#mayoragan Social Media Healthcare Conference – Part 2

From a singing social media ROI performance by Chris Boyer (@chrisboyer), to inspiring stories from E-Patient Dave (@epatientdave), and a pediatrician’s motivating speech on the importance of an active digital footprint (@seattlemamadoc), the Social Media Healthcare Conference had me on the edge of my seat, taking notes via Twitter.

Managers and leaders in business want to see the return on investment from social media. Chris Boyer shed light on this topic by teaching us a few ways to show your leadership some actual dollar signs. In one example, Boyer was able to drive bloggers and future patients to a targeted website with calls to action. He then tracked how many patients came from social media, while completing conversion steps. Let’s say your call to action is to schedule a surgery. Boyer would ask, “How many people from Twitter actually scheduled a surgery?” Let’s pretend 15 people were directed from Twitter to the designated site, which took less than $500 to create, and three of those people had surgery at your hospital. This shows that if each surgery cost was around $5,000 and it only took $500 to drive three people from social media, turns out to be a pretty good ROI over 2900%. By tracking and measuring your efforts, you can shift your dollars to something more effective than your current marketing strategy.

The speaker I found most inspiring during the conference was Wendy Sue Swanson (@seattlemamadoc). She is a pediatrician who blogs, vlogs and tweets. Swanson is smart, energetic, motivating and positive. Her ultimate motivation is helping others, whether online or in-person. “This is a full time job,” Swanson said in reference to blogging, tweeting and vlogging. She gets paid for her digital footprint, and expects other social media healthcare practitioners to, also. This made me wonder if healthcare will move towards digital doctors to help patients online, instead of in a conventional doctor’s office.

E-Patient Dave was the closing keynote at the conference on day two. He had an amazing story about his battle with cancer that led the way for what more patients are doing today: going online to find health and diagnosis information before going into the doctor. E-Patient Dave was able to make connections with people experiencing the same things he was. Near the end of the speech, audience members were in tears as we learned how he survived cancer and is sharing his story to influence an online healthcare movement that could save more lives in the future.

The social movement of healthcare is on the rise. Some doctors are participating, while others have yet to step foot into the online healthcare world. It is critical for hospitals and clinics to join the social enterprise. Patients are finding healthcare information online that isn’t always accurate, so why not let our educated doctors, nurses and other officially certified healthcare physicians share their expertise online for others to learn? I look forward to following these three healthcare digital footprint leaders through their social initiatives.