Health care communicators know the importance of using social media, but can they measure the ROI of these efforts? In the age of health care reform and shrinking budgets, knowing how your social media efforts impact the bottom line is not only important, but also imperative. How do you measure the return on a tweet or Facebook post? Learn the three ways you can measure the ROI of your social media strategy.

1. Social Media
ROI Reform
Measuring the success of your
hospital’s social media efforts

2. About me
• Director, Digital Marketing and
Communications, Inova
• Advisory Board Member,
Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media
• Worked with more than 100
hospitals/physician practices
• www.christopherboyer.com
• @chrisboyer
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3. I feel sorry for traditional media
• Badthe news in the NYT is at least a day old”
“All
timing
• One-way conversation
• Very expensive
$114,174
• Not personal

4. I feel sorry for traditional media
• Badthe news in-the NYT is at least a day old”
“All
timing
• Very expensive -
$114,174
• Not personal -
• Broadcast
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5. Social media
makes sense
for patients
and for us

6. But what
exactly is
“social media”?
(a.k.a why are
we doing this)

7. A definition of social media
"A group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and
that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated
content."
- Andreas Kaplan & Michael Haenlin

8. A definition of social media
"A group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of
Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of
user-generated content."
- Andreas Kaplan & Michael Haenlin

9. How I define social media
• Transparency
• Credibility
• Relevancy
• Trust
• “Communities of Interest”

10. Social media shouldn’t
force us to be transparent.
We should.

11. Building credibility
• 57 % of people say a social media connection
with a hospital has a strong impact on their
decision to seek treatment
• 81% of consumers believe if a hospital has a
strong social media presence, they are likely to
be more cutting edge, creating a halo effect
Consumers’ Use, Preference and Expectations of Hospital Social Media
- YouGov Research, July 2011

12. The cornerstone

13. Continuum of “I-Don’t-Care”
Don’t Care Care somewhat
Care deeply
(not engaged) (kinda engaged)
g Opi nions
Sharin
esearching
R
iscovering
D

14. Social media provides relevant
messages at the right time
Facebook
Pinterest
Forums
Twitter Flickr
SMM UStream Yelp!
Digg
SlideShare LinkedIn Local Angie’s List
Wordpress Tumblr Listings
Microsites g Op inions
Foursquare Google+ S harin
YouTube esearching
R
Blogs
iscovering
D

15. Social networks are
how we connect.
Communities of interest are
why we connect.

17. • 1500 “Find a Doctor” searches
• 800 eNewsletter subscribers

18. Multiple uses for social media
• Customer service/service recovery
• Patient education
• Real-time market research
• Influencer engagement
• Crisis management
• Brand protection/equity
• Word-of-mouth marketing

19. Social media has
changed everything

20. Which brings me
to pants
Contrary to popular belief,
there is ROI in everything
...including social media.

21. Why does the
discussion of social
media ROI sometimes
make me feel like this?
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22. What’s the controversy?
We all should strive to:
Provide Build Be
the best strong fiscally
care relationships responsible
Simple.

23. Our changing business...
• Tightening insurance reimbursements
• Public reporting of outcome data
• Shared-risk model:
• Hospitals
• Patients
• Physicians
• “Go big or go home”

24. Not that this is a bad thing!
• Our goal is to improve health
• We want to provide access to high-quality care
• We do this because we want to help people
• Preventative health is part of our mission

25. Is it really – NO MARGIN, NO MISSION?

26. Where’s the
Talking about financial return seems cold and callous

27. Is social media ROI truly “ROI”?
• Return on Results (ROR)
• Return on Opportunity (ROO)
• Return on Engagement (ROE)
• Likes Accumulated from Facebook Followers (LAFF)
• Time We Invest in Twitter Spam (TWITS)

28. What can (or do) you measure?
• Friends, fans & followers
• Reach, relationship & reputation
• Strength, sentiment & passion
• 100 ways to measure:
http://bit.ly/100ways
(R OI)?

29. ROI should always be tied to $$$
“Social Media ROI reflects any other marketing-related ROI:
the net financial revenue to the organization from the effort,
after having accounted for the effort's costs.
FI-NAN-CIAL
money
dough
bottom line
coin
or, as I like to call it,
ROI”
- Chris Bevolo @intervalchris

30. ROI = (financial gain/savings - cost)
cost

31. Why should we measure ROI?
• Only 27% of exec’s believe social media is strategic priority
- Jive Social Business Index Survey
• 59% of marketers use social media 6 hours or more/week
- Social Media Marketing Industry Report
• If you don’t measure, don’t worry: your successor will
- Chris Boyer

32. 1
Profitable services
Profitable patient revenue
Three ways
to measure
ROI

33. Driving growth through social media
• Use social media to lead to other marketing:
• Websites
• Seminars
• Use tools to measure attribution
• Lead social media fans to convert
• Opt-in or provide information
• Measure your results

34. “Driving growth goals” ROI chart
Tool Function Measurement*
• Create multiple pages, i.e. • Click-throughs of links
“communities of interest” from FB page
• Promote free ways to • CTR of FB ads
participate in campaigns/ • Analytics on website to
seminars measure inbound links and
• Use events and polls to gain avg. time on page
interaction • Conversions
• Use Facebook advertising
• Use claimed listings as ways to • Analytics on website to
promote clinics measure inbound links and
• Ensure message is appropriate avg. time on page
for employees and patients • Conversions
• Create specialized URL to
measure unique traffic
* Always track back to financial measurement

35. Using Facebook to promote bariatrics
• Identify Facebook audience interested in losing weight
• Create ads promoting weight loss solutions
• Direct ads to landing page that offers options to patients
• $479 monthly spend

36. The results (from just 3 months):
• 296 clicks/month
• 30 seminar registrations
• 23% seminar registration/surgery conversion rate
• Average $3,000 contribution margin from surgery
• $20,700 margin originated from campaign

37. Calculating ROI
ROI = (gain - cost)/cost
Gain: $20,700
Cost: $479 x 3 = $1,437
ROI = (20,700 - 1,437)/(1437) = 13.4 or 1340%

38. Wait a second...
you didn’t tell me there
was going to be any math!

39. 2 Lower costs
Improve results

40. Lowering marketing &
communication costs
• Compliment (or replace) traditional with low-cost
social media
• Train others to assist with your social media efforts
• Encourage patients to tell/spread their story
• Measure the money or time you save

41. Lowering costs ROI chart
Tool Function Measurement*
• Promote press stories to wide- • RT’s
spread audience • # of inquiries from media
• Real-time coverage of press • Earned media coverage
events • Traffic to website
• Links back to press releases on • Increased volume
website
• Video press releases and • Video views
statements • Click-throughs from
• Stories/testimonials YouTube URL to main site
• Create online video press site, • Cross-linking/embeds
with top stories • Increased utilization
• Every video SEO’d with CTA
* Always track back to financial measurement

42. Mission Health blog

43. ROI through cost savings
Higher engagement, too!
• 14,000 page views/mo
• 5 pages/visit
• 3:52 avg time on page

44. Viral promotion
• Dec 2010 – Back Pain lecture held by Spine Surgeon
• Event live-streamed and live-tweeted
• Watched by over 200 viewers online
• Picked up by local media – 200K media impressions

45. Live-tweeted the event

46. Six months later
Question: Can you calculate ROI from this?
Answer: Yes.
(CM for neck surgery/rehabilitation - cost to live-stream/tweet) / cost
A better success measurement: we improved their quality of life.

47. How do we
measure this?!?!?

48. What is the
lifetime value
of a patient?
Photo courtesy Ted Eytan, MD, www.tedeytan.com

49. To Facebook, we’re worth
~$81 apiece
Your friends are worth $.62
Your profile page is worth $1800
But what’s a Facebook fan worth to us?

50. Using social media to increase
satisfaction & loyalty
• Provide relevant information to “non-patients”
• Build wellness programs to increase relevance
• Patient education and compliance
• When measuring ROI, think correlation vs. causation

51. Loyalty & satisfaction “ROI” chart
Tool Function Measurement*
• Share relevant wellness/health • Fans/follower of all
messages from other sources communities
• Create other “communities of • Likes, reposts, interactivity
interest” to encourage deeper • Click-throughs of content
engagement to your website
• Use polls, photos to provide ways
for two-way dialogue
• Promote best-in-class • Number of group
opportunities to work members
• Create forums for physician • Physician interaction
leaders to highlight expertise • Employment inquiries to
• Link to top stories HR
* Always track back to financial measurement

52. Using social media to promote wellness
• 7,300 registrants
• 575 Facebook followers
• 5,000 updated CRM records (2,300 entirely new records)
• 500 cross-promoted into other eNewsletter programs

53. FitFor50 demographics
Age range

54. Revenue through FitFor50
• 325 participants enrolled in fitness run (ROI: $20 x 325 = $6500)
• Life-to-date utilization (contribution margin):
• “New” patient CM: $38,000
• “Former” patient CM: $274,000
• Total CM: $305,600
Correlated vs. Causal ROI

55. Is wellness worth it?
“worth it”: informal sufficiently good, enjoyable,
or successful to repay any effort, trouble, or expense

59. Changing the way we work
• Inbound vs. outbound tactics
• Measure engagement instead of growth
• Use CRM to measure patient & physician behavior
• Focus on measuring the lifetime value of the patient

60. Social Media ROI Reform
Don’t Care Care somewhat
Care deeply
(not engaged) (kinda engaged)
Referral to other svcs
Discharge compliance
Fitness & community classes Preparing for encounter
Physicians building trust Shift to low-cost marketing
Wellness messaging Promote “patient choice” care

61. Questions?
Chris Boyer
@chrisboyer
www.christopherboyer.com

62. Social Media ROI Charleston by Chris Boyer
Social Media ROI
It’s easy if you try
If you don’t measure it
Then why you doin’ it?
Social Media ROI
Those words shouldn’t make you cry
Grow your business,
Be cost effective
Or focus on loyalty
Set your goals
Then you’re set to go
Impress your CFO
It’s the only way to go
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