By Amy Dawson, Senior Vice President/Healthcare Account Director

8 in 10 Internet Users Go Online for Health Information

More physician practices and hospitals are starting to embrace Facebook as an important tool in their arsenal of marketing tactics. As marketing dollars shrink, competition intensifies, and more people look to social media as a way to become informed, empowered healthcare consumers, any hospital or practice would be wise to consider how social media can enhance their existing marketing plans. We’re now in the era of Health 2.0 - using social software and its ability to promote collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders in health. It’s really pretty cool when you think about it.

Consider this: eight in 10 Internet users go online for health information. Sure, there are things to consider like staffing, HIPAA, content and more, but can you really afford to be absent from this space and let your competitors be the only voice in the discussion?

I’ve spent the last week looking at a variety of healthcare brands - both hospitals and physician practices - and how they’re using Facebook as a marketing and commnications tool. Some are early adopters and recognize that as their younger patients age, more of them will seek information online rather than schedule an appointment with their doctor. After all, it’s faster and easier than ever to get information online. One caveat here - accessing information online doesn’t replace the value of seeing your physician face-to-face but can certainly help you ask the right questions.

Here are a few examples of Facebook tactics used by healthcare providers that I think are pretty interesting:

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By Ann Oliver, Account Director

My key takeaways

We’ve all heard the impressive statistics about women and the online world.

•  Women are the majority of internet usage now – 53%
• The fastest growing group on Facebook is women.
• Women who are on the internet trust the internet information more than other sources

I attended BlogHer ‘09 in Chicago and the focus of this conference was specifically on women and blogs. More than 1,400 bloggers, marketers, media reps, and PR practitioners were in attendance. This is the fifth year for the BlogHer Conference and the largest to date.  BlogHer was created in 2005 with a mission “To create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community, and economic empowerment” according to their website.

During the course of three days, I learned so much and it helped put many of the stats we all hear into context.  I attended Blogher ‘09  not as a blogger but as a marketer trying to better understand the incredibly powerful world of women bloggers. The conference is set up in two parts;  Blogher Business and BlogHer ‘09. BlogHer Business is directed to marketers,  blog writers, and other social media practitioners who are interested in reaching women online. BlogHer Business highlights best practices and case studies for connecting with women online, specifically in the social media space.  Following BlogHer Business is BlogHer, which offers blog writers many tools such as technical labs (called Geek Labs–what a great name!) education workshops, intense breakout sessions focused on hot blogging topics and lots of opportunities for networking, connecting and just plain socializing.

I attended both and was overwhelemed by the experience. From a business perspective, I learned a ton and have many great case studies and best practices to share (the top takeaways follow).  As a woman and mother, I was encouraged by the sense of community, support and camaraderie these women share. You may have seen some less than flattering articles or posts about bad behavior (especially as it relates to “swag”) by the women in attendance. But overall, the women I met were smart, ambitious, considerate and they were in attendance to learn, share and become better at their craft.

At the Business conference, five case studies were shared and each used social media to build successful marketing programs. These case studies were presented by the actual marketers who developed and ran the campaigns–having a first person perspective made the cases more real especially when the marketers spoke of the challenges they faced–internally and externally.  

Key takeaways:

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By Amy Dawson, Senior Vice President/Healthcare Account Director

The number of Baby Boomers on Facebook is growing.

In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of high school friends who are on Facebook. It’s fascinating to see what people look like and what they’re doing 25 years after graduation.

Though I fall in the Baby Boomer generation, I tend to think of myself in the Cusper generation, which includes those of us born from roughly 1954-1965. Amazingly, nearly 75 percent of the 77.2 million people between ages 44 and 62 are online.

According to a recent eMarketer report titled “Boomers Online: Attitude is Everything,” how boomers use the Internet today is indicative of how they will use it as they age into their 70s and 80s. They will remain online as long as their health and abilities permit. And, those marketers who pigeonhole boomers as just aging seniors - and expect their interest to dwindle - will find they and their brands are ignored and distrusted by this judgmental generation.

The report also said that Boomers feel advertisers are not trying to talk to them, with a majority saying that the advertising industry misrepresents and neglects them. Far higher percentages of younger boomers and seniors said online advertising focusing on younger age groups, according to Burst Media.

Online, however, younger boomers are responding to advertising. The 45-to-54-year-olds were more apt to click on ads in text links than any other group, according to an iPerceptions study.

As a marketer focusing on healthcare, it’s no surprise to see that 97% of U.S. Internet users go online to seek health and wellness information. When it comes to health, people are looking to live healthier and longer than ever before, and the Web can provide a variety of very credible, actionable information.

The report provides a great summary about reaching baby boomers online:

• For Baby Boomers, it’s all about trust. Brand must ensure they can live up to their claims. People in this age bracket are more willing to try competing brands and services than younger customers, and more likely to share their experiences, both good and bad.
• Make your site trustworthy. Allow visitors to enlarge the size fo fonts and photos. Keep the design simple and uncluttered. Display your privacy policy clearly and write it in clear, concise language.
• Baby Boomers want more information. They’ll pay attention to products and services that they’ve decided to purchase. They are very willing to go online and find out more, whether they heard of them online, offline or through word-of-mouth.
• Do not waste their time. Most Baby Boomers see the Internet as a valuable tool that helps them do things and live better lives. Because of their utilitarian attitude, they don’t spend as much time online as other generations do. Make sure your landing pages reflect the search terms Internet users type so they don’t hit the back button and return to the search engine results page.

If you’re a baby boomer what web sites or marketing efforts have you used online? What drives you nuts and what do you love?
photo credit: yamimi