Focus on the work, not the tools

Marketing and communications leaders in a healthcare organization can be excused for focusing on social channels as a separate thing, almost a black box. For one, you typically are more comfortable and experienced with more traditional channels, like advertising and earned media. For another, social media, and the more general category of digital channels, are very visible and trendy, so people in our organizations who aren’t in marketing and communications will focus on social and digital. It’s (relatively) new, so it’s a topic of discussion.

What makes social media and digital channels more generally powerful is not the fact of using a new channel but the substance of the message you are conveying and the service you are providing and — this is key — making visible through your marketing and communications. I think that’s what Reed Smith, founder of the Social Health Institute, was getting at in this interview with HealthManagement.org. It’s a quick read and well worth your time. It’s part of a cover story package on reputation and influence in healthcare.

The bottom line: The stakeholders that a healthcare company or association engages with will remember how you made them feel, not the communication channel you used to reach them, if I may mangle Maya Angelou’s famous saying.

Photo: Astryd_MAD on Pixabay