Last week, I was on site at a client’s, conducting the final meeting of a planning engagement. As we discussed the next course of action, I began thinking about the dramatic increase in healthcare organizations’ Web needs over the past five years since I have been part of the Greystone team. I was reminded of just how far the industry has come in the sixteen years since the founders of Greystone.Net first predicted that the organization’s Web site would grow larger than a mere “marketing tool” to become an industry-wide tool for hospitals and healthcare organizations.
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The North America International Auto Show kicked off in Detroit this week with industry and press events, opening to the public this weekend. You might be wondering with that has to do with healthcare, mobile or strategy. Well – there’s a lot to learn from an event like this. It’s a venue for the auto manufacturers to showcase their products and concepts. With thousands of people attending, it’s one big marketing event. A large majority of the world’s auto manufacturers are there, side by side creating a great comparison shopping opportunity for consumers. This is interesting to consider – what would you do if your hospital were in that type of venue? How would you differentiate your hospital from your competition?
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The conversation continues about QR codes. According to Mobio™, QR barcode scanning in North America grew 1200% in the last half of last year. Quick response codes already make sense with consumer products for purchase information, competitive pricing information, coupons or discounts, but how are they relevant for healthcare? Relevance is the key question about how QR codes can work with your healthcare marketing strategy. Are you just adding QR codes because it’s a hot ticket right now, or do you actually provide a value added to your current or prospective patients?
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This Fall, the entering college class will graduate in 2014 (those born primarily in 1992) and I worry we won’t be ready for them as healthcare marketers and Web strategists unless we start right now. Is your organization ready? Does your organization have a strategy to get ready?
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Health content is essential to the success of a hospital’s Web site. If a patient or user is searching for information on a particular diagnosis or treatment but are unable to find relevant information on your Web site, they will not only visit another site, but their experience may also leave a lasting negative impression of your organization. As a user, if I could not find relevant, in-depth information about bone cancer on a Web site, for example, I would assume that the hospital does not have the necessary services to treat me, or that it is simply not a very sophisticated hospital. Most purchase this type of content from a health information vendor and some even create their own content. Regardless of how it is obtained, the key is to provide some type of health content on the Web site; which can be evaluated using the following questions as a guideline:
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With 185 hospitals using one form of social media or another, I’d say healthcare has clearly gotten the message. But I worry a bit about some of what I’m seeing out there. Let’s just say there’s evidence aplenty that while many have dipped their toes in the waters of social media, few have a real plan in place.
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