PixelRN

Recently I wrote about how companies might use social media to reach out to nurses, and discussed how Johnson & Johnson might use Twitter to start a conversation about their products. After writing that post, I learned that J&J now has a health channel on Youtube and I think this is an exciting step in the right direction.

Now let’s take a look at the other medical company that uses an ampersand in its name: Smith & Nephew. One of my favorite products that they make is the Allevyn wound dressing. It’s a highly absorbent, non-adhesive dressing that is very effective for pressure ulcers. So how does S&N get the message out to nurses about this product? Two ways come to mind:

1. Product Demos. This could occur on the unit, perhaps on an education day, or maybe at a conference. Usually done by sales reps who bring a big bag of candy to keep everyone interested.

2. Company Website. Overall, The S&N website has a nice look to it - good use of color and graphics. There’s some navigation issues but beyond that, here is a place I see room for improvement. When I navigate to one of the products I use and click on “contact us,” I am lead to a screen that looks like this:

Okay, so it looks pretty but who is going to take the time to fill out this form? S&N should be finding ways to make it easy for us to contact them. To me this seems like a lot of hassle just have a informal discussion about a product. On the other hand, if S&N had some interesting learning materials on say, Youtube, Flickr, or perhaps even a corporate blog I would then have a venue to leave a comment and perhaps start a conversation about the product.

This is where large companies like Smith & Nephew are missing the boat.

On the other hand, I have a pretty good reason why they aren’t interested in opening the lines of conversation to their customers. First of all, there is a feeling in the marketing department of most of these companies that you have to control your brand, control your message, under all circumstances. I would suspect that the other reason is that they aren’t yet convinced of the ROI in joining in the social media parade.

As a nurse, (and a social media evangelist) I would love to see some more of these companies start joining in the Groundswell. When these companies send their sales reps to give us a little demo at change of shift, you know what I’m thinking? “Let’s wrap this up as quickly as possible. I have a boatload of stuff to do and I need to hit the ground running.” If they come in the middle of the afternoon I am thinking, “Okay, what form of carbs did they bring so I can snarf that up and then get back to finishing things up?” My mind is not really in the right place to be learning about a new product.

Why not figure out a way to reach out to nurses when they are relaxed, and not thinking about the 389 things they have to get done before change of shift? Or better yet, why not create some really compelling learning content that nurses would seek out rather than bothering them while they are working?

So who’s going to be first?