Social Media to Promote Employee WellnessTime to Embrace the Marketing Tool

First, what resonates with your population?

• Conduct a needs assessment to understand the communication style your employees prefer

• Consider best practices for reaching special populations

• How can you capture your employee’s attention?

How can communication technologies engage my population?

Considerations

• The Employee Wellness Network announces top ten developments in employee wellness. One includes wellness programs that use social media companies report –explosive business growth!

• Kaiser Permanente offers online health management. "Making it easy for members to manage their wellness isn't just the right thing to do, it's what consumers expect," said Anna-Lisa Silvestre, vice president for online services. "Consumers are demanding convenient ways to manage their health."

Credible Information

• Employee Wellness Network is a social media website where professionals committed to employee health and wellness can connect, create, search, learn, lead, network, collaborate, communicate and share.

Health & Wellness Resource Center Database/ Comtex News Network, INC 2010

Smile your on camera-flip cams

Think outside the “box”

• Jarden Corporation, “reveals videos are an opportunity to make an impact in a very fast way and a easy way to drive employee engagement,” according to Brian Baker Vice President with Aon.

• One wellness initiative Jarden Corporation, coupled with 5K runs with Shape Up the Nation social networking website to create profiles and challenge their colleagues. HR managers took footage from the runs in 10 different office locations and shared them . They achieved 40% participation rate in the wellness initiative which sharing the videos people had fun!

• They are building a YouTube channel videos to view co-workers whether they are in New York City or across the globe in India

Health & Wellness Resource Center Database/ SourceMedia , Inc. Employee Benefit News. 11/1/2010 (24)p 17.

Social Media

• “Don’t buy into older adults don’t know how to do things online, our average age at Jarden Corporation is 43, too old to be engaged in social media, right? WRONG,” says Rich DiPietro health and welfare benefits manager.

• Leveraging social media has allowed for more than 10% increase in overall employee engagement.

Health & Wellness Resource Center Database/ SourceMedia , Inc. Employee Benefit News. 11/1/2010 (24)p 17.

Tips to getting started

• Brian Baker, VP of Aon shares 4 tips to getting started with social media and successfully engaging employees

Health & Wellness Resource Center Database/ SourceMedia , Inc. Employee Benefit News. 11/1/2010 (24)p 17.

Tip # 1

• Understand your culture- study the demographics and culture sensitivities of the workforce. Understand what would be appropriate.

Tip # 2

• Build a policy- a strong policy needs to be put in place before diving in. What is the best answer for the organization holistically?

Tip # 3

• Use video- organizations using video is a great way to dip their toes into social media. The notion of ‘Let’s just throw up a Facebook page’ or ‘Let’s start a Twitter feed’ is great, but they really have to be contextual and have a long term strategy.

Tip # 4

• Use the power of storytelling. “There’s something in the wellness journey that is really impactful, and I call it the ‘tears to triumph’ moment. How do you capture that and tell that, whether its an individual story, or a team or department story?”

Social Media and Success

• Muve corporation was founded with a goal to reverse the obesity epidemic in the USA and globally. To reach the mission outreach must be effective, lifestyle education must be easy, and

reinforcement must be fun!

• Muve in cooperation with Mayo Clinic uses social media technologies to promote online engagement and incorporates interactive entertainment to encourage and support participants.

• The company’s weight management solutions with social media have proven successful through extensive research and real-world trials.

Health & Wellness Resource Center, Business Wire 2008, www.muve.me

It makes sense!

• 40% of online consumers use social media for health information

• Time spent on social networks tripled in the last year. It is a convenient way to capture our audience’s attention

• Social media is mobile (phones, and laptops) a huge advantage

• Online conversations and blogs allow you to eavesdrop and gain candid feedback about your program

5 reasons to take employee wellness social-free range communication www.freerangecomm.com/2010/05/5-reasons-to-take-employee-wellness-social/

You Decide!

• Social marketing is one tool you may use to communicate with your employees. Research mostly shows it is a powerful wellness communication tool if used correctly.

• Long term strategies and schedules should be outlined

• Lastly, understand who you are trying to reach. What methods will they prefer?