Dec

Greg Matthews, Humana: the future of health brands and social media

As part of our “Insider Insights” series, I feature the personal perspective of a health brand senior marketer, digital, social or innovation expert. I’m pleased to have Greg Matthews, Director of Innovation at Humana, as this month’s participant.

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

The organizations and brands that will thrive in the future are those that …

can fundamentally change the way they work, ceding control to their customers, suppliers and employees. The old “we make it, you buy it” way of thinking is fast disappearing, even in the health system. It’s our belief that customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders are going to have to be a lot more involved in making, selling and servicing products. That means that organizations are going to have to shift from a command-and-control culture to a much more open and trusting environment.

Specific to social media, how has it impacted the way that your organization conducts business?

I think that we’re just beginning to see the impact of the changes in our company. Unlike some other companies, we have elected NOT to do a top-down implementation of a social media strategy. Instead, we’ve created a framework whereby every department has the ability to use social media to improve their own business processes – whatever those might be.

We’ve formed a volunteer “un-committee” made up of social evangelists from 14 different departments around the company. We don’t have a leader, a charter, or an executive sponsor. But here’s why I think it’s working:

First, this group wrote Humana’s social media policy and the associated communication plan, and had it ratified directly by our Executive Committee.

Second, when we formed the group less than a year ago, there were only two departments (marketing and the innovation center) who have an active presence in the social space. Now there are seven.

I think this way may be slower, but in the end is going to be a lot more effective because each department actually owns their initiatives, and are dependent on their own results.

What are the key challenges your organization is grappling with as it considers participation?

I think every corporation has to deal with two big issues: Control and speed.

Social media by its very nature is a grassroots phenomenon … the opposite of the top-down, control-oriented hierarchy of the corporation. Having enough trust to cede control is easy to talk about, but a lot harder to do. Corporate structures and processes are set up specifically to eliminate groundswells. Groundswells can reduce efficiency by producing outcomes that are different than those intended and create risk. So making this shift is more than just an attitudinal change; it’s a change in work structures and processes, too.

I think that speed is an issue because social media and community happen in real time … they don’t have time to wait for a decision to pass through multiple committees for a course of action to be agreed. This is a big switch, too.

What are your top lessons learned for implementing a social media strategy?

For me, there are four principles that have worked for us at Humana. They’re overly simplistic, but the best lessons always are, right? Here’s how I describe them (and you can see my visual presentation of these principles on slideshare):

• Be a vacuum. Always be learning. Always be reading. Always be looking for the next connection and the next smart idea. In social media, there is no such thing as “status quo.”

• Be a padawan. Talk to the best. You don’t need to get advice from Frank’s Social Media and Screen Door Company. The best thinkers in the world are giving it away for free every day on their blogs and on Twitter. And if you’re a company, there’s a good chance you can have a direct conversation with these Jedi; they want to work for you.

• Try stuff. No matter how much you read or how many Jedi you talk to, you can only really understand the power of social in your business by getting out there and trying it. That starts with building your own, personal social graph. Start a Twitter account, and follow 10 new people every day. Start a LinkedIn profile and join an interest group or two. Start a Facebook page and start playing games with your high school friends. Once you’ve gotten your personal social graph in order, find some low-risk ways to experiment on behalf of your company. There are plenty of experiments you can run that won’t create undue risk for your business.

• Be 2.0. Let the form follow the function. The form of social media is grassroots … groundswell … interactive. Let your work reflect that. It’s why our social media “uncommittee” is so unconventional. It HAS to be grassroots or it won’t work. It’s why our Web site (crumpleitup.com) has so little content … our content lives on the social web … on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. The Web site is just a hub with spokes leading out to all of that content. Before you try something in typical fashion, double-check yourself and ask, “what’s the social way to do this?” In our first uncommittee meeting, we decided to live-Tweet the meeting instead of taking minutes … which set a great tone.

Always remember that we’re still in the middle of this transition from an “information economy” to a “collaboration economy.” There’s not a single company that has defined the business of the future. And there’s nothing to prevent your business from being the one that does … so there’s no need to be afraid of a few little “failures.”

Nov

Inspiration for health brand marketers to imagine and create new value

How to get more people using the stairs by making it fun to do? Watch this great video called Piano stairs – TheFunTheory.com.

But more important, this is a great example of imagining and creating new value for your customers, and your brand.

You can tell people all day long through your advertising that “taking the stairs is healthier than taking the escalator.” But bring the idea to life through your marketing in a way that people want to (can’t help but) engage with, and you’ll change behavior, and change lives.

As always, actions speak louder than words.

Nov

Insights for healthcare marketers: 10 crucial consumer trends for 2010

Here are ten consumer trends from Trendwatching.com to help you kick-start 2010.

Within the briefing are also a couple strong macro trends resources like McKinsey’s Global Institute and IMD’s global challenges site.

Note that these consumer trends are not “healthcare-specific”, which I think is a good thing (there are many healthcare reports like this to be found; and if you don’t have, please let me know).

But make no mistake, these trends apply to your customers, your brands and your company. So think, and imagine, about how to creatively connect them, twist them, shape them and adapt them to make things better for your customers and to enhance the relevancy of your brands.

To this point, the report suggests four questions that will help you determine if they have the potential to help you create new and greater value for your customers and company. Do they:

1. influence or shape your company’s vision
2. inspire you to come up with a new business concept, an entirely new venture, a new brand
3. add a new product, service or experience for a certain customer segment
4. speak the language of those consumers already “living” a trend

In many cases, you’ll find (at least you should) the answers to be “YES”.

Enjoy, and good innovating! Once again, the link is also here.

Nov

Ad Age's America's Hottest Brands – where are the healthcare marketers?

What’s the story here? Are there no healthcare brand upstarts or stalwarts setting the pace for innovation and getting results – right now? To that, I say….

The 11/16 Ad Age includes a feature on America’s Hottest Brands – “meet the upstarts and the stalwarts who have found the upside of the downturn; setting the pace for innovation – and getting results – right now.”

These brands run the gamet – from Jameson, to Jetblue, Digiorno, Panera, Subaru, Bing, Barnes & Noble, Diapers.com, Five Guys, Ped Egg and 30 others.

I went through each one of the stories and synthesized the magic behind the results (of course, the key criteria for inclusion on the list). Just some of these include:

• Managing to get consumers psyched about their category/their brand again
• Creating partnerships to help change the nature of conversations
• Using social media and customer service as marketing tools
• Recognizing that it’s not about your product, but about their lifestyle
• Knowing who we are and speaking of things relevant to customers
• Engaging the people within our community
• Creating mobile apps to generate new revenue streams and sales channels
• Engaging folks during a period of time where it can be mayhem; and building a whole mission around providing help during these times
• Having a connection and a closeness with customers that no one else can rival
• Not talking at our consumers, but rather challenging them and supporting them

I know healthcare brands (pharmaceuticals, healthcare systems, hospitals, home care, medical devices, etc.) are typically not included in Ad Age’s list. But I don’t care. I say it’s time to look beyond traditional consumer products boundaries.

Because in healthcare – from blogs to online communities to business models – there are many upstarts and stalwarts setting the pace for innovation and getting results. In fact, these results often translate to saving lives. And it doesn’t get much hotter than that!

So to Ad Age, I say, we’ll make our own list of America’s Hottest [Healthcare] Brands. The brands that save lives. The brands that contribute to healthier, stronger and happier lives. The brands that actually allow each of America’s hottest brands to have audiences healthy enough to participate in theirs.

Nov

Social media for health brand marketers – forget perfection

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.

Nov

Insight for health brand marketers – engage your influencers and decision-makers through social media

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.

Nov

Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic: the future of health brands and social media

As part of our “Insider Insights” series, I feature the personal perspective of a health brand CEO, senior marketer, digital or social media expert. I’m pleased to have Lee Aase, manager of Syndication and Social Media for Mayo Clinic, as this month’s participant.

Here’s what Lee 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…

Are trustworthy and transparent with key stakeholders, whether they be employees or customers or patients. In this regard, social media will be a force for good because it enables open communication. When organizations don’t treat people well, word will get around even faster than in the past. In the broadcast era, companies could buy gross tonnage of advertising to try to buy a consumer perception, and if they managed media relations skillfully they could pitch positive stories about their organizations to journalists.

There’s still some place for that in the conversational era, but it will be decreasingly effective.

On the positive side, if organizations provide a fantastic, remarkable experience to most customers, social media will enable that word to spread more quickly, too.

2. Specific to social media, how has it impacted the way your organization conducts business?

Social media enable Mayo Clinic to provide in-depth information to patients and consumers, with little production cost and virtually no distribution cost. We can talk in depth about relatively obscure medical conditions, for example, without worrying about turning off the mass audience. The new market has now been called “a mass of niches” and through social media tools we can provide the specialized information people crave, particularly when they’re facing a major medical issue.

We also are much more able to listen, both internally to employees and externally to patients and consumers, and to have discussions with them. This gives us great opportunities to learn and improve.

3. What are the key challenges your organization is grappling with as it considers participation?

We’re pretty well along the road to participation, so now we’re into the phase of seeing how we can incorporate social media into everything we do, and making all of our communications more conversational. It’s really an exciting time now. Early on, we had some understandable organizational trepidation about these tools, but as we understood that social media are just the way word of mouth happens in the 21st century, and that word of mouth has been the most important factor in building Mayo Clinic’s reputation for more than 100 years, we knew we needed to engage. And as we have had positive feedback we’ve been able to extend our social media presence even further.

4. What are your top lessons learned for implementing a social media strategy?

Don’t let strategy become an excuse for inaction. Often organizations wait to become involved in social media until they have thought through every imaginable scenario, and that’s fine, to a point. But too frequently they go way beyond due diligence to a social media form of hypochondria or paranoia.

Realize that if your organization is worth talking about, people are already discussing you online, so it would behoove you to join the conversation. And if you’re not being discussed online, that’s actually worse: it means you’re irrelevant, not worth talking about. That’s all the more reason to get engaged.

Social media are just another way of communicating, and are cheaper and more cost-effective than traditional means. In a twist on the defense department supercomputer’s line in the Matthew Broderick movie, “War Games,” I would say the only way to lose is not to play. It’s great to think about strategy in using social media, just as it’s appropriate to have a strategy for use of the telephone. For example, you may ask whether you will have a voice mail system or whether every call will be answered by a real person, or whether you will have a toll-free number for incoming calls. But it would be extremely odd for a company to decide it wasn’t going to install phones until it had its complete strategy decided.

So by all means, give a little thought to creating a potential growth path for social media in your organization, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The sales trainer Zig Ziglar used to say that if you wait until all the lights are on green before you leave the house, you’ll never get out of the driveway. If you spend any money to communicate with employees or customers, why wouldn’t you take advantage of free tools that help you do it better?

Nov

The importance of "story" to health brand marketers and their customers

I wrote a post yesterday providing ten tips to get your health brand engines going. One of the tips was “What’s Your Story.”

This presentation from Kevin Dugan – What’s Your Story? Storytelling’s Link to Social Marketing Sucess – provides great insight into the power of story for health brand marketers.

What's Your Story?

View more documents from prblog.

I think the most important takeaways from his presentation about the power of stories is that they:

• are easier to remember than facts
• are contagious
• bring people together and build loyalty
• can be used to start the conversation, change the conversation, humanize brands, create brands and communities
• have a beginning (a problem or antagonist), middle (solution or hero/awareness) and end (results, transformation)
• online, are told through social media channels, and contributed to by participants, who then share/discuss, comment/link, friend/follow, connect live, support, provide feedback to, reply/rt

All great brands are built on great stories. Stories that have no boundaries. Stories that you know well and stories that will grow in importance over time – Virgin, Apple, Southwest Airlines, St. Jude, Jones Soda, Mayo Clinic, Life Is Good, (RED), Pret Manger, Womenheart, Zara, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Nike, Cirque du Soleil, One Laptop Per Child, 23AndMe.

Their stories engage us in ways that facts and figures can’t. They help create emotional connections that transcend the pervasive and often ignorable messaging around functionality and quality. They reflect who we are or want to be, and help inspire and guide us to do more and achieve more than we could on our own. In turn, they help you stand out from the crowd.

Importantly, every brand has a story. Sometimes it’s right there ready to be told. Other times, you need to search it out. But it’s worth the hard work. Because ultimately, your story is a powerful means to creating enduring customer connections and sustainable competitive advantage.

What other brands would you add to the list of those who tell a great story?

Nov

10 tips for health brand marketers to restart their brand engines

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?

Nov

Insights for health brand marketers: borrow on the idea of Communities of Practice

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.