I regularly follow both Nick Jacobs at Nick's Blog and Paul Levy at Running a Hospital cited in Tony's post. Both are examples of extremely successful blogging hospital CEOs who understand the Live Web medium. Take for example the fact that Paul commented on Tony's post four hours after it was published (see the post comments).
I agree with Tony's perspective and warning when he says:
It's a lot of work and there is no hard-core ROI, but for the right type of person, it pays off in other ways. Both of these CEOs can probably point to examples where their blog put out a PR fire before it could start. They've built trust and credibility through the blog. They've humanized the hospital through the blog. So when fires do come (and of course, they will), they're well positioned to engage authentically. We are entering an age where proactive transparency is rewarded and reactive transparency is lame.
One word of warning. Don't blog if your organization:
* Doesn't trust their employees.
* Doesn't want to hear bad news.
* Wants absolute control over their message and reputation (this isn't happening anymore anyways)
* (the kicker) Doesn't have someone who's really wired to do it.
3 comments:
Bob,
Thanks for referencing us. The outcome of blogging at Windbercare has been beyond our wildest expectations. We are now writing for several healthcare related publications, have been cited in Modern Healthcare, Fortune and others, and continue to receive invitations to "get the word out." It has been very positive, and keeps people on their toes as well. Was it me to whom he was referring? Fun.
Nick
Thanks from this quarter, too, Bob. I never would have predicted the response, but now that I have seen it, I can't imagine a better way for me to have spent my time.
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