Greystone Blog

If that’s the question, it surely has been Tweeted at least once on Twitter. If you aren’t familiar with the free online service, it’s often referred to as microblogging. You can post an unlimited number of 140 character updates responding to the question “what are you doing now?” (a post is called a Tweet). Of course, it doesn’t have to be just what you are doing. It can be a question or a request for all of your “followers” (it’s not as creepy as it sounds, since following simply means you’ll get the other person’s posts).

Few social media tools generate such a broad range of opinions. There are those who love Twitter and those who really hate it. I know lots of people who love blogs and podcasts, but few who hate them. If you don’t like them, don’t read or listen. But with Twitter, people actually write and talk about how they hate it. Blogger Louis Gray wrote in January of this year that he remains unconvinced. Publishing 2.0 posted a missive in December on why the writer stopped using Twitter. On the other side, Commoncraft posted late last year some excellent reasons why Twitter is worthwhile. And MarketingProfs went so far as to list seven ways marketers can use Twitter.

The same debate rages among the staff at Greystone.Net, with some of us being big fans and others still not quite getting it. So, in the spirit of learning, Greystone.Net is now Tweeting (http://twitter.com/greystone). We’re not the only ones in healthcare doing so. M.D. Anderson is using the tool to update their followers on the latest news (http://twitter.com/MDAnderson_News). Whether you jump on the Twitter bandwagon or join the legions of naysayers, you owe it to yourself to understand it. While you are there, check us out!

You may have caught the news that Adobe has released technology to Google and Yahoo that supposedly translates the text and links in any Flash file into something the search engines can work with. Taken at face value, that’s good news for any site that uses Flash.

But as this great post by Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch points out, being found is only a small piece of the puzzle. How high you rank is a lot more important. If you are item number 192 million in a search for “healthcare,” congratulations, you’ve been “found.” But that’s worthless. Frankly, if you aren’t in the first three pages, being “found” is virtually worthless. And if you aren’t on the first page, you’re missing the vast majority of potential traffic.

We’ve been testing a couple of client sites that use significant elements of Flash on their homepage, and so far, the search engines don’t appear to be finding them. But it’s probably just too early. We’ll keep monitoring and will let you know if we see any changes.

All that said, it’s a start. Most healthcare sites we see that use Flash don’t use it exclusively. So as long as the pages that contain a Flash file also have good, solid content, it shouldn’t matter.

Even if the Flash file can be found by the search engines, we continue to recommend that Flash, and technologies like it, be used appropriately, and not excessively. If a nice piece of Flash will better engage, inform and draw in your intended audience, then use it. But it shouldn’t be the whole page, or the whole site.

Most audiences are on your site to accomplish a specific task or obtain a piece of information. If Flash doesn’t help them do that, it’s just in the way. Even if it can be found by search engines.

Hardly. If you have heard any of us speak on the topic, you know our opinion of anything 2.0 (Web 2.0, Health 2.0, etc.). It’s the ultimate buzzword. “Social media,” on the other hand, is very real. Entities and individuals are using social media tools to connect with the world around them in increasing numbers and frequency.So, it should be no surprise that Greystone.Net is in that world.In addition to our blog, we now have our own Facebook page. We aren’t the first in healthcare to join Facebook. Mayo Clinic has been there for years, and they have nearly 1,500 fans.

It doesn’t solve all of our problems (a private jet would be better), but it does provide one more way for people to find, learn about and connect with Greystone.Net.

So check it out and let us know what you think. Add a message to the wall, if you are so inclined. And think about adding a Facebook page, or other social media tool, for your hospital or health system. Remember the proverbial man searching for his lost quarter under the street lamp — rather than where he dropped it — because the light is better. Your audience may not be waiting under the bright lights of where you are used to looking for them.

Did you catch the news? ICANN appears ready to open the universe to any URL suffix anybody wants to buy. You may have already invested heavily in MyHospital.org, .com, .biz, .edu, etc., along with the various permutations of that (positive and negative), but get ready to take another run at it.

In simple terms, just as an example, the Mayo Clinic could procure MayoClinic.Mayo. Or Aurora Health Care could have AuroraHealthCare.Aurora. The choices ICANN appears ready to accept are limitless. Preference is expected to be given to the branded entity, but if somebody wants one of these new URLs with your hospital or system name in it, and you don’t buy it, odds are ICANN will sell it to whoever is willing to pay.

Here’s the rub: The costs are expected to be quite high. Early estimates start in the mid-five figures, and go up from there. The more well known the brand name, the higher the price is likely to be.

How this is all going to shake out is open to a lot of speculation. Will an entity procure one of these new URLs and dump their existing ones? I would doubt it. Even more fundamentally, your online audience is well trained already to look for sites via search engines, bookmarks, typing in the URL, etc. None of these typical paths should be affected by the ICANN decision, at least not anytime soon.

We don’t think this is cause for immediate alarm or action, but it is worth watching closely. We’ll keep you posted on how this evolves!

If you are reading this blog, you’ve probably seen that I have left Aurora Health Care and the award-winning AuroraHealthCare.org, and have joined Greystone.Net. This career move gives me the chance to do what I like best for health care providers all over the country (I’m actively seeking clients in Hawaii).

Here’s why the change made sense to me:1. I really enjoy strategy development, coming up with new ideas and trying new things. That’s what Greystone.Net does. 2. You have probably heard me say this before, but the web team at Aurora is so small that I spent way too much time on the day-to-day little things that are necessary to keep a good Web site running. 3. It’s hard to find an organization that has done more to advance the field of healthcare on the Internet than Greystone. And after years of seeing the team at the annual conference, talking with them about the latest approaches on the phone and via email, I feel like we were already colleagues, even before my official start date.

So while the move would seem to make sense for me, it was still met with a surprising amount of shock. Some who heard the news were very happy for me, but many others reacted as if I’d died or left the industry altogether. Friends and peers from outside Aurora would say, “I’ll miss you,” or “The field won’t be the same without you.” While I appreciated their sentiments, I’m still very much alive and hopefully will be able to add more value to the “field” than I ever did from the vantage point of just one health system.

Certainly the reaction would have been different had I left Aurora to join another healthcare system. But why? I’ve worked with plenty of consultants over the years who were true partners without whom I could not have achieved the same level of success. They brought insight and impartiality that is often hard to find inside your own organization.

I know that was true at Aurora, and I hope to offer that kind of value to a wider range of healthcare providers, applying the same expertise and experience that contributed to the success we enjoyed at Aurora.

It’s not even been two weeks yet, and the new gig feels like a good fit to me. Last week’s Webmaster’s Workshop was a joy, getting to know and help a lot of different healthcare providers with their online strategies. I’m already looking forward to the next one in Charleston in August.

But I do wonder about the reaction when I see old friends at the conference in Orlando this fall. Please remember that we didn’t win all those awards and generate high double-digit ROI based on my good looks. If you’ve got issues with your online strategy, are looking for possible solutions or just want to take it to the next level, I still have a lot to offer. Due to the very nature of my new position, all that advice and expertise can’t come free. But there’s no charge to share a drink or a laugh!

I recently co-authored an article for the Marketing Health Services Journal about the potential impact of the loss of Net Neutrality on healthcare. I thought I would share some of the thoughts and concepts about it in this post.

Network Neutrality refers to a guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet. No discrimination. It prevents Internet providers from slowing down or speeding up Web content based on its type, source, ownership or destination. It assures that each of us can access any Web page, post any content or use any Web application without restrictions imposed by our Internet Service Providers.

Google recently published a Guide to Net Neutrality. In it, Google states that … “network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet …. Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online … If net neutrality is not guaranteed, it would fundamentally alter the openness of the Internet.”

As the Congress considers new telecommunication laws, broadband operators (primarily cable and telephone companies), and their lobbyists, are working to block any legislation designed to guarantee Net Neutrality. Broadband operators are fighting for the right to create a two-tier Internet, one in which their own content and services (and those of businesses who are willing to pay more) could travel in a “fast lane” or a “diamond lane” and other traffic could be relegated to slower lanes.

You might be thinking:  Why should I care? To answer that question, let’s think about a typical Internet session for a typical consumer. When we log onto the Internet, we make many assumptions. Actually, without much forethought, we assume we can visit any Web site we want whenever we want. We assume our Web visits will travel across the quickest routes without paying more or using a specific provider and we assume we can use any and all online services we want anytime we choose.  All this, and the quality of our overall online experience, is predicated on a free and open Internet.

So how does it impact healthcare or hospital-based marketing? Ask yourself a few questions:  

• What if you want to provide video-based patient education over the Web but your patients couldn’t access them at a speed that made them usable?
• What if you offer podcasts or other multimedia options on your site and because of that, the site was relegated to a lower speed of access?
• What if visitors to your site have pages that crawl because the hospital doesn’t purchase an Internet Service Provider’s preferred applications?
• What if Web pages used for online transactions (such as online bill pay, online gift shop, online donations, etc.) or access to online health information were subject to a “pay for speed” treatment?
• What if your physicians were forced to pay higher fees to share medical records or images among providers or if your hospital was forced to use a specific high-end Internet Service Provider to communicate information to a third party payer?   

All of these are possible consequences of the loss of Net Neutrality.

On February 12, 2008, Representatives Ed Markey (D-Mass) and Chip Pickering (R-Miss) introduced a bipartisan bill to restore net neutrality, entitled the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act 2008” and, if enacted, would protect Net Neutrality. The recent revelation of Comcast’s aggressive management of peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic, however, has reignited the call for non-discrimination rules.

I beleive all healthcare marketers should learn more about Net Neutrality.  If you are worried about it, call your congressional representatives and sign the “Save the Internet” petition at https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=162

I would like to introduce myself as one of the newest members of the Greystone.Net team. My name is Andrew Roberts, and I will have responsibility for the Benchmarking product. My background is in research and marketing, and my primary interest is helping healthcare providers use data and other information to make better strategic marketing decisions. Previously, I worked for McKesson and was responsible for tracking customer satisfaction and loyalty among our hospital and physician customers. It is my experience that an organization can truly distinguish itself from its peers through its ability to translate complex information into actionable findings. This is particularly important in healthcare, where competition is increasingly fierce and marketing dollars hard to come by.

The convergence of healthcare and research is an area I would like to explore in future blogs, and I invite your input. Is there certain data that you wish you had had prior to a big decision? Do you have an example of how research helped you make the right (or wrong) decision? If so, I would like to hear about it in the new “benchmarking” blog here at Greystone.Net. I am happy to be part of Greystone.Net, and look forward to future online discussions.

It is hard to believe that it is already 2008. What will that mean for us in healthcare interactive marketing?  What new trends will we see? It seems to me, at a minimum, it will include:

1. Marketing playing an increasingly important role in the development and management of content and functionality for the organization’s Intranet.
2. Continued “tweaking” of the organization’s Web site design to ensure the sites are both “usable” and “user-friendly.”
3. Increased use of Web 2.0 tools and techniques to meet the needs of Web site visitors – expanding beyond the early adopters. Maybe the early adopters dipping their toes into “Web 3.0.”
4. Intense interest in search engine optimization and search engine marketing – to improve both organic and paid results.
5. Continued integration of call center and Web site applications.
6. Growing interest in how and when to develop micro-sites for key service lines and programs.
7. Renewed interest in how to evaluate Web site performance and track its movement over time.

It will be an exciting year, with a lot happening, some of which, I’m sure will surprise us all. Wishing you a happy and productive 2008.

As I sit around after Thanksgiving dinner thoroughly stuffed, I am reminded of an article I recently read in Fortune entitled the “Dawn of the Web Potato.” The premise of the article was that Americans are moving off the couch and becoming Web potatoes. In fact, we’ve moved so far already that we no longer just “surf the Web,” but we go online to do a wide variety of other things like reading the news, shopping, emailing, watching videos, Googling and the such.

I think about how true that statement has become – just in my own life. As I sit here contemplating whether I want to get up at 5A.M. on the morning after Thanksgiving to go shopping for the “best” deals, I think, “why bother?” I can sit in the warmth and comfort of my recliner, wearing my bedroom slippers, and do much, if not all, of my Christmas shopping from my laptop. What’s more, I don’t have to worry about being home at a particular time to watch Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives because I can log onto www.abc.com and watch full episodes online whenever I want … oh how the world has changed in a few short years.

Recent studies from both Cisco and the Online Publishing Association (OPA) suggest that consumer usage of the Internet is about to surpass business- and government-related traffic. The OPA Internet activity index states that a typical Internet user spends 47% of his time online looking at content, 33% communicating, 15% shopping and 5% using a search engine.

Why is this important to us in healthcare marketing? Well, mainly because the more time people spend online, the more attractive the Internet is to advertisers and the more attractive it should be to us as healthcare marketers. Online advertising is currently the fastest growing segment of the advertising industry and spending on online advertising is predicted to reach $61 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) annually by 2012.

What are we, in healthcare, doing to reach Web potatoes? Are we using online advertising on our Web sites? Are we advertising on other Web sites, blogs, social media sites to bring people to our sites? Are we moving budget dollars from traditional marketing channels to interactive channels? Are we using search marketing to its fullest advantage? Have we figured out the impact social media will have on our marketing messages? As consumers’ trust in traditional media declines (and social media’s impact grows), how will we regain influence on our customers? How will we get them to engage?

It is obvious that “old school” marketing no longer is enough … especially if we want to reach emerging Web potatoes.  Are you ready?

Well, we just left the 11th Annual Internet Conference in Las Vegas! Immersing myself in the enthusiasm surrounding blogs and social networking has inspired me to get started on my own blogging. So time to stop putting it off and get on with the brain dump online. Coming to this conference, or attending any conference for that matter can be a reinvigorating experience. But what happens to that enthusiasm between the time that conference ends and the time it starts again next year?

You left the conference with a lot of great new ideas, but your first step back at the office might be mapping out the plan to build your inter