Join us Friday, October 9
11:30 to 1 p.m.
Brasserie Pavil, Huebner and 1604

Colleen Pence, founder of Social Media Mentoring, will be presenting on tools to help you monitor your brand in the social media universe. And she’s brilliant, so you don’t want to miss it!

You can RSVP here.

Nan, partner at Sales by 5, shared with us a story about client @pearanalytics. They did a white paper on twitter babble that literally exploded across the Internet. It was picked up by @mashable and became both the #1 and #2 trending topic on twitter. The company’s website went from 7,000 hits to more than 800,000 incoming links. Here’s the story that went viral.

Sean from KGBTexas asked us to think about what kind of value we are looking to get out of social media effort. Is it increased buzz, visits to website, donations, friends, sales? Regardless of what you are looking for, at the end of the day, social media is about building a community.

Here’s Sean’s Powerpoint. Sit back and enjoy his brilliance!

Set your calendar for next month. Last Friday. Up for conversation: tools for doing a really bang up job monitoring what’s being said about your brand.

@BillArchinal
@Mytotstravel
@connectforlife
@marciecasas
@jeannebjanes
@erikdarm
@promogeorge
@promoSA
@promopaula
@kickin2bfit
@seanmichaelwood
@KGBTexas
@nanpalmero
@momonmars
@ecrh

Social media

• blurs many of the traditional boundaries between internal and external communication.
• is not static. It continues to evolve as new tools are developed.
• can be used to further the mission.

A great quote: “On these four points, most corporate blogging policies agree: corporate bloggers are personally responsible and they should abide by existing rules, keep secrets and be nice.” – TheNewPR.com

For examples of social media policies, go to

• Social Media Policies
• NewPRWiki
• 40Guidelines

And last, but not least, a summary put together by @ecrh of IBM’s rules for responsible engagement in innovation and dialog.

• Be who you are.
• Be thoughtful.
• Be transparent.
• Respect copyright, fair use, financial disclosure laws and industry regulation.
• Protect clients, business partners and suppliers.
• Be sensitive to who will see your content.
• Respect confidentiality.
• Add value.
• Don’t pick fights.
• Be the first to respond to your own mistakes.
• Use your best judgment.
• If you’re not sure, don’t.
• Use a disclaimer.
• Don’t forget your day job.

@BeerAcrossTX
@CynthiaMcKenna
@JeanenneMcCloskey
@TeriMoore
@Dannemiller
@AvantePM
@13Cathleen
@MDNewsSATX
@lane24
@acetnow
@lukelibrarian
@shelleyatkci
@shelleyrae
@lalorek
@projectguy
@colleenpence
@momonmars
@ecrh
@sabusykids

@lane24
@MDNewsAustin
@MDNewsSATX
@lukelibrarian
@hurstej
@chrissg59
@greaterumbrage
@juleskay
@bridgettpiernik
@torijohnson
@dnongbri
@lesliesatx
@projectguy
@johnhancock61
@usaa_news
@safun
@derrich
@sbonnallie
@erikdarm
@paul_berry
@charris74
@shelleyatKCI
@shelleyrae
@momonmars
@ecrh
@sabusykids
@food4sa
@colleenpence
@theredrecruiter
@aliciasanera

I still don’t have the go ahead for the corporate tweet account, but I believe it will be soon.  But as I await the go ahead, I decided to try to put together ideas of how I can make social media work for my hospital.  I’d like to start a list and continue it during our next tweetup, since our whole reason for forming is to learn from one another.

I would say the number one use of social media is for advertising, but advertising what?  Job openings. Services. Classes/Seminars. What else do you plan on “Advertising”?

As a Community Relations Coordinator, I also would like to use it for PSA’s and other helpful information.

Do you think it will ever be used as a communication tool for patients in terms of updating appointment times, etc?

I know there are a ton of other uses, but I wanted to just start the conversation and we can discuss more at the tweet up.

As some of you all know, I twitter only on a personal level. And I like to throw my disclaimer out there “my thoughts are completely my own and do not represent those of my employer”…but as I learn more about social media and it’s potential, I find myself wanting to add to my job description. I want more work! Please utilize Twitter and Facebook to market and recruit. Yes, I am asking to add to my workload. Why? Because this is where we’re going…and, um, it’s FREE!

As I anxiously await the ok from corporate, I will try to recap our very enlightening discussion at lunch.

First things first, get a handle!Even if you are awaiting corporate approval (like myself), get the account. I’ve already done this on Facebook. The hospital may never okay me to go forward and use it as a marketing tool, but it’s there if we need it and I have the name I want.

Find your audience!Start following those people or groups YOU want to follow you! Look for physicians, medical news, non-profit organizations (i.e. AHA), health care marketers, hospitals, etc. Also follow your local news and media (especially if you are a healthcare marketer/public relations person). I personally follow a lot of healthcare marketers, medical news and public relations tweeters and I havelearned so much. I serve on the hospital’s emergency management disaster team, so I made sure to follow the CDC during the swine flu. Bottom line, most people will follow you back, so if your goal is to recruit nurses you better start following as many nurses as you can!

They like me; they really, really like me. How do we handle complaints? My philosophy, people are going to complain about a company via twitter whether that company tweets or not, so don’t use the fear of receiving complaints as a reason not to tweet. With that said, John and Paul handle complaints (or as I like to refer to them, “concerns”) differently depending on the severity. Is this a concern that another follower tweets back and it gets resolved? Or is this a concern that a blanket reply to all would handle, or it may even warrant a direct message. How ever you decide to address “concerns”, you should make sure to check with your corporate lawyers and/or risk management team before stepping into a sticky situation. And keep your “personal” feelings out of it as not to heighten any harsh feelings.

There was so much more we talked about during today’s tweet up, but hopefully this will provide everyone with a jumping off point. As Debi said, this blog is a collaborative effort, so if you are interested in adding to it, please let us know. We will get the handles and names of those who attended on the site ASAP, and I will post some names of people I follow in the healthcare industry and some helpful websites, too.

And, as always, all views stated in this blog are purely those of myself and not my employer! Unless they’re totally awesome and in return my employer thinks I’m a rock star, then I’ll take credit!

Follow me at @charris74….thanks, Carole

• Emily Hurst: @hurstej Emily Hurst Medical Librarian. EndNote. Instructional Services. Reference.
• Kelley Minars: @greaterumbrage Kelley Minars Finder of Things, Information Junkie, and Web Services Librarian at UTHSCSA
• Sara Wheiles: @SaraWheilesRVE Sara Wheiles outplan. outplay. outparty — Red Velvet Events San Antonio
• Tori Johnson @ToriJohnson Tori Johnson PR aficionado, book devourer, football enthusiast, TX Aggie
• Jackie Kirkindoll: @JKirkindoll Jackie Kirkindoll Wife, mom of 2, MGR @ Valero Corp. U can find me golfing, gardening or reading.
• Carole Harris: @charris74 Carole Harris Wife, Mommy and Hospital Community Relations Coordinator
• Bridgett Piernik-Yoder: @BridgettPiernik Bridgett Piernik Educator & occupational therapist who enjoys learning new things, reading, social media, and traveling
• Jeanenne McCloskey: @JeanenneLaMoyne Jeanenne McCloskey I am a Licensed Professional Counselor passionate about transformation from the inside out.
• Dale Lane: @lane24 Dale Lane CEO & Founder of LTM Medical Marketing, Entrepreneur, Father of 3, husband of 1 fine looking lady!(and my business partner)
• Ryan Kelly: @pearanalytics Ryan Kelly Founder/CEO of Pear Analytics, entrepreneur, trying to be a product company when I grow up, husband, father of 2
• Bill Archinal: @billarchinal My interests are: in-home senior care, K9 search and rescue, bicycling and San Antonio, not necessarily in that order
• Shelley Cook: @shelleyrae I tweet about web tech, social media, sharepoint, greyhounds, being married to the military, advocacy & random stuff (also twittering as @shelleyatkci)
  
• Debi Pfitzenmaier: @ecrh We are a nonprofit center…a place of hope in a hurting world…faith-based counseling and education for South Texas (Debi also twitters as @MomOnMars)
• Nan Palmero: @nanpalmero Chief Inspiration Officer at @SalesBy 5 + Nan Palmero | Power User at @BlackBerryCool
• Margaret Wesner
• Stephanie Lewis
• Julie K.Gaines @juleskay Health Sciences Librarian. Georgia Girl. social media. pop culture. good books. sweet tea.