If a Medical University Can Understand Social Media, Surely You Can

I love keeping my eye on my Twitter stream.  It always amazes me to see the comments, discussions, quotes, and stories that quickly scroll down my Tweetdeck screen.  This morning, one in particular grabbed my attention. It was talking about how the Medical University of South Carolina had created a “social media newsroom” to share insightful and educational information to “the community.”

How amazing it is to finally have a case study

Over the past few months there have been numerous conferences and events around the high-level concepts of using social media.  A new “social media guru” pops up on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media networks almost every 10 minutes claiming that if you listen to them, you will be making “big bucks with 1 hour of work.”  Most of these individuals and talks at events seem to be regurgitating the same information in terms of trust, being authentic, having authority, and other high-level concepts. Many do not actually get into the details of presenting actionable steps and strategies on how to actually leverage social media in your organization.

While I am NOT saying that this high-level information isn’t needed or important and I do surely agree it is powerful, I just believe we’ve finally gotten to the point where we’ve beaten that “dead horse” and it’s time to move on to showing how it’s all done.  To reinforce that thought, there are numerous posts by other employed professionals, business owners, and even college students who are also asking for real-world case studies on how organizations are leveraging social media to create a positive impact on their business (whether financially or otherwise.) Unfortunately, not too many examples have been presented.  Even the cool, hip marketing firms that are usually “on top of the buzz” have not really come out to share how they use it to grow their business.  We’re all being held in limbo holding our breathe!

Side note: If you have heard of any, please share in the comments… it just means I’m not connected to the right people or attending the right events to hear about them! I do not claim to be a social media expert even though I operate a strategic marketing firm.  I just want to be taught like the rest of us!

The school that got “hip” on social media

Then there’s the Medical University of South Carolina’s new “social media newsroom.”  Yes that’s right, a freakin’ school has come up with what I think is a brilliant strategy for leveraging social media to provide insightful and educational medical information to the masses.  On top of that, the WAY in which they provide this information (through social media tools) was purposefully used to get individuals such as myself – who love to update my LinkedIn crew, share information on Facebook, post about topics on my blog, and retweet links on Twitter – to become the pathway that delivers their information to the masses. Ingenious!

Is this what those social media experts have talked about all along? Sure.

Did we have an example other than the followings around the social media experts themselves to see how it was actually done? Not really, but now we do!

Here’s a few things they’re doing with social media:

1. Posting a photostream on Flickr about events, individual patient stories, and doctors making a difference
2. Posting informative and educational videos on YouTube and on their site on topics such as swine flu, sports injury prevention, stroke, and hearing loss.
3. Maintaining a blog that informs and educates readers on advancements in technology, tests, treatments, and amazing medical stories.
4. And to top it all off, a Twitter stream that feeds links to this information out to their around 2,000 followers who keep it flowing to the rest of Twitterville.

Now that’s amazing to me!  To see an organization such as this take on such an effort and do it well thus far, in my humble opinion, should be a testament to any business or organization that the use of social media (with an effective and planned strategy, a.k.a. “the missing link of leveraging social media”) can successfully impact your business in a positive manner.

See, there is something worthwhile you can learn from school and they’re not all as outdated as many claim, at least not in South Carolina.

Read the original press release about the Social Media Newsroom at the Medical University of South Carolina here.

That’s one case study in the books, any more?

So, do you know of any organization that is creatively leveraging social media?

Share them with us in the comments below!