What’s the Deal With: Twitter

Twitter is all about short, instant communications -- or tweets -- with a close group of interested followers.

Twittering, tweets and generally acting like a chirpy bird
You’ve probably joined one of the social networks like LinkedIn or Facebook, created a profile and either wonder what to do next or can’t stop updating your followers on your every move (social networking tends to get, uh, a little obsessive).

You may be an avid reader of a few blogs or perhaps you’ve got one or two of your own that you (somewhat) actively post to.

You may even use such social news sites like Newsvine or Digg as your news home pages, since these have “channels” of news that is summarized and voted on by others, thus ranking them in popularity and relevance.

But when it comes to the oddly named “Twitter,” you, like many other healthcare professionals — especially those in marketing and public relations — probably have little or no idea what this oddly-named web site and social technology is, much less any practical use for it.

What’s a Twitter?
The question is, actually, “What is Twitter and why should I care?”

Twitter is the implementation of a Web 2.0 technology and strategy called “microblogging.” With microblogging, you communicate short (in this case, just 140 characters maximum) messages to a (hopefully) ever-growing group of individuals, companies or organizations who are connected to you (or “following” you).

The messages you — and others within this social network — broadcast are displayed wherever your followers specify. Some places these messages can be shown include:

• A member’s Twitter.com page
• Their Facebook or My Space home page
• On their cell phone as a text message
• On their smartphone through a Twitter application
• In their e-mail

Think of Twitter as a way to instantly communicate a short message to a highly-interested audience of people who have opted into following your every move.

How easy is it to use?
So simple, that once you start, you’ll find more and more reasons to use it.

Creating an account takes seconds and smart healthcare marketers and public relations experts should export their database of consumers and patients (really, any one who’s interacted with you via the web, providing an e-mail address and acknowledged that they’d like to be contactedl) so that you can see if they have Twitter accounts and start following them.

You can also search for people by name or location — an excellent way to jumpstart your list of followers is to take a few minutes once a week to search for the names of the towns or cities in your local service area and add those consumers that live and work nearby.

How do I get people to follow me?
This is the real problem with most social media — you can go to great expense and time (in this case, though, getting set-up and maintaining the channel of communication couldn’t be easier!) getting yet another Web 2.0 account set up, but have no one use or appreciate your efforts.

That’s where Twitter is a bit different.

For some reason, we’ve noticed that the more members you “follow” on Twitter, the more they’ll follow you back — and the more their followers will follow you. This has been shown especially true when hospitals use Twitter to provide small bites of community information, helpful news and other timely updates to a growing group of local consumers.

You can also have Twitter access your Hotmail, Yahoo, G-Mail and other online address books, as well as invite people to follow you (and create their own Twitter account), by simply sending out a Twitter-branded (and provided) e-mail. Just type in consumer’s e-mail addresses and click a button.

A great way for healthcare professionals to start is to connect to (and invite in) their employees and staff. Because of the viral nature of Twitter, you’ll soon have hundreds — if not thousands — of local consumers following your updates and communications.

Some real world examples
I’ve been following a number of hospital and healthcare marketers and other social media experts for months now on Twitter. Following others is a great way to learn how to use Twitter and can generate some ideas you can quickly put to use for your hospital or healthcare network.

Outlined below are some recent “tweets” with a short observation on how each hospital or healthcare network has historically been using this media:

Follow: ShermanHealth

Sherman Health
A relatively new user of Twitter, Sherman uses Twitter to communicate aspects of its new web-based marketing and promotions program, including community education classes, service line promotions and, in this case, features of its new web site.

Follow: GwinnettMedical

Gwinnett Medical Center
Gwinnett is a Twitter Power User with recent tweets including links to their care of local high school athletes, info about their new imaging center, a thank you to walkers in a recent Heart Walk and articles on cardiovascular disease.

Follow: ETMC

East Texas Medical Center
ETMC’s recent posts included links to renderings of their new facility, an article on one of their EMTs National Guard mission to Iraq, pictures and info about their EMS team helping hurricane victims and a new educational video on anterior hip replacement.

Follow: StJude

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
St. Jude is an active Twitter user, posting multiple times a day. Recently we’ve seen: Info about Danny Thomas and the founding of the hospital, a chart on cancer survival rates, info on how donations impact the quality and level of care at the hospital and background info and stories on volunteers.

Follow: ScrippsHealth

Scripps Health
Scripps uses Twitter to primarily promote its many healthcare whitepapers and publications, though it also seems to give shout-outs to consumers seeking recommendations and additional information about the hospital and physician networks.

Follow: jimtome

Jim Tome
Finally, I leave you with my own Twitter feed and some examples of how I “tweeted-on-the-spot” at various sessions and events at the SHSMD Conference in San Francisco the other week. Join Twitter and follow me (just search for “jimtome”) at this year’s WHPRMS Conference and get some inside scoop!