On Sunday the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an article about our social media work at Mayo Clinic which began:
ROCHESTER – A few years ago, Lee Aase was just another flack for the Mayo Clinic, issuing press releases on cue and calling news conferences for doctors to present carefully scripted messages.
These days, Aase is a walking, talking, blogging, Twittering, Facebooking, YouTubing force who’s blasting Mayo into the social networking world faster than you can say “Mayo Brothers.”
I didn’t particularly like the lead because “flack” and “carefully scripted” carry some negative connotations, but given how positive the rest of the story was, I obviously have no basis for complaint.
We have a great team involved in social media at Mayo Clinic, and it’s been exciting to see the enthusiasm grow.
The story became available online Wednesday after being print-only for three days. The irony of having a social media story be print only escaped no one’s notice, but it’s part of the Star Tribune’s effort to increase Sunday print circulation. I guess I’m honored that they would think this story might help.
I don’t know how long this will be available at no charge on StarTribune.com, but if you haven’t yet seen it, check it out here.
2 Comments
Hi Lee,
Well, if I’m a hack, you’re a flack
That was a fun article to work on, especially given all the news of doom and gloom I’m working on these days…so thanks for the opportunity.
I can live with “flack,” and I guess “hack” is better than the term Jesse Ventura had for folks in your profession. I enjoyed working with you, too, and have had lots of people say your story did a good job of capturing and reflecting what we’re doing. I hope the Star Tribune will be able to come out of the current crisis with a workable business model, and that perhaps some of these social media tools or concepts will be helpful in that regard. Wishing you all the best.
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[...] (Lee Aase, who heads up social media at Mayo, was also just featured in a front-page article in the Star Tribune a few weeks ago, which helps). I just think social media is a very good fit for health care [...]