Baylor Health Care System hosted the two-day Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media Residency program at the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center in September 2013. Leaders from both health care organizations engaged with medical professionals and marketers to discuss and educate attendants on social media best practices.
In health care social media, there are lessons to gather from each perspective angle of the industry. The Mayo Clinic social media “crash-course” offers opportunity for individuals from every branch of an organization to spark a two-way conversation about their understanding and experience in social media use.
The program is designed around open discussion, which allows for communicators from various health care organizations to learn from the trials and successes of their fellow healthcare colleagues.
Here are a few key takeaways from Mayo Clinic and Baylor Health Care System’s social media leaders:
Your employees are your brand ambassadors.
Social media affects everyone in health care, not just marketers. Everyone is a communicator. Establish social savvy throughout your organization and encourage employee participation. They are the voice behind your brand.
You can do big things with a small budget.
Lee Aase, Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, shared his Social Media ROI Maxim: “As ‘I’ approaches zero, ROI approaches infinity.” To fully comprehend what the return-on-investment is in social media, you must pose the question, “How much can I do for how little?” Prove the worth of social media marketing efforts by contrasting the results of traditional marketing. Highlight the results of social to demonstrate how you can maximize marketing efforts at a fraction of the cost. With greater access to data and metrics, the ability to demonstrate the value of social media will play an integral role in the evolution of the marketing industry.
Social tools should be used less to create new motivations and more to amplify existing ones.
Social media should act as an extension of each business function, rather than operate as a single silo. Corroborate with existing marketing initiatives, etc., to connect the value of social to overarching business goals. Rather than creating social-based campaigns, tie in to existing objectives, and devise a social media strategy that assists in reaching those goals.
The conversation involving the two national health care giants, local hospitals, physicians and communications employees proved that no matter the size of your organization or the number of people on your social media team, you can still be a leader if you practice health care social media effectively.
Check out the Storify story below, for more takeaways from the discussion on social media practices in health care.
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