Grantee Spotlight: September 2011

Successful Outreach Using Social Media

By Jodi Phillips
Maternal and Family Health Services
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701

As more women go online to connect with friends, get news, and even get health information, it’s important that we as health care providers are there to provide accurate and lifesaving health information. In order to reach women who use the web as their main source of information, Maternal & Family Health Services has found that online marketing and social media is an important piece in the puzzle in promoting breast health services and reaching women in need.

In order to fully extend our online reach, Maternal & Family Health Services has used a full complement of online marketing tools to promote our breast health services. On the web, we have links to all social media on our website, and we interlink the social media profiles, and share unique content from each on the other profiles. We have also included the information on how to find us online on printed materials we hang in our centers and give to clients, as well as on outreach materials. We regularly post messages about breast health on our Twitter, Facebook and MySpace pages. We also have an agency blog, where we talk in more detail about healthy living and breast health events in the community. Additionally, Maternal & Family Health Services was accepted into the Google Grants program, which provides free advertising in Google search results. When someone in our service area searches for keywords related to breast health, they see an ad for Maternal & Family Health Services. We have one full time staff person who manages the online marketing for all of our programs. All of our online marketing efforts work hand in hand to encourage users to visit our website for more information, and then to call and make an appointment. We currently have 379 people who “like” us on facebook and on twitter we have 429 “followers”.

This holistic approach allows us to do several things. We are able to use the internet to educate women about breast health and mammograms. They are able to learn at their own pace, and to gather the information in private if they are nervous about speaking on the phone or approaching us at a health fair. We’re also able to track the performance of all our online efforts in detail with Google Analytics, and we continually refine our approach so that we can create a marketing message that resonates with the women in our community, and get them to the services they need. Online marketing has become a valuable tool in connecting our community to better health.

According to our Breast Health Services staff, one woman who lives in a very rural area with limited access to healthcare called our breast health hotline. Living with no insurance and in an area that is at least an hour from the nearest healthcare center, our staff asked how she was referred to MFHS. Feeling a lump in her breast and not knowing exactly what to do, she went online and searched for free mammograms. As she lives in the MFHS service area, she saw the MFHS “Pass the Power of Pink” ad on Google for free breast health services. She was linked to the MFHS website and called MFHS for more information. The MFHs breast health services staff were able to connect her with a provider in her area as well as offer her assistance with her travel needs. The ability to reach women in these hard to each areas is priceless.

Avon BHOP is coordinated by Cicatelli Associates Inc.
505 Eighth Avenue, 16th fl.
New York, NY 10018-6505
phone (212) 594-7741
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