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By: LYNNE JETER

Sarasota Memorial Leverages Social Media Marketing

SARASOTA—Healthcare thrives on word-of-mouth advertising. Online social networking puts it on steroids, says Peter Taylor, marketing director for Sarasota Memorial Health Care System.

"Social media represents such a huge opportunity, especially for community hospitals like ours without sizeable marketing budgets," said Taylor. "You won't see Geiko cavemen commercials here."

Web-based social media sites for family, friends, and associates of all sorts have become viral meeting spaces that keep people talking, texting and typing.

"The real key to social media is that consumers ultimately decide what's most appropriate for your brand, which is a different approach than traditional brand marketing," said Taylor. "Social media has the wonderful ability to track, in real time, where consumers gravitate."

About 18 months ago, Taylor and his marketing team identified several free media sites with untapped potential and, with very little promotion, launched Sarasota Memorial's presence on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Delicious.

It didn't take long to realize that Twitter, which is singlehandedly revolutionizing the way people share brief bits of information, is the prominent social media outlet of choice.

"Being a Florida coastal community, Sarasota (population: 389,000) isn't known for its high-tech population," noted Taylor. "Yet we have 1,500 members and post tweets with breaking news numerous times daily at a fast, dynamic pace."

Tweeting, also known more technically as micro-blogging, is the result of a 400-ish word social commentary blog reduced to 140 characters, or roughly 26 words. "This creates a challenge for the author," admitted media consultant Paul Sims. "How does one say something witty, interesting, poignant, funny or useful in 26 words or less?"

Facebook, which topped 250 million active users in July, drives about 5 percent of Sarasota Memorial's monthly web traffic to its Web site.

"That's 4,000 people every month that weren't coming to us 12 months ago," Taylor pointed out. "That's phenomenal."

Excluding internal traffic, Sarasota Memorial's Web site averages 200,000 page views per month from 80,000 visitors. Of those, 52,000 are unique visits (different users).

Sarasota Memorial Gets an "A"

Just as schoolchildren were heading back to campus, Sarasota Memorial Hospital was getting an unsolicited grade.

John Domansky, a healthcare consultant and blogger from Iowa, had plucked Sarasota Memorial, an 806-bed community hospital established in 1925, as an example of a hospital effectively using social media tools to better communicate with their patients, employees, medical staff, and community, therefore reflecting an organizational culture of superior communication.

As a result of their online presence, the hospital has engaged patients, cultivated open communications, and enhanced customer satisfaction, according to

Domansky's Aug. 12 blog focusing on "social" hospitals' impact on Medicare-sponsored HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey scores.

"Shawn Halls does a wonderful job in managing their Twitter account," Domansky wrote, noting that Twitter grader WeFollow ranked Sarasota Memorial No. 21 in the hospital category, with 1,263 Twitter followers. Twitter Grader gave it a score of 97.9, ranking it No. 66,888 from more than 3.2 million Twitterers.

Sarasota Memorial also scored well on Website Grader, earning a 92 grade, based partly on the hospital website's easy-to-find social media links to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Delicious accounts. The Facebook page, Domansky pointed out, has many postings about classes, clinical services, and community activities.

"All in all, Sarasota Memorial Hospital does a very nice job," he said, "and based upon their scores, I would consider them to be one of the Best Practice social hospitals."
Domansky also emphasized Sarasota Memorial's HCAHPS scores, highlighting what he believes is the most important question on the survey: "Percent of patients who reported YES, they would definitely recommend the hospital."

Of Sarasota Memorial's patients surveyed, 77 percent said they would "definitely recommend" the hospital to others, a significant number based on the hospital's 13,615 discharges in FY2008, according to their Medicare cost report.

"This example … shows that potentially an organization's superior communication culture – whether in social media adoption, hospital operations, and patient care – could translate into higher HCAHPS scores," he summed up.

"The leading referral to our Web site is obviously our web address," said Taylor. "Second is search engine traffic. And now Facebook is the third most popular referral method."

Taylor, whose marketing experience includes leading a digital marketing revolution for a stable of boat brands, has always been an early adopter of new technology. When he joined Sarasota Memorial two years ago, he was delighted to find that CEO Gwen MacKenzie shared that innovative spirit and desire to engage patients and visitors in new ways. "People crave access to helpful, accurate and fast information – social media provides a convenient digital platform to provide just that," Taylor said. And now, users no longer have to remain tethered to a computer. The social media playing field continues to widen, he noted, with new applications for TV, cell phones and other emerging technology."

Taylor and his team will soon launch Sarasota Memorial on Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and YouTube, a video-sharing site. He hasn't experienced problems that have plagued some corporate social media users, such as posting inaccurate, inappropriate or grammatically awkward information online.

"We have a top-notch marketing team that takes a comprehensive, but fairly precautionary approach to social media," Taylor said. "Because of strict privacy regulations and the critical nature of the services we provide, we need to make sure that the information we share with consumers is accurate and above all helps them make informed choices about their medical care."

The next big step in Taylor's social media outreach plan involves reaching out to the hospital's 4,000 employees.

"We'd like to embrace social media internally," he said, noting that employees cannot access social media sites from work. "We have the same dilemma every company is experiencing about discerning the most appropriate way to integrate employees into the social media realm."

Bottom line: social media networking is a marketer's dream, said Taylor. "Hospitals represent one of few brands that people don't want to use," he said. "We typically see customers only when they're sick, being tested or having check-ups. Social media allows us to engage with customers in their own environment where they are under less stress. It's a wonderful media tool that allows us to interact in a way customers feel more comfortable."