Despite what Reader’s Digest says, it’s not laughter. It isn’t a pill either.
I’m presenting on social media in health care at a conference in Palm Coast, Florida this morning, and the speaker just before me showed this great video. Sit and watch this for the next 10 minutes…
… and then get moving!
The Know Your Numbers video promotion contest results have been tabulated! Thanks to everyone who helped spread this important healthy heart awareness message. The more people you invited to join and the more times you shared the video, the better your chances were of winning. In total, there were 1031 individuals who participated in the contest and 148,143 points accrued! So, here goes…[Insert imaginary drum roll here…]
Grand Prize Winners: (Won full scholarship to attend the Social Media Summit, Social Media Health Network Member Meeting and Social Media Residency; October 15-19, 2012)
First Prize Winners: (Won an electronic heart rate monitor with fitness indicator)
Second Prize Winners: (Won choice of an electronic pedometer, digital bathroom scale, or automatic blood pressure monitor)
Third Prize Winners: (Won choice of Mayo Clinic books: The Mayo Clinic Diet, Mayo Clinic Fitness for Everybody, or Mayo Clinic 5 Steps to Controlling High Blood Pressure)
Team Prize Winners: (Won one-year Social Media Health Network membership)
And don’t forget – this contest focused on spreading the word about the #1 killer of both men and women in the United States: heart disease. So although the contest is over, feel free to continue sharing this video and reminding others of heart disease risk factors!
In addition to our annual Social Media Summit in October, produced in collaboration with Ragan Communications (details coming soon), the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media is co-producing another major social media conference in 2012, Connecting Health Care & Social Media.
This one will be held at Roosevelt Hospital, 1000 Tenth Avenue (at 59th Street), in New York City May 17-18, 2012 and we’re producing it with NYC Health Business Leaders and Continuum Health Partners.
Dr. Farris Timimi and I will be presenting on Mayo Clinic’s social media experience and philosophy, and we’ll be joined by others with helpful insights to share (some of whom are members of our External Advisory Board), including:
See the conference agenda for more details. Register today!
For information on joining the Social Media Health Network and the associated benefits — including credits to further reduce or even eliminate event registration fees — see this page.
Network members can get further details here (member login required.)
Editor’s Note: Nick Dawson, is a member of the External Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
So, you have a Facebook timeline for your hospital and you’ve been tweeting since before all those celebrities joined. You have wrangled through the legal concerns and assuaged senior leaders. You are on your way to health care social media greatness, right? Well, if your strategy doesn’t extend into the organization’s operations, you might have a few more i’s to dot and t’s to cross.
Learning to accept feedback is a challenge, for people and companies. How often do we hear a response to a concern which begins with: “Oh, we don’t do that…” Perhaps it is because most feedback is offered at a time of frustration.
Think about the person who has been sitting for too long in your waiting room. They probably aren’t in the best mood. So what do they do? People are turning to their social networks to vent about a frustrating experience.
There are two main challenges with accepting feedback: first, responding to it and, secondly, acting on it. Experts tell us people judge a customer service experience based on the reaction of the first person they contact. It is not always about solving the problem, sometimes it’s about how well we listen.
Have you ever seen a brand’s Facebook wall with page after page of unanswered customer feedback? If you are like me, the initial reaction is often: “why are they even online, are they just using social media to serve ads? I wish they’d at least acknowledge the posts…”
The second part, acting on feedback, may be part of the reason so few brands engage. For many brands, social media lives somewhere under the marketing organizational tree. Traditionally, that team hasn’t been at the forefront of addressing customer needs. Promote the new practice? Sure! Solve the waiting room congestion? That’s something else entirely.
However, as tools like Twitter and Facebook become common connections between individuals and brands – sometimes even being the first point of contact – us social media leaders need to get good at accepting feedback.
So how do we, as the social media mavens of our health care organizations, learn to accept feedback? Organizational alignment is not an excuse for avoidance, but it may be where the opportunity lies. Social media teams should carefully consider their many audiences and their potential needs. Based on those needs, consider what parts of the organization are best positioned to support the audience. Build connections with those teams and help them understand how social media can help them; likely, it will be a win/win.
Here are some steps and ideas to help your team get better at feedback:
Lastly, think about how you use social tools in your personal life. Do you interact with brands? Do you expect them to respond when you engage them? Our patients and customers are no different in their usage. Building a process to accept, respond and react to feedback will go a long way in strengthening your strategy and engagement. You community will appreciate it!
*Do you have a process for feedback? What tips and tricks have you learned? How did your organization get there? * -Nick Dawson
Please do not judge us, but my wife and I have become addicted to Project Runway. Argue you may that the series has jumped the proverbial shark, but there my wife and I find ourselves, planted firmly on the couch, despite Tim Gunn’s absence from the current iteration.
It is striking, watching the show and reflecting on the historic connections that lie beneath the fabric-laden façade. The very origins of the fabrics’ names that the designers use have profound and ancient roots. The muslin fabric, used by the designers as a universal base for design, is named for the port city of Mosul, first written of in 1298 by Marco Polo in his book The Travels, a text reporting his visit to the court of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan. The satin, favored by Michael C., is named for the port of Zaytun, an important port in the Mongol empire in the Fujian province of southern China. The reversible woven damask silk, favored by Austin, has its origins in the Syrian city of Damascus, the city where the majority of the Mongol trade to Europe in that era passed.
The impact of the Mongol empire on the fundamental meaning of trade was profound. Previous to the Mongol empire, trade was a rare component of life in both Europe and China. The presumption in feudal Europe had been that each country functioned as an independent and autonomous entity, fully self-sufficient; in the Chinese kingdoms, walls that served as borders to limit raiding equally limited trading opportunities.
The Mongols astutely understood that one kingdom’s disposable excess may well be another kingdom’s greatest desire and forged new trading relationships and routes. The Silk Road, the linking trade route ranging 4,000 miles across the majority of Eurasia and portions of Africa, did more than allow fabric to be shared, it truly allowed knowledge and culture to be shared, and by doing so, played a critical role in the evolution and development of the modern world.
The barriers that we face, those well-established between competing hospitals, between competing medical practices, between patients facing the same health challenges, even between physicians and patients – these barriers may seem woven into the very fabric of our health care culture and overwhelming to confront. Yet pick them apart we do, using social media and the digital conversations to forge new relationships and in doing so redefining the nature of engagement. We are laying the foundation for new definitions that may echo in the same fashion as damask silk, satin, and muslin, and will eventually make for a new vocabulary.
Join us in the creation of this digital Silk Road!
In the meantime, please forgive me; I have to get back to Project Runway. Someone needs to root for Mondo!
Farris Timimi, M.D., is medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. Engage with him on Twitter.
Last year’s Social Media Summit at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. was a huge success, with more than 375 participants from 38 states and 4 countries.
We’re now in the midst of planning for this year’s Social Media Summit, which will be part of a full week of social media events at Mayo Clinic. We’ve identified some great potential presenters and panelists, but we’re also putting out a call for proposals so we can have an even stronger Summit program.
The 2012 Social Media Summit will be held on Oct. 16-18 in Rochester, Minn. The program, produced in collaboration with Ragan Communications, will consist of pre-conference workshops on the first day, followed by a three-track conference on the 17th and 18th. The tracks for this year’s event are:
You can read more details about the week’s events here.
If you have an idea for a presentation you could provide or a panel you would like to organize, we would love to consider it.
Whether it’s a concrete case study or a compelling conversation topic, summarize your idea in a paragraph or two and provide some biographical background on yourself and any co-presenters or panelists. Be sure to provide contact information, including links to your online social networking profiles.
Then submit your one page proposal via email by March 23, 2012 to the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
We look forward to your ideas!
Editor’s Note: Mark Ryan, M.D., is a member of the External Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” — Bertolt Brecht
In two prior posts, I have discussed the issue of professionalism and social media. These two posts can be found here and here. I have also taken issue with medical organizations’ extant social media guidelines. In some of these posts’ comments, it has been noted that there is no corresponding guideline or document that expressly discusses appropriate, positive use of social media in health care communications.
As a result, I am taking the liberty of making some suggestions as to what I think are important guiding principles for effective physician use of social media. This will include some cautions that I feel are especially useful, but I would also like to explain how and why I think physicians can use social media in positive and useful ways.
Part of this task includes defining physician professionalism. There are various definitions (here, here, and here), but they share the common themes of respect for patients’ autonomy, individualism, and privacy; response to and concern for societal needs; embodiment of humanistic values of altruism, empathy, compassion, honesty, and integrity; focus on the scientific basis of medical knowledge; accountability to peers; and commitment to professional development and competence
With those guiding principles, here are my suggestions for how physicians can effectively use social media:
I hope that this post accomplishes its goal: to provide some suggestions and guidelines on how to use social media effectively and professionally as a physician. Social media is not simply a way to reflect what is happening around us, but rather a way to play an active role in changing society for the better.
Please provide comments and suggestions below.
Merchants introduced coffee to the European continent through Venice. Once Pope Clement VIII ruled that it was acceptable for Catholics to consume coffee in 1600, the consumption and popularity of coffee markedly increased. In 1645 the first coffee house in Europe was opened, in Venice.
Ideas require space for formulation, development and growth. The European coffeehouse served as a real physical space that fostered innovation, and did so in direct competition with the university system. In contrast to the universities, a widely diverse group of patrons frequented coffeehouses, with equal standing regardless of their socioeconomic status once they passed walked through the doors. Indeed, posted rules and orders often included the pronouncement that “no man of any station need give his place to a finer man.”
Historian Brian Cowan has described the European coffeehouses as “places where people gathered to drink coffee, learn the news of the day, and perhaps to meet with other local residents and discuss matters of mutual concert.” In contrast to the taverns and pubs, there was no alcohol available in coffeehouses, which resulted in sober discussions.
Admission to a European coffeehouse was typically set at one penny; in exchange, the customer would receive admission, a cup of coffee and the opportunity to converse with other patrons on a wide range of topics to include politics, current events, history, and even daily gossip. Indeed, historians typically associate the advent of the European coffeehouse with the subsequent development of the Age of Enlightenment.
There has been a great deal of discussion comparing social media, as a platform for exchange, to the European coffeehouse. In particular, the real physical space for discussion that the coffeehouse fostered has been appropriately compared to the virtual space that social media creates, and the brisk exchange of ideas on a wide variety of topics that we see in this new domain. The development of new insights and ideas cannot occur in a vacuum; innovation truly requires a space (real or virtual) for people to meet and for ideas to percolate and meld. Social platforms provide this space for active exchange and engagement, making for a powerful and apt analogy.
In our celebration of this paradigm shift, we must not cautious not to exclude those from the conversation those who lack access to participate. Many of these people are from the most disadvantaged groups, including the elderly, disabled, minorities, and socioeconomically challenged. Their contributions to this digital conversation, their capacity to enter this space of sharing innovation, may be missed. Moreover, studies have suggested that those who are digitally excluded are more prone to recurrent health issues.
Internet use consists of a spectrum of access options that range from those individuals who have never been online, to those who have online access limited to dial up, or to those who only have access while at work. We need to make a clear, conscious and concerted effort to identify and support local community access advocates including public libraries and librarians, community centers, and places of worship, which offer free internet access. Additionally, our engagement and the digital content we create must be in a format that can be readily accessed and easily occur via mobile technology, given the growing role this form of access can play. We must foster the development of access vectors that foster engagement for the disabled. The potential impact of digital isolation on quality of life is profound.
Truly, everyone who wants a cup of coffee must be ensured a full mug.
Farris Timimi, M.D. is the medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
Editor’s Note: Meredith Gould, PhD, is a member of the External Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
From zero to gazillion miles per hour in weeks — that’s how quickly Pinterest, the latest social media platform has caught on. First adopted by artists, photographers, crafters, and do-it-yourselfers, Pinterest has swiftly captured the attention of marketers across industries. (For a healthcare industry round-up, see: HealthProTalk).
Still, I note a bit of head-scratching among healthcare social media enthusiasts who are busy asking: How could Pinterest be used to generate business and patient engagement? What sorts of content should we be pinning? What sorts of boards should we be creating? What are we to do in the absence of categories for health or medicine?
Great questions, but from my (multiple identity) perspective as an artist, e-Patient, and caregiver, I say there’s nothing wrong – and a lot that’s very wise – with simply focusing on this existing category: Art. I say it’s worth considering the incalculable value of pinning images that can soothe mind and spirit while the body is under siege. I suggest we start asking how Pinterest might be used to enhance someone’s healing process.
Sites like CaringBridge and CarePages make it possible for loved ones to deliver ongoing encouragement for patients and caregivers. Now, imagine using Pinterest boards (individual or shared) to enhance mood and outlook for self and others. Here are some examples from my own self-soothing account: Irises (paintings and drawings of my all-time favorite flower, that will last longer than real irises ever do) and Inspired Healing (images that remind me that while we may not be cured, we can always be healed). I visit Fractals, Spirals, Cells & bacteria, and Microscopicto remember there’s beauty to be found in the natural sciences, something that really helps when I’m feeling disgusted with all thing medical.
If laughter is the best medicine, can beauty be far behind? Hopefully not.
The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media hosted the first-ever Social Media Residency on October 20-21, 2011. Included in the curriculum was a video interview assignment where the social media residents discussed their thoughts on the residency.
The first Social Media Residency session of 2012 will meet March 28-29 on our Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Florida. Tuition is discounted for members of Mayo’s Social Media Health Network.
[tweet about this event using #SMresFL]
For more information and to register:
If you have questions, please contact the Center for Social Media at 507-538-0492 or by email.
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