Over the course of work days, weeks, months and years, it’s easy for health care marketers to lose direct contact with their primary audience: patients. There are, of course, people in your organization whose job it is to stay in constant contact with these people. Maintaining a system to stay connected with these colleagues can provide a win-win for marketing departments looking for great content and for patients who are trying to navigate their own healthcare needs.

I was reminded of this recently when the topic of health care came up among me, my wife and some houseguests. Among the group were a recent survivor of breast cancer, a patient with a chronic disease and a mother of two. There was a lot of talk about medications, diseases, alternative therapies and reasons one might follow a doctor from one practice to another.

There was also talk about things like online health records, the nature of various medical partnerships and understanding and managing billing procedures. Complicated topics to be sure. This got me thinking about the wealth of information medical marketers could aggregate and disseminate about these very vital areas of modern medical care.

So often, complex organizations make marketing decisions based on what “messaging” they want to convey. That’s fine, and there’s definitely a need for that. But as more of us are more thoroughly connected, there’s a growing need for more answers to questions that can be presented in simple language, and posted in places that people can actually find quickly.

Touchpoint check-ins

Every day, every health organization is charged with answering questions from its customers. (For example, “Why do I not pay a co-pay at the time of visits but receive a bill in the mail later?”) And every day, many of those questions are asked repeatedly, on the phone. However, it can be very difficult to find those questions answered in a searchable format online.

These questions are asked and answered by a wide range of people within an organization, and it should be the responsibility of the marketing department to have a direct connection to those people on the front lines of customer interaction.

By keeping a frequent dialogue with receptionists, people in the billing department and others, marketing teams can compile a treasure trove of frequently asked questions. Most can be answered quickly.

Marketing help for customer service

Other questions and answers, however, might be better handled by the unique resources available in the marketing department. This occurred to me when a guest was trying to explain the complicated nature of her primary care provider’s partnership with the hospital that heads up her cancer treatments. If ever an infographic could come in handy, this would be the time.

Obviously, there are some pieces of information an organization understandably would not want to share online with everyone. However, the nature of its relationships with other organizations should be one of those times. Patients have a lot to deal with between their appointment, medications, insurance and more, so spending mental energy on how your organization works and how that relates to them should be made as clear and easy to understand as possible.

Posting answers where people are looking

So you’ve done it! You’ve talked to the right people and have oodles of questions that they’ve been asked and you’ve worked with them to create written answers to those questions. Now what?

It’s time to start getting those answers out into the world.

With each question / answer combo, ask yourself, “Where would people be looking for this piece of information?” If it’s parking-related, could it be added to your Google Maps listing? If there are a lot of items, could they make their way into a Twitter editorial calendar? If there are multiple infographics that explain your organization, could they be added to Slideshare?

Do these questions/answers exist on places like Quora or GetSatisfaction? Note that I haven’t even mentioned your main company site or your blog yet. Obviously, these are good choices, too, but as more and more people search for answers in places where they search for everything else, too, it’s a good practice to keep these spaces top of mind.

Ali’s latest creation are these Cookie Monster cupcakes which she normally douses with booze and serves at children’s birthday parties around Boston.  NOTE TO KIDS:  If you see a lady with a Venom t-shirt and delicious-looking Cookie Monster cupcakes, don’t believe a word she says. Before you know it, you’ll be coding Drupal in our dungeon and you won’t know where your childhood went. Just ask the rest of the developers.

I grew up an Apple fanatic. Not by my free will, but by force. My father, also named Steve, felt an affinity with Jobs (maybe because of their shared name). At the dinner table, my father, adorned in his new uniform-like wardrobe of light wash jeans and a black long sleeve t-shirt, preached Jobs’ values as if they were religion. “Think outside of the box! Love what you do! Better yet, look at how cool this iMac is! It comes in five colors!!!” Deny my father’s borrowed words of wisdom, and I’m sure that would be grounds for an immediate time out and no dessert. Thankfully for me, I was never grounded; I heard my father speak about how brilliantly innovative Jobs was and was instantly mystified.

It was at this time I think that a divide in my family started to develop: my father and I, the Apple Freaks, on one side, and my mother and sister on the other, rolling their eyes in our direction as we caressed our Apple computers and folded our retail bags as if they were irreplaceable ancient artifacts. Handle with care and place on the table slowly!

I was always a creative girl. I played two musical instruments, attended numerous art classes, and experimented with digital artwork on our ever- growing collection of Macs. When I was 16, my parents bought me a solid silver flute. It was a beautiful gift, but the excitement completely subsided when I took my first step into the Apple store at the mall. There, I saw the iPod. The next day I put up a school posting for my flute, sold it, took the money, went to the mall with a friend and bought the shiny white iPod. Now that was excitement!

Now, reality had set in. I hadn’t completely thought this through—my parents would surely ask where my flute was. I returned home, without my flute case in hand, but a crisp new Apple bag and a smile I could hardly keep a secret. My mother asked where my flute was, and I pulled out the iPod and put it on the table. She immediately frowned, scorning me for being so irresponsible. I looked at my father, and it was like he had found the fountain of youth, the light in his eyes was amazing. He picked it up, held the iPod in his hands, and grinned from ear to ear. I was in the clear.

Many years have passed since then, and the shrine my father built of old Apple computers has grown (there’s 17 of them last I counted). I grew up too, but the simple values that Steve Jobs ingrained into Apple helped shape who I am, how I think, and how I create. He inspired me to be intoxicated by creativity, and exhilarated by innovation. He taught me that great ideas can start small, even in your parents’ garage. He reminds me to speak my mind, even if I know I won’t gain the majority of the vote, and never give up on something I passionately believe in. Jobs spoke about his company with humility, he wanted to make a difference; he wanted to “put a dent in the universe.”

Now, as an art director at Genuine, with those values installed into my very core, I make certain that if I do something, I do it right, and to focus on what is important and ignore what is not. Jobs taught me to enjoy simplicity, to never dream blankly, to never create without purpose, and most of all, to love what I do.

Steve, thank you for everything. You will be missed.

Love, Laura

photo from cancer.org

Foursquare, it seems to be just another way for people to shout out, “Hey I’m somewhere doing something! Look at me!” and formost users (including yours truly) that’s what it is. But Foursquare can be so much more, especially for companies and brands. The guys over at AboutFoursquare.com have plenty of tips as to get more out of the Foursquare experience. Below are two examples of how powerful Foursquare can be when combined with Google.

Google Maps + Foursquare

First up, here’s how to map your Foursquare check-in on Google Maps. Follow these two easy steps:

1. Visit your Foursquarefeeds page. Right-click the KML link and copy it to your clipboard (butdon’t download it).

2. Visit Google Maps and paste the link you copied into the search box. Hit Enter.

All your Foursquare check-ins will be pinned on the map and you can share this information by clicking either Send or Link at the top of the map. So what can you do with this information?  What about embedding the map into your website? This could allow clients, consumers, whomever to interactively see where you’ve been. For example, a brand might check into expos/events that it is a part of.

Google Calendar + Foursquare

How about sharing your Foursquare check-ins in a GoogleCalendar?  All it takes is a few easy steps:

1. Visit your Foursquare feeds page, right-click on the ICS link and copy the link location (but do not download the file)

2. In your Google Calendar, find the Other Calendars box on the lower left and click Add.

3. Choose Add by URL.

4. In the pop-up that appears, paste the URL you copied from the feeds page and click Add Calendar.

5. Wait a few minutes for Google to import the calendar.

6. When the calendar first imports, it’s name will be the long URL you pasted in; to change it, click the dropdown arrow next to its name in the Other Calendars box, choose Calendar Settings, change the calendar name to something more friendly (like “Foursquare History”), and click Save.

You could then make this calendar public, allowing your contacts to see when you went someplace. This could be useful for a street team, where a company wants to show when they were at a specific event.

The possible uses for these mashups are almost limitless (especially if you can figure out how to add Twitter in for a social media trifecta), and can greatly enhance your sociability on the Web.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to check in and try to regain mayorship of the Genuine office.

Mike Miles is a backend developer at Genuine Interactive. Follow him on twitter @mikemiles86 or on foursquare  @mikemiles86. Photo courtesy of Teamstickergiant.

 In recent conversations with a wide range of clients in the medical field (hospitals, physicians networks and EMR providers), a theme has been emerging around their content aspirations. In their own way, each wants to serve as patient or clinician educators.

As someone who entered agency life from a newspaper/web producer/web developer background, this makes me smile. I believe we’re in the early stages of a whole new wave of content creation and sharing. This new wave is powered by tools that will serve those with valuable insights very well, enabling them to cultivate ambassadors for thought leadership.

The tools to which I’m referring — Quora and Tumblr and Google’s social search — are all relatively new, and combine for a truly powerful way to connect relevant content to an audience that’s becoming more sophisticated about how to manage the information overload they’re experiencing every day.

Read the full post at MediaPost.com

When I told people that we were working on the Plimoth Plantation web site, they usually said something like “I remember visiting that place as a kid” or “Do the Pilgrims there pretend to know what a web site is?” Generally, people thought that visiting Plimoth led to a somewhat odd experience talking to actors dressed in Pilgrim garb and out of touch with the modern world.

However, after visiting Plimoth and working with their staff, we found a vibrant and active community dedicated to telling the iconic story of Plymouth Colony in the modern age. Lots of great stuff happens daily at this living history museum – from the independent cinema shown in the visitor center to the unique bicultural experience offered by the Wampanoag and English villager roleplayers.

As we proceeded through IA and design, we focused on the idea of a “window into the guest experience” which informed the home page, online calendar, and unique inner pages of the site. We prepared detailed documentation on the Drupal CMS that we built to power the site, to allow Plimoth to fill each page with well-written copy and specifically chosen imagery.

One key goal of the redesign was to create a system of “microdonations,” to allow online users to support Plimoth through small donations of $2 or $5. We collaborated with Plimoth to develop a “virtual world” to introduce users to the Microdonation experience, and used Convio to build out donations forms that let users support Plimoth financially and then share their experiences on Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. (Shameless plug: please consider handfeeding a lamb today.)

Visitors to Plimoth Plantation can expect a fun yet educational experience, all in beautiful outdoor and indoor settings. Plan your own visit today, and visit the beautiful new web site to learn how to make the most of your experience.

But while you’re focusing on making sure you have the best socially connected experience on an iPad EVER, there’s another digital opportunity that looms that could be more impactful to your customers and could eventually be the “viral” hit you’ve been looking for.

Acronyms like EMR (electronic medical records), HIT (health information technology) and HIE (health information exchange) can be just as powerful as the four little letters L-I-K-E that have driven many marketers Facebook crazy over the past year or so.

Click here to read the full post

One of the first sessions I attended was given by Bryan House, Vice President of Marketing for Aqucia. Brian’s session focused on how to position Drupal over proprietary alternatives when pitching to clients (so listen up project & account managers!). Drupal now powers 1.5% of the internet; this may sound like a small percent, but that is over 1 million websites. Drupal is gaining traction as one of the most popular open source platforms for website development.

So what does this mean to clients. It means reduced development cost and faster turnaround time for high performance websites. With over 7,000 published modules Drupal developers have to spend less time re-inventing the wheel, and with a community of over 500,000 active members developers are never far from a solution to a problem. Since Drupal has a modular and flexible architecture, a module built for one project can be easily be used on multiple other projects with little to no additional development. You can hear Bryan Houses full session here.

Since at Genuine we are developing more and more mobile applications, two of my most anticipated sessions were “Mobile App Development Using Drupal as a Base” by Sumit Kataria and “Drupal on the Go with jQuery Mobile” by TomTim Cosgrove and Brian McMurray. During Sumit’s session he explained and demonstrated how you can use Appcelarator’s Titanium studio along with the Drupal services module to build native iPhone and Android applications powered by Drupal. This means that you can easily develop an accompanying mobile application for any Drupal website. Sumit’s session can be viewed here.

Tom Tim and Brian’s session focused more on the power of Drupal’s theming engine, which allows for multiple “themes” to be used on a single site. They spoke about how using some HTML5 and jQuery mobile you can build a theme for your website that would look great on mobile browsers. With the information and ideas provided in these two sessions, you can build a website, Andriod app, iPhone app and mobile site with a single Drupal installation. Talk about a flexible architecture! Tom Tim and Brian’s session can be viewed here.

One of Drupal’s downfalls is performance; it can be very resource heavy. Genuine has experienced this first-hand with a few client Drupal sites, but our development team has come up with a number of working solutions. This is one of the reasons why I was intent on attending Kenny Silanskas’s session “Drupal Performance Tuning.” Kenny spoke about some great methods for improving page load time, and reducing server strain for Drupal websites. Drupal allows for using a number of different caching methods; the default is database caching, but the performance is poor and still requires server calls. If you add in opcode caching (such as apc and memcache), static file caching (using the Drupal boost module) and reverse proxies (such as varnish) you can greatly improve the performance of your Drupal site. Kenny’s session can be viewed here.

I returned from Drupalcon with a wealth of knowledge to share not only with the development team, but just about every department at Genuine. As we see an increased demand from our clients to build Drupal based projects, this knowledge will help us continue to build high performance, unique, award-winning sites.

Your mom’s on Facebook. It’s okay, mine is too. The initial feeling of nausea and rocking back and forth repeating “You Shouldn’t Be Here” passes over time, and we’ve all started to welcome our moms to the most coveted social network. They are the ones who taught us how to be social, after all.

It also happens that the life lessons we learned from mom are meaningful in creating a successful Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Facebook page. These simple rules will help any CPG brand rule Facebook, and they can thank mom for the wonderful insight:

1.    Share

Sharing is the foundation of all social networks. We share everything about ourselves, and expect others to do the same. It’s no different for CPG brands on Facebook, considering they are already a guest in most households.

CPG brands should take two approaches to sharing:

1. Be open about your product and your company, shady is a positive adjective only when you’re standing under a tree in 100 degree weather; and
2. Promote sharing by delivering engaging and unique content to your fans. When was the last time you shared something on Facebook? What about that content made you want to tell your friends about it?

2.    Listen to Others

Brands that listen to their fans always come out ahead. Proving to your fans that you’re listening and acting upon learned insights is the best way to gain trust from your consumers.

3.    When it comes to friends, it’s quality over quantity.

Don’t get caught up in reaching that 1 million fans benchmark. CPG brands should focus efforts on attracting fans that have a true interest in the product and are willing to go the extra mile to share recipes or favorite product scents with their friends. An active Facebook fan will provide more value than one who hides your brand’s posts from their News Feed.

4.    Keep it Fresh

We all had that childhood friend who could make any situation fun with just a pinch of imagination. That willingness to deliver exciting and unique content to your Facebook community is what keeps people interested and coming back for more.

Take risks to create content that will provide value to the community and encourage sharing – our attention spans on social networks are getting shorter by the day. If you keep your community on their toes, they’ll be curious as to what’s next.

5.    Learn from Your Mistakes

Not all Facebook brand pages will succeed from the start. They take trial and error and an exhaustive effort to learn the intricacies of the Facebook community and what speaks to them in the most engaging ways. Post at various times of the day to learn what time your fans are most responsive, investigate failed contests or programs to find out why they didn’t work, and (most importantly) be flexible.

Regardless of whether you have an established presence on Facebook or are just joining the party, you’re never too cool to take mom’s advice. The lessons may be simple, but you remember them for a lifetime.

Social media campaigns are meant to evolve over time, so CPG brands that structure their campaigns in such a way will benefit in the long run.

Thanks Perri! from Genuine Interactive on Vimeo.

Thanks for all you do for all of us Perri!