Transcription:
Online Healthcare Communities as a Marketing Tool

Intro: The following SHSMD podcast is a production of DoctorPodcasting.com.

Bill Klaproth (Host): On this edition of the SHSMD podcast, have you thought about leveraging online communities, such as Facebook groups to resonate and cut through to reach a specific audience, think service line marketing? Well, we're going to talk about creating online health care communities as a marketing tool. As we talk with Danny Flamberg, Vice President of Strategy at Live World, a Digital Healthcare Agency.

And Chloe Politis, the Director of Digital and Social Media at Mount Sinai Health System, as we go through a case study they did. And coming up at the end of this podcast, we're going to have details on how you can download that case study. So let us not delay another minute longer. Let us get to it right now.

, This is the SHSMD podcast, rapid insights for healthcare strategy professionals in planning, business development, marketing, communications, and public relations. I'm your host Bill Klaproth. Danny and Chloe, welcome to the SHSMD. Podcast before we get to your case study, we start every episode of the podcast with rapid insights. One quick tip, someone can use to make their marketing communications better today, Danny, you're up first. Give us your rapid insight.

Danny Flamberg (Guest): My rapid insight is that as you formulate your social media strategy, take into account the fact that there are different demographics, different technologies and different nuances on each platform and arrange to organize your content in that way.

Host: Absolutely. That is a great rapid insight. Remember those nuances for different platforms. That's so true. Okay, Chloe, you're up next? Give us your rapid insight.

Chloe Politus (Guest): Take advantage of social media listening, meet your audiences where they are on social media when creating content listen to the conversations that are happening on your social platforms, whether you're listening to conversations on Twitter or Instagram, you want to be part of those relevant conversations. So make sure that you're adjusting content appropriately.

Host: Chloe, thank you for that rapid insight. You're right, sometimes we don't do enough listening. Right. So that is a really good rapid insight. So thank you for that. Well, Chloe and Danny, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. So you have come up with a case study that is going to be available for download.

We'll let you know how you can download that at the end of the podcast, it's called Creating an Online Community to Address Patient and Caregiver Needs. This is really important. And I think a lot of people are trying to put their finger on this, how to do exactly that. Danny, how did this idea come about?

Danny: Well, it was really a serendipitous idea that began at the Aspen Institute where David Feinberg, the CMO of Mount Sinai and Peter Freedman, the CMO of Live Worlds were having a coffee. They were talking about strategy and David was saying in the highly competitive New York hospital market, he was looking for ideas that the competition wasn't active in, you know, as the whole world was zigging, he wanted to zag. The other thing he was thinking about was and he had a hunch, that there are communities of people based on conditions and diseases that were underserved, that could be effectively served with an online community using social media, to which Peter, who is an expert in community building and has 26 years of experience in bringing people together in that way, said, absolutely. And then the two of them put together the teams to create the online community, which has been so successful for us.

Host: Yeah, that's really smart. Trying to think about the different groups and then trying to reach those different groups. So, Chloe, how did you bring this idea to life then at Mount Sinai?

Chloe: Yeah. So that's a really great question. Partnering with the Live World team, we narrowed down which audience and which community we really wanted to help. So, we've looked at different demographics across the New York City region and what we realized, while even searching through social media platforms and conversations, that caregivers of loved ones with Alzheimer's don't really have the online resources available.

Especially in a private community group setting, that's connected to an academic medical center or a large health system. So we really brought a unique approach to this group because partnering with Live World and our department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, we're bringing our Mount Sinai experts directly into the group to connect with caregivers, to address the emotional, the financial needs of caregiving.

Host: Yeah, that's really interesting. So when you talk about connecting emotionally and financially with patients and caregivers, how did you go about doing that Chloe?

Chloe: We started by, working with our experts. What are the common questions caregivers are asking when they bring their loved ones in for their appointments? What are common topics that our experts are discussing or presenting on during conferences. But also this goes back to my rapid insight, social listening.

What are caregivers saying online? What questions are they asking? And so through that social listening and through connecting with our Sinai experts, we were able to generate content around that. Right? So whether it was in the form of a social media video or in the form of an infographic, we were making sure that we were covering all the bases when we were creating content and that this content was coming directly from our experts. So, it was trustworthy information, brought to you by Mount Sinai clinicians.

Host: So focus on common questions and common topics, because those are the things that people are interested in. Those are the problems that they need solved. So you're basically solving their problems when you address those common questions and common topics. So Danny, I know one of the goals was to try to change relationships from occasional to ongoing. And I could see where someone participating in a group in an ongoing basis would help that. Can you share with us any other thoughts about how you change relationships from occasional to ongoing and what you learned in this study?

Danny: Well, our objective was to change the relationship. So, when we looked at the typical hospital patient relationship, it was a transactional, need driven thing, you need to have an operation. You need to get a scan. You need to see a physician. And it was kind of a one and done kind of experience. We held up this ideal of a guy, you know, we're all New Yorkers. In New York, everybody has a guy for everything. You know, they have a guy to help them get through, the paperwork. They have a guy that is a handyman and when we thought kind of be your guy, can Mount Sinai be your guy that you take as part of your life resources. So that rather than just think, well, I need to have an operation. I'll go to Mount Sinai. Thinking to yourself, all things medical, Mount Sinai is my guy. I'm going to go there because I have an emotional and a logical connection to this institution. So that was our paradigm that we worked toward.

Host: I got a guy, right? Yeah. The furnace breaks down. Hey, I got a guy. So, Chloe, I know one of the other things you were trying to accomplish was position Mount Sinai as people who care, maybe it's the, I got a guy place. So what tactics are you using to position yourself as the place where people care.

Chloe: Yeah, absolutely. As I was talking about video and infographic content, you can think, okay, so those are your marketing tactics, but really how are we bringing this community together? And one of the most unique tactic that we've used in the group and that we continue to use are private virtual conversations with our experts, so we've had private Zoom, round table where we've invited our caregivers within the group to meet our experts on Zoom, have a private, safe space conversation. And it was open-ended. The caregivers, at first people can be a little shy. They might not be so open to sharing their story right off the bat.

So what we did was we asked the audience and the caregivers in advance, are there any questions you would like us to ask our physician, that's going to be joining us for this live event. So they submitted a few questions and we kind of use that as an icebreaker, but as our physician was going deeper into her responses to these questions, the caregivers felt comfortable now to chime in, to kind of elaborate on an answer that Dr. Callahan was sharing. And then the conversation just floats organically. I mean, the event was only supposed to be an hour on Zoom, but it turned out to be an hour and 30 minutes because everyone started to becoming so comfortable speaking with Dr. Callahan. That's what we were really aiming for in creating a community, not just for Mount Sinai to post videos and infographics, but to get the caregivers speaking with one another and the added benefit of speaking to one of our experts in real time.

Host: I could see where that would help reposition Mount Sinai as the people who care by doing these things and spending all that time just trying to answer their questions. Chloe, let me stay with you for a second. Did you have a, do you have a posting schedule? Did you, do a couple of these live events just for someone listening, going, how did they do that? How did they put that together? How did you kind of structure this?

Chloe: Yeah, absolutely. So it's definitely, challenging and in terms of scheduling something like this, right? Because we know people are working, so they might not be available to tune in on Zoom in the middle of the workday or, they have their caregiving duties. So what we've tried to do is find an optimal time.

So we actually hosted this event after dinner. So it was, I think the event started at around 7:30, 8 o'clock. We would try to accommodate not only our physician, but of course the caregivers in the group. So we thought an after dinner hour, when things are kind of settled down at the end of the day, would be a great time for everyone to meet. And, you know, at first I would say I was a little nervous, not sure how many people were going to join the live event, but for our first event we had about 14 or 15 attendees.

Host: And you created this group. It was on Facebook. That's what it sounds like.

Chloe: Yes. It's a private Facebook group.

Host: And so you just created the group and then you promoted the fact that you're going to have the doctor on answering questions. Is that correct?

Chloe: Yep. I mean, creating the group, there was a lot of work that went into it. Right. We had Live World team. We had members of my team, so it was our social media team. We had head of our marketing, head of our branding, head of our creative to really put this group together because we wanted to make sure of course we met Mount Sinai branding, but also we wanted to make sure we were creating a safe space, that it wasn't a group that was overly marketing, right. It was supposed to be this friendly, safe community. And then when we were creating the event, we put together some pre promotional material. We created an events page within the group because Facebook groups has capability so that it reminded members of the group, hey, this event is happening at 8PM on Thursday. Don't forget to tune in here's the link to join the Zoom.

Host: And then you promoted this on your other social media channels as well?

Chloe: So we didn't promote the private conversation or the private event on our other social media channels, but we did promote the group on our other social media channels. And on top of promoting it on our other channels, we've also had the group featured in our email marketing to our patient base and also through the department of geriatrics and palliative medicine.

Host: Yeah. that's really good. This is really useful. So thank you for sharing that Chloe and Danny, as you know, we're all trying to increase revenue. There's no doubt about that. Can you talk to us about how a strategy like this helps the bottom line as you work towards increasing revenue from hospital services?

Danny: Well, part of the my guy idea is a connection that adds services additionally, as you move forward in life, but, while we considered revenue important, we also took a very subtle approach to it. We have very gingerly posted caregiver ideas about taking care of yourself. We, have very light cadence posted links to our doctor finder and our appointment center. Over the course of the six months that the group has run about 10% of our membership has clicked on one of those links. So there is, some trail of revenue coming in, although that's not our principal driver and we were very cautious about how we present this so that it is all about the caregivers, all about the community, all about peer to peer, not necessarily Mount Sinai marketing to an audience.

Host: You don't want to be perceived as over salesy, if you will.

Danny: Right. We don't want to be your sales guy. We want to be your emotional, emotional validating guy. We want to be your resource guy. We want to be your medical knowledge guy.

Host: So I love this idea of putting together groups like this, but Danny, a question that comes up then is how do you integrate an online community like this into the overarching brand strategy?

Danny: Well, you start by, as Chloe was saying, you start by involving your branding people so that the creative people on the Mount Sinai team and the brand team and the creative people in the Live World team started out in the same place. They evaluated the brand. The goal of course, is to speak with a single voice in the marketplace, to be consistent in the way we go to market and to reflect the goals and the personality of the institution. So from the get-go, the branding people were involved in structuring the community, naming the community, selecting the imagery of the community. And as a result, we could very well integrate into the We Find A Way branding that Mount Sinai is becoming so famous for in New York.

Host: Yeah, that's really important. And then Chloe, how do you, how do you manage this ongoing community? Knowing what Danny just said and constant monitoring, because I'm sure people are popping onto that group page with questions fairly often, I would think. How do you manage this ongoing online community?

Chloe: Absolutely. And it takes a team to manage this group. I have my counterparts at Live World that are helping us manage it. And also our head of marketing for the department of geriatrics. So together we are listening to the conversations happening. People are sharing their stories or asking questions, and we're making sure that we're creating content that's appropriate, that answers their questions. And we continue to participate in these conversations. We have a few of our experts that are members of the online group, that answer questions directly within the group feed, that are engaging with these caregivers. And we've really started seeing this personal connection between these caregivers and our doctors.

Host: Okay, so you have seen results. One of the things we always ask on the SHSMD podcast is what are the results? So can you talk about that a little bit? What you're seeing so far, it sounds like you're very encouraged at this point.

Chloe: It hasn't even been a year that this group has been live. And since its launch, we have over 1200 group members now.

Host: Wow.

Chloe: We're hoping we're going to get to 1500 very soon and over 400 of these members are active in the group daily, whether it's commenting in the group, liking, sharing, or, just engaging with other group members posts as well as what we're posting from our experts. We're really seeing some great engagement because we know in social media you can engage in so many different ways. It's so easy to scroll through your feed and just like a post, for someone to comment on a post or to share a post that's where the true engagement is, or to click through a link or an image that's been posted, because that means that content that's been shown to them on their feed, resonated with them.

Because again, I know, as a social media user, just personally, sometimes I'll scroll through my feed and I'll see something, it'll get a quick like. But if something really resonates with me, I'll take the time to comment or to share it with friends and family or to share it through even saving the posts and sharing it via text for people that are not on social media to see how great this piece of content has been.

Host: Another really good point about engagement.

Danny: You know that engagement is really what is our key metric. We started with the operative philosophy the 1990 idea that 1% of the population will be active in the community 9% will occasionally participate and the vast majority will not. And the idea that we're getting upwards of 40% of the community actually engaging is something that drives us.

We also have a team that Chloe and member of my team work on where we constantly listen to what's going on and react, and then create content that extends the conversation and invites more people in.

Host: Yeah, that's really smart. So just so we all know this is an Alzheimer's dementia group, is that right Chloe?

Chloe: Yes.

Host: Okay. Very good. So, Danny, you started out with this idea. This idea that came about as you were having coffee. Do you think you've hit the mark on this? You wanted to create something different you wanted to zig when other people are zagging. Has this done that for you?

Danny: Yes. We feel very strongly that way. We've been closely monitoring our competition, Chloe and I have made some presentations at some trade events where we ask people, are you doing communities? And the vast majority of people that we speak to are not. We've achieved the zig versus the zag.

We've achieved a healthy amount of engagement, and we've got 1200 people that are pretty dedicated to participating in this community. So, it looks like green lights all along for us.

Host: Yeah, it sounds like you're maximizing social media in a way most of us don't do. We all have social media and we all make our posts, but this is different. This is another component. So this is really important for all of us to pay attention to. So thank you both for your time before we close, though, let me ask you each the same question. If there's anything you want to add about this type of energy and tactic, Chloe, let me start with you.

Chloe: What's really exciting for us at Mount Sinai is that we're going to be taking this tactic and expanding it throughout various service areas within the health system. And of course we are going to think through this strategically. So my one key takeaway for people that are listening to this podcast today is that really think about starting communities online. We as social media marketers, we are used to creating content that's public facing. But I think if you create a safe space for, for patients, for caregivers to really talk about what it's like having to come across challenges and deal with challenges and really find other people that they can connect with, but also take advantage of the fact that, you know, if you work in a healthcare system, you have the experts there and they're willing to connect with patients and caregivers. So, really take advantage of that opportunity.

Host: And think about spreading into other service lines. You can have an orthopedics group, a heart health group, a bariatric surgery group, right?

Chloe: Exactly. You can expand into so many different areas. The sky really is the limit with these communities.

Host: Yeah. It's really, again, really important that we all pay attention to this. And Danny, any closing thoughts from you? Anything you want to add?

Danny Flamberg (Guest): I would echo what you and Chloe have said that service line marketing can be greatly improved by using this community as a tool. I mean, you obviously have to define a population and a need. You have to marry that need to the strengths or to the bench strength of the hospital or the institution. But as you point out there are many conditions and categories and diseases where patients and caregivers need information. They need expert information. They want to connect with peers. And this is a perfect way to not only super serve populations, add value and a halo effect to the hospital to become the guy and also to provide genuine service to a population in serious need.

Host: I got a guy. We need to become the guy. I love that. Such a great analogy. Well, thank you both for that. And Danny, I know that you and Live World are making this case study available. Where can we go and download it?

Danny: It's very easy to go to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Shoot us an email and we will shoot you back the case study. It's absolutely free and we're delighted to share it with you.

Host: Okay, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Well, Danny and Chloe, thank you so much for your time. This was very insightful. We really appreciate it. Thanks again.

Chloe: Thank you for having us.

Danny: Thank you.

Host: And once again, that's Danny Flamberg and Chloe Politis. And if you would like a copy of the case study, just go ahead and email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and request the online health care communities as a marketing tool case study. In fact, SHSMD is presenting a special webinar with Chloe and Danny on this very same subject.

If you would like to check it out, it's on Wednesday, April 20th, from 12 to 1. And for more info and sign up, just visit shsmd. org and then click on the education calendar. And if you found this podcast helpful and come on people, how could you not please share it on all of your social channels. And please hit the subscribe or follow button to get every episode of the SHSMD marketing podcast.

This has been a production of Dr. podcasting.com. I'm Bill Klaproth. See ya.