How Many People Think Health Care Industry Is Doing A Great Job with Social Media?

Do you think the health care industry, as a whole, is using social media well enough to communicate, share information and engage with consumers? Well, we are doing an informal survey right now to gauge people's opinion and preliminary results indicated that only 10% think so.

What do you think? Is that dead wrong? Will social media ever take off in healthcare . Who's doing a good job building a community. Take a second and fill out a quick four question survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WF2XWTH

GovDelivery Social Media Marketing Case Study

Happy Monday morning! Earlier in the year, I started a regular Monday social media marketing case study. So far, we've looked at work we've done for companies like British Telecom, Microsoft, Monster.com and Sun Microsystems. All great high profile brands...

but what about smaller companies with leaner budgets? Well, the great thing about integrating traditional PR with social media marketing is that it levels the playing field dramatically for companies that are trying to get cut-through on a limited budget. If you can create great content for your targeted community, content that they really want to consume and share, on a regular basis, they will. That is basically what we do...

Here is a great example of this approach in real life...

Situation

The world’s leading provider of government-to-citizen communication, GovDelivery provides the infrastructure for government entities to communicate better with citizens and deploy Web 2.0 technologies. Despite working hand-in-hand with many government agencies and being the depended-upon vendor for digital communication with constituents, GovDelivery was relatively unknown among the Government 2.0 community, government influencers and thought-leaders.

Goal

GovDelivery came to Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) in 2008 looking to improve their awareness among government influencers and decision makers, drive corporate valuation, and generate leads from agencies and government entities looking for a better way to serve and inform their constituents.

Solution

Strategic worked with GovDelivery to establish a traditional media relations strategy designed to generate awareness for the company among government influencers and decision makers while simultaneously assisting the company in taking steps towards social media adoption. Strategic worked with GovDelivery on the creation of the Reach the Public campaign, which consisted of targeted blog writing and blogger relations outreach, in conjunction with the launch of a Twitter stream dedicated to injecting GovDelivery into the Gov’t 2.0 arena.

Results

GovDelivery’s media relations activities culminated in the placement of a byline in Federal Computer Week that positioned Scott Burns, CEO and co-founder, as a thought leader in the government 2.0 space. Subsequently, Scott was chosen to be a presenter at a Government 2.0 “bootcamp” well attended by local “goverati,” experts on the issue of government 2.0 techniques.

Strategic’s social and traditional media activities secured dozens of high-level media placements and buzz in October when GovDelivery acquired government-focused social network GovLoop, known as the “Facebook of the Feds.” In January of this year, the increased visibility and rapid growth of GovDelivery helped drive the purchase of 89% of the company by the Internet Capital Group (ICG) at terms favorable to the company’s shareholders.

Here is a link to the whole case study, along with links to the various web sites: http://gotostrategic.com/site/index.php/site/cases/govdelivery/

Why would anyone go to a trade show?

Why would anyone go to a trade show? Back in the day, trade show attendance was a must in order to learn industry specific information, connect with prospects, clients and influencers, and raise awareness of your company. In short, all things you can do, for free, over social networks and the Internet.

Yet, even when we've seen an industry roiled by free Internet alternatives (record companies, newspapers, TV networks), there still remains a nub of value in these media. I still listen to music, read news and watch TV shows. I don't, as a matter of course, attend trade shows, unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

During Q1 and Q2, I've decided to attend three shows, mainly because each reaches an audience I'm targeting in my marketing and sales roles- RSA Conference (security), Satellite 2010 (satellite) and FOSE/GOVSEC (government/security). There are plenty of others that gave consideration to (CTIA Wireless, Interop, HIMSS) but, given limited time and money, they didn't make the cut.

What are your plans for trade shows this year? Are you spending more or less time and money on a trade show program? What could trade shows do that would make it worthwhile for you to invest more?

Sun Microsystems Social Media Marketing Case Study

I hope you had a great weekend and a romantic Valentine's day! As you know, I've been posting my firm's new social media marketing case studies for everyone to read, learn from and talk about. This week I'd like to showcase one that combines lead generation, the SMB market and is really production promotion focused. Hard to do with social media you say? Well, read on...

(As always, I'd love hear your thoughts- leave a comment if you have a moment...)

Situation

Best known for enterprise-level databases and servers, Sun Microsystems needed to promote its new Amber Road line of less-expensive, open-source storage software.

Goal

Sun wanted to reach small and mid-size businesses with 200 to 2,000 employees, but didn’t want to waste time and money on potential prospects who might have no need for the new software. Also, the modestly priced product could not justify a traditional advertising or direct marketing effort.

Solution

Strategic created “Open Road to Savings” where participants could share ideas for small and mid-size firms to save money. While all content was free, access to premium content required registration—for example, to receive an e-book or attend a webinar.

Results

By showing interest, registrants enabled Sun to focus on only the best prospects for Amber Road. Now Sun distributes an ongoing flow of quality leads to its network of value-added resellers (VARs).

Here is a link to the whole case study, along with links to the various web sites: http://gotostrategic.com/site/index.php/site/cases/sun_microsystems/

Monster Social Media Marketing Case Study

As part of my regular Monday morning social media marketing case study series, I'd like to share another one focused on the public sector- Monster.com. But it's not what you think...

I'd love hear your thoughts- leave a comment if you have a moment...

Situation

Best known for Monster.com, the online site for job seekers, Monster also has a huge business in selling proprietary job market data and trends to businesses and government agencies – for example, economic development offices in government and higher education providers both need to know what kind of training is needed, and where it’s needed most.

Goal

Monster wanted to expand its data business. However, a traditional marketing campaign risked confusing audiences about its primary brand.

Solution

Strategic’s “Unleash the Monster” campaign is an under-the-radar sales channel, allowing the Monster team to provide helpful information to federal and state/local/educational clients. The program includes an online community for sharing ideas and successes.

Results

Monster quickly became known as the primary resource for employment-related educational and training issues. The campaign has expanded via a B2G social media portal, as well as the cultivation of user generated content.

Here is a link to the whole case study, along with links to the various web sites: http://gotostrategic.com/site/index.php/site/cases/monster/

Chad Bockius, VP of Socialware, new on Straight to the Point

I'm very pleased I got the chance to interview Chad Bockius yesterday for my latest Straight to the Point podcast. Chad has a unique role utilizing social media to market and sell social middleware, a new product category. He is the VP of Marketing & Product Strategy at Socialware, which provides the industry’s first social middleware platform, allowing you to transform public social networking sites into enterprise-grade channels for communication and collaboration.

What did we cover?

• How do you integrate social media activities across a large organization
• How do I address issues like data security and workflow management when integrating socialmedia
• What are the trends in social media adoption over the next year or so

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio here.

or just click play...

Microsoft Social Media Marketing Case Study

Turns out I'm making a regular thing out of posting my firm's new social media marketing case studies each week. The first one I posted was about our work for British Telecom and the second focused on BearingPoint. This week, I think, we'll turn our attention to Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft.

Still unconvinced about the ROI of social media? Especially as it pertains to the public sector? Well, the wizards of Redmond looked into it- and they funded this program...

What do you think? I'd love hear your thoughts- leave a comment if you have a moment...

Situation

With revenue shrinking and demand for services growing, governments must do more with less—including software. This threatens Microsoft’s public sector market for software licenses.

Goal

Microsoft wanted to engage government agencies nationwide. While it’s relatively easy to focus marketing efforts on high-population states, it’s much more difficult and expensive to reach the entire country.

Solution

To efficiently reach a geographically dispersed audience, Strategic and Microsoft developed a “Bright Side of Government” program to showcase best practices in the use of information technology (IT) by government. Elements included a social media portal, Twitter stream, blog, and user-generated videos, which also appeared on a “Government Star” channel on YouTube.

Results

Microsoft’s “Bright Side” content shows agencies how to get more use from existing software licenses—a free benefit. This gives Microsoft a sales opening to show how spending a little more on new licenses can yield a lot more functionality—a value proposition that boosts sales.

Here is a link to the whole case study, along with links to the various web sites: http://gotostrategic.com/site/index.php/site/cases/microsoft/