On March 26, 2018 Health Union opened the doors of its new event center in Philadelphia for the second annual HU Connexion, a conference for patient advocacy, to gather and thank the extraordinary network of patient advocates who share their experiences and journeys with thousands of people every day as moderators and contributors for its online communities.
Online communities fill a void for people with chronic health conditions, offering information, emotional support and connection to others with common experiences. By fostering relationships with members of these online health communities – through relevant content and engaging social conversations that touch on and validate the personal experiences of living with certain chronic conditions – Health Union has the rare opportunity to more accurately understand the concerns of people with these conditions.
Last month, headline writers had a field day dreaming up puns for coverage about several pharmaceutical companies’ decision not to run ads for erectile dysfunction drugs during this season’s NFL broadcasts. And, while a connection to the recent sale of WebMD might not be immediately obvious, upon closer examination, these stories share a common theme. Both reflect the shifting sands beneath the pharmaceutical industry and how, in reacting to them, its marketers are being challenged to do more with less.
As we transcend into the Health 2.0 ecosystem, where the notion of patients using technologies to take control of their personal wellbeing has become more commonplace, our entire global healthcare system has begun to shift.
We, as humans, are natural story tellers. Even our most basic communications are often expressed in the form of a narrative. “A narrative account involves a sequence of two or more bits of information which are presented in such a way that if the order of the sequence were changed, the meaning of the account would alter”. We apply this, and multiple other indicators, all the time. Temporal changes, tense variation, climaxing topics, learned morals — we incorporate these elements into much of our daily conversation without even realizing it. And we come to digest and remember our experiences based on repeated narration.
Anyone who manages a community — online or offline — will identify sensitivities within that community. This includes topics that either generate strong feelings of consensus or prompt division within members. The role of the community manager is to identify these sensitivities, and then manage them in a way that generates positive, productive discussions.
As busy community managers, it can be easy to get caught up in the daily work of assessments, moderating, and even theories behind community work — and get distracted from the original vision for one’s company. So it’s important to revisit how one is going about reaching those goals. At Health Union, we find that revisiting “the basics” can be a critical exercise in constantly reexamining our approach to community management. In a recent team brainstorming session, our VP of Community Development, Amrita Bhowmick, created an exercise that allowed our group to easily share our ideas about what “community” means to us, and what qualities can make or break a community.
Over the past several years, there has been a significant growth in the popularity of online communities, and as one may expect, there are a multitude of challenges associated with developing these seemingly robust communities into self-sustaining businesses. In 2013, the CEO of Reddit, for instance, reported that despite having 70 million monthly readers, his company wasn’t making money. More recently, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, announced (via a tweet), that there would be company layoffs to “move with greater focus and reinvest in our growth.” A viable business model is absolutely critical to maintain thriving and sustainable communities.
Discover insights from 600+ surveyed people living with chronic conditions to understand challenges and enjoyments that they experience during the holidays.
“Why do lurkers lurk and what do they do?” The 90–9–1 rule of thumb has been applied to many digital and online communities. 90% tend to be less vocal but still engaged, 9% tend to be more vocal by commenting and/or sharing, and the remaining 1% tend to be the most vocal by creating new content. The lurkers are the 90%. While the exact ratio is highly debated and perhaps outdated, the idea that lurkers or what we refer to as the “silent majority” make up a large portion of online communities still holds true.