New years often bring New Year's resolutions, and while most don't last through the year, one regional physician group decided to make 2009 a year of new social media marketing initiatives. Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants' (SAC) commitment to two-way conversations on the Internet began in January and has continued throughout 2009 with remarkable success.
When Kristen Bostedo-Conway joined SAC, she and her marketing team immediately started working on a creating a robust online presence that included Facebook, Twitter and friendlier, more resourceful web sites - something the group of anesthesiologists had never ventured into before. In October, they launched the new web sites: http://www.seanesthesiology.com and http://www.sepaincare.com.
"First, I just wanted them to have a larger presence online so that we could be seen as a resource," Bostedo-Conway said. "Next, I wanted them to jump ahead of the curve and use this space as a way to grow, give back and engage in a dialogue with consumers and trade publications."
When the group decided to donate $25,000 to the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte, they did more than just write a check. They used an event sponsorship in order to promote the practice and the charity. Partnering with BB King, Bostedo-Conway's team was able to generate awareness for the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte as well as Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants through text messages, Facebook, Twitter and their web site.
Through this one event sponsorship, they saw the traffic to their web site jump almost 16 percent; their Facebook fan numbers climbed from 0 to 245. In the weeks following the concert, their fan numbers have grown to 732 with active interaction from fans on a daily basis.
SAC's next large push in the social media realm will come for their sponsorship of a performance of "Grease" in Charlotte on Dec. 3. That sponsorship will end with a $24,600 donation to the American Pain Foundation, and they plan to use similar social media marketing tactics to promote ticket sales for the performance and awareness about living in pain.
"Using social media to promote our partnerships with philanthropic organizations has had a very large impact. It is exciting that we are able to bring awareness to deserving organizations and begin a two-way dialogue with consumers about both pain and anesthesia." Bostedo-Conway added. "Through Twitter and Facebook we are able to reach a larger audience than ever before, and dialogue that we have been able to generate proves there is a need for organizations to have active and ongoing communication with consumers regarding all types of topics."
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