URL X-ray: With phishing, spamming and spyware all remaining concerns in the Web 2.0 world, URL X-ray is a neat little tool that allows you to combat this problem. Unless you’re sure of the source, clicking on a shortened URL in Twitter or anywhere else can be a risky activity, but by entering the shortened URL into URL X-ray, you will quickly see where the URL is about to take you. While most of the people we follow on Twitter post reliable links, this is a great tool to verify anything that looks suspicious. Your computer is protected from potential viruses, and you decrease the risk of visiting a site that may be NSFW.

Past Words of the Week
Mashup, Blog Talk Radio, TweetedRanks, Ping.fm, Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

With social networks popping like weeds right now, healthcare firms need to make sure that they have a solid strategy for determining which network to join and when. Each week new social outlets emerge for different lifestyles, hobbies and careers – including ones for the healthcare industry.

So with new niche social networks starting every day, should you try to incorporate every single one into your social media strategy? If not, how do you go about determining which ones are worthy to pursue?

Although you are not always going to know which network is the next Twitter, there are a few tips that can help you pick the right network for your goals and objectives:

• Keep up with the outlets available: There are so many outlets our there now that knowing all of them would be difficult, if not impossible. However, by reading industry trends and watching your clients’ moves, you will have a good idea about the direction your industry is headed. In healthcare, the medical providers have access to a variety of outlets such as Sermo and Nurse Connect – both serve as forums for healthcare providers to discuss medical issues and practice management ideas. As these networks grow, vendors may eventually be able to join too, but without watching the industry, you will never know that this resource is out there.
• Know who will use the social network: MySpace is in the middle of a giant rebranding project, which could help it weather the dramatic drop in usage. However, they are still trying to target a younger market that is looking to connect with bands and/or musicians. This type of audience will not typically contain the C-level healthcare executives that healthcare vendors want to reach – so why devote time and money to a place that will not show any return? That understanding of who uses the network will be a huge deciding point to know if it is worth including in a social media plan.
• Understand what the social network does: As more networks show up on the Internet, they become more and more specialized. Flixster <www.flixster.com> is one of the best examples. This new network is for people who want to share their review of movies so that others can know what to watch. Although this is a great venue so that I never go see a bad movie, I would not want to waste valuable time marketing my company or a client in here since it has nothing to do with healthcare, technology or life sciences

So how do you decide which networks to incorporate into your campaign? You have to do your research – analyze the network as a whole before just diving into it. Just because a network is growing does not mean that your target market will or should join. Take Ping – that new outlet from Apple for iTunes users – unless I start to promote the next Carrie Underwood or Rolling Stones, I would not advise my clients to incorporate this new outlet into their campaign plan. Would you?

Mashup: A mashup on the Web is a site or application that combines features from multiple sources to create a new service. This often involves using open APIs from different services to create an integrated solution for whatever the user is trying to accomplish on the Web. Examples of mashups range widely from metasearch engines and geolocation software to feeds and aggregators. Mashups like Ping.fm and Digsby also enhance social communication by combining several popular services into one easy-to-use application.

Past Words of the Week
Blog Talk Radio, TweetedRanks, Ping.fm, Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Haven’t quite wrapped your head around the importance of blogging and social media in healthcare technology? Yet to embrace these outlets as part of your marketing strategy? When others discuss the subject of blogs, does it come across more as the “Wah, wah, wah” Charlie Brown hears when grownups talk? 

These days, it’s misguided not to at least become knowledgeable about blogging and social media as it relates to your business. Blogging can have a measurable impact in both sales and visibility when integrated with the right public relations and marketing strategy, so understanding the benefits of creating a blog is Step One down the right path. Below, I’ve outlined 10 main reasons blogging is a crucial component to the marketing efforts of healthcare technology companies.

1. A blog is just a social media tool, but it is one of the easiest and most effective publishing tools for healthcare technology organizations to share information with customers and prospects. Why? First, because YOU control the content and messaging. Secondly, the cost of maintaining a blog is relatively low. And lastly, the blogging platforms available today make it incredibly easy to post content.
2. Your brand is what your people read and talk about online. If you’re not happy with what’s out there…or not out there…it’s time to look at blogs as a way of enhancing your online marketing strategy.
3. A blog can be the center of your content marketing strategy. It’s a hub of content for you to get out to the world through various outlets. If you’re only using Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to share information, whose content are you promoting? With a blog of your own, you can create and publish the content where you’ll most efficiently see the results and gain the exposure.
4. Remember that it’s 2010. You can’t be taken seriously as an industry-leading organization if you’re only using the same marketing strategy from 1992. There’s a VERY good chance nowadays that your competitors are delving into social media and blogging, so if you’re without a sound and consistent blog, it’s harder to compete.
5. Search engines love blogs. For many B2B organizations, typical Web site content is rarely dynamic. With a blog, new content is added often, sometimes daily. And because you to create blog posts around important keywords and include additional inbound links to products and services pages on your Web site, it can serve as the core of your search engine optimization strategy.
6. A blog is a great way to differentiate your organization from the rest of the static corporate Web sites. By consistently posting interesting, informative information, organizations will encourage prospects to regularly visit the blog in search of fresh content.
7. Blogging represents a true commitment and passion to your industry. By offering insight on trends and interviews with industry thought leaders, blog content can help healthcare IT companies prove to customers they’re an integral and involved industry player. Presenting this type of compelling content – rather than simply pushing product information – is an effective way to prove that you truly understand your customers’ unique business challenges.
8. If you don’t have anything interesting to say, why would anyone have a reason to talk about you or your company? Every company has a story and a problem that their product or service solves, whatever it may be. A blog is a good vehicle for getting that story out there.
9. Repackaging of blog posts can nourish articles, email blasts, direct mail, white papers, speaking proposals, marketing sheets, and just about all other educational content you’ll need for your marketing, and vice versa. A company isn’t always tasked with creating completely original content, but instead can integrate their blog with other marketing efforts to do more with less.
10. Over time, there are cumulative results from blogging that can be gained. Each blog post continuously adds value to your site as a whole. Blog posts from months or years ago are still found in search results and read, adding traffic and building upon the collection of industry thought leadership your organization represents.

From the ability to interact and prove your industry expertise to prospects to increased search engine visibility, the potential benefits of implementing a company blog are endless. Comment below and share any thoughts or additional benefits you see from blogging!

TweetedRanks: TweetedRanks is a free and easy tool that does exactly what it sounds like: it tweets the Google ranks of any site you’ve associated with your account. Updates are sent via direct message, and users can also choose to get update messages via Google’s IM client, Google Talk. On the TweetedRanks site, users set the domain(s) they would like to track along with any keywords that they want to associate with those domains. The site provides diagrams so that users can track their Google position between Twitter updates.

Past Words of the Week
Ping.fm, Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Ping.fm: Last week we talked integration in a world saturated with social media tools and networks, and Ping.fm fits right in with that theme. With Ping.fm, users can update all of their statuses at once to save time while tweeting, Facebooking, IM-ing, etc. Just one click and your global status is set. Currently Ping.fm supports almost 40 different social networks, so no matter what your network of choice happens to be, you can take full advantage of what Ping.fm has to offer.

Past Words of the Week
Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

If you’re in any way involved with marketing, you realize there’s something wrong with that question. It’s the word “waiting.” Marketing is defined as a strategy by which companies live and breathe – it demands outreach, communication and forward motion. If you have been sitting at your desk with a stack of outdated brochures and nowhere to go, you have a problem.

Marketing paralysis has snuggled in comfortably as companies have delayed marketing expenditures. Understandably, the economy has thrown companies some hard knocks. In more than a few cases, marketing budgets have stepped up to the chopping block.

It’s hard to feel energized in the midst of overcast skies and less-than-spectacular news.  Not to mention having a fraction of your pre-recession budget. But there’s only one way to get your marketing program, and your company, out of the mud: start moving. Not all marketing requires serious money to get a seat at the table. Take an inventory of your contacts and pick up the phone, reach out, involve your staff in strategy sessions to spread excitement, and get out to conferences and meet people. When it comes to spreading your message to a national or worldwide audience, consider the new channels available to you. These include Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

Don’t forget that the economy has affected most companies, and clearer airways are the prize to those who have kept communicating with their audience through tough times. Fall is almost here, and it’s time for a change.

Digsby: For the social media enthusiast who is feeling spread too thin, Digsby is the perfect tool for integration. With one free account and a quick software download, Digsby users can combine all of their IM buddies from AIM, G-chat, MSN, etc. into one buddy list; manage multiple e-mail accounts from Gmail, AOL and Yahoo! as well as POP and IMAP accounts; and integrate social networking accounts from Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. From the Digsby platform, you can tweet, IM, compose and reply to e-mail, and perform just about any other function that each service offers. Users can also set a global status for their Digsby account, which will simultaneously act as a tweet, a status update for Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., and an away message for each IM account that is being used.

Past Words of the Week
Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Posterous: Posterous is a site that allows anyone to post any item of interest to the Web at any time, then provides the user with a custom URL that they may then share via their social networks. Acting as a sort of hybrid of a blog and Twitter, all a user has to do is send an e-mail with an attached photo, video, MP3, or other file, to the generic inbox. The site instantly responds to the user’s e-mail with a custom URL that will host whatever file that was sent. Similar to services like TwitPic, Posterous users’ information can be shared instantly and publicly.

Past Words of the Week
Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

While the contractual details of basketball player LeBron James’ signing with the Miami Heat have been completed, we are now witnessing the public dissection of how the move was made, which is sure to continue for some time.

A quick recap: Last Thursday, ESPN hosted the LeBron James show, dedicated to the announcement of where James has decided to play in the upcoming season. Dan Gilbert, spurned majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, issued a public letter decrying James’ decision. Which then led to Jesse Jackson’s inflammatory quotes disparaging Gilbert’s letter. On Monday, the NBA announced that it was fining the Cavaliers’ owner $100K for his “ill-advised and imprudent” words. While many have railed against ESPN for the announcement show spectacle and criticized James for his lack of communication with the Cavaliers’ organization throughout the process, many parties are now lambasting the Cavaliers’ owner even more for his response – not only for the content but also for the non-traditional font he chose for his public letter. Dan Gilbert’s visceral, seemingly impetuous reaction letter was met with the same criticism as James’ decision. The truth is, communication errors are continuing to be made by all sides.

Fortunately, spokespeople in the healthcare space have typically taken a more measured approach, and for the most part have heeded the advice of counsel to use clear, coordinated and well thought-out communications. The LeBron James example is a reminder that professional scrutiny and dissection will continue long after the ink is dry on a given news announcement. In the world of public perception, how and when something is said is often as important as what is said. As we venture into the world of social media – an area where people tend to be less censored – this need for measured, coordinated and appropriate communications is especially necessary. A strong public relations voice needs to be a crucial part of corporate decisions – not just for outbound announcements and press releases but at the planning table as well. Beyond providing advice on corporate messaging, public relations should take into account how a given message will be received by different audiences in an evolving business climate. What’s more, organizations need to be mindful that with the advent of the Internet, communications now reside in cyberspace for an indeterminate amount of time, enabling people to access communications for years to come.

While your next public communication may not be at risk of a $100K fine from the NBA, remember that the implications of your words may be more far reaching than you think.