Ragan Communications | Social Media University, Global (SMUG)

5 steps to getting the most out of #mayoragan09

I’m excited that we are on the verge of beginning the health care social media summit, which we are hosting at our Scottsdale, Arizona Mayo Clinic campus in collaboration with Ragan Communications. The pre-conference sessions start tomorrow, with the full conference kicking off on Monday.

I will be delivering the opening Keynote on Monday, and part of my role (and my goal) is to set the tone and provide pointers on how participants can have the best possible experience. I will be posting my slides for reference here on SMUG, but I wanted to start by offering some links and tips that I hope will be especially helpful for those who are newer to social media.

Join Facebook. If you need some background, see the Facebook curriculum and particularly Facebook 101.
Join the #MayoRagan09 group in Facebook.
Write on the Facebook group’s wall, upload photos or videos, and start or participate in discussions.
Join Twitter. You may find Twitter 101: Intro to Twitter and Twitter 102: Creating an Account helpful in getting started.
Follow the #MayoRagan09 hashtag in Twitter in whatever way seems most convenient to you, whether it’s through a desktop application like Tweetdeck or a Web-based service such as Tweetchat, Hootsuite or CoTweet.

If you haven’t yet made plans to attend the summit, you can still sign up for the Webcast. Video recordings will likely be available for purchase following the summit. Meanwhile, please do join in the conversation via the means listed above.

SMUGgle Interview: Aaron Hughling

I had a chance to meet Tuesday with Aaron Hughling (@aaronhughling), all-around Web guy for Scott & White Healthcare, and his colleague Rhona Williams London, who is the head of PR for Scott & White. After about a year of investigation and preparation, their system (based in Temple, TX) is getting ready to launch into Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and a couple of blogs.

Aaron and I have been interacting through Twitter and email for several months, and I met Rhona at a conference in Phoenix in June. It was great that they were in Minnesota so we could sit down for a chat among SMUGgles.

Aaron also said he’s excited to be attending, along with one or two others from Scott & White, the social media summit for healthcare Mayo Clinic is hosting with Ragan Communications in October in Scottsdale, Arizona. I’m looking forward to it, too; if you attend I believe you’ll come away both inspired to bring social media to your organization and encouraged by the examples you’ll see and hear. There’s still time to register, so I hope you’ll join us.

After our conversation, I asked Aaron if he would be willing to share some of the things he’s learned through his social media journey. Here’s what he had to say. It’s some good advice:

What lessons from your journey into social media do you think would be most helpful to others looking to get started? If you had one thing you could go back and do differently, what would it be? Or if you haven’t taken the plunge, what questions do you have?

FREE Ragan Webinar on Mayo Clinic Social Media

On Tuesday, August 4, I’m going to be presenting a free webinar, sponsored by Ragan Communications, on our Mayo Clinic social media experience.

The webinar was announced this morning, and Ragan CEO Mark Ragan tweeted this afternoon that the response has been strong:

I have no idea what kind of record is in the making, or what the old record might be, but if you’re interested I hope you will sign up to join us. Please pass this along to anyone you think might find it helpful.