9/15/07

Bloomberg Marketing

READY, SET, BLOG: The Nuts and Bolts of a Social Media Project

Presented By:

Toby Bloomberg, Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing

Elisa Camahort, BlogHer Inc

Carol Krishner, VP Promedica Research Center

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Our Game Plan• Let’s talk … about you and a little about us.

• The Social Media Conversation– The Fear Factor– Circular Communication– A Relationship Marketing Tool

• How Organizations Use Blogs

• What Blogging Is Not

• Getting Started– Content, Authors, Measurement– Tactics– Guidelines– Whisper Campaign

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Carol D. Kirshner, MSCarol is the Principal of Driving in Tra!c, a boutique, social mediaand marketing consultancy "rm that specializes in healthcare andnonpro"t organizations.

Prior to starting her own company, she was VP and principal atThe Promedica Research Center, a nursing continuing

education company and publisher of patient education materials for individuals with mentalillnesses. She continues to work with them on program development and marketingendeavors.

She has a masters degree from Mercer University in Health Policy and Administration andcurrently teaches a master's level course on Health Care Organizations for the University ofPhoenix (Online), College of Health Sciences.

In October 2005, Carol started a blog for her continuing education company to help to providea value added resource to the programs her company provides. Starting in December 2005, shebegan consulting with physicians help them determine a blog strategy for their businesses..

Personal interests include her work with an Atlanta Animal Rescue Nonpro"t and gardening.

She can be reached at carol@drivingintra!c.com or by phone at 678-595-7752. Blogs:www.drivingintra!cblog.com and http://dollarphilanthropy.typepad.com.

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Toby Bloomberg

Toby is the president of Atlanta-based Bloomberg Marketing, astrategic marketing social media consultancy. Her blog, DivaMarketing, is ranked in the top 25 of Ad Age’s Power 150 (blogs)and is the 2nd highest ranked female written blog.

Bloomberg Marketing helps business understand the social medialandscape and then works with them to build strategies that

join-in and leverage participation /conversational marketing … without getting blown-up.

Toby is also an adjunct professor at Goizueta School of Business at Emory University teachingan innovative Management Consulting course.

Her media credits include articles about marketing and social media published in AMAMarketing News and Atlanta Business-to-Business. She has been quoted about social media inINC magazine, BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal and the Atlanta Business Chronicle. She is anin-demand speaker on new media marketing.

Although she is a Yankee from Boston she now calls Atlanta home with her Westie Terrier Maxwho sometimes "nds his way into social media on www.divamarketingblog.com and onYouTube. toby@bloombergmarketing.com 770.496.1711 www.bloombergmarketing.com

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Elisa Camahort

Elisa is co-founder and COO of BlogHer Inc (http://blogher.com),the web’s number-one guide to and source for women bloggers.

Elisa is responsible for corporate operations, and managesmarketing, P.R. and events…including logistics and programmingfor BlogHer Conferences, the world’s largest conferences focusedon the technology and culture of blogging.

A marketing executive with 17 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Elisa left her life in hightech product management to go online and join the social media world, and to helpcompanies go there too. Elisa Camahort was at the vanguard of professional and businessblogging and currently writes nine blogs. She blogs at various times about marketing, healthissues, green and eco-conscious living, being a vegan, and reality TV talent shows like AmericanIdol and Project Runway! She is a frequent public speaker in the areas of business blogging andonline community, and has been published frequently, including her monthly column for theSilicon Valley Metro, Silicon Veggie.

Elisa can be reached at elisa@blogher.org and blogs copiously, particularly at Worker Bees Blogabout social media in business and marketing and healthyconcerns.com, an early medblogoriginally sponsored by a health insurance brokerage "rm.

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From Information To Participation

Web 1.0 - InformationWeb 2.0 - Easy ConnectivitySocial Computing, Socialnetworking, User participation

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Why People Read Blogs

Entertainment

Community/Friends

HonestyTransparencyAuthenticityPassion

Honesty

Transparency

Authenticity

Passion

Information

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“The 4 Ps of Blogging”

Point | Passion | Personality | Perseverance

C-Generation – people who create and consume their own contentwhile building community.

Thanks to Rick Short, Indium Corp. and Sher Taton, IBM

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Blogs are Easy Relationship Marketing Tools

Blogs =Conversation

Opportunity tounderstand the

customer

Opportunity fortrust-building

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How Have Organizations Used Blogs?

• Hospital Blogs– RSS for News & Organizational Updates

• University Medical Center, Lebanon TNhttp://www.universitymedicalcenter.com/newsupdates

• NY Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NYhttp://news.med.cornell.edu/nyp

– Targeted toward a small program within a hospital–St. Vincent’s Healthcare, Billings, MT

• http://fostergrandparentprogram.blogspot.com

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How Have Organizations Used Blogs?

• Hospital CEO Blogs• Nick Jacobs, Windber Medical Center, Windber PA• Paul Levy, Beth Israel Deaconess MC, Boston, MA

What they Do…

• Gives insight into what CEO’s worry about

• Increases organizational transparency

• Provide a personal, caring and compassionate face as aleader within the organication

• Nick’s: Introduces the Planetree model (di#erentiates thehospital from others)

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How Have Organizations Used Blogs?

• Advocacy Blogs– March of Dimes www.shareyourstory.com

• Blog network around NCIU experiences

– American Cancer Society:– Dr. Len’s Cancer Blog www.cancer.org/drlen

• Simpli"es medical and scienti"c information & raisesawareness of cancer risk, prevention & early detection

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How Have Organizations Used Blogs?

• Pharmaceutical Company Blogs (RARE)– Johnson & Johnson www.jnjbtw.com

• “Everyone else is talking about our company, why can’t we?”

• Insurance Company Blogs (None found)

• Medical Professional Blogs (Wide Variety)– Usually done independently and not sponsored by a group

practice of facility.

• Healthcare Consultants & Health Policy Wonks (Widevariety)

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What Blogs Are Not

• Blatant self-promotion

• Press releases

• Corporate “talk”

• Online brochures

• Smoke and mirrors

• Alone in the wilderness

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What Not To Do

• Lie – explicitly or by omission

• Spam comments or inappropriate trackbacks

• Splog (“Spam blog”)

• Neglect the cultural in$uence of social media

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Is Your Company Ready To Include Social Media?

First Question:

Will your company culture support a blog/ social mediastrategy?

Second Question:

Will blogs help solve or support a business challenge ormarketing strategy?

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Getting Started: Terms to Know

• Post: An entry published to your blog. Has a title andcontent (narrative, audio "le, video "le, links etc)

• Comment: A response to a post by another person.• Comment spam: an o#-topic response to a post left by a person

who is just trying to increase links to their site/product. Muchoannoying!!!

• Permalink: A URL (web address) for a speci"c post

• Tags: A small piece of code added to a post that assignsa topical keyword that can be indexed by searchdirectories.

• Trackback: A small string of code that can be used withsome blogging platforms to send notice to otherbloggers that you have linked to them in a post.

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Getting Started: Terms to Know• Sidebar: Side section of the blog that contains navigation helps

and other non-post related content.

• Blog Roll: A list of links to other blogs you read, enjoy or thatare on a related topic. Used to build your reputation as aresource.

• Categories: A classi"cation system for blog posts that allowsreaders to easily navigate through past posts.

• About Page: Separate page of a blog that describes theauthor(s) and purpose of the blog. Typically has a picture ofthe author(s).

• Widgets/Plug-ins: Bits of code that can be added to a sidebarthat add functionality to the blog. Example: search boxes,advertisements, Creative Commons and badges.

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Selecting a Blog Platform

“For what is worth inanything

But so much money as ’t willbring?”

Samuel Butler (English novelist) 1612-1680

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The goal comes first!

Monitoring: goals & results• Goal

• Tra!c

• Engaged Customers

• Actual transactions

• Customer Care

• Customer Care

• Brand Awareness

• Search engine opt.

• Though leadership

• Quanti"able results

• Logs & referrer stats

• Comments & links

• Via blog-speci"c codes

• Increased use of online tools

• Reduced calls to help-line

• Brand Awareness survey

• Track key word ranking

• Speaking and writing gigs

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Selecting a Platform: Weighing Your Options

• Do you want the blog to beintegrated into your companysite?

• Do you want to acquire your owndomain name for the blog?

• Do you want to keep up withsoftware upgrades?

• Do you have a preference where your blog "les/data are stored?

• What features are “needed”, “wanted”, and “might like to have”?

• What is your comfort level with web publishing and is it the same for everyonethat will be working with you on the blog?

• What is your budget now and will your budget grow as you do?

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Bloomberg Marketing

Wide Variety of Options

• Blogger www.blogger.com

• Typepad www.typepad.com

• Wordpress (self-hosted) www.wordpress.org

• Wordpress (hosted) www.wordpress.com

• Movable Type www.movabletype.com

• Squarespace www.squarespace.com

• Blogs.com http://blogs.com

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Implementation and Launch:A good map can keep you from getting lost

•Identify the resources you have•Time•People/ Talent•Money

•Identify resources you need•Identify obstacles which mayimpact your level of success.•Develop a plan of attack,including:

•Obtaining what you need•Navigating the obstacles

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Different answers result in different kinds of blogs

Content, Authors and Policies

Ask yourself:

• Who do you want to visit?

• Who do you want to link to you?

• What kind of engagement do you want?

• How open are you willing to be?

• Where do you draw the line?

• How will you respond if…?

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Bloomberg Marketing

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Promotion StrategyBecome involved in your “space” before even starting!!!!

• Blog Directories

• Tagging posts

• Link & Trackback to other blogs (as appropriate)

• Use current events/ news articles that are pertinent to your audience & topic area.

• Announce your launch everywhere you can• Host a blog carnival

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What if no one is talking?Community & Relationship building takes time!

• Use topical memes to engage other bloggers

• Tag people for responses

• Personally ask other bloggers to respond withtheir thoughts

• Invite guest bloggers to post

• Continue to be an active commenter in your“space”

• Be patient and give it some time

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Conversation and Moderation

• Comment andModeration Policy

• Con"dentialityconsiderations

• Investment of Time: Whatto expect

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Bloomberg Marketing

Whisper Campaign1. Subscribe to a news reader

Bloglines, MyYahoo, Microsoft, Google

2. Identify blogs of interest

3. Identify key words to track

4. Read, listen, learn

5. Comment .. Make a few friends

6. Develop a social media strategy

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Bloomberg Marketing

10 Bene"ts of Promoting Healthcare Through Blogging

1. Tell stories from the heart

2. Humanizes a complex organization

3. Tell your story in your voice/s – no media "lter

4. Create relationship with millions of people

5. More people hear your story – search engines, viral marketing

6. Many voices help tell your story – bloggers linking

7. Tell your story when you want – instant, easy publishing [audio(podcast), video (vlog)]

8. Feedback and conversation – increased value & additional information

9. Online information travels o%ine

10. Mainstream media is turning to blogs for story ideas

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Bloomberg Marketing

Happy Blogging!

Carol | Elisa | Toby

“It is like tapping intoan incredibly extensive community.”

Paul Levy, President and CEO Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center