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I’m back from the AMA Houston SIG meeting on healthcare and technology, presented by:

Plus Katie Laird, from Schipul, moderated the panel.  

We had about two hours to present, take questions, and wrap it up.  I felt the Q&A could have gone on for another two hours, the audience was so engaged.   The most helpful aspect was that each presentation built on the previous.  Ours was focused on why healthcare was changing due to social media and then Chris and Jennifer followed up with the successes and challenges of from an inside the hospital point-of-view.  (Chris does it because it’s a clear passion, in the midst of other jobs; Jennifer is fortunate enough to have this be her full-time position.)  Jay, from CareFlash, finished up with a demo of sorts to show the benefits of social networks to the caregiving community.

My favorite thing about speaking at conferences — aside from my desire to one day be a talking head over a blue screened city backdrop on CNN – is that it’s a rare time when I can be completely honest with my opinions since the room is not full of clients at varying stages of engagement with what we’re doing.   That resulted in a neat exchange with an attendee (Richard Laurence Baron) on his blog over his concerns that I predicted the death of the written word (I didn’t, but you could take some comments that way) and what it meant for his life as a freelancer (hopefully, more work for more innovative.)

Most of all, this conference forced me to examine our embrace of social media for the company — we now have a MedTouch Twitter page; thank you Jennifer — and our clients.   For example, I’ve had this blog sitting outside our main site because I wanted to make sure that I’d write enough to keep it up (it’s been a year!) and also, I wasn’t sure our point of view would warrant exposing it to every visitor to our site.  Thanks to this conference, I’ve figured it out, so in a few weeks, we’re going to tear this down and rebuild it stronger.

Until then, feel free to talk to us about your hospital’s social media needs.

One of my favorite things about being a CEO is that I believe it is forwarding my life’s dream of becoming a pundit.

Pundits, you will note, only discuss the future and, the future being a distant and murky place, by the time one can prove you wrong, you’ve already moved on to the next, future subject.

I attend many, many conferences and I’ve learned a few tricks from some excellent keynotes which may be helpful to you establish yourself as a pundit within your organization.

First, show a lot of irrelevant but very cool technology. If, for example, you are asked to explain how to do service line marketing on the web to your internal team, show them a few screen shots of Second Life and explain, that in 10 years, we’ll all be avatars anyway, so what’s the point of actually trying to talk to consumers now? Your audience will soon lose you as you outline the future growth of massively multiplayer online games and begin thinking about more mundane tasks such as their checkbook balances and if they should get a new haircut.

Perfect. They are now putty in your hands.

Flash a few meaningless statistics you lifted off another presentation that lifted slides from a Forrester or Jupiter Research report. Show a few screen shots of the coolest things you’d like to do and end by showing a multi-million dollar website as a good example of what to do, even though you have a budget 98% smaller.

If anyone dares ask what the return on investment might be, explain that healthcare is complicated, that we can’t really assess the true cost of doing such things but that the future is now.

It’s important to maintain an air of righteous indignation to ensure you have the moral high ground: how can anyone question your conclusions? How can anyone point out errors in your data? To be a pundit, one must have an attitude of utter security about one’s opinions and then ensure one leaves before the future promised results.

So, a quick recap:

• Project at least 2 more years into the future as you plan to be at your organization
• Show kewl, unnecessarily expensive examples of what your organization can never achieve
• Back up your findings with a double-shot of opinion and imply anyone who doesn’t believe you is a dinosaur

I wish you the best of luck in your rise to the top. May we meet each other as fellow keynote presenters someday soon.

Just a quick plug for the talk we’re giving next week.   Here’s the details below. 

Thirteenth National Forum on Customer Based Marketing Strategies April 6-8, 2008 Arizona Grand Resort Phoenix, AZ

Recruiting the Millennial Physician Online

The next wave of medical school graduates openly craves authenticity, connectedness, and a sense of belonging. Hear how a 99-bed community hospital has tapped into those needs by leveraging social networking, community-generated media, and search engine optimization into a cost-effective recruitment strategy for the upcoming generation.

Register today.

Back By Popular Demand!! You wanted it, so we brought it back.

WHAT IS SEARCH MARKETING?
Both Search Engine Optimization – appear organically in search results – and Paid Search Management – taking out banner or text ads in search engines. Search Engine Optimization is like online PR while Paid Search is like advertising on billboards.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Part of our mission is to educate health care marketing professionals about the importance of the Internet. We find that all of our clients benefit from a clearer understanding of how Search Engine Marketing works.
Register for Tuesday, April 1st - Search Marketing Essentials

Register for Wednesday, April 2nd - Advanced Search Tactics

2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST

I’ve been working on a talk and have seen the wisdom of chucking out the traditional bulleted Powerpoint list in favor of a completely visual (read: all pictures) presentation. For the last decade, Edward Tufte has complained PowerPoint’s density of information is so low, its only media analog is Soviet propaganda. Me? I just want the audience to fall asleep less. And since we gave a webinar on how to write a good presentation, I’m taking some of my own advice. After all, if this blog were a PowerPoint entry, it would read as follows:

• Working on a talk; how best to write?
• PowerPoint tradition = bulleted lists
• But… low density of information
• Tufte says, “Soviet Propaganda!”
• Want people to stay awake
• Taking own advice

So from here on out: PowerPoint Perestroika!

A quick plug for our upcoming educational series. Winter is a good time for us to hone down our talks — I give about half a dozen a year — so if you’re interested and can’t wait until the summer, sign up now.

THE 5 MISTAKES YOU’RE TEMPTED TO MAKE IN 2008 (And How to Avoid Them)

Healthcare – one of the most well-funded industries in the world – still maintains websites cobbled together last decade. Why is it so hard to generate a site that looks different, fresh, or interesting? How do the best ideas get killed in committees before they see the light of day? And why do hospitals not want to discover the value of their web channel? We’ll give you the top five mistakes healthcare organizations make with their website and what you can do – this year – to fight back. If you’ve ever wondered why your website isn’t… well… better, this webinar is for you.
Register For Wednesday, January 16th
Register For Thursday, January 17th
2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST

THE WEB AS A VISUAL MEDIUM: Content is Dead, Long Live Content!
Sure, your website is no longer the electronic version of your newsletter. But what does it mean to generate content for the web these days? Since sites are now a bundle of text, audio, video, images, meta-tags, orbiting content, and micro-sites – how can you understand how to cost-effectively and consistently develop content for this channel? In this webinar, we’ll explain how cable modems, cheap software, and YouTube are changing the language of the Internet and how healthcare will keep up… or miss out.

Register For Wednesday, January 30th
Register For Thursday, January 31st
2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST

PICK A VENDOR YOU’LL LOVE: The Art and Science of a Good RFP
Register For Wednesday, February 13th
Register For Thursday, February 14th
2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Register For Wednesday, February 27th
Register ForThursday, February 28th
2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST

IMPRESS YOUR BOSS WITHOUT GETTING FIRED: Expectation Setting and Reporting Results to a C-level

Register For Wednesday, March 12th
Register For Thursday, March 13th
2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST

I HAVE A WEBSITE, SO WHAT? Take Your Strategy to the Next Level
Register For Wednesday, March 26th
Register For Thursday, March 27th
2pm EST | 1pm CST | Noon MST | 11am PST

Recently, I gave a talk with our fabulous client, Cheryl Munn, about Microcasting. What’s Microcasting you may ask? Here was our working definition:

Electronic communication with your audience in the most customized way possible for the smallest, measurable segment possible.

Why does this matter for healthcare?

Because if you’re like any of our clients, you have some programs you have to grow, some you don’t want to grow, and some you could only grow by a handful of patients… or doctors for that matter. The scaling problems of healthcare, as a business, are related to cost of delivery. Adding another patient could cost you nothing… or make you unprofitable.

Most healthcare websites are only spoken of in terms of the past -- pageviews, visitors, the bizarrely misnamed “hits” — but measuring the past is only a start.

Most healthcare marketers have a far better handle of offline demographics than online, but only because the people who sold you the media told you so!

The good news is that it’s entirely possible to get a grip on your online audience. What you should be after is a working theory that can be tested and validated over time.

The key is to be curious and challenge assumptions whenever possible. More about that, next post.

I’ll be speaking with a client at the Florida Society for Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing show July 19th 2007.

If you’re in Naples Florida, I’ll see you there.