by admin | Jan 3, 2017 | News
Agency insiders share tips for getting noticed at HIMSS, securing coverage by the New York Times and more
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 3, 2017 Healthcare IT companies seeking strategic tips and advice for their 2017 public relations efforts can start by checking out a series of blog posts from Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare IT public relations and marketing agency. In brief, here are Amendola’s top posts of 2016 covering a range of topics from how to land national press to leading your company out of a healthcare PR crisis.
“Be a Media Darling.” A media darling is someone who knows how to engage the media by delivering pithy sound bites that reporters love and audiences remember. Being engaging not only helps build your brand, it keeps you high on a reporter’s list of go-to sources as well. Here is an example of how being quotable got Amendola’s client, Chris Bowen, chief privacy and security officer at ClearDATA, mentioned in USA Today. In the article, It’s East vs West in Healthcare, Bowen said, “Sometimes it’s not as comfortable as you think, straddling a barbed-wire fence like that.” Here’s a tip: Before your next scheduled media interview, write down the key message you want to convey. Then go the extra step of formulating a sound bite.
“How to Get Your Startup Covered by The New York Times.” The Times coverage of healthcare IT seems to consist almost entirely of IBM Watson Health (it helps to be one of the world’s great brands) and of large health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Conspicuously absent from their coverage is your average startup with a Series A round in the low 8-figures, and two or three marquis clients who may or may not be willing to talk to the press. The odds of such a company getting ink in the New York Times are slightly worse than the odds of being struck by lightning while speeding. And yet, sometimes, under the right circumstances and with the right preparation lightning does strike. Case in point: Amendola client Zipongo, a three-year-old San Francisco-based startup with about 50 employees, $10 million in funding, and one brilliant idea.
“Getting Noticed at HIMSS: Four Insider Tips from Industry Journalists.” With 125 credentialed press floating among a sea of 43,000-plus attendees and over 1,300 HIMSS exhibitors, rising above the noise takes hard work, tactical planning, and a little bit of luck to land the coverage your company desires. So how can you make the most out of your HIMSS investment and improve your chances of getting noticed among press, analysts, and ultimately, potential customers? We asked four respected healthcare IT journalists what advice they would give to attending vendors to maximize their efforts, remain relevant, and stand out among an overly “transformative,” “disruptive,” “innovative,” and “solution”-saturated HIMSS conference world.
“7 Factors for Finding Your Agency Soul Mate.” Selecting a PR agency is much like selecting a spouse. It’s an intimate relationship; we often talk with our own clients several times a day on the phone and email, so we know how important it is for agencies and their clients to “click.” As for finding this perfect PR match, it’s a lot like real life dating. With 25 years of experience running an agency, our founder and CEO Jodi Amendola has identified a foolproof vetting process with 7 key factors.
“What HIT Writing Needs is More Cowbell.” If the headline to this blog post made you smile, conjuring up visions of Will Farrell in a shirt two sizes too small and Christopher Walken being, well, Christopher Walken, it proved an important point: At the end of the day, clinicians and HIT leaders put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. Even if they don’t make hit records once their pants are on. Yes, there is a time to be serious and straightforward, such as in a journal article or a white paper. But in many other materials, a reference to pop culture, common quotes or other more consumer-oriented areas can put just the right amount of cowbell into your message.
Vlog: “How to Handle a Media Crisis.” In this video blog listen to Marcia Rhodes, Regional Managing Director at Amendola Communications, explain why preparing a PR crisis plan is as important as having a fire escape route.
“The Rise of Sponsored Content Or Is It Content Marketing Or Is It Native Advertising?” These terms have some subtle and not-so-subtle distinctions they are anything but one and the same. It’s important to understand the difference to ensure digital marketing program execution follows your strategy.
Amendola’s blog posts cover all things public relations and marketing. A go-to source for communications professionals, the blog publishes on a weekly basis and features over a dozen authors who are subject matter experts in every aspect of publicizing and marketing healthcare technology companies.
Tweet this: #PR insiders share tips for getting noticed at #HIMSS, securing coverage by @nytimes and more http://bit.ly/2aLriaQ | #HIT @AmendolaComm
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation four times by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Marcia Rhodes | mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
by Ken Krause | Oct 26, 2016 | Blog
By now you’ve no doubt heard about the benefits of establishing a corporate blog. One of the most important, of course, is for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. Google (and other search engines) rewards frequent content updates on your website, so if your blog is connected to your website, and it’s active you’ll rise in the organic search rankings. That makes blog writing a pretty important part of your marketing program.
This simple fact creates an ongoing challenge for many, however. Namely, coming up with interesting topics to blog about.
Sometimes the ideas flow easily, especially at first. It seems like you have a cornucopia of information to share with the market. After that initial gold rush, however, you find yourself staring at the blinking, nagging cursor for longer and longer periods of time. You’ve expended the obvious topics and begin to wonder if establishing that blog was such a great idea after all.
The reality is great blog writing ideas are all around you. They crop up in your life every day. Like Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza’s idea for a show about nothing, you just have to learn to recognize them.
Comment on industry articles
One of the good things about working in healthcare and health IT (HIT) is that there is never a lack of new information, new approaches, new discoveries or new regulations coming out. Most of us get several newsletter and at least scan the headlines every day.
These articles can become a rich source of blog fodder. For example, if an article announces a new rule or a change to a program from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that will affect your customers/clients, that’s a blog post! Link to the original article, provide a one- or two-sentence synopsis, then add your thoughts about what it means to the industry.
Or perhaps a new research report has come out that could affect your clients. Again, bringing it to your clients’ attention and providing a little analysis with it can provide added value to them while giving you a blog post that practically writes itself.
Share a tip or trick that helped a client with a general issue
This is another rich source of blog writing ideas. Perhaps your team has helped a client solve a particular issue, such as data that needed to be scrubbed in a certain way in order to be used in a specific electronic health records (EHR) system. Whatever the issue, there’s a good chance it isn’t just that one client who is facing it.
Talk about the challenge, and the problems it’s causing, then explain how to solve it. All you really have to do is recap what you’ve already done no original thinking required. If you’re not directly involved with this aspect of the business, check with the development or customer service team. They can probably keep you supplied with ideas for months. Just be sure not to give away anything the business would consider a competitive advantage.
Blog about discoveries in a related field
Everything you write about doesn’t have to be directly in your company’s space. Sometimes it can just have a loose relationship with a tie-back later.
Take the example of cognitive computing. There are all sorts of advances in this area going on outside of healthcare as well as inside. If you hear about how cognitive computing is being applied to make self-driving cars smarter, there’s a blog post. You can write about what is already happening with cars, the speculate on how it might affect healthcare or HIT in the future.
Mine some key data
Data and analytics are huge in healthcare and HIT these days. It seems just about every organization is generating tons of them. Most, however, are under-utilizing that information, especially when it comes to marketing.
You can take advantage of that by looking through the reports for trends that are interesting without giving away anything that again is proprietary. For example, if you have software that enables payers to create member portals, and there is a sudden uptick in the number of portals your team is creating, you may want to comment about how portals are on the rise and speculate as to why. That will also give you an opportunity to talk about the advantages of portals to encourage more sales.
Or maybe you see that your clients’ customer satisfaction scores are suddenly on the rise. You can find out what changes they’ve made to enable that to happen and share them with your blog audience.
Pay attention to day-to-day conversations
Each day you, your co-workers, your clients and others share information and ideas in passing. It may be through conversations, emails, reports, meetings or some other sources.
Hidden within the ordinary course of business may be a few nuggets that can make worthy blog posts. All you’ll need to do is listen to them with that filter in mind. If a co-worker says something you find interesting write it down. Establish a folder for emails that contain good ideas that you can reference later if you’re stuck.
However you save them, the good news is when you need an idea and none are coming to you immediately you can go back to your files and dig one up. Just be sure you have enough information available to remember what the original topic was. Nothing worse than having a great headline and no idea what it means.
Work with your PR agency on ideas
While most healthcare and health IT companies tend to be very specialized in a particular aspect of the industry, PR agencies such as Amendola Communications cover a much wider swath. That can work in your favor by bringing in ideas that are related to, but not dead center in, your sweet spot.
If you have one, you can brainstorm topics with your PR agency, taking advantage of their experience to in other areas, especially general industry knowledge, to develop blog topics you might not have thought of on your own.
Of course, having a PR agency also means you can turn over some or all of the content creation to them, particularly if writing isn’t your strong suit. But even if you prefer to do your own writing, that sort of collaboration can open you to new ideas and areas that help build your blog as a go-to resource for your target audience.
Yes, blog writing can be challenging. The Internet is always hungry for new content. But the reality is great ideas for posts are all around you. You just have to know how to find them or let them find you.
