Power in Numbers

I love the connection that Anne Driscoll (contributor to Mashable.com) makes in her article “5 Tips for Sparking a Grassroots Movement Online.” She says that social action is easy for those who understand the value of service and helping others. They already devote themselves to making the world a better place and overcoming the odds. What Driscoll says the real trick is “turning that personal motivation into a widespread and impactful movement.” This is where in 2012, social media comes into play big time. Grassroots communities are a way to get actionable success even with limited budgets and resources. If you can make these communities go viral, on a global level, you can increase the power of the movement exponentially.

If we take a look at the recent Occupy Movement, it is apparent that the powerful tool of social media is no secret to grassroots movements. The Occupy group did a fabulous job utilizing social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Google to rally Americans across the nation to congregate in large cities (and smaller ones) and to fight Wall Street, the wealthy “top 1%” – in other words, “The Man.” There is no question that the effort made an impact from a numbers standpoint. Thousands of people gathered in public parks or other locations in major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, New York, Boston, Miami, and Los Angeles to make their voices heard. Social media played many roles here: gathering people to one location in their region, encouraging a rigorous dialogue, and grabbing the attention of members of the media – both traditional and new.

According to Twitter, “over 100K different hashtags have been used to discuss the Occupy Wall Street movement and similar ‘occupy’ tactics.” Twitter reported the following (sample stats for Occupy Movement):
• Top occupy-related hashtags: #occupywallstreet #ows #occupywallst #occupy #occupyboston
• Up to 330K total hashtags /day, 17K different hashtags daily
• Top cities tweeting occupy hashtags, in order: NYC, LA, DC, SF, Boston,
• Top cities outside US: London, Cairo, Toronto

In my opinion, these high numbers are so absurd, but at the same time very exciting. This shows the power of social media to give momentum to a movement. The following question arises…if the movement was this popular and powerful, why was there so much controversy over media coverage? People argue that the movement got too much, too little, and not the right kind of coverage. They make every argument under the sun. I happen to agree with Capital New York’s Joe Pompeo in his article stating that the movement has received its fair share of publicity. Despite the back and forth quarrel about whether the Occupy movement deserves “top story” status, the fact remains that Google News indexed over 2,000 articles and news stories in the first 10 days of the movement. The A.P. published 30 photos, a half-dozen stories and at least one video in that same time period. Finally, CNN broadcast the story on Newsroom, The Situation Room, Piers Morgan Tonight, and CNN International. If that’s not coverage, I don’t know what is.

The real question here is why the controversy in the first place? What makes the media uncertain about the Occupy story? This boils down to the fundamental elements to a grassroots movement and leveraging the social media tool properly. Like any media story, the Occupy movement needed to have substance, meaning: authenticity, a clear message, and it needed to tell a story – not simply raise an issue (according to Driscoll). Perhaps this final item is what was lacking. Although the Occupy movement did tell a story (it told many, actually) it did not always do so in a clear manner. Facts were not always accurate and the stories did not present one, united message. Much of the time, the movement appeared disorganized and lacking leadership. Without a clear communications team working the front lines, reporters in the media got caught up in many of the smaller side stories and the message was mixed. Of course the average story was important; the entire movement was centered around every day people. However, these people needed to understand why they were doing what they were doing—they needed some guidance. The lack of organization also put the movement at a disadvantage when countering negative PR. I don’t believe that there was manipulation of the media coming from the movement itself, but I do think that there was a bit of anarchy and chaos within the movement that resulted in a lack of control or strategy from a PR perspective. I believe that the media can only be “manipulated” as much as it allows itself to be.

There are many success stories and examples of grassroots movements embracing social media in the world of healthcare. One very interesting example is the interactive healthcare movement led by physicians, themselves. “Interactive Health is transitioning clinical care from real-world, costly encounters to virtual, inexpensive, cloud-based care.” This means that the patient/doctor conversation happens virtually, in a safe online space like HealthTap, instead of in-person as health care delivery has traditionally be done. Ron Gutman points out that when looking at this movement, interactive healthcare is supported by three pillars: quality, access, and care. If these can be sustained at a low cost to provider and patient through an online social movement, all the more reason to move forward. There is great potential for social media to support health movements such as these, especially in areas like global health where access to care can be a great obstacle. I would predict that the challenges here would be the human inclination to resist change, as we move away from traditional care, as well as the legal risks affiliated with Patient Health Information (PIH) and HIPAA laws.

This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.

Sources:
http://mashable.com/2011/08/26/grassroots-online-tips/
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/is_occupy_wall_street_getting.php?page=all
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/29/occupy-wall-street-12-days-and-little-sign-of-slowing-down/#ixzz1ZLnzPK5c
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/10/21/over-100k-different-hashtags-have-been-used-to-discuss-occupy-wall-street/
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2011/09/3533389/occupy-wall-street-media-blackout-myth-plenty-stories-none-them-big http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2012/02/21/a-new-grassroots-movement-by-doctors/

Behind the scenes: SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which you can use techniques to improve rankings on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This can be done through a variety of tactics --some more effective than others. When implementing SEO for a website, it is important to understand your desired audience. Strategically choose what tactics you implement and make sure that your campaigns, blogs, social media, and advertising drive traffic back to your site. If your marketing efforts are integrated in this fashion, you will have a greater impact overall.

Search engines produce web links on their results pages by combing the Internet, looking for key words that relate to a particular user's search. After noting which sites embrace those key word concepts, as well as other characteristics of the websites, search engines classify them for future searches. Depending on the value of the content, the search engine will rank the site for that particular search on the results page; this is called the page rank of the site. Page rank is not set in stone and can improve with good SEO and popularity of the site (i.e. user traffic). SEO provides webmasters and marketers the opportunity to equip their sites so that they will come out on top for related search engine results. The challenge with SEO is to make sure that you are targeting the right audience, so that your site gets traffic from users who are actually interested in your content and may later be turned into loyal customers/patients, etc.

To establish good SEO, it is critical that you build on-page and off-page SEO in order to drive traffic to a website and increase visibility. On-page SEO includes content, code, and site architecture. Strive for well-written content that is concise and comprehensive. Keep your site fresh and up to date, but also comprehensive. If you are a site that offers articles or lengthy blog posts, consider posting only 2-3 times per week, instead of every day.  According to DiTesco, " Google, is now looking for “fresh” content. Obviously, if you are talking about something that is “hot” or trending, the more updated the information is, the better." (1) Also, make sure that you are giving users what they want. Think about answering their search question directly -- if you envision your website as the top result in a search for a new medical procedure, make sure that the story about that procedure is featured front and center on your site.

Make sure your code is clean. Code is really just the signals that a programmer establishes to ensure that a site is optimized for the search engines that crawl the web. Meta tagging and keywords can help search engines find your info. As Erin Everhart says on Mashable Tech, "People search in Google because they have a question. Anticipate those questions — whether about the best style of yoga pants or where to get the lowest mortgage rate. Your keywords and the content on your pages should reflect the answers to those questions. Keyword research is tedious, but it’s arguably the most important aspect of SEO." (2)

You also want to think about the design of your website and the navigation path that you have set for the user. Is your site navigation intuitive? Can the user easily find his or her way from one page to another? User-ability can play a key factor in capturing the attention of a user and not immediately boring your audience (this would result in a high bounce rate for your page, if everyone who arrived immediately left the site).

Off-page SEO ranking can play a much bigger role in influencing the success of your website. Build links into your content, highlighting keywords that will take the user to another part of your site or to an external site of relevance (make sure that the link opens in a new window, so the user does not leave your site in the process!) Breadcrumb trails or anchoring text are other ways to show people where they've been and to allow for the user to orient him/herself. Form relationships with other like-minded organizations and host referral links to each other's websites. If the other site has a good reputation, their referral will give your site increased legitimacy and it will also improve your Google Page Rank.

If SEO is done right, it can greatly improve your ROI; whatever that may be. SEO can generate a great deal of revenue for websites that support a PPC (Paid Per Click) advertising method. As stated in Payperclickuniverse.com, PPC ads are display or bid-based ads that appear only on high ranking webpages or search results pages. PPC metrics employ a quality score, determining which ads should appear. As advertises pay for the placement, the ads are certain to appear instead of having to compete with other search results, as can sometimes happen with SEO (3). Advertisers pay the publisher (website owner) when the ad is "clicked." The more a website leverages SEO, the more traffic will result. Advertisers will then be attracted to sites that are well-built, with good user friendly interfaces, and a high volume of traffic. A happy user is more apt to click on an ad and linger on a site; therefore, revenue potential is high.

Social media is another area of interactive marketing that should be directly tied to the SEO of a website. Use your company's social media platform to help your website's page rank, start a dialogue, and build trust with your audience. A recent article by Ragan.com states that Google search (debatably the best and most popular search engine out available) is now actually favoring social media activity -- "likes" and tweets -- over key words and other more traditional aspects of SEO. (4) Social media can be the perfect place to tie together your website, media coverage in the news, advertising campaigns, and blog posts or reviews. Share these things with your audience and keep a close eye on your analytics for your website. Trial and error is often the best approach when crafting a message, as the audience is different for every brand. Test it out to see what works. Sometimes something as simple as the time of day that you choose to post can slightly alter the demographic of your viewers.

SEO is only one piece to the larger puzzle of what is called "inbound marketing" for a brand or company. If you take a look at this Infographic on hubspot.com, it is easy to see the strong relationship between SEO for a website and the overall ROI for a marketing strategy. The Infographic "helps inbound marketers understand the entire inbound process from start to finish -- from getting found online, to converting visitors into leads and customers, and then measuring the entire funnel." (5)

After considering all of the points made above, it is critical to remember that like most things on the web, best practices for SEO are forever changing. It is important to update and freshen up SEO periodically, staying abreast of the latest developments. As DiTesco says on his iBlogZone, " SEO is not dead as many would like you to believe, but it is constantly changing and as new factors come into play, others go." (6)

This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.

References

(1, 6) Perez, Fransisco (2012). The Best SEO Practices and Tips 2012. Retrieved from http://www.iblogzone.com/2012/01/best-seo-practices-tips-2012.html

(2) Everhart, Erin (2011). 6 Best Practices for Modern SEO. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2011/11/08/seo-best-practices/

(3)Pay Per Click Universe (2012). Organic SEO and Paid Search: Friends or Foes? Retrieved from http://www.payperclickuniverse.com/pay-per-click-search-engines-articles/organic-seo-and-paid-search-friends-or-foes/

(4) Kramer, Shelley (2012). Google favors Facebook shares, 'likes,' and comments more than keywords. Retrieved from http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/45186.aspx

(5)Vaughan, Pamela (2012). How Inbound Marketing Works, From Start to Finish [INFOGRAPHIC]. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31271/Inbound-Marketing-From-Start-to-Finish-INFOGRAPHIC.aspx/

Common Craft (2011). What is Search Engine Optimization/ SEO? Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF515-0Tduk 

Addicted

With a lot of my focus centered on social media these days (for work, in class, in the news), I took one of those long pauses to consider why networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and blogging play such an important role in our lives today.

On any given day, I will probably access and engage in social at least 6-8 times. I login to Facebook in the morning to check our brand page for work. I wish my friends a happy birthday, if their special day happens to be popping up in my newsfeed and I will continue to browse content for my brand page related to my field of health care. I then read straight news articles and make a post for my healthcare organization on some relevant material.

If I am not in the middle of running a planned campaign, I will usually post something educational and link to an online resource. Other times I'll choose to link to a news article or program offering. Typically, I monitor the site for 1-2 hrs after posting, leaving the browser open so that I can pick up on any negative activity immediately, while I move on to other marketing work. I will check back at lunch and in the afternoon, depending on work meetings and the structure of my day. I always have my mobile phone on hand, which will alert me to activity regardless. Right now my evenings are spent studying, but inevitably, I will return to social media for personal browsing and updates on my friends and family.

Wow. You probably think I'm addicted, now. Which may be the case -- but it's a good thing. I manage the social media platform at work, which is a big task. I am responsible for growing our fan base, with significant outcomes each year. As a nonprofit, we has chosen to use only organic efforts (campaigns, interactive marketing, and creative ideas) to promote our social media. We do not use paid advertising. It is also critical to our success that we target the correct demographic, ensuring that our efforts will yield the proper results.

And it's all about the metrics! Seriously, everything these days is measurable and this is a tool that is invaluable. Measuring the value of a LIKE or the virality of a message on Facebook allows for analysis and tweaking that can greatly improve your marketing method and legitimize your brand. If you learn as you go and stay abreast of the latest developments in social media, you are on your game. The potential ROI for interactive online marketing is unprecedented.

There are many thought processes that make a marketing campaign a success, but the most important thing to keep in mind is why are people using sites like Facebook anyway? What makes these sites addicting? Why is it that people stay on these sites for MUCH longer than the average web search or page visit?

Because...

1. You can connect with friends who live in all parts of the world or from different stages of your lives. These are people that you cannot see on an every day basis, but you can keep up to date on some of the ins and outs via Facebook. Sharing challenges and triumphs with people you care about is one of the greatest joys of life.

2. You can get useful info -- current news stories, job opportunities, education on topic. All of this info can be accessed and shared by valuable individuals, your "friends." A recommendation for a restaurant or a promotional deal for a local store is much more believable and reliable coming from a friend. Trust is at the base of all Facebook interactions; trust breeds sharing.

3. You can keep yourself busy stalking people (not literally, although that some times happens). When you get bored or need inspiration, Facebook is the place to go! It is possible to suck up hours and hours of time on internet and sites like Facebook are big culprits.

Good things to keep in mind. Why does social media matter to you? There's a good chance that it matters to your next door neighbor for many of those same reasons. Of course there are always differences between different populations and the marketer must take that into account, as well.

This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.

Personal vs. Professional Brand Marketing

The potential ROI for internet marketing is astounding. For little to no cost, a company or individual can successfully market themselves on a global level through hundreds of web apps, social media channels, email marketing campaigns, and blogs (to name a few). This is an exceptional development and one that certainly levels the playing field between large companies and small businesses/nonprofits. The power to increase visibility and the reach of their message or brand is exponential.

The laws of both Moore and Metcalfe attribute to this. Moore's Law states that every 18 months processing power doubles, while cost remains the same. Metcalfe proposes that the value of a network grows by the value of N squared, when N = nodes (devices or users connected to the network). Cookies (more on these later) contribute greatly to the processing power of the internet, as networks like Facebook become wiser about the interests of individual users, enabling customized advertising and more direct marketing. At the same time, however, it is important to utilize internet marketing in a strategic manner. This is where the difference lies between personal and brand dialogue on the web.

Over time, I have come to realize that with the internet, sometimes "less is more." As a healthcare marketing professional, I always want to be aware of developments and understand how people are using sites -- but this doesn't mean that I jump on the band wagon and create an account for my company immediately. Sometimes, it is better to observe from a distance. Not all social sites are successful and it is important that you check out a site, before choosing to create an account. Affiliation = endorsement and in order to protect your brand, you have to implement a strategy for which sites you choose to use and scout things out in advance.

The difference between a personal account on Facebook, for example, and a brand page is substantial. Personal accounts are often used to share personal info (duh) about relationships, emotions, and daily life in a casual manner. Where this can be a very friendly, inviting approach to online interaction, it is not appropriate for a professional entity or healthcare organization. On a daily basis, I observe how my friends and family manage their personal accounts on Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking sites. Many people do not give much thought to how what they say on their page or sharing private information. They say what they want, to whomever they desire and they don't worry too much about the repercussions or how they appear to the outside world.

Professional brands cannot afford this luxury; they have a reputation to uphold and an obligation to their clients, investors, etc. The need for careful monitoring and clear strategy is especially true for healthcare organizations or hospitals, as they have a very high standard to adhere to and must follow protocol to protect patient confidentiality, in line with HIPAA. How can hospitals and healthcare orgs use social sites? I will discuss this soon in an upcoming post, but here's the short and sweet of it: healthcare orgs can use social media to share important health messages, improve visibility, market programs and services that they provide, and offer a place for dialogue. However, the web is NOT a place for medical diagnosis, clinical care or instruction. There may be some hospitals that employ secure chat rooms or LIVE interaction where patient health info is protected. Facebook is not one of these places -- yet.

Moral of the story: with the development of so many new technologies, it seems that the possibilities for interactive marketing are endless. A small company or program can gain a large national presence through the internet in a very short amount of time. Through Google and other search engines, brands can find out exactly what their clients want and put their product right in front of the target audience, satisfying both parties. However, without proper application these powerful tools can do more harm than good. It is important for a brand to set in place proper protocol for both internal and external internet marketing policy (including one specific to social media). The brand must consider what sites or apps it chooses to use and how these efforts will integrate into the overall marketing strategy.

This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.