Paging the Social Media Doctors
Reimagining a social media plan
in the wake of COVID-19
Challenge
In healthcare, planning ahead goes a long way, but rapid response capabilities can make all the difference. Novant Health University of Virginia Health System (NH UVA) needed to reach communities in southern Virginia on social media, and sought a partner that could operate like the best healthcare professionals do: they needed experts on call who could meet any challenge (or even emergency) with skill, creativity and urgency. Paging LMO — we implemented a flexible engagement cadence, a cross-platform content calendar and rigorous monitoring to ensure that NH UVA’s social media brand maintains a clean bill of health 24/7.
Solution
For NH UVA, we harnessed social media to engage viewers with information, enhance and manage the brands of the hospitals in the system, answer vital medical questions, manage crises and speak on emerging issues of regional and national importance. Most importantly, every solution we created was adjustable based on client needs and audience response. We constantly monitored platforms for client engagement/questions and also reported monthly/quarterly on analytics to improve content and optimize its implementation.
Results
Between January 2019 and November 2020, LMO increased NH UVA’s Facebook follower count by 44%. In that time, LMO also increased NH UVA’s Twitter following by 151%.
During the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, LMO developed crisis communications and designed creative for daily graphics and weekly protocol changes that effected dozens of communities in Virginia. Throughout the onset of the virus and subsequent summer of 2020, we pivoted the NH UVA brand’s entire social media strategy toward educating citizens on hand-washing and proper mask use alongside combating myths about the virus. We also innovated a policy of duplicated graphics in Spanish, as we responded to community analytics.
At LMO, when crisis hits, the (social media) doctor is always in.
