gives us the ability to interact with our fans in a more personal way than on Twitter or YouTube. We’ve received many unsolicited patient testimonials via our Facebook page; it’s as though these people — employees, former patients and their families and others — are looking for a place to make their feelings known, and our Facebook site provides that ability in a format people are used to and comfortable with.

Did you need to “sell’ social media to upper management?
Yes. Our upper management was not very familiar with social media, and wanted to be sure our presence wouldn’t do more harm than good. Once it was explained to them, however, they have been supportive, and we’ve made it a point to keep them informed about the growth in popularity of our social media sites.

Can you share a success story?
I’ll share a couple of Twitter stories:

1. In one case, a reporter wrote a story talking a furloughs involving state of Maryland employees, and mentioned that this impacted UMMC. This information was incorrect, as we did not have any furloughs and our employees are not state employees. We were able to use Twitter to let the reporter and our Twitter followers know what the facts were,  and the reporter ended up running a correction as a result.

2. There have been several instances where people sent us direct messages on Twitter complaining some aspect of their UMMC patient experience. We were quickly able to put them in touch with the UMMC employee in charge of that area, and soon after received a direct message thanking us for our help.

3. We’ve done several interviews about Twitter and social media with reporters who reviewed our social media sites and used the contact information on these sites to contact us.

What advice do you have for Hospitals considering a social media program?

• Have clear goals/objectives you want to accomplish.
• Meet with senior leadership to get this approved before moving forward. Be sure to have a well thought-out rationale/presentation to back you up.
• Find someone with an interest in social media to manage this, and include his/her name and contact information on the social media site. This makes your site seem more personal and responsive, which reflects well on your hospital as a whole.
• Start with a Twitter account; it’s the easiest of the main social media platforms to use, and gives you an easy way to see how others are using it.
• Keep your social media efforts in perspective. Establishing a social media presence is important, but not as important as the care and feeding of your Web sites. For us, social media is just one of many ways we have to engage our customers, but our main focus is updating and maintaining our Web site content to give people a reason to come to UMMC for care.
• Don’t use social media simply to push out your news releases and other content. The point is not to have a one-way flow of information but to engage with others and be part of the conversation; this will result in more followers, fans and subscribers and improve your reputation and standing within the social media community.

What trends do you see in this area that we should know about?

I think we’ll start seeing more blogs. In many ways, a good hospital blog should be the hub of one’s social media efforts. Here’s what I like about blogs:

• Good blogs, like good TV shows, make subscribers eager for new posts
• Blogs provide you the space to cover a topic more in-depth, include photos, etc.
• You can cover all aspects of your hospital, and have as many different contributors as you’d like.
• Former patients, employees and others will proactively submit stories to include if given the chance
• Blogs give you the chance to turn a “negative” aspect of your hospital into a positive, or to at least to provide the entire story that may not have been mentioned previously.
• Good blogs take readers inside the hospital, explaining how or why a certain hospital department or service does what it does.

Any final thoughts?

Be creative. Social media is a great area in which to experiment, and the more creative you are, the more likely people will be interested in what you have to say, and will let others know as well.

Our next profile is with Marc Needham, Director of Web Technology for Scripps Health in San Diego. I’ve known Marc for many years via Webiscope, and always look forward to his comments and insights. Marc is smart, witty and down to earth at the same time. What follows is some good, common-sense advice from one of the pros in our industry.

Please introduce yourself

I’m Marc Needham, the Director of Web Technology for Scripps Health in San Diego. I’ve been with Scripps for two and a half years now. My work here is a mix of long-term web strategy planning, project work and the usual day-to-day politics of a large health care organization.

Tell us about Scripps and the department where you work.

Scripps Health is an amazing organization to work for. We’re a four hospital system spread across five campuses with 19 outpatient facilities all supported by almost 13,000 employees. We’re led by an award-winning executive team that have a great vision for the future of Scripps – one that I’m proud to support with the work we do on the web.

What got you interested in social media?

I think that I have always been interested in social media. One of my first web experiences was messing around on IRC into the wee hours of the morning back in 1994. The idea of frictionless interactions with other people really appeals to me and I’ve spent the last 15 years (dang that’s a long time) very actively participating in message boards and social media of some form or another.

Social media on the web is, to my mind, just an extension of any other sort of human conversation. Thinking of it in its most simple terms makes it easier to recognize emerging opportunities and to analyze their associated risk.

Would you approach an irate patient with a billing complaint that was shouting in the lobby of one of your hospitals? If so, why wouldn’t you reach out to that same person when they’re doing their shouting online? In the same vein – would you interrupt an overheard conversation about someone’s recent surgery to interject something pointless about your brand? Probably not.

People are people and, for the most part, the same rules apply online as off.

What aspects of Social Media do you focus on at Scripps?

We try not to focus too hard. My team and I do social media things off the side of our desks and our strategy consists of: try new things, be nice to people and don’t say anything that our legal department would object to. Some things fall flat (we had some tangles with Wikipedia administrators which I would rather not revisit) and others grow and develop organically like our Twitter presence.

As a result of the ‘be nice to people’ part of our social media strategy we have found that our time on Twitter is mostly focused on customer service. Twitter is a microcosm of the web at large and as such there are plenty of opportunities to reach out to smooth furrowed brows.

I’m sure everyone reading this knows that there simply aren’t the hours in the day to do everything you want to with social media; as such it always feels like we’re falling short of the real potential. Part of my budget recommendations for FY10 was that our customer service department develops a new position – an ‘Electronic Customer Service Representative’. Someone who would spend their day reaching out to angry and confused patients through social media, responding to negative (and positive) online reviews and appropriately handling the slew of emails we get through Scripps.org.

Things on the web have a tremendously long and deep footprint – especially as more and more of our target demographic turn to Google first. I think that it is desperately important for an organization to have a good handle on their online brand perception. What you say about yourself matters much less than what everyone else says about you. The broken window theory is even truer online than it is in the real world: one negative review on Yelp makes it that much easier for the next disgruntled patient to post their rant. Unaddressed complaints fester and lead to online reputation rot.

We haven’t used social media explicitly for marketing as I think the medium demands more authenticity than most marketing is capable of. Social media is a tough nut to crack because it blurs the lines between PR, customer service, marketing and risk management. It seems to make sense that you always lead with your customer service hat on but have the other three disciplines in your back pocket.

Is there a particular Social Network that you prefer for your hospital program?

Not yet. We’re spending the lion’s share of our efforts on Twitter simply because it has the best effort:reward ratio right now. We’re experimenting with Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and Twitter but have plans to expand across to other sites as appropriate. Each site offers its own unique challenges and opportunities – you find a different audience waiting to be engaged at each. We’re looking at Facebook for recruitment, LinkedIn for employee connections, Twitter for service recovery and all of the above for syndication and general outreach.

What are the goals of your social media program?

If you approach social media with goals in mind you are almost sure to come away disappointed and/or frustrated. Every time we set up a new account to experiment with the idea we had for it fall by the wayside and it ends up becoming something else. It is generally something defined by the audience and their wants.

Social media is changing the fabric of the web and as such needs to change the nature of the work we do. For the longest time everyone has been exclusively focused on their website – driving people to it relentlessly, pushing conversions, optimizing user pathways, adding transactional capabilities and making everything shine. I think we’re going to see a shift away from that in the next few years. There is too much work to be done beyond the walls of the castle. It isn’t enough to cater a feast inside – you need to offer a delivery service for people that will never cross the moat.

A great example of this is Google Local. If you haven’t already, go to http://www.google.com/local and search for one of your facilities. Google lets you claim a listing (via postcard or phone) and everyone should do this at least once. Once you own a listing you can see just how many people found what they were looking for in the Google Local listing (generally a phone number or address) and never bothered visiting your neatly-trimmed and manicured website. You’ll also notice that these thousands of people were also treated to negative reviews of your staff, incorrect or out-of-date information and sometimes ads for your competitors. How do you manage a problem of that scale when you’re already working with limited resources? That’s something we’re all going to have to figure out these next few years.

What’s your opinion on trying to measure ROI for your social media efforts?

There are little things that you can do to justify your social media efforts – sending executive management success stories and tracking people following links back to your primary web presence are good starts. The true benefits of a concerted social media effort are difficult to measure as they’re more about soft things that can’t be expressed as a ratio.
Everything we do in the space is measured and tallied and analyzed on a regular basis but knowing how many people clicked on a link doesn’t mean you’re seeing the full picture.

How much staff time do you and your team devote to social media a week? How much do you think is right?

Social media is a flexible but insatiable mistress – she will take as much or as little of your time as you can spare. It felt like we were making a difference when my team spent an hour or so a week poking around. It feels like we’re making more of a difference with the three or four hours a week we spend now but there is so much more that we could be doing.

There will always be more that we could be doing no matter how much time we invest. How much time is right will vary depending on the ways you find to use social media and where you prioritize that in your list of things to do.

Did you need to “sell” social media to upper management?

There has never been a need to justify the little work we actually do. We had a meeting with our VP of Marketing when we first started exploring the potential depth of the need. To help illustrate problem I brought a printed out stack of reviews and comments about our organization and facilities to the meeting. It was a pretty heavy stack and it didn’t even represent a sliver of what was really out there.

Can you share a success story? Something that has proved the value of social media for your organization.

There are no single instances that really stand out as glowing examples yet. There have been lots of little instances of gratitude that make what we’re doing worthwhile. Raging angry fires put out, people passing around our wellness stories, horrible reviews retracted and replaced with stories of great customer service – every little victory feels like a warm hug.

What advice do you have for Hospitals considering a social media program?

Do it now. Search for your brand and you will find people that need your help. You have no excuse for not helping them.

Start there and see where your efforts take you.

Any final thoughts?

Social media is there with or without you. People won’t stop having conversations just because you stubbornly refuse to participate – better that you’re there to defend your honor. Better that you’re able to put out the small fires before the smoke overwhelms you.

Meet the Experts – Profiles of Hospital Social Media Managers

Over the past year, I’ve met dozens of hard-working people pioneering Social Media use for their hospitals. Despite similar challenges, they’ve built successful programs and have a great deal of knowledge to share. This Q and A series will introduce you to a different professional each week.

Our first interview is with Brenda Finkle, who is the Director of Corporate Communications at Norman Regional Health System in Norman, Oklahoma.  Brenda has been with Norman for 3 years, and oversees the internal and external corporate communications for the three hospital system.

Tell us about your hospital and the department where you work.

Brenda: Norman Regional Health System serves healthcare needs throughout south central Oklahoma. Our acute-care hospital on the Porter Avenue Campus is licensed for 337 beds and offers a full range of services. Moore Medical Center provides general medical and surgical needs, physical therapy, obstetrical services, 24-hour emergency services and close-to-home diagnostic imaging to the Moore community. The HealthPlex Campus at Interstate 35 and Tecumseh Road is under development and already includes the HealthPlex Professional Building. The third, 152 bed hospital opens in September, 2009 and will feature Cardiovascular, Orthopedic and Spine, and Women and Children’s Services.

We also provide outpatient diagnostic centers, medical transport services, physician services, centers of excellence, durable medical equipment supplies, a primary care network, community wellness service and employer health services. Norman Regional has grown to employ more than 2,300 people and partner with 293 active-staff physicians.

I manage the Health System advertising and marketing activities with the help of a highly professional, specialized team of experts. The department has an award-winning graphic designer and copy writer, web designer and media specialist.  Our team of four specialists/experts has oversight of the communication and advertising needs for the Health System. Our copy writer has responsibility of writing and sending our social media updates daily.

What got you interested in social media?

Around January 2009 we were hearing more “buzz” about Twitter and Facebook in print and some TV media regarding business applications.  I asked my team to research how hospitals were utilizing social media and if this was something we could adopt. We also, at the same time, realized that traditional methods of advertising were evolving and wanted to be part of this evolving conversation. We still had a message to share with the public – but found ourselves regrouping and rethinking how to best communicate with our audience.

Here is some of our thinking:

• Needed to be part of the conversations about our Health System
• Develop relationships with our community that allow for feedback – instantaneously
• It’s free. There are no costs associated with Facebook or Twitter outside of staff time.
• We can reach an audience that typically doesn’t read or watch traditional communication tools such as the newspaper, magazines or TV.
• We would be building relationships and hopefully trust with a new group of community members we had not touched through previous advertising or communication campaigns
• Customer Service and feedback from the public without expense of a focus group or more formal information gathering tool
• Building brand loyalty and public awareness

Is there a particular Social Network you prefer for your hospital program?

We focus on three: Twitter, Facebook and our Website blog

What are your social media goals?

• To build relationships with those that “follow” us or “fan” us through our social media platforms.
• Increase knowledge about ongoing community service, health screening events and other events they and their families can attend
• For the public to have a voice about their expectations.  A platform to share their story and experience at the Health System.  Develop two-way conversations.
• Educate the public about their health and what they can do to improve their health and that of their family.
• We want to be seen as a health resource for the communities we serve.
• Be part of the conversation and monitor conversations about the Health System.
• In Oklahoma crisis communication is always a consideration – you’ve highlighted a hospital utilizing social media extremely effectively during flooding this past spring on your blog.  We plan on using our social media accounts and website to communicate – “real time” with the public during an emergent situation.  We had a great response to our H1N1 updates this spring.

What’s your opinion on measuring ROI for social media?

ROI for social media is going to be very difficult to measure. Right now we measure success through the amount of interaction we receive monthly.  I think this is an area many are struggling with at this time.

How much staff time do you and your team devote to social media a week? How much do you think is right?

We estimate about 30 minutes a day – between writing and launching the tweets/Facebook updates, answering questions and monitoring Tweetdeck for messages. Not much time at all.

Did you need to “sell’ social media to upper management?

No, they were very progressive and forward thinking. Our HIPAA committee has been extremely supportive.  They trust our department and know we’d never put anything out to the public that would put the Health System at risk. When presenting to the CIO and the HIPAA committee I shared that we had to be part of the conversation – so we were aware of issues before they became insurmountable – and could get correct information disseminated before rumor took hold. Once that flashpoint is passed it’s difficult to change an entrenched rumor. We’ve all seen the PR nightmares related to not being part of the social media conversation.  We want to be out in front of any issues before they make the 6 PM news.

Can you share a success story?

Yes!  We’ve posted information regarding events or Health System updates that have triggered media interest and quite a few stories.  We like interacting with the media and find ourselves building great relationships with our media partners.  Twitter and Facebook are truly helping with this effort. Community members tweet and let us know that they wouldn’t have known about the free screening events we sponsor unless they read about it on Twitter (or Facebook).

We have patients and their families write on our web blog about the care they or their loved one received while at the Health System. The patients or family members that share a frustration or concern with us via Twitter, Facebook or our blog are called by our patient liaison for customer service follow up and care.  We would rather have them cared for in a positive and proactive manner immediately than weeks later as seen with other customer service tools. That’s the gift of social media – immediacy.  When positive messages are given and shared we seek permission from the writer to post the feedback on our flat screen TV’s, through email updates, internal publications and team meetings of the department being complimented.

We’ve also been promoting individual service lines with coupons – increased awareness has been extremely successful.

What advice do you have for Hospitals considering a social media program?

Don’t wait too long to engage. There is benefit to being part of the conversation early.

Other thoughts:

1. Take time to thoroughly review current staffing to assure you can support 1 to 5 updates a day.
2. Have a plan in place to deal with feedback – be it positive or negative.
3. Don’t rely too heavily on straight marketing messages.  You’ll want to build relationships with your followers or fans.

What changes do you think we’ll see in the future in terms of how hospitals use social media?

So many ideas circulating out there:

• Employee updates
• What surgery is like as demonstrated by our friends at Mayo, Henry Ford and others.  It demystifies what to expect and hopefully take away some of the fear.
• Public health updates and alerts – such as H1N1 flu
• Emergency management
• Hospital communication directly to Physician
• Physician communication with their patients
• RSVP for events via Facebook
• Nursing can utilize for patient education or follow up after patient discharged from hospital
• Medication management questions for pharmacy

Any final thoughts?

As our world is rapidly shrinking – information is exchanged on an immediate basis via social media, text messages, blogs, chat rooms, websites and other means.  Social media is driving those changes. I literally find out more by reading updates on Twitter than I can by reading the newspaper the day (or two, or three depending on where you live) the event occurs.

Traditional marketing is being re-evaluated by every marketing/advertising professional I’ve spoken to over the last few months.  Where are people meeting/talking/exchanging ideas?  Where will that conversation occur over the next 5 years?  As a society we’re shifting to a more web based environment.  How we address this shift in healthcare will be critical.

For us – we’ll continue to explore new ways to keep our community informed, educated and alerted to healthcare and Health System updates.  We seem friendlier, more approachable and up-to-date with our social media platform.