walk on: exploring the digital experience

Social Media and the Organization

The last six months have been very exciting for me and amazingly busy. I serve as the Director of Social Media and Digital Communications for Aurora Health Care, a not for profit health care provider that serves the eastern half of Wisconsin. We have over 29,000 employees and provide care for millions of people.  

I've spent my time since my arrival educating the organization on what social media is and how we can enter into a new level of conversation with our caregivers, patients, donors and the communities we serve. Recently, I've been finalizing our 2009 strategy and slowing rolling out the program. We're currently establishing a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. I'd like to share a recent experience we had with Twitter, a tool that is tough one for individuals, let alone corporations to get their heads around. At the end of the day, Twitter is what you make it. 

Aurora Health Care has been steadily expanding its presence on Twitter and exploring ways to use the tool to help us learn about online conversations especially those focusing on health care. Our network is quickly growing and has been very useful in helping us on a couple of projects. We're currently developing social media guidelines to help caregivers within the organization as they participate in social networks and other opportunities on behalf of the organization. I was in a team meeting and we decided to check to see what other corporations were doing around guidelines for employees. I quickly pulled out the trusty iPhone and sent a tweet to the Aurora network and my personal network. Ten minutes later, I had five examples and over 20 links to corporate social media guideline examples. 

This is information we otherwise would have needed to spend time researching and tracking down. Instead we used the power and knowledge of our network to facilitate the process. If we can do this for simple things like this, think of what we can do for patients around health care needs and information. Amazing opportunities. 

Healthcare and Social Media Experimentation

I had the pleasure of having a conversation with David Brazeal of Journamarketing.com regarding social media and healthcare organizations. Part of my responsibilities at Aurora Healthcare include strategy and execution for implementing social media inside and outside of the organization. It's an exciting challenge to move a large organization forward. We'll be experimenting actively as we find our way. 

David and I follow each other on twitter and that's what spawned the conversation. I shared my thoughts on how we can engage our caregivers internally to get the organization on board with social media and then prepare to roll things out externally. 

Check out the post and audio over on David's site. 

The Winds of Change - Social Media Here I Come

The winds of change are blowing in my life...again.

As of August 25th, I'm leaving the agency world at Fullhouse and have joined Aurora Health Care as the Director of Social Media & Digital Communications. It's a new an exciting opportunity that brings me back to my roots in the non-profit sector.

The last three years have been an interesting evolution for me as I've been able to define the true work related passions in my life.
- Serving people
- Serving the community in which I work
- Digital Communications/Social Media

In the last few years of my career, I've never had the chance to have all three present in the same job. I've had to sacrifice one or more and have struggled with that of late. I'm very fortunate to have found a job at Aurora that supports all three of these elements. Aurora is a patient focused Health Care organization that is dedicated to serving the communities in which they operate. They have also realized the need to focus on social media and digital communications as a way to communicate with both internal and external audiences. It's exciting to be a part of an organization that has formalized a position that is responsible for social media and integrating it into the organization as a communications medium.

I'm excited for this new opportunity and will be using this blog to document my own experiences as well as those of Aurora as we look for new ways to use social media/digital to interact with our patients.

The Age of Conversation is Coming

The Age of Conversation 2 is coming soon. 237 authors have submitted their contributions and the final review and book building is underway. I was fortunate enough to participate in the first Age of Conversation with 100 authors and am excited to be apart of this second experience. The new book will feature a variety of topics that will feature thoughts from all the authors below. The other wonderful thing? All the proceeds go to Variety, The Children's Charity.

 

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

 

Technorati Tags: Jamey Shiels,Age of Conversation,Consumer Generated Content,Variety The Childrens Charity

Conservative is Risky

Joseph Jaffe and Seth Godin have a great conversation on this weeks episode of Across the Sound.

Seth Godin has been constant in saying that everyone wants to be remarkable and make changes but we get caught with the impulse of getting in trouble that stops us in our tracks. We have a culture of being safe, conservative. Trying not to get in trouble is what we do and was the safe move. Now, If we keep our heads down and follow along conservatively, we risk extinction.

The non-profit sector has the opportunity to be cutting edge and aggressive in their marketing. Social media, Web 2.0, these tools are made for non-profits.  Most non-profits are small and have the potential to be big. We should, as marketers, be adventurous. We need to involve our donors, volunteers and friends in the conversation, get them to participate versus funding from a distance. The constant dialog is possible. We provide an opportunity to tell a story about changing lives, and how, through their support, they are changing lives. Non-profits need to do is tell the story using these new communication tools.

Instead of utilizing these tools, many non-profits are content to implement marketing ideas from the corporate world that are five or ten years old; the safe move. Instead of telling a story, we throw out numbers and percent of donation to service.

As a non-profit marketer, we need to tell our story. Exactly as Godin says it, "tell the right story, to the right people." The numbers will back us up. Let's change the conservative model. Let's be risky. Let's be small and fast.