Commpression

Blog Business Summit: Scoble, Edwards and Hodder on Podcasting and Video

2006-10-27T12:41:00.000-06:00

Shooting video, distributing video, monetizing video.

Robert Scoble:

Start out with the basic question: What's the story you want to tell?
Also, you may need to concentrate more on audio quality than on video quality.
Get an HD camera, because the video becomes more versatile.
The bar is getting higher. You need to get noticed by saying something interesting over and over and over. But these days with video, you can get noticed a bit more easily.
People are experimenting with new and different ways of using video to tell stories.
Check out zefrank.

Mary Hodder:

It's really hard, in a way, but it's actually not that hard. If you keep producing all the time, you want to keep people engaged. You can create great video with a cellphone camera. But if you want to reach people regularly, you might as well.
Freevlog is a great site to help you get started.
If you're hitting the right people, you're doing it right.
Revver. The ad is a CPM ad, and the revenue is split 50% between Revver and the copyright holder.
People who are engaging users online are doing interesting things with video, like running contests where their customer evangelists are incentivized to make videos about their companies. See Bottom Union or Little Miss Matched.

Andru Edwards:

People are a lot more forgiving on the web. People don't care necessarily about topnotch quality. Despite the fact that something's done with a handheld, you can still have compelling content.
People are finding his content through RSS feeds and through searches. It's about 50/50 right now, but RSS is rising.
The metrics for videoblogging are still kind of off.

Blog Business Summit: Robert and Maryam Scoble with tips on how to build your blog

2006-10-27T11:27:00.000-06:00

Maryam: Blog because you want to.

Robert: Blog with passion. That's the only way to keep you going long-term. If you want to get into blogging, read what you're interested in.

Maryam: She started blogging because she met a lot of people who said they wished they could link to her. Online relationships turn into personal relationships. Because of blogging, she's got a much better job and a lot more friends.

Robert: Become an authority on something. Link to people who have interesting things to say about your topic. That helps you become an authority.

Maryam: There are two kinds of bloggers: bloggers who want to change things, and bloggers who want to talk about their lives.

Robert: It's a Google world. In the real world, outside of Silicon Valley, people start with Search. They use the search box to find everything. So you need to be searchable. People who focus their content on a single niche seem to do better. A generalist will not gather much audience. Scoble read everyone and linked to everyone who wrote "Microsoft," and people knew that they had someone's attention.

Dave Taylor: Is there an A-list and is that a problem?

Robert: Yes, there's an A-list and it's not a problem because you can get on the "A-list" in 20 minutes. There's an A-list for every single topic out there.

Maryam: Commentaries on your blog can be extremely harsh. If you can admit mistakes, that takes care of some of the harshness.

Robert: If you can't admit you made a mistake, people can be extremely harsh. People are looking for good keyword searches. You have to scan a lot more and not doing deep reading. You need to catch their eye. People who write good descriptive headlines stick out in that list.

Halley Suitt: Write good subheadlines.

Maryam: One of her top posts is an old one: Top 10 reasons to date geeks. It's a good headline.

Robert: He reads all his feeds as a river of news. Most bloggers use only text. But if you really want to stand out, use other media such as video, audio, images.

Tris Hussey: Read online 30% slower and have less comprehension. So visuals help break up the text.

Robert: Become a niche owner in other media, such as Second Life, Flickr.

Maryam: Let people see you as a human. It helps people want to connect to you.

Robert: He doesn't look at what he does as writing. He looks at it as talking to people. He started blogging because two people asked him to blog.

Maryam: Go to places where you can meet people. Get out of the blogosphere for a moment or two.

Robert: Relationships you build become power structures later on. If PR bloggers have blogs of their own and go to conferences and get face-to-face, they could accomplish their goals better than if they just flog people with press releases. People who stick out put their URLs on their business cards. Little things turn into blog readership later on. Find interesting touches to find ways for people to think about.

Maryam: Read your post before you post it. Check your state of mind and your state of heart.

Robert: Try some creative writing techniques. Mix things up. Write short paragraphs. Use inverted pyramid style. Readership goes down as the story goes longer. Make your point early. Don't be reserved about your blogging style. Bloggers can move their knob from the safe side to the risky side, but some corporate types can't move their knob. Spice up your posts with something about yourself. Tell some stories. Help other people get started.

Maryam: Share what you've learned and help other people get into the community.

Robert: A lot of corporate types are skittish about engaging others. Participate in the conversation that's going on at other blogs. Keep your integrity. You are what you appear to be. Disclosure helps you keep your integrity. You present yourself to your readers as you are. Don't try to hide who you are. If you are not what you appear to be, people will find you out.

Robert: Putting his phone number on his blog has been a brilliant move. He's been reachable by media when his PR team hasn't been.

Blog Business Summit: Corporate branding in the age of YouTube

2006-10-27T10:13:00.000-06:00

Ben Edwards, a former journalist with The Economist, is now head of New Media Communications at IBM. He launched a podcasting initiative at IBM, which cost a couple thousand dollars and was successful externally. It woke the enterprise up to the potential of new media.

IBM has about 26k blogs, about 3500 of which are updated regularly. They are approaching a million podcast downloads. IBM's system makes it easy to upload video, audio, powerpoint, etc. They also have 70,000 wikis, which many employees are using as project management tools, collaboration tools, reporting tools.

Social media, says Ben, changes the dynamics of communication. We're moving from professional publishing to self-publishing, high cost to low cost, mass audiences to niche audiences, passive engagement to active engagment, an institutional voice to an individual voice, a gatekeeper mentality to an enabler mentality, and a move from an advertising mentality for marketing to a publishing mentality for marketing, where you need to attract people to you based on the value of your content.

We in corporate communications lost our brand long ago when we started branding to our customers' identities.

What has changed in the new media landscape?

Our customers can create and share the brand themselves. Ideas about the brand can be communicated by anyone to anyone. On YouTube, people are celebrating brands, they are mocking brands, they are mashing up brands. In the blogosphere, on MySpace, on Orkut, on Flickr, there is constant talk about brands.
We can listen better. Ben says we shouldn't call ourselves the communication department; we should call ourselves the listening department. In new media, there is an enormous potential for free focus groups.
We can co-create the brand (if it's that kind of brand). Some brands are less about sharing than others. Some brands are elite. "You start showing people that these gods are humans, you begin destroying the brand." We can't control the brand, but we can influence the brand. By listening and sharing, we have a chance to solve some of the brand volatility issue. Brands have to appeal intellectually and emotionally simultaneously to all our audiences. The brand has to become something that everyone can relate to, that everyone can feel comfortable with. Some people, some employees don't recognize the truth in our brands, based on their own experience. A lot of this is about being more honest.

Ben's agenda for change:

Don't try to segment your audience. Nurture a brand which employees, customers and everyone else can relate to, emotionally and intellectually.
Provide employees with the means to tell their own stories about the brand, and in their own words.
Listen to what employees, customers, partners, suppliers are sharing about the brand.
When there is a potential for a positive outcome, engage to influence.

Blog Business Summit: Using RSS feeds

2006-10-27T09:14:00.000-06:00

Scott Niesen, Director of Marketing for Attensa, is speaking in Friday's breakfast session on the uses of RSS for business.

Scott says RSS today is used as a business intelligence tool, for reputation and brand monitoring, tracking the buzz about you or your company from markets trends and people. It's also an early warning system.

RSS is a great way to keep people up-to-date internally. Attensa's CEO has a public blog and an internal blog. Scott says everyone in his company is subscribed to the CEO's feed, because he lets his thoughts and feelings known in no uncertain terms.

RSS can be used to alert company employees of critical information: alerts about kinks in the supply chain, alerts to the sales force about a hot prospect, alerts that a new training module is available.

It has been estimated that knowledge workers spend 25-30 percent of their time searching for information. Persistent search via RSS can cut down on the time it takes for workers to find information.

Attensa is a tool that can display RSS feeds based on user behavior, with the feeds with info that the reader has historically paid the most attention to rising to the top.

Blog Business Summit: Audience measurement for blogs

2006-10-26T12:45:00.000-06:00

Does measurement matter? Is it "how many?" or "who?"

Tris Hussey:

There is not one tool to rule all RSS feeds.
The more you post, the more traffic you'll get.
Blogrolls are toast. To show link love, there are better ways.
Sometimes you need to set your numbers aside and look at the trends to find out what's going on.
Hits are how idiots track success.
Tools: Server-based tools and Javascript-based tools.
Performancing Metrics--specifically for blogging. Google Analytics.
Use two sources, check them against each other.
Technorati, Feedster, PubSub and Alexa are works in progress and miss a lot. But BlogJuice gives you a number based on these tools, which is OK. But Alexa doesn't work for Macs or for anyone on Firefox. Take with a large, honking grain of sea salt.
If you post more, people read you more, people link to you more.
Unique page views are always a good data set that people understand.
Another number is the Google AdSense impression count.

Andru Edwards:

Blogrolls can be used effectively if you have multiple blogs. Google likes blogrolls.
"A-listers" got there for a reason, because they contributed to their community.
If traffic spikes at a nondescript time, look at what you've written, and ride the wave.
JS tools capture what's on the page. Server side tools are much more robust--information that advertisers want to know about. AWStats, HitTail.
Advertisers will look at your Alexa rankings; be ready to explain its faults.
ExpressionEngine is the blog software Andru uses.
If you really want to know if you're moving the needle, talk to your customers. Thank them for their comments, for their links. Ask them what they're thinking about you.

Blog Business Summit: Engaging with Bloggers

2006-10-26T11:38:00.000-06:00

Janet Johnson, a marketing executive with Marqui:

Be honest about why you want people to help you out. People want to help people.
She worked for Enron, and thinks that Enron wouldn't have gone as far or as low as they did if the blogosphere was talking about them.
Go to events, make a personal connection, establish a relationship.
Ask for what you want, and sometimes you'll get it.
Get out there. If you don't, you're missing an opportunity to showcase your humanity.

Halley Suitt, CEO of Top 10 Sources and writer of Halley's Comment:

Do your homework. Know what the bloggers are writing about. Read them for a month before you even decide to approach them.
How do you get information? Read bloggers' RSS feeds, and do blog searches.
"It's word of mouth in its purest form, and if you can engage us, it's a goldmine."
The more you're connecting with the better.
PR should be training people in their organizations to be customer sensitive and to keep track of them.

Buzz Bruggeman, an executive with ActiveWords:

Bloggers are your intelligent agents. Subscribe to their feeds. You'll get the benefit of a huge amount of vetting, editorial and thinking.
If you want to engage someone, know what they're all about. Try their product. Know how you can help them.
When somebody engages Buzz, he reads what they write. If they write well and think well, he tries to find a way to bring them into the conversation.
There's an incredible desire on the part of people to create. If you are passionate about something, you can get it out there.
In this space, you don't get points for shyness.
Read the comments. See what people are talking about. Find someone else to engage.
Companies need to engage a professional writer to help them tell their story.

Blog Business Summit: Jason Calacanis keynote

2006-10-26T11:10:00.000-06:00

Jason Calacanis: From Weblogs, Inc. to Netscape: Maintaining Authenticity and Integrity within Commercial Social Media

Blogs are like paper. You can use it for any number of things: a beautiful book, artwork, or toliet paper. (More on the blogs are tools ideas.) Blogs attracted him because of their authenticity.
Calacanis talked a lot about working with people. "Command and control doesn't really work for people." "These people don't work for me. I work for them."
On being an entrepreneur: "I make a lot of mistakes, but I'm quick to recognize them when I make them."
On being a blogger: "Just write intelligent comments and everyone will know who you are." "We're all outsiders. That's what drew us to this." "There's never been a more open platform in the history of media." The beauty of blogging is it's the biggest meritocracy.
On pay-per-post: "Whenever something great is made, the marketers come in." "Loser companies come in that can't get traffic in any other way." "It's not innovative. It's lying. People have been lying for a long time." "Does anyone here want to be deceived? Raise your hand if you want to be deceived." (Calls out Tim Draper--not sure who he is.)
Podcasting: "This podcasting thing is going to be big." He was wrong about it a year ago. It's a huge opportunity to be first. Calacanis is going to get involved in a podcast. CalacanisCast on PodTech. PodTech and GoDaddy have donated $100,000 to sponsor the 50 episodes he'll do, which will put two kids into private school in New York. Media philanthropy.
YouTube: They built their business on copyrighted material, but they will be known as the organization that convinced big media that online video can work.
On authenticity: Do not let anyone get inside the blog post. That's my advice. The blog post is sacred.

Blog Business Summit: What's next in online communication

2006-10-26T10:16:00.000-06:00

What's Next in Online Communication

John Starweather (Microsoft): MS marketing is still getting used to the MS development community who do things very openly, while marketing is trying to keep things under wraps. The old rules and old dynamics of being able to control things go out the window. "Engage people in an honest way. Take the hard feedback. Listen. Change. Evolve." Social media fundamentally changes the way we talk to people. Focus on the small screen. Cell phones are almost as ubiquitous as watches. For communications, take a cue from the genuineness that are in blogs. Lose the spin.
Jeanette Gibson (Cisco): It's exciting to see Cisco evolving as Internet trends are evolving. There's a shift in power with who is the communication expert. Have consumers drive some of the messaging. Consumer-generated content. Reach out to bloggers, have RSS feeds, reach new audiences. Cisco is looking at how cell phones can add to real life experience.

Blog Business Summit: Transparency and disclosure--Dave Taylor says there aren't hard and fast rules

2006-10-26T01:00:00.000-06:00

It's late and time for me to get to bed so I can be ready for another day at the Blog Business Summit. Today's sessions, as I expected, were a bit simplistic, but they were still worthwhile. Robert Scoble and friends gave a nice intro to podcasting--good for me, since I've paid that whole phenomenon almost zero attention. But Scoble demonstrated the low barriers to entry as well as highlighted the distribution nuances that can bring the content to more people.

Even with the drawing power of the Scoblizer, the real star of today's sessions was Dave Taylor. He was as dynamic and interesting as I've heard he would be. He also caused a minor kerfuffle in a few of his sessions by arguing AGAINST disclosure and transparency. He said businesses need to blog in whatever way works for them. Blogging is simply a tool, not a religion. There are no blog police who will beat down your door if you choose not to disclose a relationship you have, or if you choose not to reveal that your CEO isn't really writing his posts.

He said he knew there would be attendees who disagreed with him.

Add me to the list.

There are blog police, Dave. They're called readers. From A-listers like you to Z-listers like me, we're all the police and we're all deciding what goes in this space. It's the community that decides the laws, on the ground and in the blogosphere. And while we might not have a code to draw from, we do have ethics. And one of the major ethics of this mega-community is transparency.

Now, should we reveal every banal detail about our relationships with the people and with the products that we're talking about? No, our readers would not stand for it, but your readers trust you, Dave. And if you hide a relationship from them because it could detract from the persuasive power of that message, there's something wrong. If your readers find out, your level of trust and all those wonderful hits you were talking about today and all that fabulous googlejuice you get are going to take a hit.

But, of course, you know all this. I think the point you were trying to make--tell me if I'm wrong--is there are no hard and fast rules. But I think the part you forgot to tell us today is that we need to make disclosure decisions with an eye toward how those decisions will affect our trust factor down the road.

New friends made at BBS06

2006-10-25T10:09:00.000-06:00

Goodbye too all the new friends. Hope we run into each other, whether in the blogosphere or otherwise. If you're ever in Salt Lake City, send me an email and we'll get together.

During Friday's lunch, I ran into another Utahn, Tim Stay, who is the CIO for Know More Media and a resident of Provo. He immediately recognized my company and we started talking about some of the potentials and pitfalls of using blogs. In the meantime, Robert Scoble had sat down at our table, and Tim asked Robert, "What advice would you give to Intermountain Healthcare about using blogs?" Thanks, Tim. We had a nice conversation and Robert had some interesting ideas for using blogs to humanize large organizations. With his experience with Microsoft, he would know.

At Thursday night's reception, I met Kojo Darkwa, who works for the reputation management company Visible Technologies, Denise Wakeman, who consults for small business bloggers; Dustin Luther of Move.com, who also wrote the popular RainCityGuide.com (and who loves his new pad down in Malibu), and Randy Stewart of Epinions who blogs at Stewtopia.com (who hates the gloom of Seattle, but loves being able to buy a home at "half price" compared to Silicon Valley).

Sat at lunch on Thursday next to Andru Edwards, the guy behind GearLive. Andru's my new hero; he took his hobby blog and turned it into a booming business. We talked about stuff like pay per post (he doesn't take money for reviews and gives away gear that he gets for free), transparency (his audience doesn't really care if he's getting a free iPod--they trust his opinions), and where he wants to take his company (one word: video).

Now I'm sitting next to a Microsoft guy, Greg Phipps. Greg is one of the guys behind MSN LiveSpaces, which he says is the largest social networking site on the Web. 70 million spaces--100 million visitors. May be something to look into.

I realized Wednesday night that every person I spoke with yesterday were females. In the interest of keeping my wife from questioning my motives, I sat down next to a couple of guys this morning. Drew Myers is another Zillow person, the resident blogger, according to Sarah (see below). I also met Lee White, a blogging evangelist within GlaxoSmithKline, who says he is the lone internal blogger within GSK. He also has a personal blog about, what else?, internal blogging. Good luck to Lee as he spreads the good word. Lee and I were sitting by Danika Hercha of Intel, a company that has hundreds of internal bloggers.

Ran into Rebecca Ford after Wednesday's sessions ended. She's a blogger for the Oxford University Press--her job, she says, mainly consists of getting OUP authors to contribute original content to the blog. That's some forward-thinking in the normally stodgy publishing industry. Good to meetcha, Rebecca.

Spoke with Sarah Mann over lunch on Wednesday. Sarah works for Zillow.com, a real-estate neighborhood search database. Someone overheard Sarah talking about her employer, she said, "I love Zillow. It's like crack to me." High praise. I think.

Between another session, Jessie Johnston introduced herself. Jessie is one of the writers for National Geographic's Inside Traveler. A great idea for a blog, but she says she can only post a few times a week, because EVERYTHING has to be fully vetted. My heart goes out to you, Jessie--that would be a blogging nightmare. But I guess that's balanced by the fact that someone's paying you to blog.

Just listened to Dave Taylor of askdavetaylor.com talk about his concept of "findability." After the session, I chatted with Aparna Mohan, the director of worldwide communications for MasterCard. Aparna's thinking of ways her very large organization can leverage blogs, maybe even encourage her fellow employees to blog. Aparna has a really interesting blog--Lunchcounter Culture with tips for people who want to bring a really good lunch to work. I'm a leftovers kind of guy, but when the kids eat all the pizza, Aparna may have some nice ideas.

Over breakfast on Wednesday, I met Anna Martin of Give Meaning, a Vancouver, Canada-based organization that helps charities reach out to $5 philanthropists. Fantastic idea, Anna--I hope it works out.

I'll be updating this post throughout the conference.

At the Blog Business Summit

2006-10-25T10:00:00.000-06:00

I'm in Seattle today and for the next three days attending the Blog Business Summit. Today is the day when the blogging newbies get together and talk about such interesting topics as "What is a blog?" and "Why blog?"

Actually, the first session was much more interesting: The people from the BBS talked about sponsored blogging, which they presented as a less-risky way for companies to get into the blogosphere. Essentially, you find someone (or a company like BBS) who will blog to your audience. What about the blogosphere's ethic of transparency? The blog and its writers make it very clear who's signing the checks. Not a bad idea for companies interested in blogging but fearful about opening themselves up to potential critics.

Herrin's show the media who's in charge

2006-10-23T09:01:00.000-06:00

I attended a luncheon last week where Primary Children's Medical Center's PR director Bonnie Midget spoke. Primary Children's was the hospital here in Salt Lake City where conjoined twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin were separated during a 26-hour surgery in August. Bonnie helped the Herrin's manage the media coverage of the surgical separation of their children.

The Utah media learned a tough lesson about who is calling the shots in this new media world. According to Bonnie, the Herrin's had really specific objectives for allowing the media to cover their story: They wanted to preserve the story for their five children, and they hoped that their story could give other parents with conjoined twins some hope. With those goals in mind, they made some decisions that made it tough for the media.

One decision was to offer exclusives. They didn't want a media circus or to have to share their story in a press conference with lights flashing in their faces. They wanted to share a more personal, more in-depth, more emotional story. So they let in news outlets they trusted: ABC News, who had a producer that was recommended to them by another family with conjoined twins, and a few local news outlets with which they had a personal connection.

You can imagine how well that went over with the media that were left out. Bonnie says she's still mending fences with some of her contacts.

The Herrin's also chose to share their story through their family's website: www.herrintwins.com. That also caused some media trouble. When the Herrin's posted news about their kids, news that hadn't previously been shared with anyone else, some news outlets demanded that the Herrin's agree to an interview. After all, they "opened the door." That kind of logic works with corporations, but it didn't work with the Herrin's. They had shared their message the way they wanted to share it, and they didn't feel the need to share it in any other way.

Add this to the canon of stories of how the world is changing for the news media. The world is also changing for PR, where we don't really control the message anymore. If I may take a page PR ueber-blogger Steve Rubel, we need to move from a gatekeeper mentality to a facilitator mentality. Kudos to Bonnie for her understanding who was in charge.

Disclosure: Bonnie and I work for the same organization: Intermountain Healthcare.

Press box politics

2006-10-05T08:04:00.000-06:00

Being a journalism school graduate, I'm privy to some of the ethical hand-wringing that goes on inside the fourth estate. Should the media be impartial at all costs? Should they merely observe and not help? Are they responsible to society, or to their sources?

Most of the time, the hand-wringing is justified, especially when journalists are covering something as critical as the President of the United States or a natural disaster like Hurrican Katrina.

But a much more banal debate is playing out in my little corner of the world surrounding how the media should act at a football game.

The Idaho Falls Post-Register hired a local-yokel to string the latest gridiron clash between Brigham Young University "Cougars" and Utah State University "Aggies." The problem--in the eyes of the local journalists, anyway--was that the guy was a rabid Cougar fan. He wore *gasp* a BYU t-shirt to the press box. He dominated the post-game press conference with questions only a fan would ask. And his cellphone ringtone--which he allowed to ring during the aforementioned conference--was *double-gasp* the BYU fight song.

One offended reporter posted about the incident on his blog, then he called the stringer's editor to complain. The editor exclaimed his horror and promised never to hire the stringer again. Another offended reporter called out this guy on his blog, saying that the fan-reporter was "unethical." Message from the media: this guy's not a "real" journalist.

The readers? They couldn't have cared less. Read the blog posts' comments; most of the commenters thought the journalists were taking themselves WAY too seriously.

This minor brouhaha is just another example of the media trying to own "journalism." The fact is, they don't. In my aforementioned j-school experience, I learned that the media is EXTREMELY averse to any sort of certification. Even though professions of all stripes--doctors, police officers and electricians--are all certified by some sort of governing body, journalists say that credentialing themselves by agreeing to adhere to some subjective standard would chill free speech. I agree. But when a journalist wears his opinion on his sleeve, they run him out of the club, screaming that he violated some sacred protocol.

They can't have it both ways.

The newspapers employ these journalists are struggling with lower readership and lower ad revenues. Their audience is getting their news elsewhere. Media critic Jeff Jarvis argues that to save newspapers from their long, slow march to extinction, newspapers should show a little humility and engage their readers in conversation. I'm afraid all these reporters did was further alienate their readers.

Appealing to Our Noblest Ambitions

2006-06-13T19:39:00.000-06:00

What do I know?

I know that humanity is strange, perplexing, fascinating and beautiful

I know that our humanity makes us all unique, but it also makes us so very much the same.

I know that while our differences are what make us interesting, our similarities are what allow us to coexist.

I know that as humans, we are motivated by much of the same things: selfish motivations such as fear, hate, greed, lust, and revenge; self-aware motivations such as duty, responsibility, privilege and obligation; and selfless motivations such as love, charity, faith and hope.

I know that pride is the root of just about all humanity's troubles, and that humility is as close to a panacea as we'll get.

I know that pride is the start of our selfless motivations. Humility is the beginning of our self-aware motivations. And meekness is the seed of our selfless motivations.

I know, and this is where things get difficult for me, that marketing typically appeals to our selfish motivations.

But I also know that the selfless motivations, while not as easily manipulated, are just as real and even more powerful than our selfish motivations.

I know that everyone has a part of them that recognizes that they could be so much more than who they are, and that selflessness can help them reach the highest in them.

I know that healthcare, even as a business, and perhaps because of the nature of the business, can appeal to the highest in us.

I know that our noblest ambitions are what we healthcare marketers should be appealing to.

What do you know?

Technorati tags: healthcare, marketing, human behavior

Getting What We Want, Part 2

2006-06-05T17:47:00.000-06:00

Stories They Tell

Most of us, if not all of us, live in a world where we rarely get what we want.

In fact, getting what we want is so rare that it's memorable. We don't expect it, and when an experience exceeds our expectations, we can't help but talk about it:

"I got caught going 40 in a school zone, but the cop only gave me a warning."

"My wife actually encouraged me to go golfing."

"I actually had a conversation with my husband."

"My parents didn't flip out when I crashed the car."

The sweet spot for marketers is to get people telling stories about your product or service:

"I got this shirt for 50% off."

"They were selling brats for $1 at the baseball game last night."

"They sell the best macadamia nut cookies at that bookstore."

In this respect, healthcare is no different than any other product or service. We want our patients'/members'/customers' experience to be memorable. We want them to tell positive stories about their experience with us.

"I called my health plan about a prescription problem, and the first voice I heard was a human voice."

"My doctor knew my history, what medications I was taking, when I was last hospitalized."

"I was in and out of the specialist's office in 30 minutes."

"The nurse took the time to answer all my questions."

What would you want your patients/members/customers to say about your product or service?

Technorati tags: healthcare, marketing, storytelling, product, service

Getting What We Want, Part 1

2006-06-01T17:01:00.000-06:00

Sometimes we don't get what we want. It's a fact of life we learn early, if we're lucky.

What we hope for, what we pray for, what we plan for is seldom what we get.

A small but illustrative case in point: I chaperoned a trip to the zoo for my daughter's kindergarten class a few weeks ago. One of her classmates, A.J., wanted more than anything to see the cheetahs. As we wound our way around Salt Lake City's Hogle Zoo, we saw lots of exotic, cool animals up close. But no matter what we saw, A.J. would whine, "I want to see the cheetahs. Are the cheetahs next?"

He repeated this question probably a dozen times, to which I replied, just as often, "I promise, we'll see the cheetahs."

As we walked up a rise to see the big cats, we saw a lioness pacing around her cage. Most of the children in my group were mezmerized, but A.J. couldn't have cared less. Next was the cheetahs cage. We strained to see through the fence and weeds and brush some cheetahs, but we couldn't. We couldn't tell if they were hiding in the brush or taken away from the exhibit. They just weren't there.

"They must be taking a nap," A.J. said.

We learn to cope with disappointment. We tell ourselves stories of why we're in the position we're in so we can explain it away.

Getting what we want -- exactly what we want -- is rare.

Technorati tags: storytelling

We Need Digg for Health, and More

2006-05-24T16:38:00.000-06:00

Why do people go online for health information? Because they want to be informed, they want to have smarter conversations with their doctors, they want to know and do what's best for their health. They want to know the best treatments, they want to know about alternatives, they want second, third, fourth opinions.

Fard informs us of Health News Review, a site that is ranking the media's coverage of healthcare issues. That's a good place to start, but it isn't the end.

Healthcare's online universe needs to fill out. There needs to not only be a Health News Review but a Digg for Health as well. We don't just need researchers ranking stories, but people ranking content. Give us a vote and watch the cream rise to the top.

Some might say that we can't have lay people ranking healthcare information and articles. I say, there's a place for the experts and the layperson.

We need a trusted net of medical practitioners. But we also need a trusted net of consumers who have had different kinds of experience, whether with diseases, disorders, dealing with doctors, hospitals or insurance companies. Additionally, we need a trusted net of manufacturers and marketers who are on the cluetrain, who know that their credibilty depends on their transparency.

The future universe of healthcare information, as I see it, includes Digg for Health, Google for Health, a WebMD-like site that facilitates community (maybe it'll be WebMD?), bloggers of all backgrounds, wikis, and who knows what else might come along.

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, healthcare blogging, healthcare marketing, health information

My Recent Healthcare Experience, or Why I Haven't Been Blogging

2006-05-22T07:44:00.000-06:00

It's been a month since I've blogged, but I have an excuse. My lovely wife (who'd rather remain anonymous on this blog) and I just had our fourth child--a beautiful little girl. So with a week off work focusing just on family, the blog got neglected. Then trying to get through all the piled up tasks when I got back to work (yeah, it's taken this long), plus adjusting to having a new little person in the house, I haven't given the blog much thought.

Mea culpa.

But if you're guessing that I've got some baby-related healthcare marketing insight to share, you're right. The delivery experience was fantastic--excellent doctor, wonderful nurses, just what you'd expect from a Utah hospital that knows that it pays for the underfunding of Medicare patients by catering to moms and babies.

But before we leave the hospital, the baby's bilirubin is slightly high, and they recommend further tests.

A few days later after more tests, her bilirubin jumps by four points and she's at moderately high risk for hyperbilirubinemia, so more tests are recommended. We're tired of going back and forth to the hospital lab, so we ask about a lab closer to home. Sure, says the doc, there's a lab that takes your insurance. So we go, feeling a bit more nervous and a bit more anxious about getting the results back. We call the doctor's office a few hours later. Nothing. A few more hours. Still nothing. "The lab's saying they don't run the bloodwork until the late shift," says the doctor. The next morning, the lab says they didn't draw enough blood for a good result. It looked to us like they got plenty--we'd seen the draws done a few times--so we're a bit frustrated. Then a few hours later, the doctor calls with results that show she's getting closer to the danger zone and says that we should probably put her under bili lights. "Hey, wait a second," we say, "First they say they didn't get enough blood, but then they expect us to be confident in their results?" So we talk the doctor into ordering just one more test. "By the way," the doctor says, "if you go to the hospital lab, I can call up your results in two hours."

That clinches it. We're at the hospital early, they draw the blood fast, and we find out two hours later that her bilirubin has leveled off and that she's clear of any danger. And we know which lab to trust next time.

Now, since I work for the hospital's parent company, I understand a bit of why the hospital lab worked so well.

They had resources. The contract lab we went to had two employees (that I could see), but the hospital lab had two employees just working on our case, with another employee getting suckers and stickers for my other kids. They got us in and out fast and made us feel comfortable.

They had electronic medical records. Intermountain Healthcare is well-known for its use of EMRs. They were EMR when EMR wasn't cool. What I didn't know is that our doctor, who is not employed by my company, can have access to their medical records. Combine that capability with the speed with which they performed the test, and the doctor gets the information that she needs to make a recommendation, and we quickly get the comfort of knowing we're doing the right thing for our child.

Service is becoming the differentiator in every industry, including healthcare. If your organization has the processes in place to give fantastic service, you'll be well-positioned for the future.

Technorati tags: healthcare marketing, customer service, mea culpa

BBC Gets on the Cluetrain. What about You?

2006-04-26T08:45:00.000-06:00

It's official. Web 2.0 is legit. The BBC announced this week a new initiative that completely changes the way they develop and distribute content. The BBC is embracing a model of collaboration, openness, sharing. It knows this is the way the media is moving, and it's embracing the movement. It's officially on the cluetrain.

If you're in the business of health information, you should take note. The way your audience expects to gather information will change--drastically. They'll want to share it with their friends. They'll want to contribute. They'll want to comment. And you shouldn't make it your business to get in the way. In fact, you should make it your business to facilitate what your audience wants. Just like the BBC is doing.

From BBC Director-General Mark Thompson (via Jeff Jarvis):

[We] have one of the best websites in the world but it's rooted in the first digital wave--we need to re-invent it, fill it with dynamic audio-visual content, personalise it, open it up to user-generated material... and we need a new relationship with our audiences--they won't simply be audiences anymore, but also participants and partners--we need to know them as individuals and communities, let them configure our services in ways that work for them.

The BBC gets that people want to gain knowledge, they want interaction, they want to be empowered and that their business model needs to be built around that. The same thing applies for any knowledge-based business.

This second digital revolution is going to enable the public to explore and investigate their world like never before. Programmes won't be shown once and then forgotten. They'll be there forever to be linked, clipped, rediscovered, built into bigger ideas...

And this second revolution favors information that is easy to find, easy to share, easy to remix.

[I]f we don't coordinate our content, make it easy to find and brand it clearly, it may just disappear. ... [W]ithin a year we'll launch a new, more powerful search tool--with both video and audio search--as part of the overhaul of our website; ... [and we will] achieve one clear and comprehensive metadata solution for all BBC content. Good metadata gives content legitimacy. People know exactly who it's coming from and the BBC will get the credit back to our brand and no one else's

The BBC wins, not because they are building walls around their content, but because they'll become the trusted, branded source of free information.

[W]e'll use contact with individual users, data bases and recommendation engines to build a far closer and more personal relationship with audiences... the active audience, the audience who doesn't want to just sit there but to take part, debate, create, communicate, share.

Long live the BBC.

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, healthcare blogging, healthcare marketing, health information

Google Health? It's About Time

2006-04-18T18:28:00.000-06:00

Carol Kirshner has been following the rumor mill on whether Google is moving on a service reportedly known as Google Health. Both Carol and Fard Johnmar have expressed some legitimate concerns about any site that helps people sift through consumer health information. How will Google separate the wheat from the chaff? How will they deal with nefarious publishers who will try to game their sytem for googlejuice and AdSense dollars? If Google Health follows their previous PageRank models, how will they determine who is the most authoritative on a subject as complex and as essential as healthcare?

These are great questions, but I want to rejoice for just a second that Google Health may be coming.

Woo-hoo!

I've said before that if consumerism in helathcare is going to take off, consumers are going to need better sources of information. Google Health could be just the thing to get us started.

I hope Google listens to the concerns the healthcare blogosphere is raising. They and the other search providers that will surely follow better get it right if they want their efforts to be of any consequence. If they don't get it right, we--bloggers, professional journalists, researchers, doctors, and everyone else with an interest--will be watching, will be talking, and will be assuring that the project gets a black eye.

For the sake of argument, let's assume it works beautifully and is wildly successful. Does that mean the big content providers (e.g. WebMD) and the small publishers (bloggers) will be stymied? I don't think so. Google isn't the last word on any subject, much less health. Google Health will get the conversation started. From there, if the content providers get it right, people will find a world of information that will help them make their own decisions.

My advice to the content providers is to embrace a world where search starts your relationship with your customers. Make your site not just a information dispenser but a conversation facilitator. It's time to stop thinking of your site as a one-stop destination. It's time for every health information site to, in the words of Hugh McLeod, help people have "smarter conversations" online, because smart conversations online will help them have smarter conversations with their physicians.

In short, every health information source needs to blog.

When you blog, if you do it correctly, you link to information that will help your readers, and your readers send you links back. And the conversation gets smarter. You engage people, and you enable them to engage with others that help them, be they peers, or experts or other sites like yours. And you become more valuable to them. And, in all likelihood, you get a better ranking on Google Health.

Technorati tags: google health, healthcare blogging, health information

More Healthcare Marketing Bloggers

2006-04-14T07:45:00.000-06:00

Toby Bloomberg and Carol Kirschner have announced a collaborative healthcare marketing column on the Medical Blog Network. They'll be posting once a week. Fantastic!

When I started Commpression a few months ago, I knew there would be plenty to write about, but I wondered if there was anyone in the blogosphere to discuss healthcare marketing with. Half the fun of blogs is having conversations and making connections. Would blogging about healthcare marketing mean talking to myself?

Well, now that I've found out about Carol, Toby, Fard, John and others, my worries are gone. I'm looking forward to many conversations.

Technorati tags: healthcare marketing, healthcare blogging

A Comprehensive View of Blogging in Healthcare

2006-04-13T16:54:00.000-06:00

Fard Johnmar's 110-page report, "The Emerging Healthcare Blogosphere: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?", is the most comprehensive view I've seen of blogging in healthcare to date. I was hoping Fard would make a bit stronger of a push for blogging, but he offers a realist's view that while blogging is not for everyone, every type of healthcare organization needs to give blogging a serious look.

His report covers just about every corner of the healthcare universe, talking about the pros and cons of blogging for pharmaceutical companies, managed care organizations, hospitals, physicians, policy wonks and advocacy groups--even patients. He also provides helpful tips for organizations thinking of starting a blog, and--my favorite part--he shares the transcripts of interviews he's conducted with prominent bloggers on why they blog and how it's benefitted their business.

Here's a few quotables:

From PR blogger Steve Rubel:

"Healthcare marketers should care about all social media technologies: social tagging, video blogging and [regular] blogging. Consumers are going to these media for advice and counsel. Healthcare marketers have to contend with this and figure out how to deal with it."

From consultant B.L. Ochman:

"Pharmaceutical companies have public images somewhere below snakes. So, before one enters the blogosphere, it had better be ready to accept criticsm and willing to share good and bad news."

From diabetic blogger Amy Tenderich:

"The truth is, I hate having diabetes. The only way I know of to cope is to write about it. After all, I write for a living. The blog has really helped me to connect with people--not to feel isolated and alone."

From pharma marketing blogger John Mack:

"A blog is an ideal method to keep in touch with reporters and journalists. Pharmaceutical companies can learn a lesson from this, not only to improve their public relations efforts, but also to communicate with their customers."

From Robert French of Auburn University and the InfOpinions blog:

The best idea is to be involved [in the blogosphere] early. Changes in search (especially as people will be able to conduct focused, local searches for information) will likely help many nonprofits see the benefits of going online. But these changes will take time. So I suggest getting involved early and establishing a presence.

Kudos to Fard for giving the healthcare blogosphere a big boost.

Technorati tags: healthcare marketing, healthcare blogging, Web 2.0, social media

Healthcare Blogging Report Released

2006-04-07T07:44:00.000-06:00

Fard Johnmar, who I think is one of the more lucid voices for what Web 2.0 means for healthcare, just released a 110-page report on healthcare in the blogosphere. I plan on buying it and reading it. At $36.95, it's a small price to pay for what promises to be a comprehensive review of the latest thinking on blogs in healthcare.

At the risk of alienating someone I just [virtually] met, I wonder why he's charging for it. I have no doubt it will be worth the money, and there's obviously more to pricing strategy than just recouping costs--maybe his target audience won't take it seriously if he gives it away. But my bias is to spread the gospel of social media for healthcare companies, and as the saying goes, salvation is free.

Technorati Tags: healthcare blogging, healthcare marketing, social media, Web 2.0

Does Healthcare Blogging Need a Code of Ethics?

2006-04-06T18:14:00.000-06:00

John Mack, editor of Pharma Marketing News and the blogger behind the Pharma Marketing Blog, posted on how he thinks big pharma will use the blogosphere. He knows that industry better than I, but I think he paints marketers with too broad a brush. Either that, or the industry he covers has few ethical boundaries:

Marketers are being enticed to delve into the blogosophere in more nefarious ways than via advertising. It is expressed thusly: "Consumers of UGC [user generated content] are 'hyper-engaged' and therefore advertisers should embrace UGC to engage their targets in new, open dialogue." That is, jump into the conversation and "influence the influencers!" ...

What will happen is that marketers will try and create their own blogs and disguise them as consumer blogs or they will pay off expert (eg, MD) bloggers to write approved content disguised as the expert's opinion. That's not engaging in dialogue, that's stealth marketing. I suspect this sort of thing is already going on ...

What clearly is needed is a code of ethics defining what is and what is not acceptable buzz 'n blog marketing.

In my world, good marketing and public relations is all about influencing influencers. Furthermore, I think that if we aren't part of the conversations in the blogosphere--and if we're part of a conversation, then we're influencing it--then we're not fulfilling our professional obligations.

While I agree that passing yourself off as someone you're not or paying off someone to advocate for you is underhanded, the blogosphere does a good job of ferreting out nefarious bloggers. The ethic of this space openness and transparency. We really don't need a code of ethics, just people willing to call a spade a spade, and it appears to me that John is willing to do that.

Technorati tags: healthcare marketing, pharma marketing, transparency, open era

Two Views of Blogs in Healthcare

2006-04-06T07:14:00.000-06:00

Blogs are a big deal in a lot of spaces--technology, entertainment, journalism, fashion, politics. I'm guessing there are other areas where they're not such a big deal, and may never be: manufacturing, shipping and construction come to mind. But there are areas where blogs are bound to make an impact in the future; retail, hospitality, and--you guessed it--healthcare.

Why? Because these industries, for lack of a better term, are relationship industries, and blogs and other social media are all about relationships. For now, we in healthcare can either pay attention now or pay later. Some of us get it, others, not so much. Case in point, from an article by Tracey Walker in October's Managed Healthcare Executive:

"A blog is not reflctive of our overall customer base, and in most cases,would not accurately reflect how one of our products is working," [says Carey Vinson of Pittsburgh's Highmark, Inc.]

He may be right that blogs don't reflect the performance of a product, but that's not the point. What they are is an accurate reflection of one person's perception of your product, and that can affect other's perceptions. And when a block of your audience has negative perceptions of your product--however wrong--you've got a problem.

Mark Tomeo,of Geisinger Health System in Danville, Penn., gets it:

On the Web, a company's reputation can get trashed internationally before its leaders realize it's happening," Tomeo says. "As a hypothetical, let's say a managed care organization declines to cover someone's treatment. Historically, your options were to file an appal with the HMO, complain to family and friends, or write a letter to the editor of your local paper. With a blog, you can go on the offensive worldwide.

My opinion: healthcare organizations shouldn't be afraid of this newfound consumer power. The time is now to develop strategies for being part of the conversations happening online. Blogs are distinctly human. Healthcare organizations, with their corporate-like structures, run a distinct risk of being perceived as inhuman. Better to participate in conversations in a human voice than to dismiss blogs as some passing fancy.

(Thanks to Carol Kirshner for pointing me to the Managed Healthcare Executive article.)

Technorati tags: healthcare, blogs, healthcare marketing

Technology and the Art of Caregiving

2006-03-31T16:46:00.000-07:00

Just came across a nice post by Dr. Bill Crounse, who works for Microsoft developing health information technology tools. He gives his take on Microsoft's new "People Ready" campaign.

You already understand that people are at the center of your business; those receiving care and those providing it. People are also the most expensive line-item in running your business. At Microsoft, we believe that the right software can improve business performance, and with that improve the quality, safety and satisfaction of care. [And, I'm sure, the same could be said for any company promoting their healthcare technology.] You need software that is familiar and easy to use (requires little training), widely used and supported, easy to integrate and connect (think NHIN and RHIO's on that point), and software that is innovative and continually evolves to meet your needs.

I like his assertions. Caregivers, by and large, want to provide the best possible care, and they want to provide great service for their patients. And technology can help them do both.

Take billing, for example. Consumers want convenience, but they don't expect convenience in the medical billing process. Consumers know it's complex, they know it's cumbersome, and they expect it to be a hassle.

So it should be obvious to every caregiver (and every marketer) that there's a great opportunity to provide billing services that cause less hassle, that set expectations upfront, that follow patient preferences, and that keep them away from our backend processes. That way, patients can deal with their illness, and worry less about the paper chase that some billing processes cause.

In another post, Dr. Crounse links to a panel discussion on the uses of kiosks in a healthcare setting. One way a kiosk can be used is to gather patient information and speed check in. Other kiosks can scan insurance cards and take a payment. The Holy Grail, in my opinion, will come when he kiosks can be used as an interface to show patients what their true financial responsibilities are--what their health plan will allow, any discounts the caregiver provides, and what they need to pay. No paperwork necessary. That requires insurers, doctors and hospitals to share that information in real time, but that's going to take some time to come to pass.

A fix that will truly make a difference--and that can happen right now, if providers are willing to devote the resources--is using the data a patient enters to begin an electronic medical record. The benefits of an EMR are well-established, but for a patient, not having to share your information with someone more than once can help decrease the hassle factor and lead to more satisfied patients.

Technology to simplify the patient experience--what a concept.

Full disclosure: I work for Intermountain Healthcare, a health system that has had EMRs for the past two decades and has recently partnered with GE Healthcare to help us develop a 2nd generation EMR that we can use and that GE can eventually bring to market. I have no financial relationship with Microsoft or any other technology company.

Technorati tags: healthcare, healthcare technology, healthcare marketing

Pay Attention to Consumer-created Health Information

2006-03-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

I've posted a bit about the need for companies and their marketers to get better health information to consumers. But there's another facet of the health information spectrum that marketers cannot own and cannot control. And they'd better keep an eye on it.

Thanks to Technorati, I've found another healthcare marcomm blogger--Fard Johnmar who publishes the HealthCareVox blog. Fard wrote about a quick experiment on the trustworthiness factor of blogs and bulletin boards--two popular forms for consumer-generated media--for information on prescription drugs. He ran a Google search for Eli Lilly's Strattera, a popular ADHD drug, and compared the results. A blog about psychiatric drugs--crazymeds.org--ranked higher than the pharmaceutical manufacturer's own site.

That a blog with no "official" authority beat out a manufacturer's site is extremely significant--in the short-term, anyway. Pharmaceutical companies who set up marketing sites for their drugs depend on Google and other search engines for their effectiveness. If a blog that's not even completely focused on their drug beats them in the search engine rankings, they need to seriously consider their search engine marketing and optimization strategy.

But what's even more significant-especially long-term--is that consumers probably put as much stock in their peer's opinion as they do of an "expert's" opinion.

What I think Fard is saying is that a higher Google rank means crazymeds.org has higher trustworthiness factor than the manufacturer's site. Eli Lilly's marketing team would probably debate that assertion, but, honestly, I don't think it's worthy of debate.

The fact is, a peer's opinion counts for consumers. We've known that forever, but now the Internet is making it possible to reach out not just over fences, but over mountain ranges, oceans, continents. It's time to prepare for a day when a message or an issue is impossible to control, and when the only way to exert influence is to be as open as possible.

Technorati tags: healthcare marketing, transparency, open era, blogs

Down with Gatekeepers, Long Live Transparency!

2006-03-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

Jeff Jarvis, a blogger whose Buzzmachine is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the new social media, proclaimed a pox on gatekeepers:

The powerful, the rich and the elected used to be the gatekeepers to information. Then, with the advent of mass media, journalists took over that role. They were the gatekeepers to the public. A few decades ago... PR people got to become gatekeepers to news because they controlled access to the famous, rich, and powerful. But now that we are entering the age of the amateur, when no one can hold a monopoly on the tools of information, I hope we will witness the death of the gatekeeper.

As a PR professional, I couldn't agree more.

Public relations as a practice essentially began in 1900, and there have been seven "eras" of PR, most of them marked by World Wars or economic upheaval. The latest era, called "the Information Society" (cue synth pop beat), has been the status quo for the past 40 years.

One of the more widely accepted theories in communications is "systems theory." At the risk of being a bore, let me briefly explain.

In its essence, an organization is a system made up of interacting units within an environment, and it survives or dies based on how openly it interacts with its environment.

Organizational systems can be relatively open or relatively closed, says the theory. Open systems keep tabs on their environment and adapt and change based on feedback. Closed systems don't adapt and change, and that makes them vulnerable.

Practically, that's a nice theory, but I don't know that most organizations in the past 40 years have been open in terms of the way they've interacted with their publics. Sure, organizations adapt and change based on sales numbers or on legal issues, but, in all but the most forward-thinking companies, or those with a high public profile, I don't think public opinion has made much of a difference to corporate bigs.

But the world is changing.

The Internet has democratized information. It's giving everyone with a computer (or a mobile phone) a voice. It's empowering consumers to get news, entertainment, goods and services when they want it. It facilitates the sharing of personal experiences with a company, good or bad. It's making gatekeepers obsolete. It's causing people to expect and demand transparency. It's Cluetrain, baby.

Which brings me back to the point of eras. Could it be that we're entering the "Open Era" in public relations? I hope that we are, but I can't be so bold as to say with certainty that we are. I think big organizations and the PR professionals are who advise them still going to jealously guard their message and their information. But as more consumers find their voice and as more companies see the benefits of transparency, listening and adaptation, I'm hopeful that the practice of PR, not just the theory, will truly embody an open system.

Then we can stop being gatekeepers and start being enablers.

(Note: Much of this post was taken from my old grokmart blog.)

Technorati tags: public relations, transparency, open era

Consumer Health Information Needs More Meat

2006-03-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

With all the talk we're hearing about consumers needing to be more informed, we're not talking a lot about the dismal lack of information with which patients can arm themselves.

The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report has a synopsis of the Wall Street Journal article on health-related search engines. Some of the sites mentioned aggregate condition-specific information from other content providers; others make it easier to search their own content.

This type of information is an important piece of the pie, but it's only a sliver slice of the information consumers really need to make informed decisons. Consumers also want information on charges, objective provider quality rankings, opinions from other patients on the level of service they get from a hospital or a physician or a clinic, and a way to express their own opinion about their care. Consumers will inform themselves, and the companies that give them the tools to do so will be well-rewarded.

Technorati tags: healthcare marketing, consumers, healthcare trends, marketing

Empowering Smarter Healthcare Consumers

2006-03-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

Looks like the health industry is starting to give the people what they want, and that's a good sign. Another positive development in the quest for transparency; a Denver firm is making cost information available, by zip code, and for a small fee.

From an article by the AP's John Sarche (in the San Jose Mercury News):

Beginning Monday [March 20], consumers can learn the cost of 42 medical procedures ranging from gastric bypass to cataract surgery through the Web site of HealthGrades Inc., based in suburban Denver. The company plans to add information for 14 more procedures soon.

Users will pay $7.95 for every procedure in which they're shopping. That's a small price to pay when you could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Like Medicare posting its rates, information like this won't necessarily make prices go down, but it is helpful data if your HSA isn't affiliated with your health plan, or if your health plan won't provide you with the allowed amount for the service you're buying. I had an HSA with UnitedHealthcare last year, and while I was appreciative that they still negotiated discounts with their preferred providers, I was disappointed that they wouldn't let me know upfront what my ultimate cost would be for a procedure. I hope that's changed.

My question is this: how will providers respond to their patients having this information? Sure, consumers can wave the report at them and demand to be priced at the 85th percentile, but they have a buying power of one. The only leverage a consumer has is the provider's sense of fairness and the potential to shame a provider publicly.

Still, I see healthcare as being the next frontier in the democratization of information. Kudos to HealthGrades for getting ahead of the consumer health information curve.

Post Prices, but They Won't Go Down

2006-03-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

Mike Leavitt, current secretary of Health and Human Services and my former governor, thinks he has a solution for escalating healthcare costs: posting what Medicare pays for common procedures:

From Ceci Conelly's article in the March 17 Washington Post:

"When people have information on price and quality, whether it's an individual consumer or a corporate payer, they'll be a better informed consumer," he said in an interview. "Prices will go down, and quality will go up. That happens whenever a competitive market is fully informed."

Other industry observers aren't so sure:

Rick Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, disputed Leavitt's assertion that prices will come down. "On average, Medicare pays less than the cost of delivering the service," he said.

Count me skeptical. Don't get me wrong; I think the more information the better for consumers. But pricing in the medical field is far too complex to be significantly affected by a simple price list. Ultimate prices vary wildly not just based on insurance, but also case complexity, overhead and a host of other factors that are over my marketing head.

That said, I think as health information becomes more widely available, consumers will be able to make more informed choices about the value of the care they are considering, based not just on price, but on provider experience, quality ratings, and service. That might keep healthcare spending in check, but probably won't have a great affect on costs.

Don't Neglect the Message

2006-03-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

One of the more simple truths of healthcare financing: the less a health plan's members use expensive services, the less health insurers will have to spend on medical expenses, and--hopefully--the less they'll have to charge the employers for whom they provide coverage. So it makes sense that the big health insurance companies are ratcheting up their disease management efforts.

From David Raths in Healthcare Informatics:

With the rise of evidence-based medicine and greater computing power, health plans see an opportunity to close information gaps with their members.

"We can now run terabytes of data through an algorithm in an hour that used to take a week," [Tina] Brown-Stevenson [president of Aetna Integrated Informatics] says.

That's fantastic, but it's not just about the latest technology.

Insurers are experimenting with direct member messaging to see if it can improve health outcomes and lower costs. "The model is to promote the patient's ability to take the initiative to improve their own care," says Constance Williams, M.D., associate medical director at Unicare, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based WellPoint, Inc.

Williams says at first she was concerned about how members would react. "I thought it was important to provide nurses for members to talk to," she says. "When members get something out of the blue from their insurer saying they're not doing something they should or their doctor isn't, that could be upsetting.

Williams gets that the key here is communication. Members in many cases need to be convinced that there is a problem or the potential for one, especially if their doctor isn't behind the recommendation.

The article mentions the importance of making sure the care recomendation of the message is reliable. Equally important, in this marketer's opinion, is making sure the communication is persuasive. It's not enough to send someone a text-based email that says something like "Our records indicate it's been two months since you last filled your blood pressure medication." The message needs to be personal, conversational, and well thought-out, with the right mix of warmth and urgency, and it needs to have an appropriate level of visual appeal. My advice to insurers: treat these direct messages with the same care and consideration as you would an advertising campaign. The ROI will probably be greater than an ad, as will the positive affect you will have on your members.

Local TV Health News Unreliable?

2006-03-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

I was shocked--shocked!--when I read that television wasn't a reliable source for health information. But Brian Williams and Diane Sawyer are so entertaining and so darn good looking. You mean I can't trust them?

Actually, the USA Today article I read focused just on the unreliability of local news. A study by a Michigan ER doc and a political science professor from Wisconsin found that local TV health reporting was oftentimes out of context and sometimes just plain wrong. Here's one example:

Several stations aired a story about the possible use of lemon juice as an effective contraceptive or even in preventing transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The study was done only in vitro, meaning it was tested in a lab but never on a person. But nearly all reports failed to mention that the idea was never tested on humans.

A Pittsburgh-based health reporter summed up a large part of the problem:

"Time limits, 75 seconds, can hinder how much you're able to explain. Sometimes adding context lessens the hype, which disappoints our managers and promotions staff."

So it's all about the hype.

The study also points to healthcare professionals needing to learn more about journalism so they can help reporters focus on the most important stories. What that really means is healthcare organizations' PR people need to do a better job of holding reporters' hands and putting things into context. It's not enough to get coverage on healthcare issues--it's much more important that we ensure news orgs get the story right.

Boomers May Not Bankrupt Us, After All

2006-03-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

A new U.S. Census Bureau report casts a different light on the impact aging baby boomers will have on the cost of healthcare. The report--"65+ in the United States: 2005"--says that since people on Medicare have less incidence of disability than past Medicare beneficiaries, the overall costs to the system may be lower than previously estimated. According to the report, the prevalence of disabilities has fallen from about 26% in 1982 to about 20% in 1999, and they expect that number to continue to fall. Boomer's higher level of education is also cited as a factor that may contribute to lower costs. (Via the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report.)

So, I guess baby boomers retirement may not be the train wreck the media and the government are making it out to be. Maybe the biggest thing going for them in terms of healthcare is the desire they have to be healthy. They want to be active, and they know that a healthy lifestyle is the best way to keep active. And because they're likely to be the wealthiest "elderly" generation the world has ever seen, their focus on health could translate into a market opportunity for health content providers.

Tip: The best blog around for understanding the baby boomer market is David Wolfe's Ageless Marketing.

Win an Oscar, Live 4 Years Longer

2006-03-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

Congrats to George Clooney, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon and Rachel Wiesz. Not only do you get a golden statue for your theatrical prowess, you also get four years tacked on to your life.

I am not making this up:

A study of actors and actresses found that Oscar winners lived, on average, almost four years longer than nominees who went home empty-handed, reports the March issue of the Harvard Health Letter.

Actors aren't the only people who reap benefits. Dr. Donald Redelmeier of Toronto's Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre found that Oscar-winning directors live longer than non-winners, and male directors live 4.5 years longer on average than actors. (via Medical News Today)

So you can add Ang Lee to the list of the lucky ones.

My condolences, however, to Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. You may have taken home the Oscar for screenwriting, but the study says that 8 lb. statue may have cost you 3.6 years of your life, compared to other screenwriter nominees.

Why Can't They Get Along?

2006-03-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Northern California doctors are complaining about Sutter Health becoming too large. The San Francisco Chronicle sums up the issue:

What: Sacramento's Sutter Health, operator of 27 hospitals in Northern California, is expanding its power over physicians groups.

How: Sutter has built a network of eight nonprofit foundations to contract with the groups.

Why: Sutter, already dominant in hospitals, must expand in physicians' services to compete.

The issue: Critics worry that Sutter will dictate treatment standards and squeeze out competition.

The response: Sutter says that it coexists with independents and that its resources help physicians.

Doctors and hospitals have been at odds for years. This whole doctors versus hospitals thing, it seems to me a bit like Jews versus Muslims or Pakistan versus India or Serbs versus Croats. No one wants to compromise, and both parties are a bit religious in their zeal against each other. Is there any way that these groups can get along?

Marketing to Millenials

2006-03-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

Jay Griffith, writer of the HolmesSpun blog and creative director for the Holmes & Co. healthcare marketing agency, writes a nice overview of the demographics of Millenials, or Generation Y. In it, he suggests that healthcare providers may want to market directly to this group, many of whom are still adolescents:

Apparently, [Millenials are] more likely to open the mail. According to a United States Postal Service® white paper, 82 percent of these consumers recently surveyed sort through their mail immediately and are much more likely than consumers between 30 and 59 years old to read and respond immediately to printed advertising, circulars, catalogues and newsletters. They report finding the material useful more often than the 30- to 59-year-olds.

Griffith goes on to say that such marketing may be a bad idea, but I'm not so sure. Marketing directly to children may turn parents off, but using visuals that appeal to children may help kids pass along the mail they open to their parents.

Tips for successful blogging

2006-03-03T05:57:00.000-07:00

Thinking about starting a blog? Here's a tip that sums up how to do it right.

Successful blogging is not just about being the best writer on the web or even the most prolific. Being a successful blogger is about creating a connection with an audience by providing relevant content, nurturing that relationship with comments and links and keeping the dialogue flowing.

Read more tips at Backbone Media (via Steve Rubel).

It's ... Brilliant.

2006-03-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of how technology and creative thinking are changing the way we think about and provide healthcare.

Larry Brilliant, head of Google's philanthropic division and owner of one of the coolest last names in tech, plans to develop a public information system that uses Web crawlers to warn people of impending famine or disease.

Brilliant wants to expand and existing Web crawler n by the Canadian government. The Global Public Health Intelligence Network monitors about 20,000 Web sites in seven languages, searching for terms that could warn of an outbreak. ...

"I want to make it part of our culture that there is a community of people watching out for the worst nightmares in humanity," [Brilliant] said.

Briliant told the Wall Street Journal that his project would need about $10 million to launch.

Brilliant credited the Canadian system with keeping SARS from becoming a pandemic.

Business Idea No. 1

2006-03-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe it when I read on the Healthcare IT Guy's blog that there is no organization (that he and another expert know of) that certifies software as HIPAA compliant. Where's the ISO-type organization for the healthcare industry? I'd bet HIT companies would be falling all over themselves (and pay lots of money) to have such a certification.

A Quick Way to Get Your Healthcare Blog Fix

2006-03-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Joe Paduda, a guy who I've been reading ever since I discovered blogs (late 2004) just launched a fabulous idea on his Managed Care Matters blog; the Health Wonk Review.

The idea is to take the best of the healthcare policy posts from the blogosphere and post a cliff notes version a few times a week. I already have a few ideas for future posts thanks to the first version.

Hey, Joe. Is there room in your club for a healthcare marketing blogger?

The Commpression Backstory

2006-03-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since I started writing Commpression, and I think now is a good time for a quick introduction. I'm Don Seamons, and I work in healthcare communications for a nonprofit health system based in Salt Lake City called Intermountain Healthcare. Previous to that, I worked on the other end of the healthcare spectrum, for a diversified, for-profit healthcare services company--UnitedHealth Group. You may have heard of them.

Like most bloggers, I'm writing this blog as a labor of love.

I love healthcare; it's a rewarding field with incredible opportunities to do good. I can sleep at night knowing that what I do contributes in a small way to the health and well being of others.

I love marketing and the art of persuasion and the power of ideas.

I love technology. I bought my first computer as a freshman in college. I got one of the first smartphones ever made. I've been fiddling around with this Internet thing for more than a decade.

I love the idea behind blogging and all social media--that empowered consumers as well as resource rich companies can have a voice in the online marketplace of ideas.

The strength of blogs is that they can be personal and passionate, and healthcare, marketing, technology and social media fit that bill for me.

Blogging is expanding like crazy. When I started my first blog more than a year ago, there were about 8 million blogs. Today, there are nearly 29 million, according to Technorati. Some blogs reach hundreds of thousands of readers, and some pundits predict that these blogs will graduate from minor publishing operations into mainstream media. What's more interesting is the "magic middle," where microniche bloggers can have a voice that makes a difference in their marketplace.

Being in healthcare, I'm naturally interested in who's blogging about the industry. I've found quite a few doc bloggers, a few healthcare IT bloggers and a handful of management consultants (like this one) who publish blogs. There aren't many who are blogging about the business of healthcare. I've found only one blog that discusses healthcare marketing.

So a week ago, I started this blog, intending to write about trends in healthcare communications and marketing. But I also want to be an advocate for this new phenomenon of social media.

I'm giving this blog a "beta" tag because it's an experiment. I want to strengthen our little corner of the blogosphere. I want to publish something that's readable, interesting, useful, and that stimulates conversation. That's where you come in. I'll take any feedback you can provide on what you'd like to see this blog cover. And I'd appreciate any tips you can give me on companies that are doing interesting things in healthcare marketing. Leave your comments on this post, or send me an email.

Are you preparing for universal coverage?

2006-02-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

One of the more obvious trends in healthcare is the continued calls to provide coverage for the uninsured. Massachusetts has made a lot of news for Gov. Mitt Romney's proposals to require residents to purchase health insurance. Illinois may be the next U.S. state that makes a lot of noise on the universal coverage front.

According to Judith Graham's article in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, each legislative district in Illinois will be holding public hearings on the issue, while a task force is currently discussing ways the state can best insure its 1.8 million uninsured residents:

A wide range of options is likely to be considered, including expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income adults, providing health insurance subsidies or tax incentives to small businesses, and letting the uninsured buy coverage through new insurance pools, several task force members said.

This issue will continue to gain steam and will likely blow wide open in the runup to the 2008 presidential elections. What happens then is anybody's guess. Will we see universal coverage? Will we see private/public partnerships akin to Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage? Will it be completely open to competition? As with any issue that has such wide-ranging implications, there will be winners and losers when the dust settles. What's your organization doing to prepare, from a business perspective and/or from a communications/marketing perspective?

Who will help consumers make healthcare choices?

2006-02-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

WebMD is looking to become Corporate America's provider for electronic medical records (EMR). A story by Milt Freudenheim in Thursday's New York Times quotes WebMD CEO Marty Wygod talking about how his company wants to help consumers make better choices and help corporations offload some of their healthcare costs on to their employees.

Mr. Wygod's latest effort, which is still in the early stages, could be the most visible test yet of whether the time has finally come for using the Internet as much more than an online medical encyclopedia and health care news medium.

"Corporate America is looking for a way to educate its employees about health care costs, and hopefully to move a substantial amount of those costs off their books," Mr. Wygod said in a telephone interview.

Having had a high deductible health plan with an HSA in early 2005, before I switched employers, I think Internet tools like this are the only way to make "Consumer Directed Health Plans" work. WebMD may be well-positioned to be the vendor of choice for health plans and corporations, but they're going to need more than disease information and surveys to help people manage their own healthcare finances. Obviously, they'll need to develop cost and quality comparisons. But they'll also need to develop tools to help consumers navigate the intricacies of the healthcare system.

Wal-Mart's PR Move

2006-02-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Another example of how regulation or the threat of regulation can bring about change:

Wal-Mart Says It Will Improve Health Benefits
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced plans yesterday to upgrade its health care benefits during a barrage of criticism from labor unions and state legislators who say the world's largest retailer does not provide adequate coverage for its low-wage employees.

Wal-Mart may be trying to show some movement on the hot issue of employee benefits without giving up too much.

Critics of Wal-Mart took the news as a sign that the retailing giant has begun to respond to attacks calling it stingy, but they remained skeptical of the company's intentions.

"Wal-Mart's proposed changes are clearly designed to try and salvage a faltering public image, rather than make substantive changes to improve health care benefits for its employees," said Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com, a group backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

I think Blank is spot on about Wal-Mart's intentions, and it may be just enough to muffle the voice of him and of other critics.

Modest proposals may affect healthcare markets

2006-02-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post's David Broder profiled on Tuesday HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's two-pronged approach to healthcare reform.

The first prong is top-down, focusing on standardizing information exchange protocols for admissions, prescriptions, at-home monitoring, etc. The second prong is bottom-up,focusing on changing the way healthcare is delivered in New Orleans post-Katrina.

Leavitt's take:

Steps such as the health savings accounts that President Bush has recommended, and others being discussed in Congress, can nibble at the problem, Leavitt says, but far more fundamental changes must be made if costs are to be brought under control without sacrificing quality care.

These proposals should be watched closely. Leavitt says his standardization initiatives are meant to be implemented by CMS, the Department of Defense and the Veteran's Administration, which would, Leavitt hopes, eventually create new standards for the healthcare industry.

"Turtles" the next trend in disease management?

2006-02-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

Disease management programs typically include a lot of data mining, which means expending lots of resources gathering, organizing and chunking old data. But for some diseases, old data doesn't help keep patients out of the hospital. A "turtle" may help change all that.

HealthReach Homecare and Hospice of Central Maine is using technology that gathers data for Congestive Heart Failure patients real time and sends it to a nurse who can tell if the data points to a worsening of symptoms. The device they chose looks like a turtle, with a domed top and a flat bottom.

Monitors can check a patient's blood pressure, weight, oxygen level and pulse. If a nurse viewing data notices abnormalities such as a marked change in vital signs, he or she can coordinate a home visit or direct the patient to a physician or local emergency room.

Via the Kennebec (Maine) Journal.

Business opportunities for CDHPs and HSAs

2006-02-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

Whether HSAs are the solution to our healthcare inflation problem is debatable, but if the "consumer directed health plans" idea takes off, this NYTimes article points out opportunities CDHPs present for businesses. Consumers will need help comparing provider and pharmaceutical prices, navigating through the maze of healthcare bills and even managing their HSA investment portfolio.

Another chance to self-regulate

2006-02-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Now that the AMA is self-regulating for quality measures (see post below), they may want to begin focusing on their guidelines for accepting gifts.

The latest great healthcare controversy involves physicians--a few of them, at least--taking payments from pharmaceutical companies, implying some sort of quid pro quo. And this editorial from the LA Times suggests that the medical device industry may be using the same tactic.

I don't know if there's really a problem here, but, from a PR practitioner's perspective, it doesn't look good to the public or to the media. It may be better for physicians, the pharma industry, and the device industry to, in the words the Times, "clean up their act" rather than wait for someone else to do it for them.

Pay for performance takes a giant step forward

2006-02-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the American Medical Association struck an information sharing deal with Congress that paves the way for Medicare pay for performance. The nation's largest medical group agreed to voluntary reporting to Medicare on more than 100 performance measures. Medicare agreed to increase their reimbursements to offset the cost to doctors.

This is huge. Since the market follows Medicare, pay for performance will likely be a standard reimbursement practice for payers nationwide.

In the past, the AMA has been staunchly against pay for performance. Some medical associations still are.

Frederick Blum, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said, "We are concerned that the push to measure quality will become just a smoke screen to cut costs and to reduce the resources devoted to health care." (via Medical News Today)

That's the song the AMA used to sing. But they see the proverbial writing on the wall and know that P4P is where the market is going. Apparently, they'd rather submit to "voluntary" regulation from the goverment than let insurance companies and hospital systems call the pay for performance shots.

Look for the physician IT vendors to start adding Medicare performance reporting modules to their medical group management software.

Marketing can't salvage Part D's sinking image

2006-02-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Looks like the marketing behind the new Medicare drug plan is making an impact, but it may not be enough to help the program reach its goals.

The Kaiser Family Foundation just released new numbers that show that about 30% of seniors won't sign up for the Medicare Part D program, and about 45% plan on enrolling. That leaves about a quarter of the population who are undecided. Factoring in the margin of error, Medicare has a chance to reach its goal of enrolling 70% of the nation's seniors in the plan, but that seems unlikely. The May 15, 2006 deadline for enrolling looms large.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has used a press and advertising campaign to educate seniors on their options, and on the consequences of not enrolling. It may be aiding understanding, but it's not aiding acceptance.

According to the Kaiser survey, where only 33% in August 2005 felt they understood how the drug plan will affect them personally, 45% feel they have that understanding now. However, the campaign hasn't helped the image of the plan. Where about a third of the seniors polled disliked the plan in August, 45% dislike it now.

I guess a pig can only take so much lipstick.

Healthcare spending to top $2 trillion

2006-02-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

CMS reported that healthcare costs will pass the $2 trillion mark in 2005, growing 7.4%. And they estimate costs will continue to rise at about the same clip in 2006. Plus, costs are expected to amount to 20% of the GDP by 2015. Now that's putting the "gross" in Gross Domestic Product.