A great way to make your experts, your surgeons and anyone on your team more accessible is to put them in front of a camera and have an interview.  Speaking from experience, not everyone translates well in front of the camera, and you need to consider what you are looking to accomplish when you do this – but for this post, we’ll focus on a simple question and answer format.

A popular one – because from a technical perspective it requires only one camera and microphone – is just the A in Q&A.  I think you’ve seen them, a simple slate asking a question and the surgeon answering the question on the slate.  It seems simple enough, but all too often there is a desire to make them perfect, to have multiple takes, multiple phrasing, and in the end the outcome is something that feels rehearsed, that feels too perfect, and it’s just not as impactful as it could be.  Answers that sound rehearsed are just not as believable.

The format seems simple enough, but the market is full of charismatic speakers that come across as wooden automatons and not the warm, inviting, accessible people that you know they are.  So what should you do?

First: Stop directing!  Have a conversation, if you don’t think you’re getting the answer you need, ask a follow-up question.  Remember, you’re not looking for answers to questions, you’re looking to use answers to questions as a means to educate and make your team more accessible.

Here’s the other side of it, you need to understand who you’re interviewing.  You may be taking a doctor out of their comfort zone – some of the most confident people in the world, who are used to having to be right all the time – and you tell them, in essence, “wrong, do it again”.  You are not going to get a great result if every question requires 4 or 5 takes.

Here are some tips:

• Be prepared. Not just with questions, but with an understanding of what you are what you are looking to accomplish, this will inform your conversation.
• “Natural” environments work. An office, a lobby, even a courtyard, will help your interview subject relax and will be more inviting for your target audience
• Don’t direct. Just have a conversation and let them speak, everything can be addressed in editing
• Ums and Ahs are ok. They don’t make the interview subject look stupid; they make them look human – and accessible.
• Listen. Don’t be surprised if you find out there are more questions answered than you asked, and they may work better than your original list.

If you take this approach, you’ll find you have more a more relaxed on camera presence, and one that is ultimately more inviting and effective.

Recently we had a great conversation with a client regarding their use of video to extend their educational reach.  We had just finished a live event, and reported the number of attendees to the seminar – over 900 surgeons.  What excited them even more was that they had offered up their contact information in return for attending the on-line event.  In the few weeks that followed, the number had climbed to 1,200 – and continues to grow, because unlike the seminar event the video record of it endures.

If you have a role with a hospital providing educational services to your community, or a device manufacturer providing surgeons with ongoing training, you are putting together seminars and workshops.  Some may even be very popular, with as many as 100 attendees.

These are no small efforts.  Even for local seminars, they need to be promoted, facilities coordinated, speakers recruited (and sometimes paid honorariums), and even then you’ve likely had events that don’t meet your attendance targets.  By placing cameras in the room, you can capture that event, and create an enduring asset that can be repurposed on-line, on DVD, or even as a video podcast.

Recording the event is very straight forward and can be done with multiple levels of production value, allowing you to give it a try for relatively little expense to prove to yourself that this works before calling in the big guns.  Once you have the video, our experience is that you’ll have success quickly and begin to identify other uses for this new asset.  Just don’t forget to press the record button.

Next time we’ll talk about how hospitals are using these simple recordings to create rich interactive experiences that help build the relationships with consumers prior to their becoming patients.

Every now and again you get lucky and you get reminded why you do what you do.

Last Thursday I got to attend the opening gala for the International Brain Mapping and Interoperative Surgical Planning Society’s 2009 World Congress.  There I saw the presentation of their Beacon Award for those who have shown courage in their efforts to raise awareness of neurological disorders on behalf of patients and families.  One of this year’s recipients, Colin Rich, spoke to the group – and totally blew us away.

In 2002 he did what he had done for more than 20 years.  He cinched up his boots, strapped on his helmet, grabbed his weapon and headed into harm’s way in Afghanistan, where he was wounded – not for the first time, but this time it changed his life.  The head trauma that he received eventually took his sight, and as the world closed in on him, he also discovered he now had a form of epilepsy.

You would expect his acceptance to be a thank you to those that have advanced the science and practice of neurology, and to remind us that there is more work to be done. 

And he did – but not directly.

Instead he chose to remind us that this award doesn’t belong to him or to others like him, that it must be shared with those that are too often forgotten in the process.  In his case, it was his wife Nancy.  The one who helped him through his struggle to regain much of what he had lost, the one who never gave up even when he wanted to, and the one who gave him the reason to have the courage to push beyond the limits his injury had imposed. 

It shouldn’t have surprised us that a guy who spent his life serving others, would remind us that the award is not about him, but those that surround him. 

It shouldn’t surprise us, but it does because it’s so unfortunately true – we forget those that stand behind the wheelchair, across the gurney, who sit in waiting room, or in that uncomfortable extra chair in the corner of the exam room, are part of the patient experience.  They may not feel the pain, but the share it, and the best examples of emerging systems account for them.

So bringing it back to the purpose of this blog; remember what Colin Rich tells us – there is more to the patient experience than the individual.  We need to remember that as we develop the next generation of communication tools and experiences. 

As healthcare marketing begins to embrace content marketing and social media, one of the biggest challenges is letting go of the impression that your website is at the center of the web.  In preparing a post on how healthcare marketers measure success of content marketing, a pattern emerged, where success was being measured by how many hits the content brought back to the website.  While this is ultimately where you’d like to get your content seen, it’s a misplaced goal and you can be even more effective if you shift your perspective.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="284" caption="The Ptolemaic Web"][/caption]

Back in the second century Ptolemy, published authoritative works that put the earth in the center of the universe, with everything else revolving around earth in perfect concentric circles.  Applying the perspective that your site is at the center of the web, you get a Ptolemaic Web similar to the one illustrated here.  In a Ptolemaic view of the web, the focus is on your site and doing whatever it takes to get the traffic there.  Micro sites get developed to focus on special events or topics, a premium is placed on understanding what your competition’s site is presenting and making sure your site is leading in capability and “cool” factor, and you’re always looking for ways to get industry press or news sites to link back to your website.

The weakness in the Ptolemaic Web, is it’s distance from the user.  Yes you’ve built great interactivity into your site – evaluation programs, self assessments, maybe even a PHR interface, and once you have the user registered, you are pretty sure you’ve got them.  But here’s the challenge – how do users find your content?  SEO?  SEM?  Should I post on Facebook, tweet on twitter?  Drop a video on YouTube, Vimeo?

As it turns out, on the 4ooth anniversary of his telescope, Galileo may have the answer.  He confirmed the earth wasn’t the center of the universe.

That’s right – the earth isn’t at the center, and the order of things isn’t so neat that everything is orbiting in perfect circles – things that are close one day may be far away on another.  So how does this apply to content marketing and social media?

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The Galilean Web"][/caption]

Your site, is not at the the center.

Content marketing success is a measure of the value of the content (and by extension your brand), the goal is to make your site a destination, not drive click-throughs.

I know it’s subtle, but a visual of the Galilean Web may help.  In the Galilean Web, each user represents a separate and unique “web solar system”, with their launch point being at the center.  Users may have multiple “web solar systems” for each activity on the web – like searching for related health information.  In the example here, search is at the center, with other relevant destinations like blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and networking sites serving as resources.  Social media and communication tools are on a separate orbit, identifying other potential destinations.

Where’s your site?  It’s that dot in the corner.  You’re not in their system – they’re searching for information and content and your site isn’t showing up because there is competing content in multiple locations on the web, and these aggregation sites are more relevant to users and search engines.

So how do you get into this user’s web solar system?

Content.

Place your content where you know your users are.  Not just in one place – get it out there!

Context.

Make it relevant, assure its quality, and update it frequently, and they will reward you by becoming frequent consumers of your content – shifting their social media orbit to be closer to your site.  Over time, they may even make your site a destination in their solar system.  Shift your focus from counting click-throughs to observing how the content is consumed.   Adjust what you’re publishing based on the feedback you’re getting.  You are going to benefit by being seen as a valuable contributor to their information needs.

It’s important to note, they may never visit your site – but it doesn’t matter if they’ve become your brand advocate and choose to get their healthcare services from you because of your content.

At the end of the day, isn’t that your objective?

 For the last 9 summers, I’ve had the pleasure of living with a working broadleaf tobacco farm in my front yard.  Regardless of how you feel about tobacco and its uses (cigar wrappers for this crop), tobacco farming is a fascinating process.  In our house we mark summer milestones by the process, planting in June, mid-summer “topping”, and the late August harvesting, and the fall drying season.

So what does that have to with healthcare marketing?  It struck me as I watched the farm hands “topping” the tobacco (removing the flowers from the plants), cutting away those things that pull energy away from growing what is really important, that there are many parallels to the challenges facing healthcare marketers today.

As healthcare marketing shifts from low engagement, broadly targeted traditional marcomm strategies (traditional PR, print/display, radio,  and television advertising) to highly engaged, highly focused content marketing and social media they have to look at their objectives the same way a broadleaf tobacco farmer does.

Know Your Objectives and How You’ll Get There
Growing tobacco requires that you’ve got the right tools and resources at each step of the process.  For healthcare marketers, content marketing demands that you understand who you’re targeting, how they communicate, and what’s relevant to them before you begin.  Understanding how each communication tool and content resouce supports your objective – then delivering to your audience in the right context is critical to success.

Be Prepared And Adapt To Changing Conditions
Each growing season brings different challenges, to much or too little rain, pests, fungus, and catastophic hail, all conspire to limit crop yeild, so the broadleaf farmer has an arsenal of tools that are used depending upon the conditions presented.  The healthcare marketer needs to do the same – adjust their media mix as consumers move from traditional media to on-line, adding a blog or responding to a social media post, or letting the conversation happen and just listen.  They must continually measure and assess what’s resonating – developing the relationships with the target audience that helps them understand how their message is being received.

Constantly Cultivate - Don’t Let Weeds Compete
It’s long summer, so the farmer constantly turns the soil, preventing weeeds from taking root.  The same is true for content marketing – keep turning the soil by updated with valuable relevant content.  Consistent and reliable delivery is the surest way to grow a reliable loyal audience, and is the best way to combat negative dialogs.  The days of controlling the message are over – don’t let your voice be pushed out of the conversation because your not updating.  Lack of attention will lead to your voice being irrelevant, choked out by the weeds.

Topping Focuses Energy On What Matters Most
By ”topping” the plant, the farmer ensures the plant will focus its efforts on growing leaves and ultimately producing a viable crop.  The healthcare marketer needs to closely examine their communication arsenal – do the traditional broad target, low engagement, very expensive mediums (TV, radio, print, environmental, etc.) support your objectives, or do they pull energy and resources away from them.  “Topping” your marketing strategy may be required.

Don’t Be Afraid To Get Dirty
Broadleaf tobacco farming sometimes requires getting your hands dirty.  A successful content marketing strategy requires engagement, and engagement requires a continuous, interactive approach.  You have to listen as much as you communicate, and sometimes you may not like what you hear – but you need to listen, and more important, respond.  If your willing to wade in and interact, you will be successful.

So there really are a lot of paralells, know your objectives, be adaptable, keep on top of it, focus on what matter most, and don’t be afraid to get dirty.  Good advice for healthcare marketers – but sort of seems universal.

Oh… and how’s this year’s crop look?  Lots of rain.  Too much actually, so yeilds are likely to be down – but there is a lot of summer left and a few dry weeks could change that.

Welcome to EnagedMed, where we’ll explore and discuss how hospitals, device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and other bio companies, are reaching their target audiences and building relationships.

Seems simple enough – reach your audience, engage them, build a relationship.  That’s the goal, but is it achievable?   Of course it is, but it’s not always a simple proposition and let’s face it, we’re talking about a very conservative marketing culture that’s either risk adverse or highly regulated – and more often than not, both. 

The thing is, the market is moving and changing more rapidly than ever before.  Consumers today are bombarded with messages about the latest advancements in pharmaceutical and clinical technology, while their financial responsibilities are increasing as insurance plans are redesigned to stimulate a consumer driven environment.  Doctors and allied health professionals are feeling the same information overload, as their ever increasing time commitments are strained by the need to keep pace with rapid advancements and the urgency to respond effectively to patients seeking informed care. 

They’re not going to wait for you to figure out how to reach them – they are moving to where they can find relevant information, where there is high quality content that is precisely what they need when they need it.  If you’re not giving it to them, they will get it somewhere else.

So that’s what we envision this blog to be about – to examine how companies and hospitals are engaging their target audiences, and have a little fun while we find what’s good and occasionally great in the market.