“We are looking for experienced, dynamic real-time pros to suggest and lead TWTRCON Workshops at TWTRCON SF 2010,” says Tonia Ries, CEO and Founder of Modern Media, “TWTRCON SF 2010 is our fourth TWTRCON, and we have always received an overwhelming number of great speaker and topic suggestions while we are building the program.  For our return to San Francisco (where we held our first event), we wanted to find a way to include more of those topics, and also to offer attendees the option of  participating in sessions that were more in-depth, how-to and educational.” TWTRCON SF will take place on November 18, 2010.

TWTRCON Workshops are designed to let experienced Twitter business practitioners explore real-time applications, tools and platforms. If you think you have an area of expertise to share, here are the details:

• Topics should be related to the practical application of Twitter or other real-time tools in a business context.
• The material should be presented in an interactive, how-to format. Think education, as opposed to presentation. If you can incorporate examples, worksheets and demos, even better.
• All workshop instructors should be prepared to provide hand-outs or other session material that can be given to workshop participants onsite, and then posted online after the event.

If you would like to apply to lead a workshop at TWTRCON SF 2010, please submit:

• your name and contact information
• suggested topic for your workshop (“How to ….”)
• a brief two-sentence description of why the topic is important, focused on the bottom-line benefits of your topic
• what specifically attendees can expect to learn from your workshop

For examples, please see some of the  TWTRCON Workshop topics here.  Proposals should be sent to John Eckhouse at john@modernmediapartners.com and are reviewed as they are received.  Workshop instructors are asked to prepare a 40-minute session.  Note:  Instructors will have free admission to the conference, but will be responsible for their own travel expenses.

“We are really excited about this new part of the TWTRCON program, and are really looking forward to seeing what kinds of topics people suggest.   Our first workshop on Twitter Chats will be led by Angela Dunn, aka @blogbrevity and @odomandco — and we want to extend a huge thank you to Angela for helping us to develop the format and structure for the new TWTRCON Workshops,” says Tonia.

So, healthcare and pharma tweeters, what expertise could you share with others in the community?

Odom & Co would like to wish Angela Dunn well as she moves on to a consulting role providing her expertise in idea design for digital/social innovation to digital agencies, healthcare organizations and businesses.  Please welcome Heather Welch, digital assistant, who will keep you updated via our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Flavors.me from Jack Zerby on Vimeo.

Flavors.me is one example of how to organize your digital identity.  Angela Dunn of Odom & Co has analyzed the various ways healthcare and pharma communications professionals are managing their personal and professional digital brand .

Health is Social is presenting its first in a series of Webinars on “Healthcare Social Media: Perspectives in Practice” on Thursday, August 26th, 2010, at 1 pm – 3 pm EST, 10 am – 12 pm PST, 6 pm – 8 pm London. The Webinar will offer four healthcare social media perspectives:  1) the Patient, 2) the Provider, 3) the Healthcare Organization and 4) the Professional (staff).  Angela Dunn, Director of Social Media for Odom & Co, will present the Professional Development perspective and showcase the many ways communications professionals, especially in healthcare and pharma, are managing their personal and professional digital identity.

Dunn also plans to showcase tools and resources including those for organizing personal digital content and assets.  (See flavors.me in the above video, The Digital Business Card WordPress Theme, and card.ly .)

“Your digital identity is shaping a personal digital brand, whether you realize it or not,” according to Dunn,  “The goal is to show real world examples, discuss the pros and cons of each, and help you decide what is most comfortable and authentic for you. It will be eye-opening for many people.”

Included in the case studies will be a look at the freshly released  Social Media Guidelines made public by Roche at “Roche and Social Media” . The Roche principles, summarized below, include guidelines for “personally” speaking “about” Roche and “professionally” speaking “on behalf” of Roche. Roche’s guidelines have “not only raised the bar for the pharma industry within the social web in general, but … have also heralded in a new era for healthcare communications,” according to Andrew Spong in a recent post.

Summary of Roche Social Media Principles:

Dunn’s presentation will also address:

Health Is Social does have a small  fee for Healthcare Social Media:  Perspectives in Practice. Odom & Co is honored to be presenting along with: Dave deBronkart @ePatientDave– Patient Perspective, Bryan Vartabedian, MD, FAAP @Doctor_V – Provider Perspective and Erin Macartney @emacartney: Healthcare Organization Perspective on Partnering Patients with Healthcare Team. For more information on Presenters and the Webinar, click here. Phil Baumann is the impetus behind Health Is Social and the Webinar series.

Dawn A. Crawford, Manager, Social Media, for MedThink Communications, a full-service healthcare communications agency in Raleigh, North Carolina, attended the ExL Pharma 6th PR and Communications Summit in NYC and shares a recap in this guest post. Follow @MedThink on Twitter and Facebook.com/MedThink.

Anyone who has ever read a comic book or seen a movie based on a comic knows the feeling of “MAN! I wish I could do that!” It is all about watching a superhuman feat in the name of greater good.

MedThink had that same feeling many times at the ExL Pharma 6th Public Relations & Communications Summit held at the Pfizer World Headquarters in NYC. It felt like we were getting firsthand knowledge from true pharma superheroes. These are the companies forging the way in social media, taking strategic risks and engaging patients.

In the conservative world of pharmaceutical marketing, pharma and social media are often in a villainous relationship. They are at-odds trying to find a way to work together, but the struggle ultimately ends in cliff-hanger tactics that always leave you wanting more.

At this conference, the leaders in pharma social media shared their success above and beyond the constraints of regulations. Each industry representative was careful to state they were working within the current legal framework, but was also proud to point out that no letters from DDMAC mentioned social media practices. Furthermore, there have been very few, if any, adverse events reported through social media.

One standout case study in social media super-skills was from Kate O’Connor, Boehringer Ingelheim’s executive director, public relations. She highlighted their program Drive4COPD, which is a multiyear public health initiative to screen the millions of people who may be at risk for COPD. The campaign is fully integrated with a website and sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Digg. The campaign enlists celebrities including Danika Patrick, Michael Strahan and Bruce Jenner to carry the message to multiple audiences with greater reach.

The biggest lesson learned was planning. Boehringer Ingelheim trained their spokespeople and internal teams with extensive messaging on what they could and could not say, ensuring all communications were within regulatory guidelines. They even trained ambassadors on FDA, FTC and social media guidelines, so they were fully prepared for all regulatory boundaries. As with any successful communications and marketing plan, preparation is always key.

The second takeaway was in combining online and offline events. While they leveraged celebrity Twitter accounts, including Bruce Jenner with his 39,000+ fans, they also held interactive offline events at NASCAR races across the country. This smart integration of both virtual and real-life experiences truly set this program apart, demonstrating the power of a fully integrated communications program.

Another intriguing session was the Health Care Blogs session, which included Dr. Alanna Levine, a pediatrician and parenting expert blogger for MomLogic; John Mack, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Pharma Marketing News; and Gina Maisano, a patient-advocate blogger and president of the No Surrender Breast Cancer Foundation. Each of these bloggers welcomed more interaction from pharmaceutical companies and their agencies. They wanted more comments and questions. Being part of the conversation and being helpful to our blogger allies can be a huge win for pharma, and most importantly, patients.

The legions of professionals engaged in pharma communications have a lot to learn from the speakers at this summit. We all have the potential to be social media superheroes ourselves. We just need to take a confident step off the edge of social media and fly.

Bridget Duffy at Gel Health 2009 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

In this guest post, Nick Dawson shares with us why “experience matters.”  Nick describes himself as “bridging the gap between healthcare operations and social media.” With more than 12 years of experience in hospital operations, he understands what makes healthcare tick. As the champion of a social media success story, Nick is the Director Community Engagement at Bon Secours Richmond Health System. In addition to those duties, he is also a Director on the Revenue Cycle team for the 14 hospital Bon Secours Health System. Nick blogs at NickDawson.net, and you can find him on Twitter @NickDawson.

For most of us, auto mechanics are a bit of a mystery. The oil light comes on, we drive to the dealership, they work some voodoo and we drive away under the impression that things are running smoothly under the hood. Unless you have the know-how, there isn’t a way to verify the quality of the work that is done. That is probably why savvy dealerships started offering fancy waiting areas – coffee, danishes, flat screen TVs and high speed Internet. If we can’t judge the craftsmanship, maybe we’ll make our service decisions based on the waiting experience. The interesting thing is that medicine is not much different.

I’ve written on my own blog about Bridget Duffy’s wonderful 2009 Gel Conference lecture before. In the talk, Dr. Duffy makes her point clearly, “Most patients want the high tech and a great quality outcome, but they can’t judge the quality of the [treatment]. They can judge the quality of the experience…” I often say that experience matters, and a double entendre that is two in two ways. First, we want to think we are taking our cars to a reputable service shop; the kind of place that does quality work. We also want to know that we are going to be well taken care of. Does it make a difference to the car if you are greeted by name, offered a nice place to wait and kept well informed about the work being done? Well, in a way, I think it does.

In healthcare, experience matters. We all want to believe that the person sticking the needle in our arm is skilled and qualified. You wouldn’t voluntarily go under the knife with a surgeon you didn’t have the utmost confidence in. Much to the consternation of some industry senior leaders I know, I submit that technical skill is an expectation for patients. Everything else positive about at the healthcare experience is often sadly the exception, not the expectation.

To illustrate the importance of the entire experience, think about something relatively simple like an annual physical. Does your doctor take the extra few minute to greet you by name and inquire about you as a person? There is an often quoted section of Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point where he examines the length of time physicians spend with patients verses medical malpractice suits. The difference of as little as one extra minute spent with a patient makes a dramatic reduction in the number of suits and even complaints that the sample study sawfound. The dots isare not hard ones to connect. The at extra minute is probably not some magical exam or test that only a few doctors know about, it is a moment of real human interaction.

A few weeks ago I was working late and walking through the hospital around six o’clock in the evening. (I like roaming around patient areas at that time of day. It is quiet, the hustle of hundreds of folks moving about their daily activities settles into a low background hum.) On this particular day, I passed a mother and teenage daughter waiting in our outpatient diagnostic area. The daughter lay with her nearly six foot frame scrunched up on a love seat with her head on her mother’s lap. They had that “we’ve been waiting a while” look. I took a quick detour through the emergency room where we keep a warming cabinet with soft blankets and pillows. Without a word, I quietly entered the waiting area, offered the pillow to the girl’s mother and gently draped the blanket over her body. Did that small act make a difference in the outcome of the diagnostic test or clinical procedure? Well, in a way, I think it did.

According to Dr. Duffy, when organizations make the patient experience their number one goal everything else follows – improved outcomes, increased revenue, market share, reduced errors, etc. Patient experience is an easy thing for every person in a provider organization to relate to. Imagine being in a meeting and being able to ask everyone at the table “what part of this plan do you play and how does that support an awesome patient experience?” If car dealers can do it, why can’t providers?

It is time to put the providing the best, most compassionate, experience first.

Wishing #hcsmeu a very Happy Birthday! Cannot believe it is already a year since the #hcsmeu Twitter Chat was founded by Andrew Spong (@andrewspong) and Silja Chouquet (@whydotpharma.) Here’s to many many more! (See our Facebook tab of Twitter Chats for a list of chats in healthcare and pharma social media. We are adding more.  Please let us know if you have a chat you would like included!)

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to.”  Let’s NOT call the whole thing off!

Last Friday’s #HCSMEU conversation brought up differences regarding healthcare and pharma marketing social conversations in Europe and the U.S, both in style and function.  I have participated in all the healthcare Twitter Chats for over a year now and wanted to share some differences that may be helpful to those communicating across the pond. This is not an attempt to make any way right or wrong, as that would defeat the purpose of this post, which is to enhance the global conversation!

For a summary and listing of all the healthcare and pharma chats, please see our Resource Hub for Healthcare Communications and Social Media Professionals.

Andrew Spong, co-founder and moderator of the European discussion #HCSMEU with Silja Chouquet, will tell you that #HCSMEU is democratic and belongs to the community.  What does this mean?  Everyone has an equal voice from students to senior leadership in some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. My impression from participation in the #HCSMEU chat is that the value of an idea is greater than a title.

This leads to a difference in the way various chats are initiated.  In #HCSMEU, it had not been typical for people to introduce themselves, beyond a friendly greeting.  In #HCSM, on Sunday nights, participants are asked to give their name, title and affiliation before the chat gets going.  This is pretty much part and parcel of American culture. Think about when you meet someone in the States–one of the first questions normally asked is “What do you do?”  When Dana Lewis, moderator of #HCSM visited Andrew Spong in Europe, they discussed #HCSMEU adopting the #HCSM approach and #HCSMEU now also asks participants to introduce themselves.  However, the trend seems to have gravitated back to the original way for most #HCSMEU folks. Why? It would be great to hear thoughts from both the EU and American perspective!

I also recently wrote about the importance of saying “thank you” in social media which brings up another difference.  I have noticed many European followers will provide very personal thank you notes privately in a DM (Direct Message) on Twitter, where most American followers will do so publicly in the stream.  Therefore, more European followers follow directly, and not via lists.  (If someone does not follow you directly on Twitter, you cannot send them a private Direct Message. A clue is to look at follower-following ratios, but that is another post!)

#SOCPHARM weekly on Wednesday nights at 8 pm EST also has a once a month early morning chat at 8 am to be inclusive of European participation, so you will find a mix.

The way topics are generated also differs across the chats.  #HCSMEU has an open google doc wiki where three questions can be added on a first-come, first-served basis.  #HCSM and #SOCPHARM ask that questions be submitted in advance to the moderator who will then choose among the submissions.

The biggest difference that came up in last week’s #HCSMEU chat is the fact that in Europe, DTC advertising is not allowed, so “promotional” is not part of the conversation. The culture clash that ensued in last Friday’s #HCSMEU chat was because a question posed by an American participant in the #HCSMEU chat was found to be too “promotional” by one of the European participants.  The democratic system of the chat allowed the question, which then caused the participants to question the way questions are managed.  Would the question have been approved for discussion in #HCSM or #SOCPHARM or would it have been considered “promotional”?

I think it is incredible that today we can even exchange ideas like this globally in real time all because of Twitter.  In a few years, the global conversation will continue to evolve and this post may be antiquated. In the meantime, let’s acknowledge, appreciate and learn from our differences. Adopt to the culture of the conversation, there is so much to learn!

The above video is from a series of videos by Aurora Health PR, @aurorahealthpr, entitled, “We Hate Social Media,” which is based on British humor! This video also raised some cultural differences within the EU; if you don’t get it, it is meant to be sarcastic ironic! Neil Crump explains his series to pharma here,  “We Hate Social Media.”

Mom told you to share, but she also said to say “please” and “thank you.”

With all the buzz about “influence’ in social media, people are forgetting real social media clout is built on “trust.”  How trustworthy are you?

At TWTRCON last month, Laura Fitton, aka @pistachio, stated that “Influence is serving others.” I would add it is also attained by appreciating others.  By responding and showing genuine appreciation to all of your followers, you build trust.

With the advent of Klout and other measures of social influence, a disturbing pattern is surfacing. Some folks, including social media experts, only curry favor and are inclusive of those they may deem influential.  Don’t be guilty of taking for granted anyone who retweets your tweet or spreads your thought leadership in Facebook or in a blog. Do you comment back or express that you “like” that someone mentioned you?  Those in social media know the value this provides. If you are advocating best practices in social media, don’t forget, a simple “thank you” goes a long way– and that is being social!  (Graphic by the|G|™)

PHARMA AND TRUST

Pharma especially needs to focus on building trust.  This entire issue of Siren Interactive’s “Adventures in eMarketing” is about pharma and trust, and is worth your read. The following graphic in the newsletter is a Research Insight about Epsilon, A Prescription for Customer Engagement, March 2010, which explores the issue of online trust and the pharmaceutical industry.  As you can see, at 13%, there is a lot of room for improvement. How would you recommend pharma could build more trust?

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Cleveland Clinic Farmers’ Market in Cleveland, Ohio, and speaking with Elizabeth Fiordalis, Director of Community Outreach, about how the Cleveland Clinic is bringing the message and action for healthy living to its community.

America has a problem with obesity and the problem can be directly attributed to the lack of knowledge about healthy food and its preparation, according to Chef Jamie Oliver in his award-winning TED talk and anti-obesity project.  In this shocking video, American schoolchildren are unable to identify basic fruits and vegetables.  One child identified a tomato as a potato; many others were hard-pressed to recognize cauliflower.

Fiordalis echoes Oliver’s sentiments and stresses the importance of educating the community, “It’s one thing to say ‘eat fresh fruits and vegetables.’ It’s so much better if you can take them to the market, teach them how to shop, to choose healthy and nutritious fruits and vegetables and then go home and prepare them.”

The Cleveland Clinic main campus farmers’ market attracts hundreds of visitors every week on Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and dozens of school groups will learn about healthy eating throughout the summer.  You can view a video tour of the Cleveland Clinic Farmers’ Market, and, if you visit in person, the Clinic will even provide free parking for an hour.

Fiordalis says getting the message out to the community and neighborhoods is very important for its healthcare communications and extends beyond traditional media to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, “We’re finding that social media and getting into our community are very intertwined.” This is the third season for the main campus market and the great response has prompted the Cleveland Clinic to host farmers’ markets at other regional hospitals and health centers with more to come.  What a delicious idea!

The Cleveland Clinic Farmers’ Market is part of several North Union Farmers’ Markets in Northeast Ohio founded on the vision of Donita Anderson.  The first market opened in Shaker Square in 1995.