Jun. 29, 2009 at 1:49pm

Smart marketers aren't tweeting

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Internal Communications, Planning and Strategy
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In a room of 30 smart hospital marketers last month, not one could think of good reason to take up Twitter personally. They’re already struggling to keep up with a crushing workload. I think they were hoping our Think Lab speaker, Andrew Fry, would let them off the hook. He didn’t—at least not completely.

Much of the standard Twitter advice—engage in the conversation, be responsive, watch what you say, allow time to build a following, avoid overt marketing, be authentic—makes it seem like Twitter is a lot of work with few rewards. Concern about rogue tweets from disgruntled employees and potential HIPAA violations is more cold water.

Yet, we’ve found some promising ways to use Twitter:

Update the media on your news. We live in an area where local journalists are pretty sophisticated about technology and they follow Twitter users who provide useful information, including links to news releases and photos. Asking journalists about how they prefer to receive updates is another opportunity to strengthen your relationship with them.

Create an emergency alert channel. Local emergency responders during floods and snowstorms this year used Twitter effectively to broadcast alerts about closed streets, changing weather conditions and the availability of emergency services. It is easy to imagine this approach to sending alerts about a breach in hospital security or response to a mass casualty incident.

Generate a publicity stunt. Tweeting from the OR is old news. I’d love to see someone, or a group of someones, announce they will be tweeting live during episodes of House, Grey’s Anatomy or Hawthorne. Maybe a couple of your nurses could become local celebrities with lively insights about what working in a hospital is really like.

Build more support into a support group. Tweeting is another way for a group of expectant moms, cardiac rehab patients or cancer survivors to share their day-to-day efforts to eat right, exercise and attend to their emotional well being. A hospital employee could facilitate classes as well as the online conversation.

Ours is a modest list for overstretched health care organizations that don’t have a Twitter evangelist in their midst. For the more ambitious, I suggest you check out Phil Baumann’s 140 uses for Twitter in health care.

For the rest of us, take heart. Even Andrew admitted he wasn’t sure microblogging would last. Perhaps the best advice for many of us is watchful waiting.

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