Why should a doctor attend the Mayo Clinic’s one day Social Media Residency March 1st in Indianapolis March 1st?
Here are a few good reasons a can personally confirm:
1. You have a chance to learn from some of the best social media people in healthcare.
They aren’t just ranked the #1 Hospital in the Nation, they have also been ranked the best Healthcare Social Media presence too.
Just take a look at their twitter account. Volume isn’t everything (as they will be the first to tell you) but there isa reason they have 1,820,000 followers and you don’t. ( And no, its not budget; there are healthcare organizations out there with over 200 billion dollars of revenue that don’t even come close to this number of followers).
That’s a lot of Twitter Followers!
2. You will have the opportunity to make personal connections, with some of the Mayo Clinic’s social media staff and with other healthcare social media people from all over the country.
Hey, at most medical conferences you will sit in an auditorium with a speaker speaking to you 55 minutes straight. You will clap, move on to the next speaker, a fifteen minute break, a lunch, a couple more speakers speaking to you, start to doze off, and then wrap it up for the day. Thats about it.
Well, not at this one. The talks by people with expertise in their field will be interspersed with breakout sessions where you get to ask questions specific to your platform and your needs. There will be lots of doing, and you won’t just be passively consuming content, but actively creating it.
(Something I would like to point out. Healthcare is a competitive field, and healthcare organizations compete with each other, but when it comes to social media, the Mayo Clinic sees part of its mission as sharing its knowledge about social media with people and organizations who help take care of other people. This “giving away” of some very valuable insights into best practices of social media use, some insights which can offer your business significant competitive advantage, is probably why they are top in the healthcare field.)
3. You will learn things about Social Media that can quickly and cost effectively benefit your organization and your patients.
There is zero doubt in my mind that you will will return from this conference and bring actionable, mission critical ideas and projects back to your organization. Heck, your biggest problem will be trying to filter out all the ideas you want to try when you get back!
4. You will become part of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network.
This may be the very best part. I won’t dwell on this too much, but the most powerful digital networks are the ones that have as a backbone personal networks.
What this means in practice is for the next year you will be able to reach out to a very diverse group of social media experts and ask just about any social media question and get an informed, creative answer back. Think of it as your own personal social media think tank. ( Of note, you will also occasionally get to help others with there questions, which can be even more satisfying).
Anyway, being given a one year Mayo Clinic Social Media Network membership after attending The Social Media Residency is like being given a free diamond ring after a gold necklace: its a really good deal!
5. It’s a really fun conference.
How fun? Well let’s just say it’s barely a notch down from the week long Pediatric Potpourri on Maui, but that is because of the beach, not the content! ( It’s also my indirect plug for The Mayo Clinic to have a Social Media Fellowship on the Big Island one day!
So anyway, sign up and go. It will be one of the highlights of your year!