By Don Tepper
As a child, did you ever play “Telephone”? Players sat in a circle. The first one would whisper a sentence to the person sitting in the next chair. The second person would whisper what he or she thought the message was to the next person. And so on. The final player would say the message out loud . . . usually to the great amusement of the other players. The message invariably had become distorted, sometimes beyond recognition.
I remembered that game after receiving a recent e-mail. That e-mail also illustrates a major weakness of social media and blogging.
The e-mail addressed 3 health-related topics. One was: “The Importance of Marketing to Physicians.” Could be interesting.
The text read: “Recently there has been a surge in the amount of healthcare applications that help doctors care for their patients, even when time prohibits a face-to-face visit. If doctors didn’t initially embrace smart phones and new technology, they have certainly come full-circle.” It ended with a link to read more.
Click.
Whisper.
The link took me to a short blog on the Web site of Russell Herder, the company that sent the e-mail. The blog continued: “According to blogger Nicola Ziady, ‘online promotion (for health care professionals) is growing in its importance, specifically as it relates to helping doctors care for their patients, teaching trainees, and performing their jobs more efficiently.’”
Interesting, but nothing addressing the importance of marketing to physicians or how to do it. However, there was a link to Ziady’s blog.
Click.
Whisper.
That took me to Ziady’s posting on “Ragan's Healthcare Communication News.”
Would I finally find out why and how to market to physicians?
Umm, no. Instead, there was a bland: “Marketers are working to integrate their offerings into the digital tools and venues that clinicians already trust, but also to utilize these tools for business purposes.” Not exactly news.
Worse, the blog concludes: “Health care marketers: What have been your success stories when marketing to physicians?” The reader isn’t being offered advice. He/she is being asked for advice.
No tips. No tools. No evidence that physician marketing even pays off.
That’s not the end of it. Ziady’s blog didn’t originate on “Ragan’s Healthcare Communication News.”
Whisper.
It actually originated on Ziady’s own site which does offer useful information.
Who-did-what-to-whom isn’t important here. What’s important is how the blog’s message morphed from Ziady to Ragan to Herder to e-mail.
Funny how the Internet and social media have seamlessly adopted the children’s game of Telephone.
Incidentally, if you want to play the game, go right ahead.
Whisper.
A button on the Russell Herder site lets visitors Tweet the blog—with their own interpretation—to their followers.
Pass it on.
Resource
Nicola Ziady’s blog
Russell Herder blog
