infOpinions?

Jeremy Pepper has an interesting post about social media and healthcare over at Pop PR Jots.

Jeremy joined in a panel with Amy Tenderich, from Diabetes Mine.

From his post, these three paragraphs - in particular - struck a cord.

When explaining social media, I use a Town Hall analogy. From a conversation with a friend, she wrote it out like this: Imagine a small New England town with a highly civically-active community. On a regular basis this tightly-knit community hosts Town Hall meetings to discuss current events, areas of concern, etc. Now imagine someone wholly unconnected to community coming in, raising a topic of concern and just leaving. Town Hall meeting members have every reason to be annoyed, incensed and even hostile.

Now take that Town Hall scenario, multiply it exponentially, and stick it online - where anyone and everyone can see it. The quaint little Town Hall is now a blog. And the outside, rude intruders are PR people - those that neither seem to care or understand the community, but are just following orders to get “ink” no matter what.

For healthcare, take that Town Hall scenario, and put it in the hospital ward. With some health blogs, you are either talking to the patient, or the patient’s relative.

In our work with Camp ASCCA, the patient is the camper and the patient’s relatives expands out to the entire family and that unique “family” one gains like physical therapists, doctors, nurses and many others while dealing with issues brought on by your disability. That family even involves donors and volunteers that make trips to Camp ASCCA possible for thousands each year. And, it even involves that area formerly known as B2B when dealing with vendors. Yes, we even address them in our social media strategy.

You just can’t talk with these audiences using a blast email or shotgun press release approach. After all, that’s talking “to” someone, isn’t it?

It is these communities of nonprofit and healthcare “family members” that may well match the blogosphere’s community aspects more than any other. They don’t want advertising. They don’t want to be pitched. What they want is to be a part of something and truly feel that they are making a difference.

I also see this as similar to what we encounter in fundraising. First rule: don’t be afraid to ask. What can they say? No? Well, it isn’t like I’ve never heard that before. But, you have to ask in the right way. And, there must be a relationship before you can ask. Well, if you want to have any hope of being successful.

On another front, Jeremy’s partner in the panel - Amy Tenderich - might be interested in something we’re going to start this coming week with the Southeaster Diabetes Education Services. They are going to begin blogging and video podcasting much the same way students have been doing it at Camp ASCCA’s Journal.

Both examples use blogs for stakeholder outreach - like the campers, counselors and parents of people with disabilities. For ASCCA, as an Easter Seals facility, we work with anyone and everyone to achieve the goal of providing services to people with disabilities. Examples of those services may be found in these posts

• Four-Wheeling :: It is a Realistic Recreation Activity for Spinal Cord Injury Patients and Campers
• USA’s Carmen Hughey :: Experiential Learning about Therapeutic Recreation at Camp ASCCA
• ASCCA’s Campus Is Both Therapeutic and Educational This Weekend
• Christine Geever Ziplines and Spreads Smiles during the 2007 Shepherd Spring Weekend

The best part about all of those posts is that they were created by students gaining experience and they involve multiple organizations and universities all doing one thing - making life a little bit better, and a little bit more fun, for people with disabilities.

The video below is one example. It comes from our intern, Cathy Cochran, from Sewanee. She’s doing some great work at Camp ASCCA. Cathy is only a sophomore. She has very little experience with video and production. Yet, look at what she’s done in only her first week.

I think this could be a really great summer for social media and Camp ASCCA.

 

 Video Interview by Intern Cathy Cochran: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1638)