Is your healthcare business taking advantage of content marketing?

According to the 2012 B2B Content Marketing, Budgets and Trends Report 89% of all healthcare businesses have adopted content marketing, putting the industry at third place (in adoption rates) behind professional services and software industries. While this is great news to hear it is still evident that healthcare lags behind other industries when it comes to actually leveraging content marketing for business. That’s why MedCity News and Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing World have come together to launch Content Marketing World Health Summit, which will be held in Cleveland Ohio on November 7th – 8th

In case you haven’t heard about it, here are three reasons you should not miss the summit.

#1. Valuable content

The summit will deliver highly valuable business content guaranteed to inspire you with actionable new ideas you can begin to implement as soon as you get back. Here’s a quick glimpse of the amazing content you can expect from Content Marketing World Health Summit:

• Trends – Discover the latest content marketing research in the healthcare industry and the challenges that will inspire change and innovation in the future.
• Tactics – During the workshops sessions you will learn the best ways to market your organization with content marketing. Everything from how to leverage physicians’ limited time to develop valuable content to finding interesting topics for social media content and much more.
• Strategy – The general sessions will also explain key strategies for attracting and retaining customers. You will learn how to integrate your content creation with your marketing objectives, learn from some of the mistakes and successes of leading brands such as Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic. You will also learn the A to Z of content marketing strategy and how strategies for B2B differ from B2C.
• Business building – See how successful health brands create more business via content marketing. You will learn how even a small budget can make a huge impact with content and social media marketing and how smart content planning can save you lots of money!
• Social media – Find out how to create valuable social media content even with federal regulators in mind. You will also learn why doctors shy away from social media participation, how to change their minds and even what social media platforms are right for your organization.

#2. Connect with leading healthcare brands

Content Marketing World Health Summit  is the only content marketing event in the world dedicated exclusively to the healthcare industry. It is designed to bring together experts and thought leaders from some of the leading companies in the world.

You will not only learn from their unique and insightful perspectives at the sessions, you will also get to meet and hang out with experts such as Elizabeth Tracey (Director of Electronic News Media – Johns Hopkins), Scott Linabarger (Director of Digital Marketing – Cleveland Clinic), Lee Aase (Director of Mayo Clinic Social Media Center), Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing World, Chris Seper of MedCity Media and many others.

#3. Night out networking

You will have an opportunity to meet with 200 industry professionals from the healthcare industry. In fact an awesome treat prepared for you on Wednesday night is the ‘West Side Night Out on the Town Event’. You will see the best of historic KAMM’s CORNERS neighborhood of Cleveland’s West Side where award winning restaurants and night clubs will be waiting for you.

Join me

I am excited to be one of the speakers for this groundbreaking event and would love for you to join me in Cleveland on November 7th – 8th. You will see first hand how content marketing can transform healthcare, improve engagement and the work you are doing in the sector. Please Visit the Health Summit event site to see the agenda. In the meantime I’d also like to offer you this coupon code (SKGGUEST) to receive $100 off your registration!Over to you: Do you think you could benefit from this content marketing event? Will you be there?

Do you write a hospital blog that isn’t getting much interaction? Perhaps you’re wondering if anyone is even reading your blog.

Would you like to see comments increase and two-way conversations become the norm on your blog?

Here are some ways in which you can make that happen:

#1. Make it super-easy to comment

Eliminate features on your blog that make it cumbersome to comment e.g. ‘Log-in to comment’ or those annoying capture (word-verification) options that are almost always impossible to please.

#2. Check your comment settings

If you use WordPress, check your discussion settings to ensure that comments are enabled and that ‘ANYONE’ can comment.

#3. Use Disqus to enhance conversation

This might be a little controversial since some organizations will want to review and moderate comments before posting them on their blog. However if your hospital is ready for real-time posting and updating of comments then Disqus is a great tool that even allows for a threaded comment option (thus keeping track of who is saying what to whom) and is also compatible with mobile websites. But if you’re not ready for this, take a look at the next point.

#4. Develop a Comment Policy

This is simply a statement defining your policy regarding comments on your blog. It keeps everyone accountable by ensuring that your readers understand what is allowed and what is not allowed on your blog. Everyone is aware of what their responsibility is.

#5. Ask for comments

At the end of each article, ask a question that will encourage readers to leave a comment. Take that one step further and be creative about it. Don’t just say, “Please leave a comment below.” Instead say something like, “Over to you: What do you think about tweeting in the Operating Room?”

#6. Respond to all comments

There’s nothing more discouraging than taking the time to comment on a blog only to be ignored or forgotten by the author. When people take the time to give you feedback, make them feel important by responding to them as well.

If you think you might forget to check for new comments, set up an email notification so that you’re alerted when new comments appear. Also try to respond within 24 hours.

#7. Welcome disagreeable people

As long as they’re not violating your comment policy, be sure to welcome all your readers even those that you may not agree with.

However note that there is a big difference between blog trolls (people who habitually leave nasty comments on blogs) and those with sincere differences of opinion. With the former you want to deal with them firmly. But with the latter you want to leave room for an open discussion.

#8. Eliminate spam

Finally make it difficult for spammers to comment on your site by using spam moderating tools such as Akismet. A blog that is polluted with spammy comments such as “My ex-girlfriend made $200 an hour working from home!” looks tacky and turns away serious people who might otherwise be valuable commentators on your blog.

Bonus Tip

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that bo]ring blog posts will not attract any comments at all. So be sure that your headline is interesting and that your content is worthy of discussion.

Over to you: Have you tried these or any other tips to increase blog comments on your hospital blog? Please share

Escaping the daily rut and re-thinking the way we do our jobs might be the most urgent order of business in our day.

That’s not exactly a newsflash, but what most tuned-in business owners realize is that the excessively hectic lives we lead are not conducive to innovative thinking.

So here’s something that I’m committing to do in 2012 and perhaps you should too.

Get involved in a small engagement team

Small engagement team at #mocosmb – with @shashib and @obrienmedia

Recently I had the pleasure of stealing some time away to have breakfast with a group of entrepreneurs and social media experts from Montgomery County, Maryland – Shashi Bellamkonda – Social Media Swami at Network Solutions; Nakeva Corothers – photography expert and founder of The Nakeva Network; Patrick O’brien – Social Media Manager at Gannett; Kevin Fawley – Director of Social Media at Somego; Chef K.N.Vinod – owner of Indique Heights (Chevy Chase, MD) and Bombay Bistro (Rockville, MD); and DC productivity expert Kim Oser of Need Another You.com.

One of the things that was clear from the beginning was that it wasn’t enough to just sit at the table and exchange ideas. The goal was for each person to borrow three ideas that they found most interesting and to develop a plan of action around them over the next couple of months.

In our group of 7, three core ideas were considered. Dubbed the ‘beg, brag and what-if’ approach, each one of us was asked to discuss;

• a business challenge that we’re facing, and to ask for help or ideas to overcome that challenge
• a major accomplishment we have achieved recently
• a ‘what-if’ scenario that challenges the way that we think about or do business

Benefits of small engagement teams

Through this insightful exchange we were able to entertain new ideas and imagine different ways of doing things. The ‘what-if’ scenarios were particularly helpful in sparking the imagination.

Even for a seasoned entrepreneur, I think the time and effort invested in a smaller engagement team offers tremendous benefits:

• It enables a creative idea-sharing culture
• It promotes accountability
• You learn from shared experiences
• You initiate new business relationships or deepen old ones
• You get to listen – really listen.

After hearing everyone speak, I came away with four important lessons:

• Don’t always ask the obvious questions
• Don’t be afraid to re-think the traditional methods we use in business
• Innovative ideas aren’t always new – Most great ideas are just a mash-up of existing ones applied to our specific set of circumstances.
• Don’t wait! As soon as you get back to work, start implementing learned ideas immediately. The sooner you experiment and test them, the sooner you’ll know whether they work or not.

In 2012, I plan on making time to meet with this group on a regular basis at the Montgomery County Social Media Breakfast – #mocosmb.

What about you? How do you come up with new ideas? Do you have a process? Does it involve other people? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.