Crisis Communications and Healthcare Social Media

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Crisis Communication in the Age of Social Media

Perspectives for Healthcare ProfessionalsBy Susan GosselinDirector of PR Vest Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations, Louisville, KY

How are they using it?825 Hospitals in Social Media in US

Where Is the Growth in Usage?

Yeah, but Who’s Using it in Kentucky?

Develop an audience that wants your p.r.Best Practice#1: Creative Use of Your Newsroom

Best Practice #2: Full Disclosure – Virally

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Best Practice #3: Fargo – Twitter as Emergency Response System

Best Practice #4: Social Tools for Health Crisis

»Flu.gov receives hundreds of amateur ads – winner gets $2500 cash. Contest widely reported in national mainstream news media.

»E-cards – send a viral video card on flu prevention to your friends

»Online toolkits for schools, universities to communicate to students

»Extensive how-to information for special populations

Government Outreach

CDC Bloginars: Making Bloggers Partners

»When the FDA recalled several brands of peanut- based products, people went to the Internet first for details. The FDA recall widget app got:

»19 million unique visitors for the main site

»Placement on 20,000 websites

FDA Peanut Recall Widget

CDC – Hundreds of E-cards

Best Practice #5: The Transparent CEO

» Paul Levy, CEO Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston

»700 jobs to be cut, mostly lower staff level

»Announced town hall meetings on his blog

»Town halls explained what needed to be done and asked the staff for suggestions

»Boston Globe invite to attend an internal meeting

His Blog Is a Channel for Rallying Staff in Economic Crisis

CEO Management by Blogging

»Standing ovations from employees and outpouring of team support on his blog

»More than 100 messages an hour for days

»Hundreds of suggestions for cost cutting

»Departments and individuals offer to take pay cuts and give up overtime and vacation

Results: 500 Jobs Saved

Paul Levy: The White Knight of The Great Recession

»Post every comment, no matter how negative

»Treat all your employees like adults

»Treat all employees as equally important

»Reveal everything – infection rates, outcomes – and encourage interdepartmental competition

Levy’s Lessons in Radical Transparency

Those Who Live by the Sword May Die by the Sword. But They Can Defend Themselves with the Sword, Too.

How Should I Use Social Media at My Hospital?Start with Your Employees.

»Perform a communications audit of channels you now have, what they say, how they run, and how effective they are

»Develop communications chain of command, determine how it works in different kinds of crisis

»Put your listening ears on:

Google Alerts

TweetDeck/Seesmic

Memetracker

Google Analytics/Vocus/Cision

Formalize Your Crisis Communication Plan

»# of views on videos, # of downloads for podcasts

»Google Alerts to show who else is discussing you

»Offsite analysis free tools – Quantcast, Compete, and Alexa

»Paid services such as Radian6

»Increases in new patients, procedures done, or inquiries

Measurement Tactics

Executive Media Training

»Composure/body language

»Crafting message

»Avoiding land mines

»Real-world simulations preferred

Source: Diplopundit.blogspot.com

Prepare Your Crisis Communication Tools

»Pre-designed templates and documents

»Stay on alert lists from CDC, FDA and others, using their tools

»Develop good Facebook/Twitter fan base

Your Most Important Tool: Social Media Newsroom

»Makes your news viral

»Encourages pick-up from bloggers and journalists

»Coordinates resources in one place

»C

The Social Media Release

How are they using it?Create Social Media Policies for All Stakeholders

»Employees participating for company

»All employees, all personal sites

»Distributors/partners who may write about your product

»Visiting public

beaupre.com

Team Policy – What to Cover

»Plagiarism – all sources noted with a link back

»Defamatory language

»Arguing

»Breaking company news without permission

»Promising what you can’t deliver

»Referring to vendors/partners without their consent

»Leading language

»Making false claims

»Charged statements

»Online diagnosis blog.hubspot.com

»Include in Employee Handbook

»No company links or photos unless already released

»Keep same “dont’s” from social media team policy

»Cannot use company logo in profile, profile pic

»Clients on your Facebook?

»Foursquare decorum?

Facebook Social Media Policy for ALL Employees

Duane Hoffman/msnbc.com

Twitter/Wiki Social Media Policy for ALL Employees

»No handles using company name

»Keep “don’ts”

»No wikis without permission

»Professional decorum

»No company logos

»No posting of videos on YouTube without consent

businessinsider.com

The Public Needs Rules, Too

»Publish policy wherever

they comment

»No harassment

»No spam/chain letters

»Must stay on topic

»No plagiarism

»No defamatory language

»No personal or contact info

»Reserve the right to remove

Socialmediagovernance.com

Websites Worth Visiting

»http://www.mayoclinic.com/

»http://www.youtube.com/user/InnovisHealthChannel

»http://www.flu.gov/

»http://ebennett.org/

»http://www.socialmediagovernance.com

»Susan Gosselin, Director of PRSusan Gosselin, Director of PR

»Vest Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations Vest Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations Louisville, KY Louisville, KY

»502-267-5335 ext. 253502-267-5335 ext. 253

»[email protected]@vestadvertising.com

Thanks for joining us today!

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