How should Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Use Twitter and Why?

February 23, 2010 · Posted in Social Media 

CHOA – or Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is a terrific organization. We recently spent a weekend there with our son when he had RSV. The hospital is amazing. They make you feel comfortable, they have hundreds of services, they offer room service to the parents, they have educational tv programs for adults, there is a computer lab, they have wifi, they do everything necessary to make a hard and scary time easy for the kids and the parents. Children’s is flat out an awesome organization.

While I was at the hospital I was on my computer and decide to see what kind of social media presence CHOA had. It turns out they really don’t have any social media presence at all. This is a true loss of opportunity for an organization such as Children’s because it is such a cheap and effective way to reach their target audiences both customers and donors. The day we were in the hospital happened to be the day of the Children’s parade in Atlanta. Seeing only five tweets mention the parade or CHOA  amazed me and I posted one of them.

Children’s is way too valuable a resource to our community to have such little presence in one of the largest twitter markets in the country.

What would be the objective for Children’s to use Twitter. The number one thing to keep in mind is that social media of all kinds is meant for relationship building and to funnel leads into your sales funnel. So if I were positioning CHOA I would recommend focusing on a major goal of spreading the word for fundraisers and leverage the technology to inform and attract more people to charitable events.

The initial strategy and measurement for this type of work with twitter would be quite easy to implement. A landing page or blog post should be set up specifically for an event. Then  a URL shorten-er that tracks click troughs could be used to send tweets about the campaign.  That is the simple part, the larger part of the twitter effort would be to capture the brand image of service and provide users on-line the same service they get at the hospital. This strategy can be taken in many directions, such as providing nurses to respond to simple customer questions or having doctors tweet about the benifits of a particular surgery. The possibilities are truly endless.

Encouraging customers to tweet about their experience with CHOA would be another great objective and could be accomplished with a messaging campaing asking for feedback from parents. CHOA could choose to measure the success of this program simply by looking at the increase in tweets about CHOA from non CHOA accounts.

Ideally CHOA shouldn’t have to tweet about their parade on the day of the parade because their followers will do it for them but that won’t happen unless CHOA is out there actively interacting with the on-line social community.

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Comments

  • I actually came across this post when I googled 'CHOA on Twitter', hoping they had a presence! We are working on the Taste of the Highlands event to raise money for CHOA and would love to feature them more via our Twitter presence.
    The event is coming up in May, should be a fun way to support CHOA! http://www.tasteofthehighlands.com/
  • @WhiskAwayNic Choa does now have a presence on Twitter They are @childrensatl. I hope you have great success with tasteofthehighlands.
  • That is a very wise post indeed. All nonprofit organizations should have some presence in social media. Every 501c3 has folks that will speak well of them, be their advocate and spread the word about what they do. Especially with the good works that CHOA does, I know that folks would be eager to hear more stories from patients and staff.
    I know a couple folks over at CHOA and will share these posts with them.

    Trey Burley
    I handle the tweets and some of the other social media aspects for Captain Planet Foundation.
  • Trey, Thanks for you thoughts and sharing with CHOA. I'm not sure who, where or how but they did see this post and promis to be present soon. I'm very excited to see what's comming and hope they keep us informed so we can be a voice for them.
  • I too, think that CHOA could benefit from using social media tools - specifically Twitter and YouTube. It would be so awesome to see them have a YouTube channel showcasing success stories - simply to help put a face to the name. Showcasing new technology, doctors, staff, and of course patients and their families. Reading about what CHOA is doing is one thing, actually seeing it is another. I am sure it would make worried parents much more comfortable and it would make CHOA more familiar to the public - on a whole new level. They could even do videos specifically for the kids to make them more comfortable - we sometimes forget hospitals can be a such a scary place for the kiddos.

    The benefits of Twitter are boundless - informational, conversational, it's indeed relationship building. And it's a great tool to help w/ fund raising as well. I agree with Julie Roberts below - I, for one, love hearing success stories! I know I am not the only one.
  • Nicole,

    Thanks so much for your comments. I agres Children's is huge and they currently have no social presence. There are so many opportunities for them and I love the idea of interviewing parents and doing video. Realistically CHOA should have a blog, should have many of their employees tweeting and should be sharing so much of what they do on facebook as well. That said since they haven't entered any area of social media I wanted to make a suggestion that was actionable and measureable. By the way I'm with both you and James in offering my services.
  • This is a great topic Kevin! I took just a few minutes to see if I could find CHOA anywhere. There is a Facebook group (not a fan page) with 111 members at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?g...

    I totally see your point, and I couldn’t agree more that a place like CHOA could, and SHOULD be very present on the social web. One of the keys to success in social media is the passion about a topic that can be conveyed. Passion is a natural conduit for the spreading of a message or a cause, and I can’t imagine anything more passionate than concern for the health and well-being of children.

    I think that CHOA needs much more than a presence on Twitter, though this would be a great place for them to get involved as quickly as possible. I can understand the needs and budget restraints of an organization such as this. So to me, social media seems like it would be a great way to spread the word about the great work and needs of this Atlanta asset.

    Thank you for bringing this up today Kevin, well done! If anyone from CHOA is reading this and there is a real interest, know that I, and likely many others like me, would be more than happy to aid in the implementation of a social media strategy for CHOA.
  • James thanks for coming by and commenting. As usual you add so much to the conversation and you make a great point. CHOA being on a limited budget could gain so much for a presence in social media at such a comparably low cost. Additionally there media campaign in Atlanta is omni present and must cost big dollars. I imagine diverting a small portion of the costs from that campaign to a social media strategy could provide comparatively huge returns.
  • I couldn't agree more! As a parent of two kids who have had transplants at Children's I'm a firm believer they need to utilize social media. We tweeted our daughter's entire surgery along with a reporter doing our story...and just a handful of tweets came out of CHOA reps - but they were personal accounts of theirs. Probably over a hundred tweets that day alone, all positive, could have been used as a success story.
  • Julia thank you for coming by and commenting. I read your blog and was very moved by your story. Wouldn't it be amazing if Children’s implemented the ability to facilitate stories like yours? If they could share the successes they could help both put parents at ease and increase donor dollars.
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