Spreading the Word on Social Media

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ve got a full schedule of travel with conferences, panels, webinars, workshops and the like. I’ll be showing and telling about our work in social media at Mayo Clinic, and also implications and applications for others in health care and beyond. My schedule is below. Based on what I’ve seen from the registration (and speakers/panelists) at the events, I’m going to be highly stimulated by the experience. 

This week I’m going to Washington, DC on Wednesday and Thursday for the New Media Academic Summit at Georgetown University. It will be quite an experience for the Chancellor of a mythical university to interact with real-life Ph.D. professors. I’m on a Thursday afternoon panel.

Next week I’ll be in Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday at the Healthcare New Media Marketing Conference. On Wednesday afternoon I’m part of a panel sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the American Hospital Association. On Thursday I’m participating in this free “Meet the Experts” Webinar (with @EdBennett, @JennTex and @BrianCharlonis) and then presenting to the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations’ annual meeting in St. Louis. And on Friday in St. Louis I’m doing the keynote (and a workshop) for HESCA’s 50th International Conference on Health & Science Communications.

In my spare time I plan to meet with some TV and radio station news and program directors to talk about our Mayo Clinic Medical Edge syndicated programs and news resources.

This is the most intense travel schedule I’ve had, but it just seemed to work out that these events were in reasonable proximity. And clearly we’re in a time in which the interest in social media is high, particularly in health care.

Of course I’ll be tweeting along the way, so you can follow (and participate in) the conversations. If you’re in any of these communities (or will be at any of these events) and would like to meet, drop me a note (or a Tweet).

Best Practices in Web Video: Case Study

Below is my presentation to be delivered at New York University Wednesday morning, May 27, as part of the Web Video for Healthcare Leadership Forum.

It’s always fun for the SMUG Chancellor to visit a real university for which students pay tuition. But they’re not going to give me an honorary doctorate or anything. Hopefully they’ll at least politely applaud.

Here are some of the videos featured during the presentation, including one of our professionally produced Mayo Clinic Medical Edge segments:

 

Here is one of the physician interviews captured with a Flip video camera:

Here is a patient story,

Social Media Connections in Iowa

Yesterday was another of those days that seem to be getting more frequent, in which I met face-to-face someone with whom I had only interacted via social media.

I started the morning with a Tweet (which I also posted to my Facebook status via Tweetdeck), about my travel plans for the day:

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To my surprise, a few minutes later a comment showed up from Roy Kenagy, who works with the public library system in central Iowa:

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In fact, after a stop in Algona to interview one pair of patients, I was planning to be in Ankeny. So I replied via iPhone and he got me the address:

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Which led to us getting to meet for about 15 minutes just before 2, and so I took a picture of Roy and his colleagues (Roy is the one in the middle!)

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Another demonstration of the power of social media, particularly Facebook, to make virtual connections real.

I was in Ankeny to meet Marlow and Frances Cowan, the delightful couple whose piano duet at Mayo Clinic has become a YouTube sensation:

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You’ll be seeing more of the Cowans in coming days, at which time I’ll be posting some more video and telling the story of how their duet has gone from 1,000 views to more than 1.6 million in a little over a month.

Later last night I got to have a good conversation with some health system communicators in Davenport. I’m uploading those photos to the SMUG Facebook group.

All in all, I have to agree with this assessment from Matt Feyen:

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