Written on May 18th, 2010 by tasha
A lot of people ask me to explain social networking. It is certainly a different kettle of fish. Sometimes the easiest way to explain something unfamiliar is by comparing it to something that is well known. In that light, I thought I might describe a blog, which is one of the top social networking platforms, within the context of two other digital media you may know better: a website and an e-newsletter.
There are several different points of comparison:
- Style and tone
- Content
- Audience
- Who is in control of the message
- Time & Pet Equivalent
Style and tone:
- Website: This is your commercial presence, your online yellow pages ad. It tends to be very professional. That doesn’t mean it can’t also be warm and friendly. But your credibility is at stake here. Professionalism trumps all.
- E-Newsletter: This can run the gamut from chatty to professional and informative, and everything in between. It can be designed as a more personalized communication than your website, which in some ways makes it very much like a blog. The difference is that an e-newsletter usually comes out once a month, while a blog tends to have a new entry once or twice a week.
- Blog: Personality is king in the “blogosphere.” This is the place where you can reveal the people behind your business. Honest, sincere communication with a little zing is the expectation of a blog. That zing can be of intimacy, humor, or strong opinions. In the realm of elder care, we probably wouldn’t want to have really inflammatory blog posts, however, so for a distinctive personality or tone I’d stick to gentle humor and/or poignancy and compassion.
Content:
- Website: Again, as a commercial site, the content is informative, primarily around your services. You may wish to add educational elements. This is very good for search engine optimization, but it is not common. It takes up a lot of room and would probably require a redesign of your site! Adding content in the form of downloadable .pdf files is expedient, but it will not help you with the search engines. If you go to the trouble to assemble educational information, it would be a shame to lose the search engine advantage. Google, etc. cannot index .pdf content.
- E-Newsletter: This medium, again, fits somewhere between a blog and a commercial website. People expect an e-newsletter to be informative. But it can also have stories in it about people’s lives (careful about HIPAA and confidentiality here. Be sure to get releases.) It may have announcements of up-coming events, or it can have editorials, which are more opinion pieces perhaps responding to local issues or current events in the news. You can set up your e-newsletter so it appears as a page on your website—thereby getting the search engine advantages—and then separately send out email announcements when a new issue comes out.
- Blog: Blogs are famously full of commentary. They are generally more opinion than journalism. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t fill your blog with educational or even fact-based informative posts. These simply take longer to research and therefore are more difficult to produce in the weekly or twice-a-week timetable that is expected for a blog.
Audience: In the context of eldercare, our primary audience on the Web is the Boomer daughters and sons, those individuals between 45 and 65 years old. According to the 2009 Generations Online report of the Pew Internet and American Life Project,
79% of younger Boomers (age 45 – 54) go online;
70% of older Boomers (age 55 – 63);
56% of young seniors (age 64 – 72) and
31% of older seniors (age 73+).
No surprise that the younger you are the more wired you are. In terms of our 3 online media:
- Website: Among those who go online, 67 – 81% report looking for health information. This is a pretty fair chunk of the population, although 67% of the 31% of older online seniors actually works out to be roughly 21% of the entire population age 73+. Not a small number, but not as impressive as for email.
- E-Newsletter: I often say that email is the forgotten stepchild in Internet marketing. Over 90% of ALL adults age 18-72 who are online report using email. THAT is critical mass. Even among the oldest online seniors, those age 73 and above, 79% report using email. This medium has significant penetration among online adults which makes e-newsletters a stunning medium across all age brackets.
- Blog: Roughly one quarter (23-27%) of online Boomers and young seniors report reading blogs. While this is not large, it’s not small either. And very likely this number will grow. As a general rule, blogs are read by the more educated and more technologically savvy. If your marketing particularly targets the private pay population (e.g., geriatric care managers), then a blog might be a more effective marketing tool than if your target audience is the general population. But those who read blogs probably also get email, so an e-newsletter would be just as effective and would reach more people. For my time, scarce as it is, I’d only do a blog if I lived in a high tech urban area or university town.
Who is in control of the message: This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of the difference between a blog (social networking) and the more conventional media of websites and e-newsletters.
- Website: You, the publisher of the website, are absolutely in control of what goes on your site. There are specific people authorized to write the content and very likely nothing is posted without your prior approval.
- E-Newsletter: Similarly, you are the editor and therefore the one in charge of what is being published in your name. Even if you license syndicated content, you have ultimate editorial review and control.
- Blog: The hallmark of social media is the ability for readers to post comments, and blogging is no exception. With social media, you are no longer in complete control of what is said. The monologue becomes a conversation on a blog. Viewers are invited to participate, and while you may have some veto power in terms of quarantining messages before they are published, you are honor bound to publish even negative comments as long as they are not slanderous, libelous, harassing, profane or otherwise offensive. This is like Letters to the Editor in the newspaper. The publishers have an ethical obligation to include even critical letters, but they can also post their response to a negative letter at the same time. Bloggers who don’t allow critical comments to be published will be slammed on other blogs and eventually shunned. Not good. As Don Corleone said in the Godfather, “It’s better to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Post negative comments, but include your respectful, non-defensive response at the same time. At least you get the last word!
Time & Pet Equivalent:
- Website: I liken this to a fish. You can make the aquarium as fancy or as simple as you desire. You can add to it at any time. But once you have it basically set up, a website does not take much monthly oversight. In fact, many get a once-over only once a year. I suggest a quick review once a quarter in case things have changed. But you get the idea: fairly low maintenance.
- E-Newsletter: : I liken this to a hamster. After the initial set-up, this does need your attention more than a website, but not as often as a blog. You probably need to write a few short articles once a month. (Usability expert Jakob Nielsen recommends articles of 300 words or less.) You can, however, license syndicated content, in which case you can let your e-newsletter auto-pilot, only adding local content as you have time and inclination.
- Blog: Are you ready for a puppy?!?! Of the three media, this one takes a lot of time. You need to think in terms of writing a blog post once a week at a minimum. You also need to check the blog daily, or even several times a day, to see if there have been comments. If so, you need to draft and publish your replies. You will need to have a policy in place for handling negative comments. You also, probably, want to encourage employees to make comments on the blog (to spice up the conversation) which also means having guidelines about what is and isn’t appropriate for them to share, and how much paid time you will give them to participate. (They really can be your biggest fans, generating lots of enthusiasm for you and your company, which is part of the allure of blogs.)
A blog can be loads of fun, like a puppy, but it is demanding. The other social media, Facebook and Twitter, have similar requirements with even more demanding oversight and less control of the message (e.g., you do not have a quarantine feature to hold comments for review as you do with a blog).
So, before you jump on the social networking bandwagon, such as blogging, be sure that the time required is worth it relative to the audience you are trying to reach. If you’re ready for a puppy, go for it! If not, you might think about a hamster (e-newsletter) or adding educational content on a regular website, as a less intense alternative with an actually broader reach across the demographics.
What has been your experience with these media?
Tags: classic, search engine optimization, Social Media and Hospice
Posted in Blogging, E-newsletters, GCM Marketing, Home Health Marketing, Hospice Marketing, Internet Marketing, Private Duty Marketing, Social Networking
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