Popularity: Who Needs It?

By Michelle LeCompte, Content Strategist

Although most of us figured out that popularity was overrated as soon as high school was over, now that we’re all hanging out on the social media campus, it may be time for a reminder.

A recent (paraphrased) Doonesbury cartoon made the point perfectly:

Teenage son: “Cool beans! I just hit 1000 followers on Twitter!”

Dad: “Uh-huh. And which of these pals will help you move or loan you money?”

While the teenagers at my house share the son’s perspective, I tend to relate more to the dad’s perspective. Yes, a big group of friends and followers casts a great social glow, but would you invite any of these amigos to dinner, a movie, a study date? Heck, how many would even know where you live – let alone expend the energy to get there?

What Makes a Good Hospital Web Site?

By Eric Engelmann, President & CEO

When asking hospitals what makes a good Web site, we often hear terms like “interactive capabilities,” “easy to use” and “has lots of content, especially educational content.” While these aren’t necessarily wrong, it’s what’s not on this list that’s disappointing.

Imagine asking Michael Dell about what it is that makes Dell.com “good.” Or Jeff Bezos about what makes Amazon.com a “good” Web site. Of course it has to be easy to use. But strategically, the thing that makes dell.com or amazon.com “good” is that the Web sites are intricately tied to executing business strategy. Both of those companies used the Web site as core, critical parts of how they delivered on their missions.

Could Healthcare Assemble a Twelpforce?

By Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evangelist

Customer service in healthcare is challenging.  The difficulty comes from hospitals in general being a complex system.  There are a lot of disconnected entities that need to work together in order to get something accomplished.  But when there are problems, it’s often tough to determine where the actual issue is hiding, let alone find someone who can sort it out and make it right.

Look at a typical surgery, for example.  In addition to the surgeons, who are likely not employed by the hospital at which the surgery is performed, you have nurses (who are employed by the hospital), anesthesiologists (who aren’t) and during recovery, you may be monitored by a hospitalist (who is).  Add to that the surgical suite itself, ambulance company (if used), and let’s not forget your insurance company… yeah, it’s getting a little crowded. 

So when you get a stack of unintelligible bills, none of which quite align with the others, where do you even begin?

Give Your Web Site a Social Life!

By Casey Hansen, Front-end Developer

It is no secret that Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are changing the way we communicate online. Rather than relying on email, we now spend time finding friends on Facebook and typing message we can squeeze into 140 characters on Twitter. Communications are changing, which opens up a new set of avenues for you to reach your visitors.

Integrating social media into your Web site’s design is an integral part of making the delicate dance of site visitor relations work. If you want people to respect your Facebook page, for example, it needs to fit with your overall Web presence. There are several ways you can help people  get involved with your social media efforts and many of them are related to your Web site design. Let’s take a look…

Much Ado About Twitter (And Why I’m Un-following Hundreds of my Tweeps)

By Ben Dillon, Vice President, & eHealth Evangelist

By now, you’ve likely heard of Twitter.  Although most online-connected people have heard of it, I find the majority don’t really know what Twitter is or frankly don’t understand the attraction.

This doesn’t surprise me.  I was one of them.

Effective Change Management – Are You Listening?

By Linda Barnes, Vice President, Marketing & Communications

So many statistics – this IABC speaker says:

• 80 percent of change initiatives fail
• 90 percent of employees know when a project is not on track to meet its objectives
• 19 percent believe they are empowered to alert management to the problem

Does your organization have multiple feedback mechanisms in place for employees? Do employees trust that their opinion counts and that management will listen? In an economy where many organizations are implementing huge change initiatives, doesn’t it make sense to try to improve your chances of success?

Are Your Employees Delivering on Your Brand Promise?

By Linda Barnes, Vice President, Marketing & Communications

This fascinating IABC session talked about industries where employees ARE an organization’s brand promise and the importance of aligning your internal and external brands. Consider two examples:

1. A major McCorporation creates a jingle, “We love to make you smile,” and rolls it out through a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. The problem:  minimum wage employees in a job they don’t like don’t typically smile at customers … and really don’t care if customers smile or not. The irony was overwhelming, blogged about relentlessly, and the campaign was pulled shortly after it rolled out.
2. Another major food organization rolls out a national marketing campaign promising delivery of their product to your home in 30 minutes or it’s free. Unfortunately, the franchisees – the people who have to deliver on this brand promise – aren’t in a position to make it happen. The result is frustrated employees, dissatisfied customers, and a brand that nobody believes.

Learning from Best Buy

By Linda Barnes, Vice President,  Marketing & Communications

This week, I’m attending the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) World Conference. Yesterday I listened to the President and COO of Best Buy talk about internal communications. His passion for and belief in the power of communications and the importance of transparency was especially inspirational, as those are common goals at Geonetric.  Two comments that intrigued me:

Opening the Door to Transparency

By Eric Engelmann, President & CEO

This month we’re celebrating Geonetric’s 10^th anniversary! It’s a big milestone in our company’s history, and I’m proud to be a part of making that happen. Still, I like to look forward to what’s coming next, and one of the important things we want to do over our next 10 years is change the way companies like Geonetric do business.

We advise clients to use transparency (e.g. patient satisfaction or quality measures) as a communication strategy. Now it’s time for Geonetric to follow our own advice. We’re going to open things up. A lot.

We’re starting with client satisfaction. Client satisfaction is the most important overall measurement we have: how happy our clients are with our products and services. We measure this every quarter, across every client, and try to include representatives from every perspective: executive stakeholders, project managers, software users, etc. This isn’t a Web survey, either. Sandra, our vice president of client services, and I call each client every quarter to ask for the good, the bad, and occasionally, the ugly. It’s all dutifully recorded, compiled, and presented for everyone in the company to see at our quarterly meetings.

Iowa’s Recent Code Camp

By Grant Keiser, Senior Application Developer

I was fortunate enough recently to attend the Iowa code camp, sponsored in part by Geonetric.  A code camp is a great idea where developers are encouraged to follow a few guidelines, including things like “always free” and “by and for the developer community.” Iowa’s code camp followed these guidelines and in my opinion, was a success.