john-norris.net

Is a health org’s social media a Marketing or Public Health initiative? I know I’ve seem a lot more of the former than the later.

Perhaps this is a false dichotomy, you say, and indeed it may be. However, from what budget does your social media fall under? Where on the org chart does the staff sit? What metrics are reported for ROI? Might these fundamentals skew one’s efforts one way or another?

To go a step further, the more direct promotion, such as “we have the shortest waits in ER” are not even oriented at establishing a connection with the community. To the contrary, most everyone has an opinion about peas, or at least has another vegetable they could chime in with. What could have been the more direct promotion “Eat Ur vegetables”, is turned into an invitation to play and engage.

My guess is that one’s local community may appreciate more the chance for added value in their daily lives and the opportunity to engage and see others engage. That is in a round-and-about way, promotion.

Moving from the familiar desktop metaphor, with it’s storing files in folders, to metadata can be difficult, if not traumatizing for those used to the more spacial way of putting things in context.  To help introduce and explain, I came up with this cartoon (feel free to use).

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