A Pinteresting Case for Healthcare Marketing

by Lauren Wunderlich

Pinterest is the hot new social media phenomenon.  But will it succeed in the long run? Many believe Pinterest’s unique place in the social media atmosphere will help it succeed, while some critics believe privacy issues might hint at a bumpy road ahead. For hospital marketers, the overlap of the key healthcare decision maker + the demographic of the average Pinterest user — higher income women ages 18-34 — is more than enticing. (TechCrunch). This is one obvious case for Pinterest’s value in healthcare marketing strategies — but is it worth precious marketing dollars and time?  Read on to find out. The Basics So what makes Pinterest so…um, interesting?  After all, it’s just pictures, right? Hive Strategies says this:  “People use Pinterest to organize their favorite things and browse other people’s favorite things.”  Users create boards to pin items of interest and share them with others.  Pinterest goes far beyond pretty pictures and gives the user something else entirely — inspiration. (And a way to nurture their inner Martha Stewart.) Value to Healthcare Marketers Pinterest is a great way to organize content so it can quickly + easily be accessed. This ability to curate content is a great argument for Pinterest’s value to hospital marketers. By aggregating content in one space, whether from your own hospital website or other sources, a hospital can easily educate + engage patients. Think of it this way: instead of sending a patient home with brochures on stretching exercises or a new diabetic meal plan, staff can just direct them to the “Rehabilitation Exercises” or “Diabetic Recipes” board on your hospital’s Pinterest page. http://pinterest.com/summitmedicalnj/rehabilitation-exercises/ http://pinterest.com/trishbarker/diabetic-recipes/ Another sell for healthcare marketers is Pinterest’s ability to generate web traffic.  Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn + YouTube combined, according to Shareaholic. Impressive numbers — made all the more impressive knowing most of these visitors are our coveted female, 18-34 demographic. Still need convincing?  Check out these stats from ragan.com: Pinterest retains and engages users two to three times more efficiently as Twitter did at the same age. Pinterest accounts for 3.6 percent of referral traffic, while Twitter is just barely ahead, accounting for 3.61 percent of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for only 0.17 percent of referral traffic.  More than one-fifth of Facebook-connected users are on Pinterest daily. This represents more than 2,000,000 members In May 2011, an average Pinterest visitor spent 13.7 minutes per month on the site. In January 2012, each Pinterest visitor spent an average of 97.8 minutes per month on the site. Who’s on Pinterest? As the statistics show, Pinterest is definitely catching the attention of marketers. However, it has yet to be a real hit in the healthcare industry.  Brands like Etsy, HGTV, Whole Foods + Nordstrom have a presence on Pinterest, but only a handful of hospitals have decided to climb onboard.  Here are a few of the early joiners: Dayton Children’s Medical Center Dayton Children’s Medical Center uses content from their website to increase traffic.  Check out how they’re using inspirational patient stories to direct users back to their own website: Baylor Health Baylor Health has boards on interactive health quizzes, healthy holidays, family health, health awareness, fitness + more. With over 200 followers already, it looks like they’re doing something right. Some additional healthcare organizations using Pinterest are Inova Health, Summit Medical Group, + MD Anderson Cancer Center. Check out their Pinterest sites for some fresh ideas + inspiration. Potential Setbacks Although Pinterest seems like a fresh approach to social media, as with anything new, there are always improvements to be made.  As mentioned earlier, privacy (or more the lack of it) has come into question for some.  Also, there has yet to be a healthcare or wellness listing within Pinterest; so in order to be noticed, you must direct people to boards/ page directly. Using social media to generate traffic to your hospital’s Pinterest page is a great way to go, but Pinterest isn’t likely to generate unsolicited traffic. Finally, it might be hard to justify the extra time + resources spent cultivating your presence on Pinterest. Not only is there no analytics component to measure brand performance within the site, but there’s also the intimidating thought of developing a whole new social media presence. Wrap-Up Pinterest is a fun, visually stimulating + inspiring approach to communicating with  hospital consumers, but whether or not it will be viable in the long-term is still too close to call.  At the very least, hospitals should keep their eyes open for any new opportunities that are bound to present themselves with Pinterest. Is Pinterest worth your hospital’s time and valuable marketing resources?  Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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