Spreading The Word
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?
For many it is a struggle. You leave the conference and get back to the list of 100 high-priority things to do on your desk, or you don’t have the resources, or you are facing budget cuts, or you are asked “How many nurses do you want me to fire to fund your web project?”, and you just don’t have the energy to keep fighting.
While some hospital administrators and decision-makers fully support the Web and truly “get it”, I fear that many do not understand the importance and potential. It is continually amazing to me how many healthcare decision makers are out of the loop when it comes to the Web as a tool. So many still think of it as a line item in the marketing that, like a billboard or print brochure, gets a set budget periodically and then can be left alone for a while.
So what can you do? Well, there are actually many proven tactics that can be helpful in elevating the internal profile of your Web efforts. Among them:
* finding and partnering with internal champions who really do “get it”
* capturing and presenting compelling data about your web site
* aligning your organizational goals and Web goals
* creating a written strategic and tactical web plan and
* getting an organized meeting with top administrators and decision-makers to present your plan
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
I took a lot of notes from Mike’s session on this topic, and came home with loads of good intentions on how to get our organization better engaged. I’ve started reaching out to more internal stakeholders and at higher levels. Here’s what I’m getting:
– “I don’t like that picture.”
– “Nothing moves on the site.”
– “We need to allow patients to search for doctors by their first name.”
– “My specialty needs to be on the home page.”
– “My clinic needs to be on the home page.”
My point isn’t that the effort is useless. But the vast majority of people we’re trying to engage don’t “get it.” They think they do, and that makes it dangerous.
The trick is asking the right questions and properly setting expectations. Few people go to a symphony and come home thinking they can write one themselves. Everybody who uses the web is an expert, though, and very few really are.
We need to approach leaders and internal stakeholders with a definitive plan and substantial data to back up that plan. Otherwise, you’ll get embroiled in a debate over how useful it would be for doctors to find colleagues they met at a cocktail party by their first name.