Sustainability and health care on parallel tracks

For me, the biggest takeaway was that sustainability professionals face the same challenge that is starting to top the list at health care institutions.  That is, motivating lots of individuals to change their behavior.

In health care, the focus is on motivating patients to comply with their treatment plans.  In sustainability, it means motivating employees to make lots of small changes such as re-using and recycling both at work, and at home.

From central control to broad engagement

As one panelist pointed out, from a sustainability perspective, leading organizations have done the simple things that they can control centrally (e.g. redesigning and retrofitting buildings).  Now they need to turn their attention to broad employee engagement.

Another panelist provided confirming evidence from a conference she attended the previous week on energy and climate change.  There, she learned that “improving employee engagement” is now the top priority for Chief Sustainability Officers.

Behavior change techniques that work

So, although there was lots of fascinating content at the breakfast seminar, this post centers on techniques for changing employee behavior to increase sustainability–that have, or may have, parallels in health care.  Examples include custom incentives, social influence, use cases, gamification, sequencing, and erecting barriers to undesirable behavior.

Custom incentives

One of the panelists advises others to “meet employees where they are”–advice near and dear to this marketer’s heart.  She’s found that employees are often resistant to changes that employers may see as desirable.  For example, employees may be eager to adopt organic mattresses or gardening practices, but not as keen on taking public transit.

Health care organizations have reached similar conclusions.  Many now provide custom incentives to motivate patients to reorder medications and comply with treatment plans.

Some hire third parties to analyze past behavior to determine what they need to do achieve optimum outcomes.  Then, they customize incentives accordingly.

Social influence

Perhaps the best quote of the day was that people prefer “fitting in” to rewards.  In both sustainability and health care, practitioners are finding that people are motivated to match their peers’ behavior.  One of the panelists credited social media for making sustainability “visible” and “personal”.

Use cases

Susan Hunt Stevens, CEO of Practically Green, noted that behavior theory recommends showing people how “someone like them” made a change.  Her company’s blog uses individual storytelling to “bring an action a day to life”.

Gamification

Often closely related to social influence is gamification.  Sustainability and health care professionals alike are experimenting with games that enable individuals to compete and earn rewards and recognition for exhibiting desirable behavior or achieving preferred outcomes.

Sequencing

Moderator Jim Nail told us that he learned to market using the AIDA acronym: Attract, Interest, Decide, Act.  Today, he says sustainability professionals are finding it’s often effective to get people to act first, because individuals often identify with the actions they take.  I know professional fundraisers employ this technique by seeking small  donations first.   I don’t know if there are health care examples but we’ve all heard to “fake it until we make it”.

Erecting barriers to undesirable behaviors

Monica Nakielski, Sustainable Initiatives, Partners Healthcare said that her organization also sometimes just prevents undesirable behavior.  For example, departments can no longer order certain toxic supplies. Health care parallels may be safety caps on medications or stocking the refrigerator only with nutritious food.

Other techniques

Panelists discussed two techniques that have changed behavior at a macro level, rather than at an individual level.  Frank Marino, Corporate Environmental, Health and Safety Manager, Raytheon, told us that his company had executed sustainability initiatives in MA and NJ, but not in Tucson, where there were no regulatory incentives.  In health care, it took regulation and federal incentives to accelerate EHR adoption.

Several panelists discussed the impact of data transparency.  They noted that “greenwashing” is less common, now that reporting requirements make it easy to spot inconsistencies in sustainability execution.  Health care advocates are also seeking data transparency to stimulate competition and drive behavior change.

Kristine Kalaijian, Director, Environmental Compliance and Sustainability, Philips Electronics NA emphasized the importance of integrating sustainability into everything the company starting with the company’s overall business objectives.  This practice provides a stretch goal for other organizations desiring to achieve sustainability–and the health care industry as a whole.

Related posts:

1. Fresh perspectives in health care
2. Putting health care EMRs in the cloud
3. Health care social media is in its infancy says panel
4. Can B2B marketing strategies for the complex sale help improve health outcomes?

Photo courtesy of Christian Sann, SCVNGR

By Barbara Bix

To one side of me sat a business development professional from a detective agency. To the other side, was an owner of an eye glass store in a downtown mall that seeks to make his store a “destination”. Both had come to learn about how to use social media to market their businesses. Moreover, the packed ball room was standing room only.

“All star” panel on social media

This morning,WBZ radio hosted a fantastic panel on social media. One of the things that made it fantastic was the all star panel: Anthony Silva (moderator), Paul Gillin, Laura Fitton, Mike Troiano, and Seth Priestbatch (left to right as they sat on the stage).

Their individual and combined knowledge of social media is incredible and the meeting was packed with great soundbites and case examples. In fact, many of these gems were grist for individual blog posts–even for an experienced user of social media.

Social panel about social media

The other thing that made it fantastic is that most of the panel was Q and A–that is a social panel about social media. In fact, it is this short answer format that may have engendered so many great soundbites from the incredibly articulate panelists.

Leveraging the Twitter Stream

Since I do want to return to these soundbites at a later date, I wanted to capture them for posterity. I took my own notes but captured the Twitter Stream as insurance by searching Twitter on the hashtag #wbzbreakfast–and then editing the stream to include the soundbites that most resonated for me.

Soundbites courtesy of the audience

You’ll find some of these hashtags below. I’ll be back in later today to update this post with my notes and to add pics and speaker links. Thank you to WBZ, Anthony Silva, the panelists, the #tag tweeters, and all who attended for making this such a valuable meeting!

motgnarom Tom Morang
#wbzbreakfast @Pistachio listen, learn, care, and serve

Steve Garfield
stevegarfield Steve Garfield
Interesting. RT @Bobbiec: #wbzbreakfast @pgillin “we can’t just be on social media, we need to be interesting”

Matt_Sully Matthew Sullivan ?
By a show of hands, over 90% of the #WBZbreakfast audience heard about the event from radio, the others from #socialmedia
57 minutes ago

ChrisMLindgren
ChrisMLindgren ChrisMLindgren
Be creative @pistachio Bakery in London sends a Tweet when latest item has just come out of oven #WBZbreakfast #HotBlueberrymuffins

Chris Requena
CERequena Chris Requena
#WBZBreakfast @SethPriebatsch: Easier to lead a clean,wholesome life & share everything on facebook than to understand the privacy settings!

Bobbie Carlton
BobbieC Bobbie Carlton
#wbzbreakfast for your information Twitter handles for the panel @Pistachio @miketrap @pgillin @sethpriebatsch
1 hour ago

ChrisMLindgren
ChrisMLindgren ChrisMLindgren
Tying engagement activity to transactions, swipes #WBZbreakfast See Social Sales Exceed Social Traffic marketingcharts.com/direct/social-… #WBZbreakfast

ChrisMLindgren
ChrisMLindgren ChrisMLindgren
On negative feedback: Walking around w/ spinach in teeth; If you don’t know what’s wrong you can’t fix it #WBZbreakfast #Socialmedia
1 hour ago

Whole Foods Dedham
WFM_Dedham Whole Foods Dedham
And @pgillin explains that acknowledging the negative is important because it engages and can head off a crisis #wbzbreakfast #socialmedia

Steve Garfield
stevegarfield Steve Garfield
Right. RT @GrahamSpector There will be #Socialmedia comments you shouldn’t respond to #wbzbreakfast

Bobbie Carlton
BobbieC Bobbie Carlton
#wbzbreakfast @sethpriebatsch shares “never feed the trolls” truism. @Pistachio advocates pixie dust so others will rush to your defense.
1 hour ago

Karen Covey
KarenCovey Karen Covey
ditto! WFM_Dedham Love the cooking analogy! @pistachio explains the ‘mise en place’ you need to be effective with #socialmedia #wbzbreakfast

Kristin Bedard
kristinbedard Kristin Bedard
anonymity is gone, with #socialmedia we’ve returned to accountability. it’s refreshing, healthy. – @pistachio #wbzbreakfast

Graham Spector
GrahamSpector Graham Spector
Good spin on privacy issues. #wbzbreakfast

Chris Requena
CERequena Chris Requena
#WBZBreakfast @pistachio Emotional connections are stronger b/w people than b/w people & brands. Get your customers to connect w/each other!

Meg McDevitt
OhThatMeg Meg McDevitt
Strong emotional connection brand is rare. Get your consumer & brand to connect on an emotional level. #wbzbreakfast

ChrisMLindgren
ChrisMLindgren ChrisMLindgren
Game mechanics as means of engagement in social media #WBZbreakfast

schneidermike
schneidermike schneidermike
Turning the police dept home page into Mafia Wars would be awesome -@sethpriebatsch #WBZbreakfast

ChrisMLindgren
ChrisMLindgren ChrisMLindgren
Social media has made us microprocessors; figure out how you can add value #WBZbreakfast
2 hours ago

Graham Spector

ChrisMLindgren
ChrisMLindgren ChrisMLindgren
Customer is in control; social coming to every desktop; build literacy thruout orgs; #wbzbreakfast at www.cbsboston.com/breakfast

Whole Foods Dedham
WFM_Dedham Whole Foods Dedham
Tidbit from #wbzbreakfast from @pgillin: social media is forcing businesses to react & change. There is no going back.

Christian Sann
csann Christian Sann
I just snapped a pic at Sheraton Boston Hotel. #SCVNGR http://scvn.gr/leJOXk (@sethpriebatsch on a social media panel for #wbzbreakfast. )
2 hours ago

Innovation Nights
MassInno Innovation Nights
#wbzbreakfast @pgillin “social media is a huge global campfire” and “the customer is in control”

rt @miketrap: Social Marketing panel w @Pistachio, @sethpriebatsch @pgillin. Livecast at www.cbsboston.com/breakfast #WBZbreakfast

Additional soundbites that caught my ear

Here are some of the soundbites I scribbled down.  Unfortunately, I didn’t always catch who said what.  But if you were there, please add attribution n the comments:

“You can’t market your way out of bad reviews”

“Build literacy throughout your organization: anyone can screw up” @pistachio

“We add a game layer  on top of the world” @sethpriestbatch

“Get people to meet in the context of your brand” @paulgillin  (?)

In referring to static websites “You were the czar of your content museum” @miketrap

“A negative review legitimizes positive reviews” @paulgillin

“A good measure is when the check (money) is a transaction” @sethpriestbatch

“Give yourself permission to experiment”  @miketrap (?) @priestbatch (?)

“Get involved, Twitter (?) Social Media (?) is hard to master from afar”

Looking to learn how you can use social media to market your business?  View our social media marketing services.

Related posts:

1. Twitter tidbits

What do the statistics say?

I get statistics that show me:

If I were to dig deeper, I could find out more about visitors–where they hail from, what platform they used to find me, and perhaps even who they are.

I also know how many people signed up to receive my posts on an ongoing basis–and who has expressed interest in learning more.  What I can’t tell is whether or not they read my blog.

Shiny magazines on the night table

I always liken feeds to my blog  to that stack of magazines you used to have on your night table.  You remember, don’t you?

The magazines arrived all nice and shiny.  You took a quick look and vowed to read them later.

Then, eventually, you decided to de-clutter and trash everything you received before a certain date.  Your assumption was that if you hadn’t read it by then, you probably weren’t ever going to read it.

Indicators aren’t conclusive

Even though a lot of people subscribe to my blog, I really don’t know who actually reads it–or how often.  One could argue that I could infer the number of readers from the number of comments and retweets.

Nevertheless, robots can comment on blogs.  And, there are people that retweet blogs after just reading the headlines.  So, it’s hard to estimate how many blog posts, like the magazines of yesteryear, merely gather virtual dust before prospective readers either forget they exist, or delete them entirely.

Just looking…., thanks!

For that matter, I’m not sure how much stake one can put in “conversions” either–except for those that eventually turn into sales.  Just because someone enjoys your content, can you really assume that they’ll ever want or need your products or services?  I don’t think so.

So, why blog?

So, why do I blog?  For one, it helps me organize my thoughts.

For another, my blog gives prospective buyers that might not otherwise have the opportunity, get a sense of who I am, how I engage with my world, and what that world is.  Information, that should they also have an interest in buying, would likely be helpful.

Also, my blog attracts paying clients.  However, I only know that for sure, because I ask prospects what caused them to contact me.  So, in some cases “words may speak more than actions”–or be at least as reliable.

So, it’s great that the number of visitors continues to accelerate.  But, I’ll never know how many people read my blog–unless you want to comment below or give me a call…

Breakfast with Barbara

Wish you had a blog, but don’t have the time to capture the insights you’d like to share with clients and potential referrers?  Check out Breakfast with Barbara!

No related posts.

About the panel:

The Racepoint Group hosted the session. Larry Weber (who just published Everywhere: Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy for the Social Media Era ) served as moderator.  The panelists included Dr. Kevin Pho, MD, Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH and Ashley Serotta of Sermo.

Most physicians are not active on social media during the work day

Most physicians are not active on social media.  Until recently, they didn’t have easy access to information technology during the workday because they don’t work at desks.

Now, thanks to shared workstations and portable platforms such as smart phones and tablets, they are beginning to incorporate information technology into their workflow.  Nevertheless, their now paperless workflow mimics the paper world.

Reimbursement, or lack thereof, has been a major factor limiting online communications with patients. That said, physicians do use social media in their personal lives.  I believe the panelists said that 58% of surgeons are on Facebook and 25% are on Twitter.

New financial incentives will drive greater clinical use of social media

Physicians are likely to become more active in social media.  Already, there are pilot projects where physicians receive reimbursement for electronic visits.

Moreover, once physicians receive reimbursement based on care quality, rather than care volume, there will be less incentive to bring patients into the office.  Dr. Chaiken noted, to my surprise, that already 60% of physicians are employees (who receive a fixed salary, regardless of volume).  Both these trends will likely drive greater use of social media for patient interactions

Some practices have begun to use social media

In response to my question about practices that are currently using social media for patient interaction, Dr. Pho noted that the MacArthur OB/Gyn practice established a Facebook community to communicate with teens about avoiding pregnancy and STDs.  In information, I found later on the web, Dr. Livingston of the MacArthur practice noted that he reaches out via social media and then uses his practice portal to communicate with individual patients in a HIPAA-compliant way.  Dr. Livingston found that while increased communication has helped him brand and increase his practice, it’s also helped establish a greater connection than he can in a 10-minute office visit and enabled him to have a greater impact on the community

Physicians use peer networks to seek advice and learn best practices

Ms. Serotta noted that physicians in Sermo’s peer network spend about 50% of their time discussing patient-centered and clinical issues.  There, they can compare notes with others in their specialty or learn about best practice from other specialties.

Too much information

The panelists also discussed information overload–and the need for filters.  Dr. Chaiken said this problem will exacerbate once medical devices directly download data to the EMR (electronic medical record)

Conclusions

The panel concluded that medical social media is in its infancy, but shows promise.  My impression was that they believed that the speakers see reimbursement, speed, and information overload as far greater impediments than concerns about HIPAA, especially because physicians are already well-trained to act in a HIPAA-compliant way.

Learn more about BB Marketing Plus health care marketing consulting services and social media marketing consulting services on the BB Marketing Plus website.

Related posts:

1. New social media site invites users to review public health care services
2. Social media works—more than 600 attend Boston health care conference
3. Putting health care EMRs in the cloud
4. Enabling health care delivery in the community

B2B marketers will welcome Paul Gillin’s and Eric Schwartzman’s latest book, Social Marketing to the Business Customer. As the authors note in the preface, most discussions about social media marketing, focus on consumer marketing–even on occasions when B2b marketers make up the majority of the audience.

Great overview of B2B marketing

While the book centers on social media marketing, it is really an excellent overview of B2B marketing in the 21st century.  In addition to a description of all things social, readers will also find sections on search and content strategy–and examples of how to combine them with conventional activities such as public relations, direct mail, and sales collateral creation for maximum impact.  Perhaps the only innovations the authors don’t go into in detail are those of a physical nature (e.g. SaaS and mobile).

B2B and consumer social media marketing differ

Early on, the authors dig deep into the differences between B2B marketing and consumer marketing–and why B2B companies need a book of their own.  This section alone may be worth the price of the book, since many MBA marketing courses still focus on consumer marketing.

Key to the section comparing B2B and consumer marketing is the discussion of sales cycle length and the consequent importance of gaining deep insights into how prospects prefer to buy.  It is this section that tees up discussions, throughout the book, about the need to tailor one’s marketing messages–and their delivery–to buyers’ readiness to consume them.

“How to” sections and examples

Probably of more interest to today’s busy B2B marketer, are the multiple “how to” sections: how to measure success, how to pinpoint the most promising prospects, how to select the most effective marketing strategies, how to plan and execute tactics, and most important, how to knit all of the pieces together into an integrated marketing campaign.  The authors support each of these sections with case examples drawn from a wide range of practitioners–helping readers learn from their peers about what works and why.

Leads from blog are highly qualified

For example, the chapter on Lead Generation recounts how a company that sells solder paste achieved a six fold increase in their contact list in six months–with most referrals coming from the blog.  Through this example, we also learn that leads coming from the blog tend to be better qualified; because prospects who chose to download white papers, or custom answers to their questions, were often ready to buy–and happy to accept a sales call.

The media is the message

Later in the same chapter, the authors include a three-column chart that describes which marketing activities work best at each stage of prospects’ buying processes (shameless self-promotion: Paul and I collaborated on this one).  One column displays the traditional media tool and the other column displays the social media equivalent.

Social media is searchable and faster

Nevertheless, the authors are careful to point out, that while social media has the advantage of being both searchable and faster, most conventional marketing tactics still have their place.  Readers will find examples of campaigns that integrate old and new throughout the book–often accompanied by helpful graphics.  These depictions help us quickly grasp how each tactic contributed–and how all the tactics worked together, to achieve the desired results.

Will help even skilled social media marketers improve their game

From discussions about how to sell the boss on social media, to examples of how companies can use “crowdsourcing” to design better products, to tips for determining what type of social community will best help you achieve your business objectives, Social Marketing to the Business Customer has something for everyone.  Even the most skilled 21st century marketers will find nuggets they can use to take their games to the next level.

Need help getting started with search and social media?  Contact us about our SEO and social media starter kit.

No related posts.

Learn from the past, capitalize on success

At the end of 2008, in Shorten the sales cycle next year:  Year end marketing planning, I advocated taking stock of what worked and what didn’t—so that you can capitalize on your successes and avoid repeating what turned out to be mistakes.   In particular, I suggested focusing on buyers’ perceptions in four areas: the desirability of the solutions, the reputation of the vendor, the effectiveness of the communications, and the responsiveness of the individuals leading the sales or business development effort.

Sales enablement software prods companies to focus on customers’ buying process

Two years later, few companies do the kind of structured analysis I recommended on an ongoing basis.  Yet, prodded by their acquisition of sales enablement software, many more companies are beginning down this path.

They’re developing buyer personas (based on past experiences) and mapping their best customers’ buying processes to identify points where they can influence the ultimate outcome of the sale. So, we’re making progress.

Product teams incorporate customer feedback throughout the development process

On the product development front, product teams are increasingly using a process called “customer development” that calls for learning and iterating rather than linear execution.  This methodology, introduced by Steve Blank in the Four Steps to the Epiphany, and popularized by Eric Ries among others, advocates using minimally viable products (prototypes) to gather customer feedback throughout the development process.  This methodology also requires developers to validate the product market fit–before they launch new products–by finding early customers who will pay for the product under development.

Strategy trumps tactics

Last year, I questioned the seeming emphasis on demand generation and lead gen–at the expense of longer term strategic investments.  At the time, the economy was at its worst and  a lot of companies felt they couldn’t afford to invest in gaining deep customer insights.

Today, with increasing competition, many realize they can’t afford not to invest in learning about their best prospects’ buying processes.  Moreover, automation has dramatically reduced the cost of gaining deep customers insights.  No longer do companies need to invest a lot of money in travel or convening a group of users at a common location to get deep customer insights.  In fact, they have lots of relatively inexpensive options for doing so:  social media, online communities, web analytics, online marketing research, and online usability tests to name a few.

Automation prompts strategic thinking–and makes it affordable

Each of these avenues is:

• relatively inexpensive to administer (the bits travel, the administrators stay put),

• offers greater reach and access than more traditional research methods (anyone with an Internet connection can participate), and is

• more usable (automated tools for compiling and analyzing the data each creates are now accessible the non-statistician).

In fact, one of the experts I interviewed for a blog post, pointed out that digital marketing, by making it so easy to relate behavior to outcomes, has opened the door to strategy.

Customer research has crossed the chasm

I ended last year by asking, “Will 2010 be the year of the customer?”.   Twelve months later, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve crossed the chasm–and that we’re definitely marching in that direction.

Too bad I couldn’t locate that crystal ball.  I’m wondering what the future holds….

Related posts:

1. What are your marketing priorities for 2010?
2. The future of marketing will be all about customer data
3. Inbound marketing starts with deep customer insights
4. Price or customer experience–which matters more?

The experiment: Same article, different results

Last week, Marketing Profs published my article entitled Accelerate Referrals: 9 steps to success and their readers retweeted it 73 times!  This week I began publicizing the article  and it was retweeted at least once. Same article, different results…

So what can we learn from this?  Here are some of my conclusions.  Please chime in with yours!

1. Publish where others will see your article

This seems obvious, but the only way that others can retweet your articles is if they see them in the first place.  One of the reasons that I post in MarketingProfs is that they have cultivated a large number of followers.

Sure, a lot of people visit my site; but the numbers are smaller.  My company is a B2B marketing consulting firm with a healthy articles section.   MarketingProfs is in the business of publishing others’ submissions and therefore offers significantly more content.

2. Build a following across multiple channels to expand your reach

You can expand your reach by publishing the same information across multiple channels as I did.  I have several hundred followers on both LinkedIn and Twitter.  So, chances are a large number of people saw it, but it takes even larger numbers to generate retweets.

Compare my reach to that of MarketingProfs, an organization that has made significant investments in building a following for each of their communications channels.  Examples include the Get to the Point newsletters which they send out each week, the LinkedInGroup they started and moderate, and a strong Twitter presence built bit-by-bit with over 17,000 tweets.

They have greater than 72,000 followers on Twitter alone.  No wonder they got all those retweets.

Building a following takes time, but it really pays off.  When you build a following across multiple channels each feeds the other and amplifies the impact.

3. Convert your following into a community

“Followers” and “community” are not synonymous.  The term “followers” connotes a one-to-many relationship.  The term “community”, however, implies peer-to-peer interactions.  

While I don’t  have data to support this assertion, I suspect that communities are more likely to retweet posts than mere followers.  For one, most communities promote sharing.

For another, sharing likely begets sharing.  Those that have participated in sharing–or even just observed it–have direct experience with the benefits it provides and are likely to want to share more.

MarketingProfs has made significant investments in building a community that promotes sharing.  They started a LinkedIn group actively moderate it  to foster inclusion and conversation.  The organization’s The Get to the Point email newsletters acknowledge particular community members for thought leadership–whether or not the content first appeared on one one of their own properties.  On Twitter, many of their tweets are informational, but a lot are strictly conversational.

4. Keep the community engaged

Communities erode over time unless there is a process for re-engaging with community members.  The best way to keep people engaged is by continuing a conversation on a topic they’ve already signaled they found interesting.

To that end, each MarketingProf article and LinkedIn thread has a box that participants can check to receive notifications whenever someone else comments.  This helps ensure the community is there, listening, and ready to retweet when opportunities arise.

5. Actively encourage retweets

The first thing you see on a MarketingProfs article is the number of people who already retweeted it.  This sends a clear signal to others to do the same.  Then, at the end of the article, MarketingProfs presents readers with social sharing icons to make it easy to share across whatever media the reader prefers.

Content is king–but the king needs a kingdom

Writing great content is a necessary–but not sufficient–condition.   When all is said and done, you need a great list just as you do with conventional marketing.

Think of it as a cycle.  Develop great content, publish where your readers congregate, develop a following across multiple channels, convert your followers into a community, keep the community engaged–and start your “list building” efforts anew.  When the list reaches critical mass, assuming the content remains strong, the retweets will follow.

Those are my conclusions about what it takes to get more retweets.  What are yours?

Related posts:

1. Twitter tidbits

TopRank used Twitter to promote the poll–and did so on multiple occasions.  Presumably, a lot of people received notice of the poll:  @TopRank has 6061 followers, the update was retweeted 262 times, “liked” by 45, and likely got additional visibility through other social sharing media*.

How Odden attracted responses

Odden followed all the recommended steps to motivate engagement:

1. He posted the poll in a blog that attracts a highly targeted audience–online marketers interested in obtaining high search engine ranks.
2. The post’s topic is highly relevant to the target audience, a group whose success depends upon selecting cost-effective marketing tactics that will elevate their messages above the noise.
3. The post is even more valuable because it promises timely data that is not readily available.
4. Odden heightened readers’ awareness of the challenges they face by asking questions such as “Are social media and content marketing the glue that brings multi-channel marketing together?”, “Is 2011 finally the year for mobile?”, and “Will companies focus on more holistic online marketing?”
5. He also encouraged engagement by soliciting readers’ advice on whether he focused on the right areas.
6. He offered a “Top 10″ list–something all the pundits recommend to engage interest–and delivered by providing a running tally of the poll’s findings.
7. Following best practice, Odden promoted the poll a number of times–which is an important factor in increasing response rates since not everyone responds the first time they get a post.

Calculating success: the response rate and conversion rate

Odden’s stated goal was to get 200 respondents.  At first glance, this seems conservative; however, it is well in line with industry statistics.  Consider the following loose assumptions for demonstration purposes:

• 6000 people received the initial tweet from TopRank when the blog was posted
• Retweeters and Facebook followers average 10 followers (feel free to use your own numbers)
  • 2000 (262 x 10) received the post via retweet
  • 450 (45 x 10) received the post via Facebook
  • 500 saw the post on social bookmarking sites (again, my swag)
  • None of the indirect respondents forwarded the link
  • Twitter follower response rates (assumptions, once again)
    • 5% the first time TopRank tweeted the post
    • 2.5% the second time TopRank tweeted the post
    • 1.25% the third time TopRank tweeted the post
    • 1% response rate from indirect recipients

The logic underlying the assumptions

Most direct response campaigns, of which this is one, anticipate getting response rates of less than 1%, more if the list is as highly targeted as the @TopRank list is.  Direct marketing typically yield low response rates since most people only attend to messages that they see as relevant when they receive them.

Resending messages increases the number of responses because recipients’ views of what is relevant depend on what they are doing at the time.  Nevertheless, each subsequent communication gets a significantly smaller response rate than the one preceding it.

Response rates, however, are not conversion rates.  Here the response rate would be the number of people who clicked through to the poll.  The conversion rate is the number that chose to participate in the poll.

The result of using best practices

Using these assumptions, TopRank would receive 1230 responses (plugged the above assumptions into Excel) and the 232 people that completed the poll would represent a 20% conversion rate of those responses.  That said, the assumptions are just guesses, so feel free to recalculate using your own inputs.

So what’s my point?

What struck me about the response rate is that it is a clear demonstration of how difficult it is to convert others.  Odden is well-known, well-respected, offers high value, and in short, did everything right.  Yet, even he didn’t draw enough responses to perform the cross-tabulations it would require to answer questions about the applicability of his information.

What does this mean for the rest of us who are trying to sell a product or a service?  Here are my thoughts.  We need to:

• Do everything that Lee Odden did
• Find a way to reach many more prospects, all of whom are ideally as qualified as Odden’s are
• We also need to articulate the value of our offer in a number of ways in an attempt to increase the percentage of our highly qualified prospects that will find the messages relevant
• We need to communicate our messages more often than Odden did, which translates into running our campaigns over much longer periods.
• Then, once we achieve the first conversion, we need to do it over again; since unlike Odden, we are selling a product or a service and require more interim conversions than Odden did.

The paradox of search and social media

In short, search and social media can help marketers identify more qualified prospects and accelerate the process, still it’s as challenging as ever to achieve our goal: getting the most qualified prospects to “raise their hands” when they’re ready to buy.  Everyone says that social media is the answer, but what if–no matter how trusted the source is–others still don’t have time to attend to the message?

What are your thoughts about this analysis?  Is it on target?  Does it address the right questions?  Reach the right conclusion?  More important, what are your perspectives about where marketers should spend their resources to elevate their messages and accelerate conversions?

* Numbers on the day I wrote this post.

Make the most of your social media opportunities

Interested in learning how your company can get more value from social media?  Download the social media primer: What’s the best use of social media for your organization?

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Press release lead paragraph

“Simmons College’s Department of Health Care Administration launched a new website that will gauge the experiences of Boston-area healthcare users who have their services paid for by public programs. USisUS.net, which stands for the United States is Us, aims to reach out to minority populations and healthcare users who receive aid through programs such as Medicaid, VA, Commonwealth Care and others.  Users of the site can review these comments and ratings about particular health care providers.”

The many faces of Barbara Bix, Managing Principal, BB Marketing Plus

This post discusses my observations from several perspectives including that of a health care marketing consultant, a social media marketing consultant, a user of services, a citizen, and a taxpayer.  So, please join me now as I switch hats and weigh in from each of these roles.

Health care marketing consultant

The topic was also of particular interest to me as a health care marketing consultant.  There’s a lot of debate about what constitutes health care quality.  It’s hard to measure since we’re not widgets.  Each of us comes to our health through a unique combination of genes and behavior–and at different stages of wellness/illness–before health care providers even begin administering care.  For another, most of us don’t have the medical knowledge to assess the relative quality of our treatment regimes or outcomes.

Nevertheless, user perspectives are important; and health care providers have begun to seek them out over the last decade or so.  For one, we’re the only ones who know how we feel.  For another, we are qualified to rate some of the more visible aspects of our care–as well as our overall experience during the care process.

User of services

I see this site as a “Yelp” for government services.  The interesting twist is that citizen reviewers are not only users of the services and prospective users of the services, but also citizens who pay for the services–whether they ultimately use them or not.

As soon as I heard about this concept, my first reaction was, “We need this for our town”.  As a user, I think it’s a great way to hear from trusted citizens about new services of which I might otherwise have not been aware–as well as to get recommendations for which services to use when I have a choice.

Taxpayer

As a taxpayer, I’d find it useful to have information that helps me evaluate our programs and help me determine for which enhancements to advocate.  Today, I read about controversial decisions in the local newspaper and wish I could get a better understanding of the pros and cons from the people these decisions will most affect.  I also love the idea that administrators of those programs have a way to get specific actionable feedback on services without extra effort.

Social media marketing consultant

One of the best ways to develop superior offerings is to collaborate with clients, and prospective clients, to design and then improve the services you deliver.  A frequent “unintended consequence” is that users then feel more engaged and more involved, just because someone sought their feedback.  This engagement often leads to even greater satisfaction.

The magic of social media is that you can so easily, and inexpensively, reach so many of the people you aim to serve, get instant feedback, and have a forum where they can work as a group to refine that feedback.  This aspect is often referred to as the “wisdom of the crowd”.

Bias

Yes, there will be bias.  You’re most likely only to hear from those who are “high responders”, extremely satisfied, or extremely dissatisfied.  The hope is that, as with many other social media, “the crowd” keeps the conversation centered and useful.  I know that when I’m the user, I look to the crowd for overall sentiment, and to individual reviewers’ comments only for the details that they will bring to my attention.

Your perspectives, please

What’s your take?  Have you used any programs that evaluate public services?  If so, what value have you derived?  What reservations do you have?  What feedback do you have for USisus.net as they start to spread the word?

Find out how to make the most of your social media opportunities

Interested in learning more about how social media can add value to your organization?  Download the social media primer.

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Sales people and others responsible generating business for their organizations will find LinkedIn a valuable tool.  Unlike sites such as Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn tends to attract those looking to develop business relationships, as opposed to friendships.

But while many of us are familiar with the basic features of LinkedIn, we don’t always know how to best leverage them to drive sales. Here are five tips you can use to create a Linked In profile that will motivate prospects to come to you–without your having to “sell” them.

1. Position yourself as a thought leader

People buy from those they know and trust.  Especially when it comes to important purchases, people also want to buy from experts that are ahead of the curve.  LinkedIn offers multiple tools, many of which are discussed below, that you can use to demonstrate thought leadership and reinforce their confidence in you as a trusted advisor.

2. Get and give recommendations

What impression do you suppose a prospect will have after reading glowing endorsements about you from former coworkers, bosses, and, especially, clients?  While they may suspect those clients likely did not volunteer to write those recommendations, they also know that clients would not agree to do so if they did not feel comfortable legitimately endorsing you.

Get started by writing one for someone else.  Doing so accomplishes three things: one, it clearly flatters the person you write it for; two, it helps him or her look better to people viewing his or her profile; and three, it creates a desire to reciprocate.

2. Use polls to engage interest

People like giving their opinion about issues that are relevant or important to them–and reading what others have to say about topics that matter to them. Every so often (once a quarter or so) use LinkedIn’s polling feature to take a poll.

Moreover, your name will appear on their status updates, reminding your connections you’re out there, and in so doing, keeping you top of mind.  When combined with your other LinkedIn activities, it will increase the likelihood, they’ll remember you when they’re ready to buy.

3. Find and share news that will help others

Each group has a news section that contains news articles other members post, and increasingly, blog entries.  You never know what interesting tidbit you might come across that the difficult-to-reach prospect would appreciate receiving (and reward you for sending with a return call).

4. Demonstrate your value

Adding your experienced-based comments to existing discussions in the groups to which your clients and prospects belong is an unobtrusive, but powerful, way to demonstrate your thought leadership and your willingness and ability to provide value.

For example, I contributed to a discussion in one of the Mergers and Acquisitions groups. The very next day, I received an email from a boutique M&A firm on Long Island saying they “would like to learn more about my firm and services as they may be beneficial to his prospects and client base.”

5. Post documents, presentations, share what you’re reading

While you may not sell people on LinkedIn, your marketing materials may.  Use LinkedIn Applications such as SlideShare Presentations, Google Presentations, Box.net Files, and Reading List to passively communicate about your company and yourself.

I’ve used this to post my standard sales presentation, which promotes what I offer, and a couple of books I’ve read and recommend.  This helps others get to know me better as a person, effectively building my personal brand.  Others use it to establish thought leadership by posting white papers their firms have authored.

Bonus: Search for status updates for trigger events

In addition to these ideas, there are a few I’d like to share courtesy of a fellow business owner.  David Leaver of Opus Partners recommends that his clients identify some trigger events—events that, when they occur, will create a need for a product one sells—among the weekly updates mentioned above.  For Leaver, who provides sales training services, one trigger is when a VP of Sales changes jobs; often he or she will want to bring in a sales or marketing consultant to evaluate the staff being inherited.

Premium LinkedIn Extra: Target your most promising prospects

Premium LinkedIn users have a host of additional benefits that are beyond the scope of this article.  One that I’ve found extremely valuable is the ability to search for contacts using premium-only demographic criteria, such as company size, function, and seniority level.  This provides me with a reduced, and more targeted, list of prospects.  I can then zero in on the exact person or persons I want to reach, in the size of organization I want.  This enables me to send a custom, targeted message to those prospects via InMail, or, if I don’t have a premium account, via a connection.

Share your LinkedIn sales and marketing tips

As we have seen, there are a plethora of easy-to-use tools available to you on LinkedIn that can help you improve your sales results.  Start by picking one or two, and use them for about a week, until they become second nature.  (Nigel Edelshain of Sales 2.0 disciplines himself to devote 15 to 30 minutes each and every day.)  Then, gradually start using the rest of the features presented here, until you find yourself becoming a bona fide LinkedIn maestro.

Do you have other LinkedIn tips for generating sales?  If so, please share them here.

Looking for other ways to generate sales?  Download 5 actions you can take today to get more sales-ready leads

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