The Fantastic Five - Key Principles

Health organization generally have a common goal and that is to tackle health problems and concerns and promote awareness through sharing clear information. Social media is continuing to expand every day with new features and users. Utilizing social media to promote health organizations are what many places are doing. Why wouldn't they? Social media is a great way to reach large masses of people in a timely and efficient manner. However, it is not just as simple as post and be known, there are guidelines that should be followed to ensure optimal success. Below, in a special edition of Cody's Corner, there are five key principles that I have devised, along with justifications as to why they are important as well as examples. 

Cody's Corner

Target

Using the word target may seem very general but it acts as an umbrella because there are many "target" parts that need to be considered when utilizing social media for health organization and professional promotion. 

Target Audience - Who are you trying to reach? Is your target audience African-American teenagers in South Carolina or is it Pacific Islanders above the age of 40 living in Hawaii? You must be very specific, but not too specific where you're leaving people out who can also use and will value the health information. (Don't worry, we'll discuss this further in evaluation.) 

Goals - I feel as though goals deserve to be in the Target category because without goals, your organization will be working towards nothing. Having goals will allow your health organization to know what their purpose is behind everything that they do, as well as help you analyze what is and isn't working well so shifts can be made that the goals may be reached without depleting resources. Set short term goals and long term goals. Objectives are nice to have too! Keep setting goals too. You don't have to achieve an goal before you can make another and honesty, I encourage you to keep creating new goals (but do not go overboard to where none of the goals are being accomplished because there are so many). This will also bring us back to evaluation. - I promise I'll quit saying that word.. maybe. 

An example of a health organization that is clearly has their goals and target population defined is Susan G. Komen's breast cancer organization. Their purpose is to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research and their target population is focused on women in the ages where they are most susceptible of getting breast cancer. 

Paint your Profiles

Having an eye-catching, well organized, well thought out social media profile makes browsing your site a breeze. your target audience will be appreciative and thankful at the clarity provided to them. make sure links are clear, working and easily accessible. The most valuable information (highly favored like your health organization's official website link or common topics should be visible). 

Copyright, World Health Organization, 2015

Be sure that your organization logo is the profile photo for each social media site. Not only does this make your social profiles be easily identified, but it also creates uniformity and consistency across all of the networks which looks very nice. Contact information should also be readily available on each individual networking site! The World Health Organization does a great job of this especially on their Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts! This photo is currently their header picture. 

Communicate Effectively
To communicate effectively, you and your organization must know your voice. Realizing what you stand for and who you stand for is important. Becoming empathetic meaning putting yourself in someone else's shoes and trying to see things from their perspectives will help you better envision why you set the goals you did. Do not "dumb down" information in a way that is demeaning to those less educated, but instead, be clear and concise and write at a level that children can comprehend. 

Engaging with your audience is important because it shows that you as a health organization care about their feelings, their health and what is important to them. Spark debates and conversations but do not show bias. Finally, do not bombard your followers with non stop information. Using queue apps will let you draft your posts to where they are published on a certain interval. Communicating effectively is important because it helps the people you are targeting by clearly conveying the health information. An example would be a health organization sharing information on their social media site and then responding to their followers comments and questions.

Be Transparent

Being transparent is also an important principle to remember. You're asking, well what does that mean? As a leader, it means being honest and up front about matters. As a health organization, it is your job to own up to mistakes that may have been made, as well as make things known down to the tiniest detail about what you're doing especially if it involves monetary resources. People will want to know where their donations are going and what they will be used for. Being transparent lets your followers put their trust in you with continued support for the organization. When sharing information, make sure it is relative to the organization's message and goals. Sharing posts of the staff and behind the scenes "footage" will help your followers relate to the overall organization, too. 

Concern Worldwide is a prime example of an organization that is transparent. They offer data and info graphics all across their website that shows how their resources are spent and how they are allocated.

Evaluating
Evaluation is as crucial as defining your target audience and goals, but it just goes last because it's usually done after the first four principles are considered. However, evaluations can happen anytime honestly. You obviously don't want to evaluate anything if there are no goals.. Just making sure we are on the same page! Two specific ways that I think helps health organization evaluate their progress effectively are through SWOT Analysis and Analytics. Previously mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm going to quickly touch on these two because in all honesty, they are simple tools. 
  SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It allows your organization to identify strengths which are internal to the organization; weaknesses that are also internal but can be fixed; discover opportunities from the external environment like collaborations with other organizations and finally threats are identified as external. Threats can hinder your health organization's growth and productivity. 

Analytics are just statistics and graphical information that showcases how well a post is performing online. Concepts such as how many likes a post received, or how many times it was shared. These are important to look at because it will give your health organization a better idea of the content that is most favored and what is least favored. The most favored content will also be considered a strength, while the least favored is considered a weakness! 

Advocate Healthcare based in Chicago is an example of an organization utilizing data and analytic for the betterment of their company. They saved an estimated 200 million dollars one year after beginning to examine data like health history. 

Closing Remarks

With these five principles, I know you will be successful at utilizing social media with in your health organization. Remember, "there is no such thing as failure, only feedback" - Dr. Stephen Firsing.  

Have a happy and healthy day! 
-Cody

Strategy & Evaluation of Social Media Integration for Health Orgs.

We've covered Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and several other social media sites that are useful for Health Organizations and professionals. As the seventh blog entry begins, strategy and evaluation of social media usage and integration in the health field will be discussed. Strategy is synonymous with the word tactic and can be defined as a plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as an achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. Plan. Goal. Are these words ringing a bell? Evaluation on the other hand is measuring how well or how bad things are occurring and reminds me of the SWOT analysis (we will discuss this later on).  

Strategy

Strategy is crucial. It is important. Are there other synonyms for the word important because I would use them here. As a health organization or professional, before you begin to plan out your strategy or tactics, you must listen. Listen to what is being said by peers, consumers, the people that you are targeting. I'm just going to assume that you've defined your target audience... By listening, you begin to feel and understand what others are feeling. It's becoming empathetic. You need to understand what health information can be best suited by doing so, you're able to better strategize what is needed. By not listening, you begin to create a downfall for your organization as well as turn people who look up to your organization against you. 

Strategy also includes deciding the best way to reach your audience. People access information in so many different forms these days, so by listening, you're able to know what your target audience is asking for and the best way they can receive it. Voicing information the correct way too is extremely important. If you "know your voice" and how to use it appropriately, then reaching your target audience(s) with accurate health information will be simple. Your voice should reflect the views and characteristics of the overall health organization.  

Having strategies set in place show that your health organization is prepared for pretty much anything that is going to be thrown at it. There are so many strategies that can help a health organization or professional transparently, appropriately and effectively communicate with large masses of people. Using ideas from others (with credit), being inspired by other organizations, bringing up controversial topics that spark discussion and shares/retweets are just a few of the ideas to allow your social media campaign to flourish.  

Evaluation 

While strategizing is important, so is evaluating. Seriously. What is working well and what are the positive outcomes that are happening because of what you're doing? What is going wrong because of what you're doing (if any.. lets hope none)? What are the internal strengths and weaknesses? Are there any external threats or opportunities? You're probably thinking "Cody, where are you going with this and what are you talking about?" Well, I just described the SWOT Analysis. I feel it is the basis of any sort of evaluation. 



SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This is a great way to evaluate how effectively the social media campaign is working for your health organization. You can identify your organization's strengths which will allow you to expand. Identifying weaknesses will allow you to retract or abolish a certain part or attempt to fix it. Knowing opportunities from the external environment like collaborations with other organizations or a potential grants will help boost your organization from the outside in. Threats are identified as external and can cause the organization to retract or decide a different path to take to avoid the obstacle. 

Finally, keeping an eye on what's trending or happening on your social media sites and viewing analytics will help you better evaluate your health organization's messages or information being shared. What is is being retweeted, shared and liked the most? - These are good things and you want to continue to share posts and information that is relatively the same to your most popular and highly favored posts. Posts that aren't being shared, retweeted or liked may need to be retracted (these are actually internal weaknesses) and may need more monitoring/editing. 

Examples

World Health Organization - WHO's strategy of knowing their target audience is shown through all of their social media accounts by providing information on a variety of topics and in a variety of places. Their website is also easily changeable to reflect other languages. They are also extremely savvy in advocating their messages as well as getting people to understand their perspectives and advocate too. 

Many Public Health and Healthcare organizations like Relay For Life and United Healthcare implement SWOT analysis to determine many factors such as what are the strengths (what is being done effectively and efficiently), weaknesses (what is bringing the organization down or hindering it's expansion, opportunities and threats. Doing these analysis are crucial. 

Take Away

There are three things that I want anyone reading to take away from this. 
1. Goals/Audience - Please, just do this. Write out some goals and figure out who your target audience is and what your purpose is... (i.e. knowing your voice and understanding why you're doing what you do). 
2. Be Concise - Be clear, concise, short and sweet, but also provide as much information as possible in a manner that is understandable for people with fifth grade reading levels. Do not share information in tone that is demeaning, but yet, engaging and that people of all ages are able to understand and relate to if need be. 
3. Go, Stop, Fix - Continue going with what is making your organization successful and receiving positive feedback. Stop what is just not working whatsoever or hindering your organization from communicating health information effectively. Fix what you know can be fixed. It is okay if ideas, groups and even the health organizations views, messages, etc. evolve. Change can sometime be good! 

Have a happy & healthy day! 
-Cody 

Google+ You Plus Health!

I've heard of it, but what is it?

Google+ also known as Google Plus is the search engine giant's very own social networking site that does much more than people think it can do. 
Author, marketing consultant and development trainer Martin Shervington dubs Google+ as a phenomenal tool for human communication. Communication is a key aspect in Health Organizations and for Health Professionals because without communication, research would not be fulfilled, patients would be left clueless about current health information and there would be no connection among health organizations. Google+ can be a great addition to a health organization's social networking project looking to communicate with a larger audience online. 

Really Cody? Persuade me to use Google+

Well, that's what I am here for. With Google+, you and your health organization will be able to effectively communicate new ideas and information as well as collaborate with other organizations and as a team with this service. Google+ integrates with all Google services including YouTube, search engine results, and Google Apps, therefore the information you share is generated across several platforms through Google+ notifications. 

With Google+ you can create circles that allows you to identify relative users and separate them accordingly. Your health organization can have a circle that is strictly staff members as well as a circle that is made up of other health organizations looking to communicate. This article will help greatly in setting up circles in Google+. However, it's first concept is identifying your target audience.

O.K. So What's Next?

Crucial to beginning any social network for you organization, you must identify a target audience and define the goals of creating this social network. I know I harp on this often (okay more than often) but it is seriously the most important aspect of doing basically anything. If you do not have any goals set, you are working toward achieving nothing. The goals for your health organization also need to be shared internally. Long term and short term goals should be created in order to propel your organization forward and positively effect the lives of those you're targeting. 

Once you have established your goals and target audience, you can began building Google+ Profile. The video below is easy to follow along and will show  you step by step how to create your Google+ profile so you and/or your organization can begin utilizing the tool for communication amongst your target audience! 

Once you've created your profile, your organization can begin sharing photos, videos, text posts, pretty much anything. An interesting tidbit is that many places offer a "Share to Google+ Now" button. For instance, if your health organization found an interesting article regarding vaccines and that is your focus, usually near the "Facebook" or "Tweet this" buttons, you'll find a "G+" button! 

Cody's Corner

Tips for an effective Google+ Experience

• Goals & Target Audience - I promise I will stop harping on this soon. Maybe not. The most important tip I can give after research and experience is you must define goals and who you're targeting. It will make your experience so much easier. Knowing why you're creating a Google+ and what's going to be shared and who it's shared with will make future plans and brainstorms a much easier process. 
• Relative Content - Once you have defined your goals and objectives, begin posting content relative to your goals. Sharing information is a great way to communicate ideas with large masses of people (aka the people that follow you and/or view your profile). Following people who share relative information too is a great idea to get your brand out and noticed. Christine Degraff, a senior web developer created this article full of detail on how following and circles work!
• Search & Social - With Google+, users are able to search for your organization exactly or related topics and search engines do the work for you by finding new clients to interact with. This allows people to begin following and interacting with your posts the second the search results pull up.
• HIPAA - As mentioned in previous posts, when discussing health information, it is crucial to be weary of sensitive information! It is illegal to discuss personal health information with users over the internet, including Google+. Do not disclose any personal information regarding yourself, a staff member or a community member via any internet services. This is tied with Goals & Audience as the most important tip. :) 
• Engage & Evaluate - Communicate with users, share information posted by other organizations, be very broad but also specific. Do not target one person specifically on issues. Evaluate how well people are responding to the health information you're sharing. 

The CDC & Google+

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a beautifully made Google+ profile. With almost 40,000 followers and boasting 5 million page views, the CDC is greatly paving the way for other health organizations to begin utilizing this underrated social media site. The CDC shares information regularly with their latest posts regarding topics dealing with summer such as food preparation, BBQing and swimming! They have created hashtags (not used on Google+) but are shared in the photos so that users can easily pick up relative information on other sites. The CDC knows who their target audience is, they do not discuss sensitive (different from controversial) information. They include photos, texts posts and links to external places including their actual website, and they also engage with people who comment on posts. 

Wrapping things up, Google+ is a different styled social media site but when used appropriately, can be a great asset to your health organization. 

As always, have a happy "+" healthy day,

- Cody