SHAUNA NICHOLSON: DIGITAL BUSINESS STRATEGIST

There are many organizations ready to pull the trigger on using social media to connect with the community and start doing business. For some industries, however, there is a lot of red tape. Law offices, medical professionals, and industry regulators share one main concern: How do you connect with the community without sharing too much?

Whether coming from HIPPA or Joe Blow, a law suit is always a headache. You can avoid these issues by following a few rules:

1. Start with strategy. Organizing your efforts will make all of the difference. While you should have a method for listening for your brand across the web, focusing efforts on social media websites that are most relevant to your brand’s community will reap the greatest benefits. Outline where boundaries lie.
2. Choose your team wisely. Interns are great for teaching, not for de-facto project management. Avoid traditional PR pros, as they may stifle the conversational-feel, but keep them close by. Those responsible for conversations on behalf of your brand need to be people you would put on your sales floor, manage your press conference, and “live” the brand. These critical thinkers need to understand the boundaries of the industry and of the company. This generally discludes those who use stuffy press releases, RSS feeds, or overly technical jargon to communicate. Remember: Social media is akin to a conference call, not a megaphone.
3. Consider what you CAN share. Consider your everyday offline conversations with potential clients. What do you discuss? How do you engage them? Is it always all-business?
4. Start with which resources you CAN provide. Your business is successful because you provide things your consumers need. This makes you the expert. Take a look around the office for trade publications and books. These topics influence your business for a reason. Check out the content within them and share it.
5. Understand what makes your brand human. Chances are your consumers don’t have particularly fuzzy feelings your brand’s legal team. In fact, those guys have probably never crossed your consumers’ minds. Most of the conversations in social media are topical and resourceful.

CASE STUDY: Hospital system & HIPAA

A hospital system I’ve worked with had the same concern:

How do we honor patient privacy (and HIPAA) while connecting with the social web community?

Let’s consult the rules:

1. Start with strategy.
   We plugged in a few tools to listen for relevant keywords. We identified what types of hospital information we could not go into detail about. For example: No discussing patient-specific care. No mentioning doctors by name without prior consent. No providing specific medical advice.
2. Choose your team wisely.
   This particular hospital system had a great network of hospital support staff ready to jump in. While a member of the marketing team managed most of the day-to-day engagement, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists took a few hours each month to help out. With the marketing team member guiding things, getting “buy in” from other team members was a breeze.
3. Start with what you CAN share.
   Just as the hospital had receptionists on each floor the marketing team member could guide the social community around their website and direct to external resources (see number 4). They could talk about and share images from company picnics, published (and exciting!) research milestones, and the latest charity.
4. Consider what resources you CAN provide.
   Just like major health magazines–and even the government–providing topical health information was very much on the table. For this particular type of information a disclaimer was always required. We chose condition-specific advice (“Cooking for New Diabetics: The sugar exchange”) and general healthy living topics (“Family Health: Exercises every age will love”).
   
5. Understand what makes your brand human.
   We took a look at how some members of the community were already engaging with each other. The hospital system was encouraged by budding condition-specific communities such as My Cancer Place and KnowCancer. While they avoided joining communities like this, it was clear the community was actively discussing their experiences online.
   Listening is an incredible tool for building trust. So we took a look at what causes a community to trust a hospital system. It was clear: The trust fell in the hands of the human element–the staff. Consumers trust doctors beyond their credentials. Consumers trust them because they feel doctors understand their human-needs–and their bodies.

The result was an engaged hospital system. They knew the community unlike many businesses within it. Opening up to the social web community allowed this client even greater understanding and way to connect and share resources in an unprecedented manor. They were able to provide healthy living tips without the exorbitant costs of printing. They were able to follow up on consumer concerns because they were listening. They were able to further the communities’ trust because they participated.

YOUR TURN: What red tape has your company run into? How can these tips change your approach to the social web?