A ‘Can’t Miss’ Event – The 15th Annual Greystone.Net Healthcare Internet Conference

The 15th Annual Greystone.Net Healthcare Internet Conference will be held November 7 – 9, 2011 at the J.W. Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes. This year’s theme, The Convergence: Marketing and IT Collaboration – The Time is Now, is one of the reasons this annual Greystone.Net event has become a ‘must attend’ priority for me. With Convergence, Greystone.Net is introducing a new section focusing solely on the collaborative and innovative strategies and technologies transforming healthcare. The keynoters and featured presenters are topnotch experts in the realm of web, social and mobile trends, innovations and practical applications.

I’m also excited for the opportunity to present with with Sentara Healthcare’s digital marketers, Lee Gwaltney and Jessica Carlson on the topic of “Digital Brandscaping: Extending Your Brand Across Web, Social and Mobile Sites.” We’ll be addressing the importance of a proactive, focused and purposeful approach to brand management across web, social and mobile sites as well as with patient and provider portals, and with clinical information systems such as electronic health records. Our session is scheduled for Monday, November 7 at 4:15 p.m.

While there, drop by the Brains on Demand booth in the Exhibit Hall. We’ll be there with our Brains on Demand partners Brand =Experience, Klein & Partners and Eruptr.

Can you believe it’s the 15th year for the Greystone.Net conference? It’s a terrific event that just gets better every year.

Hope to see you there!

The Gap Between Older Adults and Millennials is Shrinking When it Comes to Key On-line Activities

Ever hear a healthcare executive say “our patients are older and don’t use the Internet”?  No doubt there are generational differences in on-line activities; however, the gap between how younger and older generations use the Internet is shrinking in a number key areas according to Pew Research Center’s Generations 2010. 

A few key take-aways:

• Millennials (those ages 18 – 33) are more likely to access the internet wirelessly with a laptop or mobile phone, and still surpass their elders online when it comes to use of social networking sites, instant messaging and online classifieds.
• Internet users in Gen X (ages 34-45) and older cohorts are more likely than Millennials to visit government websites and get financial information online.
• While the youngest generations are more likely to use social network sites, the fastest growth has come from internet users 74 and older: social network site usage for this oldest cohort has quadrupled since 2008, from 4% to 16%.
• The biggest online trend: certain key internet activities are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. These include email, search engine use, seeking health information, getting news, buying products and on-line banking, among others.

Additionally, searching for health information, an activity that was once the primary domain of older adults, is now the third most popular online activity for all internet users 18 and older.

As for those older adults that “don’t use the internet”?

• Nearly 80% of boomers are on-line
• Over half - 58% - of adults 65 – 73 are logging on
• And nearly 1 in 3 of people aged 74 and older are cyber-surfing

Click here to download a copy of the report.

Staying Ahead of the Curve at the 14th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference

The upcoming 14th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference (November 15 - 17, 2010; Las Vegas, NV) offers a great opportunity for chief marketing officers to learn how market leaders are using the Internet, social media strategies, networked technologies, mobile media and other technologies, strategies, and solutions to connect, grow and enhance competitive performance. This is must learning for marketing executives looking to stay ahead of the curve of ever-accelerating advances and applications of new media technologies.

Conference features include:

• Six general sessions to inspire and broaden your thinking about the impact of new technologies.
• 29 case studies from health systems recognized as leaders in the areas of technology and Web strategy.
• The Eleventh Annual eHealthcare Leadership Awards Presentation, an informative session highlighting the current landscape of healthcare Internet development.
• Dedicated time in the Exhibit Hall, allowing you to interact with leading consultants and vendors whose emphasis is on "Where eHealthcare and Customer Focused Marketing Meet."
• Networking opportunities that connect you with your peers.

And good news for your budget - you still have a few days (until Friday, September 17) to take advantage of the early registration rate (save $100).  Caesar's Palace has also announced new discounts on the room rates, now starting at $120 per night for the Roman Tower.

You can download the full conference brochure and register at the Healthcare Strategy Institute website.

On a personal note - can it really be 14 years since this conference first launched?  Kudos to Greystone.Net and the Forum for Healthcare Strategists for recognizing the importance of this space early on and, along with its sponsors, advancing the industry's knowledge and application of web and technology-enabled strategies and practices.

See you in Vegas.

Guest Blogger: Mike Schneider of Greystone.Net

Healthcare Marketers Embrace Social Media, But Rarely Have a Plan

If you find that getting your arms around your social media strategy is difficult, then the results of the Greystone.Net Social Media Research show that you are not alone. The study finds that hospitals and health systems are fully embracing social media -- 9 in 10 said that they had an active presence or are monitoring social media sites -- however, less than 40% say they have a formal plan for social media and struggle to clearly identify measurable return on investment.

Greystone.Net conducted the study at the end of 2009. Our sample size was relatively small -- 38 of our 100 Greystone.Net research panel participants completed the survey -- and Greystone.Net clients tend to be slightly more “Web 2.0 savvy” than other organizations, so data may be slightly skewed in that direction. But, the results mirror our findings in the field as we work with clients to plan for their Social Media and Web site strategies.

The study also found that social media has been good at helping organizations generate Web traffic, but is not nearly as effective at accomplishing other key organizational goals. Other topics of interest included budget and staffing for social media, types of social media monitoring, and how organizations measure the effectiveness of their social media efforts.

The fact that hospitals and health systems do not have formal plans for social media and are not seeing the results they desire does not seem like a coincidence to me. We anticipate a strong demand for social media planning in the future, as organizations try to catch up with the leaders out there doing an amazing job of leveraging social media.

For more information about this study or to inquire about being a member of the Greystone.Net research panel, visit the Greystone.Net Web site .

Michael Schneider is a consultant with Greystone.Net, where he has helped over 50 healthcare organizations develop Internet-related strategic plans. Before joining Greystone.Net, Mike was the Director of Database Management and Research for Emory University Health Care System in Atlanta.

The Performance Edge: 13th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference

The 13th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference is coming up soon. Healthcare marketing executives, webmasters, social media strategists, IT managers and others will convene November 2 – 4, 2009 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas to learn more about emerging trends and prevailing practices in all things digital.

Headliners include Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic, political pollster Mark Allen, social media expert Shel Holtz, Kelly Faley of Sharp Healthcare, David Feinberg of New York Presbyterian, and Grad Conn of Microsoft. They’ll be joined by a few dozen other experts presenting on topics such as:

• An Enterprise Approach to Physician Web Search Development
• Maximum Impact; Minimum Dollars
• Driving a Great Brand from the Inside Out: Creating a Dynamic Intranet
• Digital Trends and the Evolving Patient-Physician Relationship
• Five Principles to Survive Six Product Launches in Twelve Months

This is a must-attend event for marketers leading their organizations into the digital age. The conference’s signature sponsors are Greystone.Net and StayWellCustom Communications.

For more information including registration instructions, click here.