Share Moving Media

A Guide to Digital PR in Healthcare and Medical Supplies

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“Advertising is what you pay for. Publicity is what you pray for.”

This phrase has long been used to differentiate public relations from advertising. Even though both fields have transitioned from traditional media (TV, radio, print) to digital formats, it remains true today. Essentially, it means that advertising relies on paid media placement, while PR consists of earned media.

Say you want to promote a product. You can buy ad space in an e-publication. Alternatively, you might write a thought leader article for that e-publication. You share your valuable expertise while also seizing the opportunity to include a subtle callout for your product. Your readership benefits – and so do you.

This mutually beneficial characteristic defines PR. The Public Relations Society of America defines PR as a “strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

Digital PR maintains this principle while using modern tools, like content marketing and social media. For those in the healthcare and medical supplies space, digital PR offers a valuable means of showcasing expertise, engaging with target audiences, and building authority in a competitive field.

This guide gives you a toolbox of techniques you can use in your digital PR strategy.

A Toolbox for Digital PR in Healthcare

Effective PR is essentially about building a reputation. This requires multiple touchpoints. You have to target different media to reach a broad audience, establish yourself as a recognized authority in your field, and build trust.

Expert Commentaries

An expert commentary is a quote within a larger story, such as a case study, community panel, or news story written by a journalist. When you are quoted in this kind of objective content, you are acting as an expert. Look to tools like HARO, which connects experts and the journalists who need their insights.

With digital PR, you additionally gain the advantage of being able to gain backlinks. You can ask the author if they are willing to add a link to your website, driving traffic to your portal and increasing SEO rank.

Bylines

With a byline, you get to be the author. Examples include guest blog posts on other websites or op-ed pieces in digital newspapers and magazines. Again, this paints you as an expert, sharing your insights.

To leverage the power of bylines, try to write unique opinion pieces. Ideally, you will also address a trending topic. People will already be searching for information about this topic and be more likely to click on your article.

Blogs

You don’t always have to look externally for ways to get your opinion out there and establish your authority status. Your company’s blog can serve as a valuable tool for sharing practical, fact-based knowledge about your health or marketing niche. Blogs can increase your ROI 13x.

Blogs are easy to share on social media, where they can be disseminated widely by other users. You can also exchange blogs with others in your field, allowing them to post on your platform in exchange for you posting on theirs. With this publishing strategy for blogs, you both gain traction and new audiences.

Webinars and Podcasts

Webinars and podcasts are like the digital PR 2.0 of expert commentaries, bylines, and blogs. Webinars allow you to offer your expert opinion in a visual format, while podcasts offer an aural format. If the concept is so similar, what’s the point?

Different people respond to different formats. You might have people in your target audience who don’t enjoy reading long-form articles or blogs – but love listening to podcasts when they’re on the go. Disseminate your voice across more channels for maximum impact.

Social Media

Don’t write off social media as “fluff.” This is a valuable broadcasting tool. Take any of the formats described above and distribute it across social channels to expand your reach. You never know who will repost or retweet a provocative piece of content, rapidly boosting your clout.

Another reason health and medical supplies professionals can’t ignore social media is the price point. Social tools are incredibly cost-efficient. Most of them are free.

We Help You Create Your PR Toolbox

Digital PR in healthcare doesn’t have to be complicated. Share Moving Media can help you create your toolkit. We are a full-service media agency, making everything from white papers to webinars. Thanks to our focus on the healthcare and medical supplies space, we are uniquely positioned to know what kind of content you need to get the PR you want.

Subscribe to our newsletter for more tips on content strategy for healthcare. For help stocking your digital PR toolkit, contact us directly.

8 Essentials of Contract Law in Healthcare Equipment You Need to Know

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Healthcare is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country. 

Every action related to healthcare involves some type of written contract—whether between doctors and patients, suppliers and hospitals, nurses and doctors, and so on.

As a supplier or manufacturer, you deal with contracts between all parties in one form or another.

Understanding the intricacies of contract law in healthcare is key to avoiding massive problems and keeping healthy relationships.

What Types of Laws Impact Healthcare Equipment and Technology Contracts?

Regulations impact everything from pricing and expirations down to locations and usage. 

Stark Law

On the surface, Stark Law seems easy to avoid. Stark Law prevents conflicts of interests, prohibiting physician self-referral anywhere the physician might have a financial interest. 

Different clauses fall under Stark Law as well, such as the Anti-Kickback Statute. 

Dig deeper and you’ll find Stark Law covers a wide range of scenarios—including some relating to equipment and leasing. 

HIPAA

HIPAA contracts and regulations protect patient information. Years ago, HIPAA was the last of worries for most equipment suppliers and manufacturers. The explosion in digital records and smart equipment, however, has changed the game. 

Certificate of Need

Certificate of Need laws require a hospital or physician office to prove there’s a legitimate market need before expanding, building, or even acquiring new equipment like beds in some cases. 

CoN laws vary widely by state. Meanwhile, some states don’t even have CoN laws on the books. Although tempting to assume the burden falls on your buyer to establish need, it’s smart to familiarize yourself with the laws in states you operate. 

What You Need to Know About Contract Law in Healthcare for Equipment and Facilities 

41% of people already don’t trust brands to remain truthful. The stakes are especially high in industries like healthcare supplies and equipment where trust is literally a matter of life or death.

Physician and hospital reputations also depend on your knowledge of regulations and contract law in healthcare. Look at the auto industry: The Takata airbag recall sent shockwaves through every major manufacturer’s reputation. 

Similar mishaps with healthcare equipment or supplies happen all the time. 

Keep the following essentials in mind to protect yourself and build trustworthy relationships with your partners.

1. Outsourcing Your Contracts Could Earn You a Violation

When you outsource your contracts, you’re also outsourcing compliance. Keeping your contract work in-house ensures transparency. You’ll always have control over the details.

2. Automatic Renewals Can Work Against You

Some types of contracts require renegotiations or inspections. In these cases, auto-renewing your contracts could put you in violation of Stark Laws or other compliance regulations. 

3. Unsecure Technology Puts You at Risk

Equipment with smart software that integrates patient records poses a huge risk with data breaches. Make sure to review how HIPAA applies to your technology and which contracts in healthcare to work out with physicians and hospitals in terms of responsibility and data sharing.

4. Certain Technology Requires Licensing Fees

Commercial licensing violations are extremely costly. Depending on the copyright law, both suppliers and physicians could be responsible for paying licensing fees or royalties. 

5. Innovative Equipment Might Require a Certificate of Need

Hospitals have huge legal teams to manage CoN laws. Doctors at small practices, however, rely on your knowledge to make smart decisions. Set yourself apart from competitors by doing the research yourself and helping buyers navigate the local regulations.

6. Marketing Matters

Influencer marketing might be tempting, but tread carefully. Healthcare influencers like physicians could create a huge conflict of interest and violation of Stark Law, although currently a legal gray area.

Likewise, how you market your products, the language you use, and the conditions you treat all require careful configuration. The FTC cracks down on false claims and subtle marketing language in healthcare all the time. You don’t want to put your contracts in healthcare at risk from a simple marketing mishap.

7. What About Repairs?

As a healthcare supplier or manufacturer, you deal with high-value contracts. Losing a contract for a hospital system, for example, could be a disaster. 

Imagine a hospital assumes repairs are covered for a year and a $20,000 piece of equipment breaks down. Not negotiating contract terms for things like repairs and maintenance could ruin that relationship forever.

8. Comprehensive Writing is Key

When legal issues arise—no matter the entities involved—you don’t want anything left to interpretation. 

If there’s any uncertainty in terms of pricing, relationships, shipping, or maintenance, always assume it could be used against you. For example, who holds the burden of risk if a physician harms someone while using your equipment? 

You need a team of writers and law professionals on your side to draft proper contract law in healthcare.

Enhance Your Sales and Marketing with Comprehensive Content

Useful and relevant content shows your audience that you’ve done your research and you understand their biggest concerns. In an industry like healthcare supplies, building authority is key to earning trust. 

Doctors and hospitals are busy. Don’t wait for them to research your organization’s history and expertise. Show them right away with high-quality thought leadership content in your industry.

At Share Moving Media, we provide regular healthcare content tips, research, and advice backed by decades of experience. Sign up for our Marketing Minute to stay updated.

Social Media for Medical Manufacturers: The Top Tricks You’d Never Expect to Work

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Social media was once seen as a space reserved for teenagers to discuss frivolities like celebrity gossip. After all, Facebook – an early pioneer in the social media scene – began as a campus social experiment. Those days are long gone.

Today, social media is used by people from all walks of life, and serious discussions are taking place on social media.

While using social media as a marketing tool in the medical manufacturing space was once unheard of, this is no longer the case. Medical manufacturers can use social media to engage and connect with their target audiences – and even make valuable business connections. That’s if they use it right.

There are some do’s and don’ts when using social media for medical manufacturers.

The Benefits of Using Social Media as a Medical Manufacturer

Social media lets you engage with your target audience, whether that’s healthcare practitioners (HCPs), independent hospitals, or integrated delivery networks (IDNs). You can also monitor their activity via social media. For example, HCPs may communicate if they are headed to a conference.

You can also use social media to establish your medical manufacturing expertise. Share the latest publications and study results from your field. Demonstrate your knowledge by disseminating your own white paper or video seminar. Align social media with a publishing strategy for your blog to attract readers. These are just a few ideas.

By following others in your medical manufacturing niche and sharing your insights, you achieve social media’s ultimate goal — connectivity. What starts as a public exchange online can become a private discussion via email and then a one-on-one video chat or face-to-face meeting.

Still not convinced? Here’s one more winning reason to include social media in your medical manufacturing marketing strategy: It’s cheap. Social media doesn’t cost a thing. It also doesn’t require a lot of time and energy.

3 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media for Medical Manufacturers

The key to effectively using social media for brand messaging in healthcare is value. As with any content marketing, you want to create content that is useful.

Beyond this, there are a few tricks to making the most of social media.

1. Piggyback on Events

Healthcare conferences frequently have dedicated social media channels. Although some in-person events are canceled due to COVID-19, many have moved online. This makes it even easier to join a digital conversation.

The American Society of Echocardiography has a Twitter page (@ASE360) with 13.8k followers, for example, and hosts an annual conference. If you’re in the cardiovascular ultrasound sector, this is a valuable event for making connections. Getting a retweet from ASE gets people’s eyes on you and your company.

2. Join the Hashtag Movement

Your gut instinct might be to think hashtags are too “fluffy” for healthcare. Not so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention include hashtags in their digital media toolkit for flu season awareness.

Another great example: In March 2020, the World Health Organization, in cooperation with the video game industry, launched the campaign #PlayApartTogether to encourage social-distanced fun in the face of the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

If there is a hashtag relevant to your industry, use it to join the conversation.

3. Incorporate Visuals

Visuals make social media more personal. Videos can boost healthcare sales, for instance. Physician profiles and patient experiences are particularly captivating, giving your audience an intimate look at how your medical manufacturing products change the lives of HCPs and the people they serve.

If you’re looking for something simpler, infographics are a great option. They are a visually attractive means of providing useful information your audience will value.

A Word of Caution When Using Social Media in Medical Marketing

There are a few rules to keep in mind as you start designing a social media strategy for your medical manufacturing business. First, you have to remain HIPAA compliant and in line with medical ethics codes. Sharing patient pictures without consent would be a violation, for example.

If you are operating a social media account independently from your employer, take care to differentiate your online activity from your company’s. Including a line in your bio like “Any views and opinions are my own” is helpful.

Beware that a simple disclaimer in your social media bio won’t save your job if you mess up, however. There have been many instances of persons getting fired for sharing racially insensitive or otherwise problematic content on social media.

The point of this “disclaimer” isn’t to discourage the use of social media for medical manufacturers! Use common sense and maintain professionalism in the social media sphere. A good rule of thumb: If you wouldn’t share it with your boss, don’t share it on social media.

Make Social Media Part of Your Content Strategy for Healthcare

Share Moving Media is dedicated to helping medical manufacturers increase their market share. As a full-service media and content company, we can help you reach your target audience through articles, ebooks, podcasts, blog posts, webinars, and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to get more marketing tips and tricks for medical manufacturers. Want to use our services?  Contact us today!

The Proof is in the Pudding: Who is Talking About Your Product?

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As a medical supplier, you may cater to everything from integrated delivery networks to private physician practices. Whether you’re selling ultrasound diagnostics or personal protective equipment, you want to ensure your product branding in healthcare is effectively reaching your target audience.

How can you know you’re succeeding? You need to identify exactly who is talking about your product and just what they are saying – or if they’re saying anything at all. As I’ve said before, if you aren’t visible, you’re irrelevant.

Why What People Say Matters

Keeping up with consumers’ expectations and better meeting their needs is more critical in healthcare than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic has left end-users in the medical sector holding brands to a higher standard. Knowing who is talking about your product and what they are saying allows you to focus your branding efforts better.

It can also help you save money. To raise awareness about your products, you likely engage in various marketing and advertising techniques. For example, your company may participate in healthcare conferences or leverage a corporate blog and social media to support a content strategy for healthcare.

Such initiatives cost money. You want to ensure you are investing wisely and that these efforts are effectively building brand recognition. Towards this end, you can gather quantitative data (e.g., number of product mentions in medical journals) and qualitative data (e.g., physician reviews).

As an added benefit, you may also be able to pinpoint new audience segments worth targeting, allowing you to grow your market share. Consumer feedback can even give you insights into unexpected product benefits. Remember, the blockbuster drug Viagra was initially developed to treat hypertension!

Finally, knowing what people are saying about your company and products can drive smarter brand messaging in healthcare. There’s an old saying that “perception is reality.” You may craft messages that seem to address your target audience’s needs and wants. However, that’s your perception. Real-world feedback confirms whether or not this is the case. As they say, the proof is in the pudding.

How to Find Out Who is Talking About Your Product

Ready to find out what “the word on the streets” is about your products? Use these techniques to gather the data you need to improve your product branding in healthcare.

Set Up Google Alerts

Start simple. Put essential keywords like your product and company name into Google and see what comes up. If there are recent news reports about adverse events related to your product, for example, you want to know about this so you can practice reparative public relations.

To stay abreast of updates in the future, set a Google search engine alert. You input keywords (like your product name), and Google then delivers automatic updates when these keywords appear online.

Scan Google Scholar

Reputation and trust are critical in the healthcare sector, where products directly impact patient lives. New research about products, drugs, and interventions is continuously published in medical journals and healthcare magazines, which can guide industry trends.

Instead of the basic Google search engine, input your product name into Google Scholar. If there is a mention of your supplies in medical or scientific journals, this will help you discover them.

Practice “Social Listening”

Social media is a powerful platform, and you want to know if people are talking about your products on these forums. These days, everyone has an account: physicians, patients, patient advocacy groups, hospitals, insurers, and more.

Practice “social listening” to see what they’re saying. Hootsuite is a great way to monitor social media mentions in real time.

Scan Industry Website RSS Feeds

Use If This Then That to monitor industry websites in your healthcare niche. You can use the IFTTT tool to scan the RSS feeds of multiple industry websites at once and set it up to send you emails alerting you if your brand has been mentioned.

Pay for Media Monitoring Services

Don’t have the time or energy to deal with the above steps? Media monitoring services like Cision can provide daily reports compiling the latest headlines, news, and mentions about your product. You provide specific keywords (such as your company and product name) to guide their reports.

Product Branding in Healthcare: How We Can Help

If you want to improve your product branding, Share Moving Media can help. We are a full-service media company creating everything from webinars to blog posts, e-books, infographics, and more. Our high-quality healthcare marketing tools will help your brand grow and boost your bottom line. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest news on product branding in healthcare. Ready to revamp your branding strategy? Contact us now!

6 Content Optimization Tweaks for Effective Branding in Healthcare

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Why do you, as a healthcare supplier, publish content? 

You want to demonstrate your authority as a brand and set yourself apart from competitors, right?

You can’t accomplish any of your goals without solid branding throughout your content.

Branding your healthcare content isn’t as simple as tossing in a logo and colors. Instead, it requires a more nuanced strategy.

Today, we’ll cover some untapped content optimization tweaks for effective branding in healthcare to solidify your presence. 

6 Content Optimization Tips to Improve Branding in Healthcare

For healthcare suppliers and manufacturers, branding cannot be an afterthought. You must incorporate branding throughout every piece of content you publish. 

In some cases, branding will indeed include obvious logos and colors. In others, however, branding will ooze from your content in less noticeable ways. 

Potential buyers and current customers need familiarity with your content. Familiarity breeds trust. Trust encourages loyalty. 

Consistent branding is especially important for healthcare suppliers where the buyer’s journey is long, and the stakes are high. Your branding must be standardized and preserved over time. Make it your goal to prioritize branding in every comment, blog post, tweet, video, and more.

1. Look for Content Gaps to Position Yourself

7% of Google searches – over 1 billion a day and 70,000 every minute – relate to healthcare. While some come from consumers, many are doctors and decisionmakers searching for answers to their problems and questions.

Your job is to figure out which of those queries you can answer. 

Start with your competitors– research their content strategy to see which topics they already cover thoroughly. From there, study your audience’s pain points to find a content gap and focus on creating content within that arena.

2. Develop a Thought Leadership Strategy

Thought leadership isn’t reserved for Silicon Valley startups, and it’s not about nuance for its own sake. Thought leadership is about leading in your industry through well-researched content and conversations – and it’s an important part of content optimization for branding in healthcare.

In an industry like healthcare, it’s especially vital to use real author names for your content instead of generic terms like “staff writer.” Make sure only experts in your field create your content and use the same author names to build familiarity. 

All of Share Moving Media’s unique publications fill a distinct gap as thought leaders. The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, for example, is the only publication dedicated to the healthcare supply chain, and readers rely on us for the authoritative content we provide.

3. Incorporate Your Identity into Media Content

Multimedia content is your big chance to incorporate branding like logos and colors into your content marketing:

  • Custom email newsletter and social media header images
  • Adding a color filter to your images and graphics
  • Using your brand’s color scheme for infographics and social graphics
  • Adding a watermark to your image content
  • Including a brand logo in the corner of your videos 
  • Using your brand color palette for video production

First, make sure every piece of multimedia you publish is authoritative, useful, and relevant to your audience. You don’t want your brand associated with generic or boring content. 

4. Settle on a Specific Brand Voice

Remember, branding must be standardized and preserved. You can’t preserve your branding if you don’t create a standard. Comprehensive brand guidelines are key. 

Most brands know to include logo and color rules in their guidelines, but they neglect voice and tone. 

Setting the standard for voice and tone ensures your blogs, videos, and social media posts all sound the same no matter who writes them. A consistent tone might seem subtle, and it certainly is. However, a consistent tone also has a huge impact on trust and familiarity. 

5. Interact with Your Followers

Don’t be a broadcaster. A broadcaster publishes content to social media but never interacts with their followers or shares content from other accounts. 

Social media is most useful as a conversation or relationship-building tool. For healthcare suppliers and manufacturers, casual conversations in your comments and tweet replies go miles towards humanizing your brand. 

6. Include Emotional Social Share Triggers Throughout Your Content

Creating useful content is important, but usefulness alone won’t earn you shares. You must trigger an emotion if you want people to share your content with others. 

If sharing the content will demonstrate that someone is a good person, they’re more likely to share it:

  • People want to look intelligent and informed on the most current medical best practices (urgency, importance)
  • People share content to help others, like tips or insider information (exclusive, interesting, unusual)
  • People want to show their humanitarian nature by sharing content on important causes (heartwarming, optimism, inclusivity, sadness)
  • People share content that sparks conversations (intrigue, excitement, surprise)

Certain emotions work better than others. Consider what emotions you want associated with your brand. 

Prioritize Content Optimization for Branding in Healthcare and Build Better Relationships

Consistent branding in content humanizes your business and is necessary for technical fields like healthcare supplies. Content is your big chance to connect with decisionmakers at offices and hospitals and form professional relationships. 

Use branding to give them something to remember and solidify your presence as a thought leader in your industry.

Content from Share Moving Media reaches the offices and homes of several thousand healthcare decision-makers across the country. Get in touch with us to start planning your comprehensive content strategy today!