Health System Makes Big Impact with Just a Smartphone, Tripod, and Facebook Account
Learn How Low-Key Marketing Campaign Has Moved the Needle with Facebook Live
// By Lisa D. Ellis //
Sometimes the simplest plans are the most effective. That’s what one health system discovered when it stumbled onto a no-cost way to share its expertise across its target area. In the process, it also succeeded in spotlighting the more personal side of its physicians, while showcasing key service lines to attract and engage an impressive number of patients.
Creating On-Site Presentations to Draw People In
Bay Area Regional Medical Center, in Webster, Texas, first opened its doors in July 2014. As an independent new facility in the Houston Bay Area not affiliated with any larger systems or networks, it had to work hard at first to establish its reputation in an already crowded market.
Abbey Lee, director of marketing and business development at Bay Area Regional Medical Center
“Initially the goal was to find a way to help get people inside the hospital’s doors to see how beautiful it was, have a good first experience, and understand the services provided,” says Abbey Lee, director of marketing and business development for the facility.
Drawing Patients to the Facility
The strategy was to host a series of informative presentations in the hospital conference room, spotlighting different service lines and physicians. The events were publicized throughout the community and online. Some of the topics covered were orthopedics, cardiology, bariatrics, and women’s imaging.
These topics resonated and the efforts were more effective than the hospital had bargained for.
“A lot of people were intrigued since we were a new hospital. They were interested in seeing how we looked,” Lee remembers. But the downside, if there is such thing around being too effective, is that the events, repeatedly had more people show up than the conference room could accommodate.
Lee was happily surprised by the widespread response, realizing that people had real interest in getting reliable information on timely topics delivered by a physician they could trust. Therefore, during one of the hospital seminars, Lee went out on a limb and decided to go live on Facebook just to see what would happen. “We saw that a lot of people watched,” she says. She tried broadcasting a few more seminars as well and found that hundreds of people were actually tuning in.