“Ivanti manages and secures the ‘Everywhere Workplace,’” said Sal Viveros, the company’s Head of Global Corporate Communications. “Businesses depend on our technology to automatically manage, secure and service all of the on-premises and edge devices in their IT environment—from laptops to phones to virtual reality headsets.”

Part of Viveros’ role at Ivanti is to help increase brand awareness for the company and promote senior leadership’s expertise in how businesses can use technology and services to make the “Everywhere Workplace” possible. One of Viveros’ frequent collaborators at Ivanti is the Director of Social Strategy, Jamie Laliberte Whalen, whose responsibilities include shaping influencer marketing strategy and leading Ivanti’s newly reimagined brand ambassador and incentive program.

“The brand ambassador program is near and dear to my heart,” said Whalen, who joined the company in November 2021. “I wanted the program to be really successful. That’s why I reached out to our customer success team at Sprout Social to help us identify what we needed to do to improve it.”

Benchmarking brand ambassador program performance—with insight from Sprout

Whalen leads a social media team who deliver on Ivanti’s global social strategy with support from a system of internal stakeholders, like Viveros, and additional resources and tools, including Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

The assistance Whalen specifically sought from the Sprout Social team was twofold: First, she wanted to know what a best-in-class brand ambassador program looked like, especially for Ivanti’s industry. Second, she wanted insight into how Ivanti’s current efforts were stacking up against those top-tier metrics.

“In short, I wanted Sprout to tell us where we are and where we need to be so we could set reachable goals to move us toward becoming best-in-class,” Whalen explained. “I told the customer success team at Sprout, ‘Give me the key performance indicators and other metrics that we can hold ourselves accountable to, so I can bake that into our social strategy for the year.’”

Sprout’s team came back with a host of relevant data for Whalen to examine, including information on how similar programs by Ivanti’s competitors were performing and what tactics they were using. Whalen also received details on user adoption and engagement levels and signup rates for both best-in-class programs and Ivanti’s own program.

Whalen said, “We learned that our program had about a million in reach per month. Also, our adoption rate was just 17%. Some people would consider those numbers good, but in my view, they weren’t good enough. I also learned from Sprout that a best-in-class program has about a 30% adoption rate, and we obviously weren’t even close to that.”

After reviewing the data from Sprout, Melissa Puls, Ivanti’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, told Whalen she wanted to challenge everyone in the organization to utilize the program. “I told her I’d already included it in our social strategy,” Whalen said. “I knew it would be powerful if we had a program that allowed everybody to access and share content at the right time, wherever they are. The voices inside our company are the strongest voices. They are on the front lines, working hard every day in our ‘Everywhere Workplace’ to make sure Ivanti’s brand is standing up.”

Underscoring the value of employee advocacy—starting from day one

To increase utilization of Ivanti’s brand ambassador program and drive employee advocacy, Whalen and her team, with help from Sprout, examined how the current program was structured. “We looked at it holistically and examined its backend taxonomy,” she explained. “I wasn’t the first owner of the program, so I had to step back to understand how it was set up initially and determine how we needed to run and support it moving forward.”

One need Whalen identified was an internal communications plan that would “let everyone know how awesome the reshaped program was going to be.” She said, “It’s not my program, it’s everyone’s program. And I think a key reason we’ve had so much success in improving it is because we made the point to get people—including executive leadership—involved and excited about it early on.”

Whalen said her team prioritized creating content and posting it to an intranet site to help employees understand how to use Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social. “We developed new videos to explain what Sprout is, how to use it on a desktop, how to use the mobile app, and more,” she said. “We also created resources like blogs and how-tos.”

This information is now a part of Ivanti’s onboarding process for employees.

New hires are excited and want to be part of something big, and onboarding provides the perfect opportunity to get them on the Sprout platform and become a brand ambassador.

Jamie Whalen
Director of Social Strategy

The social media team at Ivanti also realized that many existing employees didn’t know about the program—or hadn’t been educated well about how to use the Sprout tool. “We had two different groups to educate, so we created a quarterly newsletter to help everyone know what content is available for them to use and offer tips to help them succeed,” said Whalen. “There’s been a lot of follow-up by email, too, to highlight wins and keep people engaged.”

Measuring results and telling the value story through Sprout’s analytics

Using contests like gift card giveaways and other special events as incentives have helped drive employee engagement in the brand ambassador program. That includes Invanti’s sales and BDR teams, who were among those unfamiliar with the program and initially uncertain about the value it could provide. “Let’s just say I had a ‘Jerry Maguire’ moment with them,” Whalen laughed. “I was like, this will help me help you. Let me show why this is beautiful, and why it’s worth your time to participate.”

The education and incentivizing Whalen and her team have provided has paid off—delivering a quick and impressive return on investment, in fact. “By the end of the first month of revitalizing the program, we had 17 million reach and an adoption rate of nearly 46%—which is well over the 30% benchmark for a best-in-class program,” said Whalen. “Also, after launching our incentive program, we went from 1,000 to 3,000 shares in the first month, and then up to 17,000 shares within the first quarter.”

The newly thriving brand ambassador program at Ivanti is also helping the company save about $500,000 in marketing costs this year through earned media. “That’s a lot of money that Ivanti doesn’t have to spend on marketing thanks to our brand ambassadors,” said Whalen.

Executive leadership at Ivanti is not only paying close attention to these results, but also is engaging with the brand ambassador program as well—including acknowledging employees’ efforts. Whalen shared this example: “After our first contest, our CEO reached out to the three winners to thank them personally for being brand ambassadors. He was so impressed by these individuals and what they were able to do for the company. I don’t think these folks had ever talked to our CEO before, but now they were all in a conversation because of something they’d done together.” 

“Social media is critical to building the Ivanti brand, and using our employees to help communicate with our customers is important because it’s more authentic and more credible,” said Viveros. “With help from Sprout, we can provide information to our employees to share easily with our customers through social media. It’s a way for our key messaging to touch our customers directly.”

Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social is also really easy to use. I’m posting two to three messages per day myself, and it takes me just seconds to do it.

Sal Viveros
Head of Global Corporate Communications

Whalen credits the wealth of data and insights and the partnership that Sprout Social has provided for helping Ivanti’s brand ambassador program quickly achieve best-in-class performance. “We’re up to 17,000 shares monthly with our brand ambassador program—which gives us a lot more reach and a lot more eyes,” said Whalen. “I think that through our partnership, we have created a beautiful effect.”

Analytics that help communicate the bottom-line value of social media efforts to stakeholders and the “business-to-human touch” the customer success team delivers are top reasons Whalen said she’d recommend Sprout Social to other marketers. “You’re not just working with a company—you’re working with people,” she said. “Sprout really wants the best for your company. They will create a plan for you to become a best-in-class program. That’s what they do. Many companies say they do that, but Sprout has actually helped us do it, and we have the results to show for it.”

We couldn’t have succeeded without the data, insight and partnership we got from Sprout. We’re up to 17,000 shares monthly with our brand ambassador program—which gives us a lot more reach and a lot more eyes. I think that through our partnership, we have created a beautiful effect.

Jamie Whalen
Director of Social Strategy

Learn how Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social can help extend your social reach. Request your free demo today.

The post How Sprout Social helped Ivanti quickly create a best-in-class brand ambassador program appeared first on Sprout Social.

“The content we produce has tangible impacts on the healthcare industry. We provide educational resources to healthcare professionals that help them stay informed,” says Elida Solis, Social Media Director at Vizient.

When the COVID pandemic began, Elida and her team jumped into action. They refocused their content on the emerging needs of the healthcare community. To amplify their message, they tapped into the power of employee advocacy and tripled their impressions in the first six months.

Their strategy proved so effective they were awarded “Best Use of LinkedIn” by PR News.

In two years, Vizient turned their employees into brand advocates, gained thousands of new followers and increased their awareness and engagement with the help of Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

Tapping employee networks to make thought leadership accessible

Before the pandemic started, Vizient was in the early stages of developing their employee advocacy program. After lockdown measures were put in place and their work went virtual, they accelerated their advocacy project plans and launched with a small pilot group.

Employee advocacy is a new initiative for us. During the pandemic, our Member Performance team—like everyone else in the country—couldn’t travel to meet their clients. It was a critical time. They had our COVID resources, but they struggled with how to share them. They didn’t know what to say or how to share the messages broadly.

Elida Solis
Social Media Director, Vizient

Sprout’s Employee Advocacy solution provided Vizient team members with streamlined access to company content and pre-approved social messaging, which made them feel more confident sharing posts with their network.

By posting prepackaged content on LinkedIn, I have been able to reconnect with former colleagues, expand my network and engage in interesting conversations with my community. If you’re looking for an easy way to help your team stay current on relevant information and expand your brand’s influence in the market today, I would recommend Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

Richard Ponder
Assistant Vice President Pharmacy & Care Delivery Product Strategy, Vizient

Soon, the initial results were in and the pilot far exceeded Elida’s expectations. Within three months, Vizient saw double the engagement compared to their traditional organic social channels and gained thousands of new followers.

Vizient leadership decided it was essential to expand the program to other teams. One-by-one other departments were onboarded, and Vizient continued to see record-setting impressions.

Elida and her team were determined to make Employee Advocacy implementation as user-friendly as possible.

She says, “It was a commitment to our employees. We are giving them a tool that’s easy to use. It’s a straightforward, time-efficient way to reach their networks.”

Elida and her team provided support, including an internal advocacy resource hub that houses a product demo, instructional guides and on-demand webinars. The resources equip Vizient employees with personal branding tips to elevate their social presence and maximize the advocacy program.

Providing value to customers and team members alike

Vizient’s employee advocacy success is rooted in their commitment to providing value to their audience and team members.

For example, at the onset of the pandemic, Vizient immediately halted all ongoing content development efforts to refocus their entire strategy on COVID-related educational resources.

As Elida says, “We, as a company, made the decision to make a lot of our content available to healthcare professionals outside of our membership program. We knew it was a critical time to share timely updates in an efficient, accessible way. Social media played a key role in helping us do that.”

By putting the needs of their audience at the forefront of their strategy, Vizient saw significant performance improvement—from their engagement rate to follower count.

To maximize the effectiveness of employee advocacy, Elida knows their content must resonate with Vizient team members as well. She makes it a top priority to provide them with 10 to 15 insightful content stories they actually want to share.

She advises team members to, “Share what’s most relevant. Don’t think of it as ‘promoting content.’ Consider what your network wants to learn more about. When you share a post, customize the copy to infuse your experience and make it relevant for your audience.”

Above all, Elida and her team want the content to make a positive impact on healthcare and the lives of professionals in Vizient’s community and beyond.

Elevating the value of social and advocacy

When Vizient first started using Sprout’s platform of social management tools, they made it clear they needed to communicate social performance results with executives and other departments on a regular basis. Their most important key performance indicator (KPI) was engagement.

Using customized versions of Sprout’s performance reports, Elida and her team create monthly and quarterly reports that elevate the value of social across their company.

At Vizient, we’re really fortunate because our senior leaders get it. They really understand the importance of social. They see the results in our performance reports and they’re actively engaged and participating in our social initiatives.

Elida Solis
Social Media Director, Vizient

As Elida says, “We’re able to view the metrics and the results from the number of active employees—the amount of shares, the resulting impressions and engagements. About 85% of our employees in the system are active, and that’s a big win for us.”

But equally important is their employee satisfaction, which is the ultimate value of the program. In every internal survey they’ve conducted, their Employee Advocacy satisfaction score was 98% or above. On average, 67% of employees reported receiving greater network engagement because of the program.

Since we started using Sprout’s Employee Advocacy solution, my network has become more engaged. I get asked about my company more than ever and people comment on how active I am on LinkedIn. It makes it easier for me to interact with my connections on social. I would highly recommend Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social to other companies considering it.

Carl Taggart
Vice President, Zone Leader NE & SE US—Spend Management Services and Delivery, Vizient

Elida points out that although employee advocacy is voluntary, the Vizient team shares posts because they find it beneficial and enjoy celebrating company culture.

Sprout Social helps Vizient extend brand awareness

For Elida and her team, employee advocacy has increased brand awareness, supported recruitment and generated lead opportunities. It’s also giving Vizient employees the ability to amplify content through their own voice and perspective.

Learn how Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social can help extend your social reach. Request your free demo today.

The post How employee advocacy tripled Vizient’s social media engagements appeared first on Sprout Social.

Compliance with industry regulations is a top priority for hospitals, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical brands, and few directives loom as large as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

HIPAA violations can cost organizations major fines and even result in jail time. In short, using social media carelessly is not an option. Protecting patient privacy and staying within HIPAA compliance on social means understanding what you can and can not say, show or share.

We’ve pulled together information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Medical Association and LetsGetChecked to create a resource of tips and requirements related to HIPAA compliance and executing your social media strategy. This is not an exhaustive compliance guide, but rather a starting point. Always consult your legal or compliance teams regarding your social media policies and work with them to confirm that you’re remaining HIPAA compliant.

Download now to set your organization up for compliance and—dare we say—creativity in your healthcare social media strategy.

The post Supporting HIPAA Compliance on Social: A Cheat Sheet appeared first on Sprout Social.

Using Sprout’s Smart Inbox to send the right message

The unique nature of Inspire’s sleep apnea treatment drives a lot of interest and by extension, a lot of questions. Inspire has a small social team, but the Sprout Smart Inbox makes it possible for them to review and react to every inbound comment, private message or mention. Whether reacting means responding directly, assigning the message to a colleague or simply checking it off their review list, it’s all done within the Smart Inbox.

“Before I started at Inspire, the team had been monitoring natively. It’s so easy to miss things and let important conversations slip through the cracks that way,” said Inspire’s Social Media Community Manager Emily Allen. “When I joined the team, I recommended using Sprout to ensure we could be attentive on social. Initially I spent about 90% of my day in the inbox answering and saving all our audience’s questions, which was a great way to learn the business.”

Allen started as a team of one but gradually got more support, including an additional teammate and two agencies to assist with Inspire’s paid and organic social. Each person with a seat in the platform has the ability to task and tag messages in the inbox. If Allen’s teammates run into a question or comment they’re unable to address, they can simply task it to her.

Additionally, the team has Inbox Rules set up to automatically tag messages that align with a specific theme like insurance or cost, for example. Then, they can report on trends and commonalities within those message themes, identify the most frequently asked questions from potential patients and inform the focus of their content.

Providing critical customer care, stat

To address FAQs, Inspire relies on Saved Replies, available on the Advanced plan and stored in Sprout’s Asset Library. Once they’ve selected a scripted response as their jumping-off point, they customize their responses to incorporate their own personality, add emojis and sign their names. All of these capabilities enable seamless collaboration and more accurate and efficient customer service.

In an industry like healthcare, where patients will reach out with concerns related to their care, responding quickly is crucial. When the coronavirus pandemic began, patients faced new challenges with accessing care, so Allen set up Sprout’s COVID-19 Inbox Rule Template to identify all relevant messages. Understanding common concerns and roadblocks patients were facing helped Allen and her team develop new assets and response scripts covering telemedicine and patient safety.

Some of the VIP lists require immediate attention. The Inbox Rules we have set up ensure that any time someone from that list comments, I get an email so I can address it right away.

Emily Allen
Social Media Community Manager

VIP lists are another Sprout automation that ensures that important messages are addressed quickly.

“We love the VIP list. It helps us pay special attention to interactions with patients who reach out frequently, promising leads, brand ambassadors, our doctors and even people who bring unpleasant messages into our community,” said Allen. “Some of the VIP lists require immediate attention. The Inbox Rules we have set up ensure that any time someone from that list comments, I get an email so I can address it right away.”

The payoff is inspiring

The attentiveness and intentionality behind Inspire’s customer service is exceptional, and they had a 71% reply rate in Q2 2020 to prove it. Bolstered by Sprout’s robust capabilities, Inspire continues to provide the top-rate care people need to breathe normally and sleep peacefully.

The post Sprout Social is a breath of fresh air for Inspire Medical Systems appeared first on Sprout Social.

In the not so distant past, all of this was handled during in-person visits. These days? Roughly 80% of Americans head straight to the internet to research anything health-related. Sites like WebMD and Healthline make it all too easy for people to self-diagnose ailments and put off an in-person visit.

In many ways, social media has helped democratize access to medical information and empowered consumers to take charge of their own health. But it’s also created challenges. Social accelerates the spread of misinformation and excludes healthcare workers from key conversations with their patients. And when providers can’t engage with patients where their journey begins (namely, online), it can lead to a lack of consumer trust.

Consider how consumers leverage social and the internet to stay educated during the current pandemic. Since the start of the COVID-19, only 11% of consumers say they’ve received information on what to do from their primary care doctor while 26% get their information from social media. When people shared posts about COVID-19 on Facebook, only 1% of public posts linked to actual health and science resources.

While the pandemic accelerated healthcare’s digital transformation, the reality is this hybrid of online and offline services was always going to be the future of the healthcare industry. Healthcare providers have spent years perfecting their literal bedside manner. To round out the patient experience, healthcare organizations need to double down on social media listening to bring the same level of in-person care online.

Cut through the noise with social listening for healthcare

True empathy starts with listening. But the sheer volume of social content alone makes it tough for healthcare professionals to hear their patients on social and ensure experts’ voices are heard.

Just look at the conversation volume around COVID-19. The pandemic dominated social feeds in March, and a closer look at Sprout Social’s Featured Listening Topic revealed over 20 million social messages on COVID. To cut through the noise, tools like social listening for healthcare can help providers pinpoint rising trends within a larger conversation and focus their social messaging on topics consumers are most interested in. This in turn helps create the trusted dialogue between provider and patient that we find in traditional face-to-face interactions.

When we understand what questions our audience has, then we can be more prescriptive with the most impactful and credible information. Social data from our featured listener reveals Twitter is the platform of choice for amplifying messages around COVID-19, with more than 1.9 trillion impressions generated in July alone. But a closer look at listening data shows YouTube is where most of the engagements take place, with YouTube averaging 861 engagements per post compared to just three engagements per Tweet.

In other words, Twitter isn’t the only place where these conversations happen—platforms like YouTube are equally important for healthcare organizations trying to engage with their audience. With listening data, healthcare organizations can identify where their voices are needed most and connect with consumers on the platform of their choosing.

Elevate patient satisfaction with healthcare sentiment analysis

Customer service ratings for the healthcare industry have existed for quite some time. Traditional methods like surveys, audits, online reviews and even “mystery shoppers” have all contributed to the industry’s understanding of patient satisfaction. Aggregates of these traditional data sources have even led to the creation of sentiment reports that shed interesting light on patients’ experiences and needs.

But what can we learn from social listening data about satisfaction and sentiment around healthcare? With listening data, healthcare organizations can know almost immediately how patients would rate their recent interactions with providers and where the experience needs improvement.

Take the increased need for telemedicine during the pandemic as an example. Listening data around telehealth can help healthcare organizations identify what aspects of remote medicine appeal to consumers and any concerns patients have about the quality of their visits. A closer look at the social data on telehealth reveals a largely positive conversation that highlights experiences and new areas of treatment that could benefit from its use.

Tools like social listening also empower healthcare organizations to manage their brand’s reputation. The relationship between healthcare providers and patients is built on trust, and even the smallest incident can put that relationship in danger. Rather than wait for a scandal to get out of hand, healthcare organizations can proactively monitor for mentions of their brand and jump on potential crises before it spirals out of control.

The future of healthcare is already here

There’s no going back to our pre-digital world. As consumers increasingly take their health and wellbeing into their hands, healthcare organizations need to double down on their digital and social strategies.

Consumers view healthcare as a personal relationship and not just a medical diagnosis. This means healthcare givers have to provide meaningful and accurate information in a timely manner while strengthening the trust between the public and healthcare organizations. Equally important is providing the same level of empathy and care that healthcare consumers expect in-person online. Social is a key component of the patient experience and failure to acknowledge its impact will prevent healthcare organizations from providing the best care possible.

The post Why healthcare orgs should invest in social listening, stat appeared first on Sprout Social.

More and more of the public are taking to social media for healthcare news and resources. Meanwhile, the idea of following doctors on Facebook is totally normal.

And with the latest boom of the healthcare industry and the need for up-to-date news, it’s no surprise that healthcare accounts represent some of the most followed and engaged-with today.

Just look at the CDC’s 1.9+ million followers on Facebook alone.

However, social media and healthcare are about so much more than follower-count. Practices and organizations have specific duties that go beyond vanity metrics, such as:

• Keeping the public informed on treatments and trends
• Reassuring patients (both current and prospective)
• Staying in line with HIPAA when it comes to social interactions

Doing all of the above while trying to engage and grow your audience is a tall order. That said, our guide to social media and healthcare can help.

But what is the role of social media and healthcare?

Healthcare providers are in a unique position when it comes to social media.

Because you’re responsible for marketing a human necessity, not a traditional product or impulse buy.

Couple that with rising healthcare premiums and general anxiety about our well-being as a society. It’s important for healthcare marketers to understand their accounts’ roles and responsibilities in the big picture.

From your content strategy to communicating with followers, below is a breakdown of your priorities when dealing with social media and healthcare.

Navigating healthcare crises

This is obviously the big one, especially in the wake of COVID-19.

If you’re looking for evidence of the importance of social media in healthcare, look no further than the current moment. The likes of Twitter and Facebook have become ground zero for real-time news and discussions regarding COVID-19. Since the virus’ spread, Twitter, in particular, has become a dedicated hub for coronavirus updates.

Although this is a prime example of how social media as a force for good, misinformation regarding COVID-19 is also running rampant. Providers are responsible not only to help guide the public through an actual crisis but also fact-check users as well.

Educating the public

No surprises here. Fact: a staggering two-thirds of people use the Internet to self-diagnose conditions.

Much like with COVID-19, providers are responsible for boosting timely, factual information for patients in need of guidance. This includes:

• Recommendations for those experiencing symptoms
• Self-help and external resources to navigate a diagnosis
• Links to new studies and treatment options

Helping patients feel more comfortable

Spoiler alert: most people aren’t exactly wild about going to the doctor.

Beyond white coat syndrome, consider that approximately 20% of Americans haven’t been to the doctor within the past year.

Something as seemingly simple as a check-up can be daunting on a prospective patient. For those facing a potentially tough diagnosis, that anxiety is even greater.

And so you can imagine the need for practices to be empathetic when it comes to easing patients’ concerns. Social media represents a great avenue to both show off the measures you take to make patients feel at home in their time of need.

Making yourself a staple in the community

The concept of competition in the health sector is a touchy one. Even so, any given speciality is full of providers and it’s only natural for prospective patients to “shop around.”

It only makes sense for healthcare marketers to present their practices as leaders in their respective specialties. From showing off employees in action to local advocacy efforts, social media allows practices to be more transparent and personable to prospective patients.

Social media and healthcare marketing: 6 best practices to guide your content strategy

With the role of social media and healthcare in mind, where do you even start in terms of content?

Good question! Based on our industry benchmarks, healthcare accounts are unique in that they’re primarily focused on publishing content as opposed to juggling messages or obsessing over engagement rates.

In short, healthcare accounts aren’t flooded with DMs and comments versus retail brands.

Given that your responsibility lies in primarily educating followers, you’re afforded the opportunity to focus on meaningful, compelling content first and foremost. Let’s look at some examples below.

1. Publish educational content to keep patients in the loop

The growing phenomenon of self-diagnosis and “Dr. Google” once again signals the need for practices to educate the public.

Whether it’s blog posts, videos or general health tips, anything you can do to provide your followers with bite-sized information is a plus.

Health tips and “Did you know?”-style content are also popular for encouraging interactions and debate among your followers. Whether it’s busting myths or quizzing your followers, posts like this one are prime for healthy (pun intended) discussion.

And although not related to content directly, educating potential patients about your practice is a vital piece of social customer care. If someone has a question about treatment options or what your practice can do to help, strive to respond ASAP.

2. Use inspirational content to motivate your followers

Social media and healthcare don’t have to be boring, heartless or totally “matter of fact.”

Especially in the face of progressive diseases or risky surgeries, patients and their family members could often use a dose of inspiration.

Beyond patient success stories, you can promote your own marketing videos to highlight how you make a difference and help patients.

3. Post infographics for increased engagement

Mastering infographic marketing is a must-do for those working in social media and healthcare.

After all, infographics are among the most popular and shared-worthy types of content on social media. This makes them prime for healthcare accounts looking to quickly educate patients at a glance.

4. Harness the power of health-related hashtags

Hashtags are a staple of social media at large. Healthcare companies have plenty of opportunities to use them, too.

Whether it’s your own organizational hashtags (Northwestern Medicine’s #NMBetter, for example) or healthcare-specific tags (#cancersucks), promoting a tag does double duty of extending your content’s reach while also making it easier for followers to share that content.

Even holiday hashtags are fair game for your content calendar (see the American Heart Association’s #StarWarsDay post for reference).

Whatever you do, just make sure that your use of hashtags is tasteful.

5. Take patients behind-the-scenes

Highlighting your human side helps your social presence feel more personal.

For example, posts like this one from Johns Hopkins serve as both wholesome content and a positive spin on working in healthcare during tough times.

Instagram Stories are awesome for behind-the-scenes content, such as John Hopkins’ virtual match day for their medical students. These small glimpses of your practice’s day-to-day life are crucial for making a connection with followers.

6. Publish patient shout-outs to spread positivity

Sometimes the best way to highlight your practice is by letting others do the talking.

Through user-generated content (think: customers and reviews) you can provide an unfiltered view of how you’re helping patients and supporters.

This speaks to the importance of social listening to track mentions, messages and hashtags usages to ensure that you share your patients’ messages in a timely manner.

Important: social media, healthcare and HIPAA

To wrap things up, we need to talk about HIPAA.

Beyond the best practices of social media in healthcare in terms of your content, the importance of patient confidentiality can’t be overstated.

In short, you need to take special care when publishing patient content which would potentially reveal sensitive information or otherwise violate HIPAA. For example, did you know that using your patients as part of your marketing materials requires explicit written consent?

There’s a lot that goes into HIPAA compliance on social media, but here are some of the basics:

• You’re allowed to engage with clients via social, but doing so means being sensitive about health information over messaging
• Publishing patient stories or photos requires written consent
• Posting sensitive or identifying information publicly can land you in trouble

With all of this in mind, we really urge you to check out our HIPAA and social media cheat sheet for more information.

And with that, we wrap up our guide!

How are you bringing social media and healthcare together?

Healthcare marketers face a distinct set of challenges; there’s no doubt about it.

But you also have a ton of opportunities to make a meaningful, positive impact on your followers. From educating the public to creating a sense of community, consider how healthcare social media marketing can make a difference when it’s done with care.

Oh and, if you haven’t already, make sure to download the most recent Sprout Social Index™ to ensure that your overall marketing strategy sticks to the best practices of social media latest trends.

The post Social media and healthcare: how to prioritize what patients need appeared first on Sprout Social.

But even as COVID-19 continues to ravage countries all over the world, how people are talking about the crisis is changing. People are anxious to return to their normal lives and conversations around when the lockdowns will end are gaining traction on social. In Italy, mayors are taking to Twitter to lambast civilians disobeying stay-at-home orders; and in states like Wisconsin and Michigan, people are taking to the streets to protest extended quarantine policies.

Marketers have already adjusted their social strategies in response to COVID-19. Now, they find themselves having to reevaluate and readjust once more as consumer behaviors and conversations evolve. But with the majority of the world still under lockdown and people growing increasingly restless, what are marketers to do?

To help answer these questions and more, we dove once more into Sprout Social’s Featured Listening Topic to better understand people’s behaviors and how certain industries continue to navigate this pandemic.

From #StayAtHome to #EndTheLockdown

Lockdown fatigue is on the rise

At the beginning of the year, Twitter was filled with conversations related to staying home and COVID-19 virus. But from March to April, the topic volume around COVID-19 dropped 39% even though the number of confirmed cases more than doubled from one million to 2.7 million.

Around the same time, the conversation around testing kits and vaccines shifted. Data from the Sprout Social Featured Listening topic reveals discussion around vaccines hit a message volume high around mid-March before falling around the beginning of April.

But after several weeks of quarantine and stay-at-home orders, people are growing increasingly restless to return to their normal lives. The beginning of April saw social conversations around ending the lockdown gain steam, growing 268% from March to April. Additionally, engagements in “end the lockdown” conversations increased by 353% from March to April, with message volume peaking on April 21, the same day several states announced their plans to reopen.

Not everyone is ready to reopen

Despite an increase in lockdown fatigue, people remain conflicted about the idea of states reopening. We noticed a 7% decrease in positive sentiment surrounding “end the lockdown” conversations once states began to relax their guidelines and the usage of the hashtag #StayHome increased by 21%.

These conversations became even more emotionally charged when we looked at what was happening at a state-by-state level in the US. Adding the keyword “state” to the “end the lockdown” conversation saw a 483% increase in negative sentiment and a 456% increase in messages during the month of April. Conversations around reopening are likely to take center stage as states like Florida and Texas let their stay-at-home orders expire.

How three industries are responding to COVID-19

Every industry has had to adjust its operations in the face of this pandemic. Restaurants have pivoted to curbside pick-up and takeout orders only, while those in the fitness industry have switched to online training models.

In the following section, we’ll take a closer look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted three different industries and how brands have responded.

Higher Education

From January to March, higher education generated 8.4 million mentions, with conversation volume peaking around March 12 as universities across the country announced campus closures and students aired their concerns over being kicked off campus on such short notice.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the top keywords used when discussing COVID-19 and higher education was “online,” as students and faculty alike navigate virtual classrooms together. For graduating seniors especially, recent conversations have centered around cancelled graduations and the move to online ceremonies.

In response, brands and high-profile celebrities are taking matters into their own hands to celebrate young graduates. YouTube is hosting a graduation livestream with commencement speakers including Barack and Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga, while beer brand Natural Light plans to host its own commencement event on Facebook Live.

Key takeaways (1/1/20-5/13/20):

• Higher education garnered over 14.6 million mentions across 3.5 million unique authors through mid-May of 2020.
• The top keywords used when discussing COVID-19 and higher education include “online,” “university,” “people,” “college,” “students,” and “time.”

Healthcare

Few industries have been hit harder by the virus than the healthcare industry. From January to April, there were over 69.7 million conversations around healthcare and COVID-19 by 12.2 million unique authors in Sprout’s Featured Listener.

While overall sentiment skews positive, much of the negative conversations around healthcare focus on the challenges healthcare professionals face. Thirty-five percent of the healthcare conversation is negative, with topics like slowing the spread and the sacrifices of healthcare workers attracting the most engagement.

On a more positive note, brands are taking to social media to demonstrate their support and gratitude for healthcare workers around the world. McDonald’s, inspired by New Yorkers who applaud healthcare workers every evening, has Tweets with the clapping hand emoji scheduled to send every night at 7pm.

Prominent celebrities have also joined in on the virtual celebrations. Athletes like Wayne Gretzky and Donovan Mitchell are sharing photos of their jerseys with their names replaced with that of a doctor or nurse on their social channels using the hashtag #TheRealHeroes. Beloved Red Sox player David Ortiz has teamed up with local Boston organizations to donate food and other essentials to first responders.

In addition to recognizing healthcare workers by name, several brands are using their social platforms to give back to doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals. PUMA, for example, donated over 20,000 pairs of sneakers to healthcare workers while EOS donated over 100,000 hand creams to New York hospital workers. And popular coffee chain Dunkin’ Donuts recently shared their give-back initiative providing free coffee and donuts to doctors and nurses.

Key Takeaways (1/1/20-5/13/20):

• Conversations around healthcare and COVID-19 generated 69.7 million mentions and over 1.7 trillion social impressions from 1/1/20-5/13/20.
• Healthcare mentions spiked in mid-March as the discussion around testing began to increase, with the words “test,” “testing,” and “test” mentioned 179,000 times on March 13.

Retail

With consumers still stuck at home, the demand for online shopping and delivery services is higher than ever before. From January to mid-May, the conversation around retail generated over 6.1 million social mentions across 2.6 million unique authors in Sprout Listening’s Featured Topic. Retail social mentions then hit a high of 370,150 messages on March 15 as major retailers like Nike and Starbucks announced the indefinite closure of their brick and mortar stores.

Another factor to consider when examining the conversation around retail is the treatment of essential workers. On April 12, we noticed a significant dip in overall sentiment as retail workers took to social to share their concerns about working at essential businesses, like grocery stores, during the pandemic.

As states increasingly look to lift stay-at-home orders, retailers are also exploring options to safely reopen their doors to customers. Gap, Macy’s and Nordstrom are just a few major retailers with plans to reopen their stores by the end of May while Starbucks in the UK announced its phased reopening beginning May 14.

Key Takeaways (1/1/20-5/13/20):

• Conversations around retail and COVID-19 peaked with 660.3k mentions between 3/14/20-3/15/20 as non-essential businesses announced temporary closures and reduced business hours.
• The top hashtags most frequently used when discussing COVID-19 and retail included #StayAtHome, #Lockdown, #ecommerce and #SocialDistancing.
• From March to April, the overall volume of retail conversations on social dropped 50% as people adjusted to the new retail normal.

The COVID-19 conversation remains fluid

Listening data reveals COVID-19 conversations are on the decline, but the fact remains that the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down. And as businesses toy with the idea of loosening their restrictions, new challenges will emerge that brands need to be prepared to face head on. With so much uncertainty still ahead, here are two things all brands should consider:

• Stay agile. As much as we’d all like to resume our daily lives, the reality is COVID-19 is sticking around for the long run and the situation can turn on a dime. For brands, maintaining a sense of agility is crucial for surviving this pandemic. Are you able to respond to an overnight shift in consumer behaviors? While COVID-19 conversations are on the decline, is your brand ready for the new challenges that accompany plans to reopen for business? In situations where there is no rulebook on what to do next, brands need to be agile enough to manage and adapt to unexpected change at a moment’s notice.
• Keep an eye on state-level conversations. With talks of reopening gaining steam, brands need to pay close attention to what’s happening at the state-by-state level and what their customers are saying. If reopening is in your near future, what precautions are you taking to address some of the concerns of your customers? Or what backup plans do you have in place if you decide not to reopen? Make sure you’re localizing your messages as state plans to reopen take center stage and keeping your customers up to date on the latest happenings for your business.

Looking for more resources?

• Sprout Social Listening Featured Topic
• A closer look: What brands need to know about COVID-19
• Essential Sprout features to help your brand maintain connection in an uncertain time
• What to do right now: How to navigate through a global crisis on social media
• From Crisis to Connection: How to Build a Social Media Crisis Management Strategy

The post A look ahead: Examining the shifts in the COVID-19 conversation appeared first on Sprout Social.

The Boston-based company knows social media is essential to building strong connections with patients, so it uses Sprout Social to engage local communities while maintaining oversight of its substantial social portfolio.

Since signing on with Sprout in June 2016, Steward has achieved significant increases in audience growth across its various Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn profiles, as well as increases in impressions and engagements.

Maintaining Oversight

Steward Health Care’s social needs expanded alongside the company.

When Colleen Walsh, former Director of Digital Marketing, now Digital Marketing Consultant for Steward Health Care, came on board in 2013, the organization’s social presence was practically nonexistent. What began with corporate-controlled Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts quickly grew as Steward expanded.

“All the posts, all the reports, all the paid advertising—everything was done over at corporate marketing, and we knew that was just impossible to continue,” Walsh said. “That’s when we started looking at Sprout to help decentralize stuff but still maintain oversight.”

Through Sprout, teams at local hospitals could manage their content while corporate marketing ensured overall brand voice remained consistent.

Consistency became increasingly important as Steward acquired hospitals in other regions of the country, as it did with Iasis Healthcare in 2017.

Control over what’s published on social is especially important in an industry like health care where strict regulations and stiff penalties are an everyday reality, especially as it concerns patient privacy. Steward needed to balance granting local teams autonomy with ensuring social posts could be thoroughly reviewed to avoid costly mistakes or public relations debacles.

Sprout’s processes and workflows, including flexible account structures, user permissions and message approval, made doing so simple.

Engaging Patients

Social is an avenue for strengthening bonds with local community members. While Steward Health Care’s initial strategy was focused on promotion, be it hospitals, doctors or service lines, the company now emphasizes patient engagement.

“[A promotional strategy] worked at the time because we had to build our following,” Walsh said. “But over time it’s definitely evolved to be more engagement-focused. We’ve realized people really have a connection to their local providers, especially primary care.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Jessica Millard, Director of Digital Marketing for Steward Health Care.

“It’s more about building relationships and trust,” Millard said. “If you’re going to receive care as a patient at a hospital, you’re looking for safety, quality, compassion—you want doctors who are going to have a good bedside manner. The goal is to engage and show that we’re a part of the local community.”

Cultivating strong connections with patients means responding quickly on social, something Steward counts on Sprout’s Smart Inbox to assist with.

“Every day I go in and I scroll through my message inbox,” said Marketing Communications and Public Relations Consultant Mary Crotty. “And I can see everything. I can see if a person sent a private message about something and we still haven’t responded. I’ll then create a task and assign it to the right person. I like the fact that if you’ve taken action on a comment or something, you can check it off to let someone know it’s taken care of. Everyone knows what’s done and what needs their attention.”

The team also relies on Sprout’s publishing features for patient engagement. Sprout provides tools to easily schedule posts, store and edit multimedia content in an Asset Library and apply custom tags to posts for easier organizing and reporting.

Sprout features such as ViralPost and organic post targeting also make it easy for local teams to publish content at optimal times for their target audiences, maximizing the reach and impact of posts across social channels.

Supporting Growth

Steward Health Care has seen continual growth on social since it began using the Sprout Social platform. Over the past six months, as of April 12, 2018, the organization achieved a 32.3% increase in social followers across its various profiles and channels. This growth translates to approximately:

• 43 million impressions
• 142,000 engagements
• 109,000 link clicks

Choosing where to receive care is a deeply personal decision for people, and one that can be fraught with worry and expectation. Through Sprout, Steward empowers local teams to engage their communities and demonstrate commitment to quality health care, all while maintaining oversight of publishing and outreach efforts to ensure social activity stays in line with the company’s values and goals, as well as industry standards.

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