Online Journalist Tools Make Ideal Match for Health Care Organizations
By Lisa D. Ellis
The trend of using online relationship sites continues to be a popular way for singles to meet potential mates. Now, some savvy hospital marketers are using similar types of matching tools to connect them with reporters and bloggers as a way to build strategic relationships to help promote their services to a larger audience. The end goal is also a “marriage” of sorts—but this one is made by getting their organizations name on popular media outlet websites, as well as on television and in print publications.
A Continuing Trend
“Online media query [and] subject matter expert match services are valuable to integrated marketing programs, especially ones with an emphasis on publicity,” says Karyn Odway, principal at CyanPoint Communications, a Chicago-based boutique PR firm focused on health care. She says she has been using these types of channels to connect her clients to journalists for more than a decade and it seems like this trend is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.
“This key tool is one more way to connect physicians and other health care professionals with editors and producers to share their expertise. The resulting visibility helps to boost the hospital’s reputation and can potentially grow a patient base.”