Braun Jones of WWC Capital Group, latest on Straight to the Point Podcast

For as long as I've been recording podcasts for the Straight to the Point series, I've been focused on how marketing executives have been addressing larger business problems from a marketing perspective. I've been really lucky to sit down with some outstanding professionals from Microsoft, British Telecom, Socialware, BearingPoint and others.

Last week, however, I shifted gears a little bit and interviewed Braun Jones. Braun is a principal at WWC Capital Group, which is an investment banking and private equity firm dedicated to serving middle market companies in need of capital or seeking advisory services to complete a sale or an acquisition. I wanted to sit down and pick his brain about economic and market trends that affect the environment that marketers have to operate in.

What did we cover?

• What does the economic outlook look like right now? Five years down the road?
  
• How does he make transaction decisions?
• What kinds of start ups are getting investments now? What technology trends are "hot"?
• Is the government contracting market ready for another round of mergers?
  

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio...

or just click play...

Listen to internet radio with JeffMajka on Blog Talk Radio

What Happens if the Healthcare Industry Misses Its Appointment with Social Media?

As we showed in our two healthcare surveys, the healthcare industry hasn't exactly rushed to embrace social media as a platform for various business applications. This regrettable fact has been shown time and time again. Government regulation, fear of liability, and culture seem to have stifled innovation.

The latest data point is an article from Joan Voight at ClickZ, "Health Marketers Drag Feet as Patients Flock to Social Media." Once again, the jarring fact that patients have enthusiastically joined health related social networks and industry is remarkably passive and hesitant.

With health care reform capturing the national agenda and health-related blogs booming, health information sites and sponsorships are making a sharp turn into social media. Users are increasingly sharing medical experiences with each other and are seeking advice from other patients, and potentially from brands. Online health communities give people what they can't get from experts: support, personal experiences, and direct answers from other people. But while patients seem to easily gravitate to DIY health education, marketers have been less enthusiastic.

My question is, by time medical professionals and organizations start to integrate social media will anyone still be listening? Or will their credibility be shot as patients look to family members and peers for advice?

Despite Rapid Adoption of Social Media in Other Industries, Healthcare Lags Behind

My company just released the results of our 2nd annual socialmedia adoption in the healthcare industry. For the second year in a row, this annual survey of Internet users shows continued slow adoption of Web 2.0 in healthcare.

Read Strategic's press release here...

While the results seem generally negative, it's worth sharing the full results so everyone can compare with last years results, especially as HIMSS 2010 is going on this week.

Here is last year's post with the results: http://majka.blogspot.com/2009/03/prognosis-negative-on-social-media.html

Here is last year's press release: http://gotostrategic.com/site/index.php/site/news_single/prognosis_negative_on_social_media_adoption_in_healthcare/

Major takeaways:
- prognosis for social media adoption in the healthcare industry is still grim.
- sentiment in question 3 improved from 96 to 91 percent (almost 5%) but that still means almost everyone is still dissatisfied.
- we added a new question this year- question 4. Patient-focused support groups and Government healthcare agencies received generally good marks for effectively using social media.

Here are this year's full results: Let me know what you think- leave a comment...

1. How often do you review blogs, social networks, online communities and discussion forms for healthcare related information?

• Never- 0%
• Only once- 1.7%
• Occasionally- 35%
• Once a day- 20%
• All the time- 45%

2. What kinds of information do you look for in social media and online communities?

• Personal health information- 45%
• Public policy information- 53.3%
• Scientific research and developments- 56.7%
• Market trends- 66.7%
• Employment information- 26.7%

3. Do you think the health care industry, as a whole, is using social media well enough to communicate, share information and engage with consumers?
Yes- 8.3%
No- 91.7%

4. Are there segments of the healthcare industry who are superior in efforts to communicate, share information and engage with patients / consumers?

• Insurers / payers- 3.3%
  
• Healthcare providers- 18.3%
  
• Pharmaceutical companies- 23.3%
  
• Patient-focused support groups- 55.0%
  
• Government healthcare agencies (i.e., FDA, CDC, etc.)- 36.7%
  

(BTW, any comments about statistics, sample size or standard deviations will be summarily mocked. :))

How Many People Think Health Care Industry Is Doing A Great Job with Social Media?

Do you think the health care industry, as a whole, is using social media well enough to communicate, share information and engage with consumers? Well, we are doing an informal survey right now to gauge people's opinion and preliminary results indicated that only 10% think so.

What do you think? Is that dead wrong? Will social media ever take off in healthcare . Who's doing a good job building a community. Take a second and fill out a quick four question survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WF2XWTH

Healthcare and Social Media Survey 2010

(click here for a quick four question survey, hosted on surveymonkey.com)

Almost a year ago, I kicked off a survey designed to gauge the adoption of social media among healthcare professionals and the healthcare industry. (Read my original blog post here.)

In March 2010, I announced the full results and published them here. Here is what I wrote at the time:

We all can be susceptible to hype, so it's a good thing to try and gather empirical evidence from time to time to challenge one's notions. Even if you think you are in great shape and have the body of a 20 year old Olympic athlete, it's probably a good idea to step on a scale once in a while and confirm that this is actually true. -ahem-

Everyone is talking about the impact that social media is having on the healthcare industry. But is it really? There are plenty of patient and doctor social networks and lots of hospital twitter accounts. But is any of this obvious activity actually engaging these disparate audiences? Are we all confusing motion with progress?

The main takeaway last year was that the prognosis was negative for social media in the healthcare industry. As I found last year,

96 percent of respondents said the industry is not using social media enough to communicate, share information and engage with patients.

However, as we've learned, 12 months is a long time when I comes to the adoption of social media technologies. Has any of this changed? I'd sure like to know.

SO...I'd like to ask any readers of this blog post to click here for a quick four question survey, hosted on surveymonkey.com. When I get a decent sample size, I'll post the results, note any change in sentiment and we can talk about what needs to be done to drive adoption more effectively...

Social Media for Small Business

Are small businesses immune to the hype of social media?

As with every new technology, there is an adoption curve that influences the penetration of social media into business. A new technology starts with the most innovative individuals in the most innovative industry and works its way through the ecosystem until the most conservative individuals in the most conservative industry adopt it. The commonly accepted stages of adoption are:

• innovators
• early adopters
• early majority
• late majority
• laggards

It isn't a groundbreaking observation to point out that innovators have completely adopted social media as a medium of communications. Indeed, for many of our clients, the early adopters and even the early majority, are moving beyond test or pilot social media programs and are starting to integrate social media into their overall sales, marketing, HR, customer service and investor relations strategies. This evolution is made easier by the fact that Strategic's clients are generally well funded companies in the healthcare and technology space- both traditionally innovative areas.

It's important to note, however, when areas are lagging behind, for whatever reasons.

With this in mind, I found a new blog post by Jack Loechner (Center for Media Research) to be very interesting. He reviews a new survey by Citibank of 500 small businesses and their experiences with social media. You can read his whole post here:

76% have not found social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to be helpful in generating business leads or for expanding their business during the last year, while 86% say they have not used social networking sites to get business advice or information.

The survey found that general search engine sites such as Google and Yahoo! trump small business-focused sites and the WSJ.com as destinations for small business owners to seek business advice or information. 61% of respondents say they rely on these search engine sites.

Lead Generation by Social Networks (% of Respondents, August 2009)
Small Business Execs Who Say

Social networks are:

• Very helpful- 3%
• Somewhat helpful-9
• Not very helpful- 13
• Not at all helpful- 63
• Don't know/na- 11

Source: Citibank omnibus poll by Gfk Roper, October 2009

Maria Veltre, Executive Vice President of Citi's Small Business Segment, concludes "... small business owners are still feeling their way into social media... many... may not have the manpower or the time required take advantage of them."

Additional responses found that 42% of small business owners and managers reported that in the past year they have made greater use of their company's website to generate business leads and sales. Among companies with 20 to 99 employees the percentage rises, with 57% saying they have made greater use of their website. 28% of survey respondents are also using email marketing and 25% are using online advertising to generate business leads and sales.

It's clear that the adoption rates among small business owners and executives is low, but is probably growing. As a marketer for a small business, I can tell you that we think of social media from the outset when designing our integrated sales, marketing and PR plans. This is a function of "going where are customers are." As more and more small business owners realize that their customers are on social networks, the more we'll see these adoption rates go up.

Healthcare Social Media

In a world where Facebook is bigger than Myspace and, together, they have 400 million global users, it's obvious that the healthcare industry is acknowledging it has to adopt these new communications channels... and is starting to do so. 60% of doctors say they want or use social networking sites...

While consumers were quick to embrace social media, doctors were initially skeptical about its value. Now, prodded by the need to be smarter and more competitive in the complex world of modern medicine, doctors are becoming converts. The two largest doctor-only social networks, Sermo and Medscape Physician Connect, have more than 100,000 members each nationwide...

The enthusiasm spans generations. The average Sermo user is in his or her late 40s or early 50s. Many are solo practitioners in rural areas with little time or opportunity to hang around the hospital cafeteria for impromptu consults with other physicians.

Richard Schoor, for example, is a solo practitioner in Smithtown, L.I. The 41-year-old urologist frequents Sermo, blogs as the Independent Urologist and runs his own online forum, the Physicians Entrepreneur Group, which has about 60 members who exchange advice on running a medical practice. Dr. Schoor says he's gotten valuable information from the online forums, including advice on equipment that has prevented costly mistakes.

Combined with the well known use of social networking sites by patients, along with the push for electronic health records, it's becoming obvious that companies that sell goods and services to the healthcare industry are going to have to integrate social media into their marketing strategy and communications tactics.

Here are some social media business applications that healthcare and biotechnology companies need to start looking at now...

• Lead generation
• Enterprise sales support
• Competitive intelligence gathering
• Deal capture
• Distribution partner identification and cultivation
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Executive visibility and thought leadership
• Customer Service
  
• Reputation management
• Employee recruitment
• Team, culture and morale building

On the association side, it's critical that member-based and issue associations leverage all the communications options at their disposal. From member retention to public policy, social media should be a central part of any healthcare associations marketing strategy. Indeed, here in DC, all sides in the fight over healthcare reform are using social networks and tools to spread their messages, keep coalitions together, and achieve their goals. From Senator Grassley calling out President Obama on Twitter to healthcare LinkedIn groups with thousands of members, it's clear that social media is being used by the biggest players in the most important situations...

why aren't you?

Prognosis Negative on Social Media Adoption in Healthcare

We all can be susceptible to hype, so it's a good thing to try and gather empirical evidence from time to time to challenge one's notions. Even if you think you are in great shape and have the body of a 20 year old Olympic athlete, it's probably a good idea to step on a scale once in a while and confirm that this is actually true. -ahem-

Everyone is talking about the impact that social media is having on the healthcare industry. But is it really? There are plenty of patient and doctor social networks and lots of hospital twitter accounts. But is any of this obvious activity actually engaging these disparate audiences? Are we all confusing motion with progress?

Well, my colleagues and I got to talking about the need for an informal survey to determine what impact all this social media adoption is having. Are people satisfied with the healthcare industry's embrace of social media? are they getting the information they are looking for? What sort of info are they, in fact, searching for? So we set up a quick survey on SurveyMonkey.com and distributed it through Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media sites.

Here are a couple of nuggets to digest:

• 96 percent of respondents said the industry is not using social media enough to communicate, share information and engage with patients.
• Ninety-nine percent of the respondents frequently used social media, including blogs, social networks and online communities, to discuss and research a wide variety of healthcare topics.

96% for a small survey is still pretty much everyone. I think we can conclude that the healthcare industry is nowhere near effectively engaging with it's stakeholders. Lots of work still needs to be done.

Take a look at the survey results. Let me know what you think- leave a comment...

1. How often do you review blogs, social networks, online communities and discussion forms for healthcare related information?

• Never- 1%
• Only once- 0%
• Occasionally- 17%
• Once a day- 16%
• All the time- 66%

2. What kinds of information do you look for in social media and online communities?

• Personal health information- 51%
• Public policy information- 65%
• Scientific research and developments- 68%
• Market trends- 82%
• Employment information- 21%

3. Do you think the health care industry, as a whole, is using social media well enough to communicate, share information and engage with consumers?

Yes- 4%
No- 96%

(BTW, any comments about statistics, sample size or standard deviations will be summarily mocked. :))