The Secret Formula That Destroyed Wall Street

The Secret Formula That Destroyed Wall Street

Posted using ShareThis

Tweet, Tweet for Rx/Dx

Here is some basic, practical advice from iMedia if you're considering Twitter for your company. Also a good article from the NYT about Twitter.

I like the line, as in life, it is what you make of it....very apropos.

Twitter is essentially an instant messenger made public -- the 140-character messages, or "tweets," can be seen by everyone, and the conversations are always free-flowing. While consumers use the service to blab about how badly they want a pizza or to arrange weekend plans, they also use it to discuss your business, brand, or product -- and they'll continue to do so, whether you participate or not.

But don't just start firing off marketing missives to the Twitter community. If you actually want to leverage Twitter as a marketing tool, you'll need a plan, and you'll need to stick with it for the long haul. Here's what you need to keep in mind before you start to tweet.

It's not a campaign
Social media is not merely a flash in the pan; and regardless of whether or not Twitter becomes the next great marketing application, a similar service will still be popular years from now. If you want to jump into Twitter -- or any form social media -- be prepared to invest a great amount of time. You can't merely spend one week talking to consumers and then vanish.

Before diving in, you'll need a plan, including figuring out what you want to accomplish, and why you are joining the conversation in the first place. When you log onto Twitter, you're asked "What are you doing?" But when marketing via Twitter, the most important question to keep in mind is, "What are you thinking?" according to Rodney Rumford, CEO of Gravitational Media.

"I share information that is unique and valuable to my followers," Rumford said, speaking at the Gravity Summit in Los Angeles. "Think about your target, your audience, and how you can give them information."

Listen, don't push
When you focus on providing value to your followers -- whether they're current clients or prospective ones -- it's important to remember Twitter isn't a push marketing tool. Don't beat your clients over the head with offers or use Twitter merely as a promotional tool. Instead, engage in real conversations.

Rumford equates Twitter to a river, and just like how a fisherman would set up multiple nets in the river, you'll need to set up multiple filters to listen in on the conversations that are already happening. Search.twitter.com lets you find out who is discussing your brand, product, business, and competitors. After you listen in, join the conversation with insightful commentary. "Be a fly on the wall, listen, and add value when appropriate," Rumford said. "There are great nuggets in this river, and you're panning for gold."

Twitter isn't merely for big brands either. By listening and joining existing conversations, small businesses gain equal footing with the big corporations, and can even take a bit out of some of their biggest competitors.

Check out the rest of the post at the link above.


| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Innovate or Die!

Here is a presentation from Forrester Research on CMOs and Innovation. Despite the stationary camera and not overly compelling presentation, the content is pretty good.

This is a question and not a statement that I am curious about - how many CMOs are bringing in the voice of the customer via social media, crowdsourcing, etc? Who is really driving change in their organization utilizing innovative methods of capturing the VOC?

I look around and see a lot of experimentation and a lot of flailing.



| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Stimulus + Technology = Better Health Care Delivery

Via Karen Zupko

As of 2008, 83% of U.S. physicians believed the internet is essential to their professional practice and 60% used the internet daily for professional reasons. However, adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) has been slower growing from 12% in 2001 to only 33% in 2008. So as part of the recently passed Stimulus Bill, the U.S. Government will create an incentive package to accelerate EMR adoption that will provide physicians up to a $44K reward for those who begin to use EMRs by 2011. Those who have not adopted by 2015 will begin to suffer financial penalties.

Clearly, this will have a significant influence on physician “e” behavior in the United States. The incentives will drive adoption of more sophisticated hardware and software. The online environment will become an even more natural place for physicians to communicate and exchange information. And, over time, we could expect that programs we develop that relate to patient information collection (such as REMS) will need to align with these systems to deliver optimal usability and seamless data management.

My Take: As I have stated I think the Obama administration is going to usher in an accelerated path to leveraging technology in all facets of health care delivery. The stimulus will likely provide a boost on the physician side. Adoption of new technology is often like a marathon where "the last mile" is often the hardest. Doctors under tremendous pressure can follow the money.

| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Not Necessarily the News

Growing up I remember the day we got cable very distinctly. I remember the first movie (Bronco Billy) I watched on the 19 inch TV that now beamed 30 (gasp) channels of cable goodness and I remember HBO becoming my friend.

A show on HBO that I watched, remotely laughed at and remember clearly is Not Necessarily the News, which was The Daily Show of the era. I remember that they skewered President Reagan pretty regularly for his short memory, gaffes and frequent vacations. It actually formed my opinion of President Reagan until I was old enough to understand what he really accomplished during his presidency.

It seems that news is always put through a prism and you can view from the angle you desire. However, I noticed the Whitehouse.gov is putting direct press briefing transcripts on their site and you can see the weekly address that is posted each Saturday.

Like Shaq bypassing the media and going direct via Twitter, this type of transparency and frankly the opportunity to read and distill the information without filter is refreshing. I wouldn't necessarily call it the news, which seems to come with right or left lean, but information to draw my own conclusion. How novel.


| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Updated to include Pres. Obama's weekly address.

We Love To Fly and it Shows!

Just a quick update on my previous post about United Airlines--no word yet from Keith Fisher.

| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Rx/Dx and Social Media

Readers of this blog know that I have talked about social media extensively, perhaps too much, but I firmly believe in the power of social media and the fact that it is an absolute game changer when it comes to marketing. So much so that marketing as we knew it as recently as 2005 will never be the same.

Amy Tenderich over at DiabetesMine.com has an excellent post discussing the pros and cons of social media for Pharma companies.

| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Shaq Fu Tweets

I love the fact that the big Aristotle Shaquille O'Neal Twitters. Hangs out at diners alone.

| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Remote Monitoring + Stimulus = Growth

Interesting and aggressive outlook from Parks Associates. As I have discussed in the past, I fully agree that the Obama administration will be a catalyst for change along with stimulus dollars enabling adoption of technologies. However, the number seems plucked out of the air. I think the money trail is much greater if there is true concerted movement in this direction.

Providers of personal health technologies such as health monitoring devices and personal health records (PHR) can generate over $460 million in revenue in 2013 by targeting the disease management (DM) industry, according to Parks Associates' recent report Disease Management Industry and High-Tech Adoption . The international research firm cites changes in the healthcare landscape, combined with the Obama administration's stimulus package and reform initiatives, as catalysts for accelerated technology spending over the next five years.

"The drumbeat grows louder each day demanding transformation of our healthcare system," said Harry Wang, Director of Health and Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. "The DM sector is subject to the same pressure and must act quickly or risk obsolescence in the face of competing care management models."

Wang says technology vendors that are familiar with the unique characteristics of the DM business and can show the clear and immediate benefits of their solution within this context will be in the best position to win these contracts.

"Personal technologies such as home health diagnostic and monitoring devices, PHR, and Web and mobile communication applications will become competitive advantages for a new breed of DM companies," Wang said. "These tools will make DM services more effective and efficient, benefiting everyone from patients to payers."

| www.jlefevere.com |

Publish Post

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Seniors Keep Going Online

The Pew Internet Project released their Generations report. Here is some coverage from NetworkWorld.

I'm not sure why the fact that email is "graying" is a revelation since it seems obvious if you've been around a teen the last 4-5 years.

However, the metric that jumps out at me is the fact that Internet users age 76 or older has risen from 17% in 2005 to 27% in 2009. A full 27% of people OVER 76 are online?

Really? I really find that amazing and kind of cool. 10 years ago the Internet as a "fad" and a "bubble" and now over a quarter of seniors are online. That really bodes well for the introduction and adoption of wide-spread remote monitoring for seniors. The barriers of adoption are being removed ahead of technology availability, which means that there should be good efficacy once its widely available.

| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Remote Monitoring for the Elderly

The NYT has an article that succinctly describes the power and promise of connected health care.

Technologies like eNeighbor come with great promise of improved care at lower cost and the backing of large companies like Intel and General Electric.

But the devices, which can be expensive, remain largely unproven and are not usually covered by the government or private insurance plans. Doctors are not trained to treat patients using remote data and have no mechanism to be paid for doing so. And like all technologies, the devices — including motion sensors, pill compliance detectors and wireless devices that transmit data on blood pressure, weight, oxygen and glucose levels — may have unintended consequences, substituting electronic measurements for face-to-face contact with doctors, nurses and family members.

This type of medical delivery will accelerate significantly once there is interopability and a full end-to-end solution. As I have said in the past, this is coming and I think coming sooner than expected once President Obama turns his attention to the health care situation.

| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Dear Valued Guest...Adventures in Travel with United Airlines

My flight back from Japan was delayed by more than an hour, which in turn made me miss my connection, which led to me getting home about 4.5 hours later than I originally expected. This type of situation is not unexpected since I have to fly out of Chicago's O'Hare, where if you're on time you're lucky. Or as I overheard a pilot one time say, "If O'Hare sneezes everyone else catches a cold."

In this case supposedly the The Prime Minister of Thailand was on another flight that was departing at the same time to Bangkok but it had a maintenance issue. Because the PM of Thailand was on the plane they wanted to unload my flight to Chicago and use the plan to go to Thailand. Thankfully and luckily the Captain of UAL flight 882 on Sunday February 6, 2009 said "no thanks."

Truth be told, I thought is it was just an interesting anecdote to go with my travel to Japan and didn't think much of it. It was only when I received this email from United this past week that I began to think about the marketing and public relations aspect of the "incident."

From: noreply@unitedmileageplus.com [mailto:noreply@unitedmileageplus.com]
Sent: Thu 2/12/2009 8:37 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Your experience on UA 882 Feb 6th



Dear Valued Guest:

On behalf of United Airlines, please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience and disappointment you experienced with Flight 882.

I was made aware of the circumstances surrounding the delay of your flight to Chicago on February 7. I know we cannot replace the time lost while waiting, and regret any frustration with the fluctuating departure information. Although our goal is to handle these types of problems in a pleasant, quick and organized manner, we?re truly sorry if we did not provide the quality of service that you expect and deserve from United. Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we made preparations to get you safely back on your way.

Please let me assure you that we are thoroughly evaluating our recovery efforts in order to improve coordination of services for our customers on future flights. Your business and satisfaction are very important to us. It is my sincere hope that we can regain your confidence in United, and serve you in the near future.

Sincerely,

Keith Fisher
United Airlines
Customer Relations

1) First I think they have good intentions and it is apparent that they thought that it was important enough to send an email. Believe me I have been late and have missed flights many times, but I have never received an email so I miss the point overall.

2) Why can't they personalize the email? They know I was on the flight, they know my email address. Is it lazy, bad email marketing or both? Probably both.

3) They send an email apologizing for something that happens all the time, but they don't offer me anything for my lost time, which I value by the way.

So let me get this straight. They raise the late departure as an issue, don't personalize the email to indicate to me that they really care or know me and then don't offer anything?

They offer free flight vouchers for people that get bumped all the time. If they really want to engender loyalty they could in the least offer a international business class traveler what they offer a person who gets bumped flying from Charlotte to Chicago...and failing that, please personalize your future emails.


| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Eyes Wide Open

Have you ever locked into a train of thought and subsequently had a conversation with someone that completely opened your eyes to a different perspective? I had one recently and it reinforced to me a few things.

-Simplicity is difficult

-To differentiate in a fragmented, crowded market you have to resist talking about your latest, greatest new product and its great new features and talk about why someone needs it.

How can you engage in dialogue, add value and join the conversation? Why Social Media, of course.

This also reminded me of the Blue Ocean Strategy.

I think focusing on engagement and value creation while utilizing social media is a differentiable way to approach it for Rx/Dx companies and it will create value over time. For example, for orthopedic companies, I would suggest that they start a SM plan around education and talking about arthritis, pain management, the lengthy decision making process for a new joint, selecting a doctor, etc.




| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

Corporate Tweeting

Lately, I've been examining the value of Twitter mostly from a corporate/professional perspective. I hear frequently that people don't get it and I previously shared my analogy on if you are at a cocktail party with people of your choosing do you watch, listen or participate? Twitter is much the same way and you decide if you want to watch, learn or participate. Obviously it is preferred if you participate and add value.

Jeremiah, over at web-strategist.com posted on how to get started. You can read his post here and the article from CIO.com here.

Here is an (appropriately) short explanation of Twitter: Twitter is a free service that allows users to publish short messages of 140 characters or less. These messages are read by "followers" — people who make a conscious decision to subscribe to your messages and have them delivered to their own Twitter home pages.

Each message you post is known as a "Tweet." In the social media and social networking industry, Twitter facilitates a process known as microblogging or microsharing. Every user is identified by putting an "@" sign in front of their name (for instance: @cglynch).

From a professional Rx/Dx company perspctive I come back to a few key questions to ask if you're developing an engagement plan. What's your goal? Can you sustain this effort and create interest? Do you have content/thoughts that add value?

If you're unsure or answer no to any of the above you're probably not ready. The key is to not treat this as a "campaign" but a new method of creating ongoing dialogue. You have to start somewhere.

Twitter.com

@jlefevere

I also like Ping.fm as an interface to update all of your social networks.


| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.

In the Eye of the Connected Health Storm

I am back from a week in Japan for the Continua Health Alliance Winter Summit. It was a good meeting and it certainly underscored for me how interesting and satisfying it is to be at the center of change within an industry that could have a significant impact for generations.

There was a ton of news generated from the Google and IBM collaboration. PCWorld has a good summary.

The two tech giants worked with the Beaverton, Ore.-based health care provider to extend the value of Google's Google Health and other online health information offerings, and to ensure that stored patient health records are up-to-date, according to an IBM statement.

The WSJ had a related article as well that looks at data concerns.

I think the concerns are real, but the fact that digitizing medical records is beginning to become a immovable topic. It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when.'

I see the promise of not only health care delivery and improved outcomes from a real cost and health perspective as well as the data concerns. I think this is a real opportunity cost and will become a part of the landscape over the next 5-7 plus years.

And it's fun to be involved in some small way to the movement.

| www.jlefevere.com |

If you liked this post consider adding a comment or subscribing to the feed for frequent updates.