Every hospital we work with runs campaigns throughout the year – ER, Women’s Health, Orthopedics, Cardiovascular, and many other areas. When planning starts there is a goal in mind, this usually revolves around patient volume, market share, etc. Then:
A campaign message is developed -> creative is produced -> media is purchased -> a campaign is launched!
What about your advocates? Where do they fit, how do you get them involved? There are both internal and external based advocates but for today I am just going to focus on internal. How often do you engage your staff, chaplains, volunteers, and others in your organization?
In our experience most want to help spread the good news but they are unsure of what to say or how to say it. It is important to have a formalized program by which you can:
- Identify advocates
- Educate advocates
- Integrate advocates through amplification
- Finally have advocates create original content
Once you have figured out who these individuals are and educated them on the process (no small task) it is time to have them get involved. Typically out of your campaign message will come social content. This might me in the form of a blog post of tips or a Facebook update around community seminars or classes. Once you have content in place then advocates can really help spread the word online.
Though your education process spend time helping them understand how to amplify their own content, the organizations content, and community content. It is very important they do all three and not solely focus on just one category. Don’t allow a campaign to be only about marketing and make sure people get involved and are able to help move your efforts to more of the Word of Mouth model.
The program SHI has developed is call the Content Advocate Program and includes a structured training and education process. Below is a quick video of some of the things we take into account when walking into an organization that might help you on your journey.
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