Healthy Conversations
Imagining & Creating New Value For Health Brands & Consumers

As part of our “Insider Insights” series, I feature the personal perspective of a health brand marketing, digital, social or innovation leader. I’m pleased to have John Marzano, Vice President, External Affairs at Orlando Health, as this month’s participant.

Here’s what John has to say about the future of health brands and social media:

1. The organizations and brands that will thrive in the future are those that…
…. engage with their customers.  This means listening, responding and tailoring products, services or processes to align with consumer wants, needs and desires – how does your brand integrate with your customers experiences?  In addition, brands that can develop genuine relationships with their customers and consistently deliver on their brand promise will be able to attain long-term loyalty.

We’ve started listening and developing relationships with our customers through our Facebook page and have had a great experience. Our customers have insight into our organization and listening to them through social media is already changing the way we do business.

2. Specific to social media, how has it impacted the way your organization conducts business?
Social media has made us rethink the way we communicate with our customers. Traditional marketing practices were about sending messages, controlling messages. The new thought is more about engaging people in messaging and participating in ongoing conversation. That new mentality involves being willing to lose some control, being open to criticism, and doing a lot of internal education to get the right stakeholders at the table. Participating in social media means it’s not business as usual, yet it’s important to remember it is still only one tactic/tool in the overall marketing mix.

3. What are the key challenges your organization is grappling with as it considers participation?
In the healthcare industry we have both a commitment and a legal obligation (in HIPPA) to patient privacy. We’ve been very intentional about the policies and procedures we use to protect our patients personal information in every piece of our business – including social media. We took the time to conduct research, evaluate risk with our legal team and develop a strategy before launching into a social environment. That was the key to a successful launch and working within patient privacy challenges.

4. What are your top lessons learned for implementing a social media strategy?
That taking the time to develop a strategy was worth every minute. That strategy has given our team focus and purpose to the work of implementing social media, as well as the ability to set and achieve goals. A key piece of the strategy development was getting Human Resources and Information Services at the table with the Marketing Team. We each have a vested interest in social media tools and because we came together early we were able to launch into a social media environment in a thoroughly measured manner that had vast support from leadership in all areas of the organization.

Additionally we’ve learned that we have to stay the course. There are so many things that can happen in social media – some not so positive – that can easily become distracting and destructive to our efforts. It’s critical that we accept the things that come our way and respond appropriately – but it’s equally critical that we stay true to the strategy and direction of the effort.

Imaging and creating new value for your audiences starts with your brand positioning.

Sramana Mitra, strategy consultant and Forbes columnist, just ran an interesting series – Blogosphere on Positioning - that captures some interesting and complimentary thoughts on positioning from some pretty smart people: Steve McKee, Tom Asacker, Susan Gunelius, Rober Bly and David Meerman Scott.

Here are a few highlights:

• grow your appeal by targeting fewer people
• evaluate whether your positioning passes six key tests
• instead of trying to occupy a unique “position”, develop a unique attitude
• make internal changes to meet customers’ needs, which will lead to the brand experience and perception you want your brand to convey

Have a read. There are good insights here that you can start to incorporate into your efforts right away.

Healthcare brands that are fueled by a powerful core idea, and managed with a delicate balance of imagination and precision, have the ability to transform both organizations and their audiences.

Here are six tips for driving brand-led transformation:

1. Step outside of your box. Consider what you might be, and not what you are. Perpetuate the status quo and you’ll never see beyond what you already know. Question deeply held assumptions, consider the business from a new angle, and generate innovative ideas and ways to change consumer behavior. Consider Humana, a health insurance company that’s breaking the mold through their Crumpleitup innovation initiative designed to come up with creative ways to help people be healthy while having fun.

2. Get different. Rewrite the rules of the game. Zig when others zag. Follow the same path as others, and you’re limited to the same gains (or losses) as others. Consider Hello Health, a new healthcare organization that’s reframing the relationship between patient and physician.

3. Drive from a powerful idea. Every great business is built on a great brand. And every great brand is built on a great idea. An idea that’s simple, unique and compelling. An idea that can sustain the business for years down the road. Unilife is a rapidly growing medical device company, passionate in its quest to help its pharma and healthcare partners enhance and save lives through the reduction of needle stick injuries.

4. Get everyone on board. Transformation can only happen from the inside out. Paint a compelling picture of the future. Establish a sense of urgency. Let everyone participate in the journey. Ground change in your culture.

5. Execute meticulously. Sweat the details. Great brands get that way based on brilliant execution. Ensure your brand shines through across all its touchpoints – from products, to behaviors, communications and environments.

6. Be an open book. Open up your brand to participation. Let people contribute their own stories. Let them share their stories with others through you. Create a more powerful story together. After all, there’s always a new chapter in the works. Consider the support and participation through GSK’s Alli Drug community www.myalli.com.

To strive for perfection is admirable. But when it comes to social media, it’s a waste of time.

While your efforts need to be grounded in goals, strategy and the social media practices of your health brand audiences, it’s pointless to strive for perfection. Because unlike developing an ad, putting it through focus group testing, and then tweaking to get your “sell and tell” story just right, truly open dialogue is hard to control. Nor do you want to try. Because this means you’re probably lecturing rather than having a conversation.

With social media, take the attitude that you’re always going to be learning, always growing, always adjusting. Follow the lead of your customers. They’ll let you know which content is relevant, and how best to engage them. And how best to facilitate conversations between them.

So, while you consider whether you have a firm enough grasp of the territory, are comfortable with your transparency, wonder whether you’re compelling enough for customers to care about your offerings, don’t contemplate too long. Because the advantages of participating in social media far outweigh the negatives of waiting for “perfection” or not participating at all.

Women (your primary healthcare influencers and decision-makers) tend to be far more active in social media than men. This was the finding from BIGresearch’s 2009 survey of 22,000 consumers asked about their usage of text, blogs, twitter and social networks.

With the exception of business-focused LinkedIn, women are heavier users of the six other social media vehicles measured through this survey. Text leads the way at 61.7%, followed by Facebook 59.8%, blog readers 56.2%, blog posters 52.5%, MySpace 51.6%, and Twitter users 50.8%.

Given that this survey was conducted in June, the rankings might well have shifted a bit. But the more important news for health brand marketers is that these social media vehicles are effective in engaging your primary female audiences in more meaningful and trusted dialogue.

So you feel like the wind might finally be at your back (at least a few days out of the week). Your CFO is easing off the brake pedal. Competitors and customers are showing signs of life. The Board is once again focused on top-line growth rather than cost savings.

It’s time to restart your brand engines. Here are 10 tips for how to proceed:

1. Revisit your customer. Listen unbiasedly to understand their pain points, priorities, practices and unmet needs. Spend time walking in their shoes. Don’t be you being them. Become them.

2. Sharpen your story. Use these insights to help determine where and how you most meaningfully improve customers lives; and do it differently from others? What do you (ultimately) help them achieve that others can’t; or aren’t?

3. Be ambitious (this is actually part b of number 2 above). Beyond where you are today, what can you be in the future? If status quo wasn’t an option (it’s not for customers), what would you want to achieve?

4. Get the juices flowing inside. Brand-building really does start inside the company. If employees are educated, if they’re believers, if they’re inspired, can walk the talk, and do it consistently, customers will come along for the ride (and bring their friends).

5. Deeds versus words. Brands used to be built through imagery and messaging. But those days are just about over. Today’s power brands are involving and dynamic, deliver great customer experiences, are mechanisms for connections and community and for more meaningfully improving our lives.

6. Co-create value. Harness the collective intelligence of audiences to create greater and new value for your customers and company; along the way, creating stronger relationships, greater advocacy and deeper loyalty.

7. Tag team. An inspiring and brand-engaged CEO, coupled with a talented, imaginative and respected CMO is a tough team to beat.

8. Deliver happiness. Happy customers are happy to spread your word. And with multiple channels at their disposal, they certainly will.

9. Extend apologies. If you screw up, admit it. Trying to hide behind it doesn’t make much sense, because you can’t.

10. Execute brilliantly. Success is in the details. Which means your whole brand house needs to be in order. Every facet of your brand expression – from behaviors, to communications, environments and products – must reflect and extend your story.

Any other tips to add to this list?

Are you leveraging your opportunity to become one community of practice?

This video highlights the benefits of using collaborative tools to share best practices and expertise across the Rio Tinto group. According to Mark Bennett, principal advisor, a community of practice is a group of people who share a passion for something they know how to do, and who want to interact regularly to learn how to do that thing better.

These collaborative forums are changing the way the company works. People aren’t scared to ask questions. A lot of people are willing to give answers. The end result is a significant shift to become more interdependent. To being one Rio Tinto.

Sounds a lot like the opportunity we have through social media. And isn’t this its ultimate benefit? To create a community of practice. Community collaboration that creates greater value for both customers and companies. Extracting the knowledge, insights and imagination that we each possess, and unlocking it through collaboration.

I just came back from the e-patient connections conference last week. The power of this concept of communities of practice was reinforced through many important and powerful examples. Just a few of these included:

• Mayo Clinic’s Patient Stories, told by those who are honored to share their stories and who understand the power they have to help others
• Kerry Sparling, from sixuntilme.com, who said that for diabetes patients, finding emotional support online is everything
• Lisa Tate (CEO Womenheart) and Robert Schumm (Marketing Director Bayer Healthcare) who talked about their Facebook Strong@Heart initiative

So, how are you helping to create, for your customer and for  your company, your “community of practice.” Please share your story.

Are audiences falling into your gravity?

Though I’m paraphrasing the lyrics of a great song by Sarah Bareilles, they’re a wonderfully appropriate question to ask of your marketing.

Though we tend to be pretty careless with our absolutes, there really never has been a more opportune time to engage customers with your gravity. Technology facilitates it. Trust (or lack thereof) compels it. Customers crave it, feed off of it and spread it. It’s simply the law of gravity at work.

So, what are you doing to attract or bring your customers back to you? What are you doing to take advantage of this “natural occurance”?  Here are some suggestions:

• understand what your customers care about and what unmet needs they have – by listening in on their natural conversations
• find new and better ways to engage them in ways they value and want – by understanding their level of involvement in social media channels
• allow conversations to go on around you – empowering people to connect through your brand, with content as the enabler
• co-create solutions by treating customers as collaborators rather than followers – ultimately creating value for both customers and your company
• consider the most important benefits you can provide to customers – helping them to do more, achieve more and add more value to their lives

Are you making gravity work for you?

Thought I’d recap the highlights (at least mine) from the 10/26-27 e-Patient Connections 2009 Conference.

While all speakers provided new insights and perspectives, I’m summarizing (paraphrasing) the highlights from the speakers and presentations that particularly resonated with me:

Jason Hwang, MD (Innosight Institute, co-author Innovators Prescription); The Innovators Prescription
- we suffer from malpractice, but a different type, i.e. “business model”
- must understand difference between sustaining innovation (performance improvements, historical value dimensions) and disruptive innovation (that lets companies appeal to new rings of customers)
- enabled by technology, we have an opportunity to disrupt/move healthcare out to non-experts to let them do things themselves, e.g. facilitated user networks (like Facebook), a currently underutilized model to serve chronic care patients

Thomas Goetz, Executive Editor, Wired Magazine; Decision Tree: Smarter Patients, Better Choices
- proposes a new strategy for thinking about health, applying cutting-edge technology and sound science to put us at the center of the equation
- today, unfortunately, most healthcare information comes to us in cascades of do’s and dont’s

Dr. Jay Berhnardt, CDC; Social Media & The H1N1 Flu Pandemic

- H1N1 as example of why CDC’s engaged in social media as part of their strategy
- Customer Centered Communication Strategy: how, when, where people want and need to inform about health and safe decisions, i.e.
• information that is accessible and relevant
• mix of high repetition with deep engagement
• combination of high-tech and high-touch
• traditional/vertical media (though harder to have impact given lack of trust) combined with social media (horizontal and spreadable; higher level of trust)
- some interesting stats across CDC social media channels:
• approaching almost 500 million web site page views since H1N1 outbreak
• 5.07 million H1N1 flu-related emails sent, once consumers opt-in
• 19 videos posted on Youtube; 2.33 million views since 4/22
• 25, 322 Facebook fans since CDC page launched 5/1; value is in comments from people
• 917,579 views of CDC H1N1-related podcasts since 4/22
• 928, 412 followers on 3 CDC Twitter profiles
• CDC Health-e-cards (15,433 since 4/22)
• just launched mobile-based text messaging (1,155 opt-in subscribers since 9/14); subscribers receive about 3 messages/week

Susannah Fox, Pew Internet & American Life Project; The Social Life of Health Information
- people just diagnosed are looking for just-in-time “someone like me”
- patient networks can be powerful, early warning system
– marketers should think of e-patients as colleagues, not as people being marketing to (if you’re ready to listen to them)

Mark Bard, Manhattan Research; The Rapid Growth of Health Consumerism
- pharma info seekers have increased from 45 million in ‘04 to 100 million in ‘09
- majority of e-health consumers now use the internet to confirm/learn after seeing doctor
- health 2.0 can’t happen on web 1.0 websites; need to be able to evaluate, exchange, connect, create community, participate
- mobility is huge trend, certainly on physician side
- key questions to consider: how balance content with community; is it more about initiating a conversation, or a lecture
- it’s not a community unless you’re having a conversation; much of pharma is still one-way

Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic Manager of Syndication and Social Media; Marketing The Mayo Clinic
- consider social media “power tools” for doing what we were already doing as organization
- found that patients are “honored” if you ask them to share their stories
- great example of exponentially growing views of YouTube video by using multiple channels (Mayo Clinic Atrium Piano video)
- one of the keys to success is all about repurposing content

Robert Halper, J&J Director Video Communication; J&J on YouTube
- company is on YouTube because:
• reputation: caring, socially responsible, trusted source for health care information
• engagement: comments, listening, responding
• community: linking to other sites, including non-branded operating companies; subscribing to other related channels, videos embedded in external sites
- not easy getting started: cultural (control of message), legal & regulatory (environment, adverse events, medical advice, fair balance, comment mediation), business (ROI, resources, staff, commitment)
- more risk not being part of the conversation; funny when CEO’s talk about not putting brand out on social media, when they’re already out there

Dave DeBronkart, e-Patient Dave; Cofounder Society for Participatory Medicine; Special Presentation
- very moving talk about his “free replay” after beating his cancer
- his treatment [cure] options were based, in part, on his incredible outreach, research, open sharing of his health records
- now evangelist for “participatory medicine”; first edition of Journal of Participatory Medicine (his new publication) forthcoming
- accessed tremendous amount of information on acor.org (which didn’t exist anywhere else)
- key message is authenticity; don’t pretend, impersonate; be real, contribute value
- best information is a smart patient community; and patients love to give back

Brian O’Donnell, Klick Pharma, Top 1o Trends
10.  social media is becoming more mainstream (about the power of one, not so much followers)
9. pervasive use of technology in solving marketing challenges (can be a multiplier)
8. From wait and see to try and learn (try pilot programs)
7. patients and HCP’s online usage is increasing (balance of marketing mix)
6. data and intelligence becoming underpinning of marketing programs (make data planning part of your kickoff)
5. shift to multidisciplinary solution teams (make effort to reach out early)
4. branded mobile apps are becoming next CRM (think beyond the keyboard)
3. technology can make reps more powerful (integration is key)
2. value add beyond the pill (solutions, not just products; broadly supporting patients)
1. regulatory bodies embracing 21st century, e.g. FDA

Kerri Sparling, sixuntilme.com author, Patient Opinion Leaders
- diabetes has been part of her life since age 6; but wouldn’t exactly call it her buddy
- she started sixuntilme in May, 2005; felt like she was only diabetes patient on the planet
- now more than 350 sites dedicated to diabetes lifestyle and management
– POL’s (patient opinion leaders) don’t blog because they have to, but because it helps us heal
- finding emotional support online is everything
- don’t consider patients a “target market”, but a consumer base being marketed to
- until there’s a cure, there will be a blog

Tricia Geoghegan, Johnson & Johnson/Ortho-McNeil-Janssen; Facebook ADHD Allies
- what social media isn’t: the shiny new object
- what it is: consumer democracy, sharing/not selling, creating foundation for new kinds of relationships, reinforcing commitment to disease awareness
- people trust other people, e.g. Mom-bassadors™
- metrics will answer questions, the best ones will compel more questions
– users will tell you what’s relevant
- what’s unmet need for patients, what’s business case and risk/benefit analysis, how define ROI

Lisa Tate (CEO Womenheart) and Robert Schumm (Marketing Director Bayer Healthcare); Facebook Strong@Heart
- cardiovascular disease is #1 cause of death for women
- was each organization’s first foray into social media
- why social: target was online, patients wanting to speak about/share their own experiences
– combination of traditional (eyeballs) and online (conversations) drove success (key theme reinforced by other speakers)

Dennis Urbaniak, VP Innovation & New Customer Channels Sanofi-Aventis; From Patients To People: What it Takes for  True Shift to a Customer-Centric Approach
– must challenge current mindset within organization; new ideas built on top of old models are doomed to failure
– stop thinking patient and start thinking people; most have their own values, belief systems, etc.; must understand their perspectives
- preference and choice doesn’t fit with one-way approach (typical pharma model; e.g. Model T)
– challenge mindset of patient vs. person
- how to move ahead: change approach
- choice (need to get perfectly comfortable with content, dialogue, listening opportunities)
- what’s the job: what are the hiring criteria and who are the candidates (framework for presenting sustaining and disruptive innovations); start to identify gaps and then pinpoint opportunities; actionable insights from customer pov (vs. brand and product pov)
– need to get extremely comfortable living in glass house if you’re change agent inside company
- create the example (very powerful means to drive real change): step back and honestly answer each point:
• project description (elevator speech; not powerpoint deck)
• project objective (what’s the job to be done)
• project metrics (must be prospective; here’s how assess progress, learn and adjust)
• project status (build in points of adjustment as you go)
- sets dynamic that rewards failure; everyone was aligned
- Net:
• change the mindset, change the approach, create the example

Joe Shields, Pfizer: New Ideas For Patient Adherence
– e=empowerment
- process for developing programs:
• what’s your pov?
- Patient (me), Health care provider, Payer, Pharma
• what’s your process?
1. Gain insights (strategic advantage from this work; doc/patient interaction; motivations/barriers)
2. Set objectives
3. Audit current stuff
4. Align current stuff with 1 & 2
5. Identify gaps
6. Fill gaps
7. Measure programs
8. Improve and keep testing
- what does good look like? from different perspectives, as everyone has different agenda/incentives
- make up of strong adherence program:
1. Insightful (patient and doc; does it really solve a problem)
2. Systematic (things that talk to everyone else, things accountable to whole system)
3. Multi-channel
4. Scalable (how easy is it to get work done, get out to most people, return on hassle – is it worth it if you can’t scale it)
5. Social (with regard to adherence, it’s a team sport; some accountability beyond patient itself; service of better patient outcomes)

Marc Monseau, Director, Corporate Media Relations J&J: Connecting J&J To Twittersphere To Tweet or Not To Tweet
- How this came together; what he/J&J hoped to achieve, how it fits together
- Steps:
• Create business case
• Connect with other initiatives
• Establish a personality
• Set guides
• Gain legal/regulatory support
– What kind of Twitter account do you want to be?
• customer service
• expert source
• news gatherer
• suggestion box
• special offers
- establish a personality
- have to be yourself
- not just recitation of PR’s
– Multiple platforms (tie Twitter back to all else company is doing); so nothing is one-off
- setting controls:
• took social media biz plan to lawyers/regulatory  (one of the do’s/don’t’s)
• have to work with attorney’s to gain understanding
• how to manage adverse events/offlabel uses?
- Concept of “content guardrails” (gave credit to his associate for this concept):
• within predefined scope: self-management
• outside predefined scope: legal, regulatory, management
• both = publication for tweets

“Before all else listen. The pathway to change is through relationships, and you can’t form a relationship if you’re not at eye level.”

These are the words of Tim Shriver, Chairman & Chief Executive, Special Olympics. He was featured today in “The Boss”, a regular column in Sunday’s NY Times Business section.  In talking about the start of his career he states: “I probably started my career on a big white horse, thinking that I was a social change agent. The kids (who he taught in an after school program) taught me a fundamental lesson: Get off the horse.

Interesting how things come around. His words from many years ago, you can’t forge a relationship if you’re not at eye level, describe perfectly the changing nature of the relationship between customers and companies.

Today, eye level translates to:

• understanding customers and their pain points
• letting go of control (actually, realizing your not in control)
• providing content and experiences that help them do more and achieve more
• responding with real time customer service and support
• being the conduit for customer conversations with others who have similar interests and needs
• actions that build transparency and trust

Are you at “eye level” with your customers?