“Social media is a great way to present consumer-friendly health topics endorsed by local physicians,” said Tonya Lucchetti-Hudson, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Sherman Health. “Our Healthy Heart campaign used interactive social media tools to educate patients on the importance of heart disease prevention and screenings. I feel it was extremely effective, and we are taking this same approach with other diseases.”

Goal

In recognition of Heart Month, Sherman Health came to us wanting one measurable outcome when the month was done: more Healthy Heart CT Scan signups in February 2013 than they had in February 2012. Read the full story

I’m a sucker for contests. I absolutely love them and I enter them all the time. Contests are not only a great way to win something cool or gain some extra cash…they are a great way for the company who is running it to advertise themselves or their product. Lets be honest, we all remember the Doritos contest winner from last year’s Super Bowl. Why? Because Doritos did some serious marketing to promote their contest last year, therefore leading to crazy amounts of brand awareness for them all over the internet. I mean, if you see something you like or you have a friend who submitted a commercial and you want to help them get votes, where are you going to post a link? More than likely you will post it on Facebook or tweet it to get exposure from the widest audience all at one time without having to know everyone’s email address.

Some friends of mine recently entered a submission in this year’s Doritos Crash The Superbowl Contest. Within days of posting their video, it is one of the most viewed commercial submissions on the whole site. This proves two things. One is that the use of social media can spread the word rather quickly and two is that Doritos just got oodles of exposure without spending money on media placement. Think about that. Someone just created a commercial for them for free and even if it’s not picked, about 1,400 people have seen it without them even having to do anything. That is excellent marketing! Of course, they are offering the winner 1 million dollars and the chance to work with The Lonely Island, but your prizes don’t have to be so extravagant to get people to participate. Let’s be honest, we all like free stuff.

Our client, Sherman Health, is currently running a contest for Movember. If you don’t know what Movember is, it’s a month long event where men grow mustaches. For Sherman, the mustaches symbolize men’s health and through their Movember Contest, one lucky guy sporting a sweet ’stache will be taking home some Blackhawks tickets. If you haven’t heard about the Movember contest, take a look at the Sherman Health Blog and see what other fabulous prizes we are giving away! Don’t forget to start growing out that mustache .

When promoting events on Facebook your first thought might be to create an “Event”. It makes sense because that’s what that feature is for. You’ll also be posting updates periodically, reminding “likers” that your event is going to be a blast and that they should attend. While this is fairly standard and updates should be posted, there are better ways to creatively promote your events.

Creating simple, well designed Facebook tabs can add that little extra when promoting your events. You get to personally design how the tab is displayed for people who like your page as well as people who are not currently fans.

Below is an example of a Facebook tab that we created for Sherman Health’s Lakeside Seminar Series. Not only does that tab show off the brand of Sherman’s Center for Cancer Care, but it also allows people to register for the seminars. Each class links to its respective registration form. Sure you can include these links in the Facebook Event you created, but you can’t display it creatively like this.

Interested in what else we can do with Facebook? Click here.

We’ve recently teamed up with Albert Einstein Healthcare Network to develop our ICE App for their communities. Albert Einstein Healthcare Network is the Philadelphia’s largest independent academic medical center.

The first ICE App we designed was for Sherman Health. The iPhone version of the app currently has over 1,000 downloads and the Android version was recently launched. The app has also been designed for Silver Cross Hospital.

We’re really looking forward to sinking our teeth into the new design for Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. If you’re interested in hearing more about our ICE App that can be branded for your health system, you can visit iceapp.dcinteractivegroup.com.

What was one of the first things you did when you woke up this morning? I bet you checked your Facebook. What did you do at lunch today and those five minutes of downtime you got at the office? Yep, Facebook again. That type of engagement to one site is why hospitals (and businesses) strive for a successful Facebook page.

Facebook is a great way to interact with the community about health related information and hospital initiatives. It’s a great way to communicate with patients. The problem is that most Facebookers don’t think to turn to their hospital on Facebook, even though it may be the best source of health related information for them. So how do you get these people to notice you on Facebook?

There was a recent surge of Facebook giveaway promotions in the northwest suburban area of Chicago. Many hospitals were giving away an iPad in order to gain more “Likes”. So our client, Sherman Health, challenged us to gain new fans without the use of an iPad. As much as we love our Apple gear here at Demi & Cooper, we also understood that it wasn’t the most meaningful prize a hospital could giveaway. So we decided to do a giveaway that would benefit the Sherman Health brand.

We chose four prizes that were health related. After all, Sherman Health is more concerned with your health than your score on “Angry Birds”. The prizes were a variety of exercise equipment and included a grand prize of a Wii & Wii Fit.

In addition to the prizes, we also set up interviews with three health experts at Sherman Health. These interviews allowed us to provide “Likers” with videos & blogs that contained useful information about yoga, sports related injuries, exercise, exercise equipment, and physical therapy.

So how did the promotion turn out and was our client happy with the results? In just a few weeks the Sherman Health Facebook page went from about 800 “Likes” to 1,200. Josh McColough, Marketing Communications Manager at Sherman Health shared his thoughts about the promotion:

“We thought we’d get a good response, based on the items we were giving away, which were both fun and healthy. But we never imagined that we’d increase our Facebook fans by 50% in just a few weeks. Our employees were talking about the initiative, too. It was really fun to hear people encouraging other employees to ‘Like’ us”

If you’re interested in a larger Facebook fan base you can contact us here. We don’t just Facebook either, you can see what else we do by checking out our case studies here.

Setting up a free blog on WordPress is an issue for some professionals, as the lack of both a domain name and best-fitting web hosting seems beneath them. After all, going with WP-hosted blogs nets just 100 or so themes to choose from, most of which are a terrible fit for your vision. Right?

On the contrary. Free themes on WordPress have levels of customization to them that can really make your blog stand out. And if the content is great, visitors won’t care in the slightest about whether you have your own domain. If you need an example, take a look at one of our clients, Sherman Health.

Already the proud owners of the domain ShermanHealth.com, they made the wise decision to reach a more localized audience through a WordPress-hosted blog. In a snap, the Sherman Heart Blog was born. Below is a PDF of one of the most popular articles from it.

When 2011 hit, it was agreed the great content on the Heart Blog needed to be matched by a great new design. After a brainstorming session, a plan was hatched, and the look went live on February 1 to coincide with Heart Month. Below is the brand new banner image on the blog. Depicted in animated form is Dr. Maciej Malinski, a cardiologist on staff at Sherman and the author of the popular Ask the Cardiologist blog series.

We created the image in-house, and also uploaded a customized sky blue background to complete the new look. With the right team of artists, designers, and writers, it’s entirely possible to have an eye-catching blog with fantastic content, all of which can be reached through simple and free WordPress hosting.

Visit the Sherman Heart Blog

Big news at Demi & Cooper! We recently launched a mobile website for Sherman Health that was built for the burgeoning smartphone community. The new mobile site allows on-the-go visitors to find a Sherman location, physician or patient room. On top of that, visitors can view floorplans, send an eCard or find things to do in the area. Visit shermanhealth.com on your phone to access it. Or, click on this link to see Sherman Hospital’s mobile website in the DC Interactive Group portfolio.

So what sparked the creation of the mobile site?

This idea began when we examined how visitors accessed shermanhealth.com. Analytics showed that when we compare the last six months (October through March) to the same months the year prior, iPhone browser visits (the most popular smartphone browser to access our site) jumped over 700% from one year to the next.

Starting in November, Google created a separate segment that shows mobile devices that visit a site (which gives you an idea of how important mobile devices are becoming). And even when we compare November, the first available month of data for all smartphone devices, to last month, mobile device users jumped 116%.

Tied into the mobile website launch are new billboard ads that simply state “Smartphone. Meet smart healthcare.” It’s a whole new way to view Sherman Health, providing a wealth of information in the palm of the hand.

From one of my online alert accounts, I was sent this link to a video about our client’s social media program.  In the video, Josh McColough, Marketing Communications Manager at Sherman Hospital, explains the broad picture of the program and what it has meant to their hospital.  He also discusses the future subjects for our tweets, blogs and eblasts.  It’s been a great pleasure working with the Sherman staff on Social Media.  They are always eager for us to try new things and explore new ways to keep them at the forefront of healthcare communication.  Plus, it helps to work with a client that understands well what we do for them, how we do it, and how it benefits them.

Sherman Hospital will be featured on ABC’s Good Morning America
on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 8:05am CST.

The surgery that we helped Sherman Hospital simulcast on Twitter and Facebook has helped a lot of people better understand the benefits of Sherman’s high-tech surgical robot and how they have become a leader in advanced medicine. Possible candidates for surgery in the community followed along and became more comfortable with the procedure. Even the patient’s family was able to watch on a Blackberry from the waiting room! We’ve helped Sherman get featured on TV, websites, blogs, medical journals, magazines and newspapers across the country and as far away as India and Australia. But tomorrow morning we’re proud to announce that they will be featured on ABC’s Good Morning America at 8:05am CST! Check your local guides for channel information.

Background

With getting media attention, timing is everything. The press seemed to be primed for a great story about how Twitter and Facebook could be used for a practical purpose. We did some research and came up with the idea have Sherman become the first ever hospital to simulcast a surgery live on Twitter and Facebook. Not just any surgery, but a high-tech robotic surgery. It takes a lot of courage to do something like this, and we would officially like to thank some very important people at Sherman Health:

First we would like to thank Sherman’s patient (who of course remains anonymous) for graciously agreeing to let her surgery be Tweeted. Secondly, Doctors Rajah Chatterji and Humberto Lamoutte who headed up the six-person, robot-assisted surgery team. And let’s not forget the marketing team at Sherman:

Christine Priester | Follow on Twitter @cpriester
Transition Director, formerly Marketing Director

-

Josh McColough | Follow on Twitter @joshmccolough
Marketing Manager

-

Michelle Howe | Follow on Twitter @michellehowe27
Marketing Specialist

-

Of course, you are also welcome follow myself @marcbattaglia and Walter Ottenhoff @wottenhoff — we work here at @demicooper and ran the simulcast for @shermanhealth.

Get ready for surgery in the 21th century! On Thursday, April 2, at 7:30 a.m., Sherman Hospital will be the first hospital in Illinois to provide live “Tweeted” updates of a surgery — but not just any surgery — it will be a high-tech robotic surgery using Sherman’s da Vinci surgical robot. And we at Demi & Cooper are proudly running the program. Through the social-networking site Twitter, Sherman officials will provide a running commentary, updates of activities and photos of the procedure. Twitter users will continuously receive messages of 140 characters or less, called “Tweets”, by following Sherman at http://twitter.com/shermanhealth. It’s just one more example of some of the cutting-edge things we’re doing as part of the robust social media services we offer to our clients.

“Sherman Hospital is committed to becoming one of the best community hospitals in the nation,” says Christine Priester, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Sherman Health. “This is an example of our forward thinking and dedication to educating and connecting with the community.”

The procedure, a hysterectomy, will be performed using the da Vinci Surgical System, a sophisticated robotic platform designed to expand surgeon’s capabilities and offer a minimally invasive option for major surgery. For the first time ever, future hysterectomy candidates will be able get an idea of what is involved with the procedure in a way they would never have been able to before.

Raja Chatterji, M.D., and Humberto Lamoutte, M.D., both OB/GYNs and surgeons on the medical staff at Sherman Hospital, will be performing the operation, slated to last two hours. Both Drs. Chatterji and Lamoutte received extensive training with the da Vinci Surgical System before receiving certification in 2007. Dr. Chatterji received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College Of Medicine, and Dr. Lamoutte received his medical degree from the Louisiana State University. Both physicians had residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

Be sure to follow @ShermanHealth on April 2nd to watch the live hysterectomy. And while you’re on Twitter, why not follow Demi & Cooper too? Then you’ll know about events such as this one, as well as learn about the many different ways we use Tweets, blogs, eblasts, and other social media strategies to help our clients.