Pinterest: Pinning for Health Organizations



I cannot hesitate to explain how excited I personally get over Pinterest.  I fell in love with Pinterest because of its easy to maneuver set-up.  Unlike other social media sites, even Facebook in the beginning, it took me awhile to adjust and see what was really going on.  Pinterest, on the other hand, I find to be very simple. 

 

I resort to Pinterest just as often as I do Google or Bing, if not more.  I find myself getting lost in Pinterest, yet coming out with more information that I intended to get.  I have used Pinterest in the past for a wide range of reasons; including school project ideas, holiday gift ideas, photography tips, and much, much more.

 

I am not the type of person to research health topics of any sort through the Internet, but Pinterest really peaked my interest of starting too.  Through Pinterest I have actually started to explore the Internet more with health questions.  I have found blogs and health tips through the use of Pinterest.  Although I still do not fully trust the actual information, I still continue to utilize Pinterst to research.

 

 The features of Pinterest give health organizations an opportunity to put pictures to their words.  This would work for any organization, not only health organizations.  Through a separate article from socialmediatoday, Patricia Redsicker provides tips for a health organization using Pinterest.  Her tips include:

 

#1. Pin client photos and testimonials

#2. Show practical use of your products or services

#3. Use what you already have

#4. Show your organization’s culture

#5. Pin for conversation

#6. Take advantage of workshops, conferences and seminars

 

I feel the overall impression of these tips ask an organization to be themselves, work with what they have, and ask for help/contributions from their followers.  With tip #1 the organization could make their page more personable.  With actually testimony from clients a organization becomes more real for a viewer; especially those from a nonprofit organization.

 

As stated in a provided Mashable article, video is not yet popular on Pinterest, but is slowly growing.  As a user a video must have a catchy view in order for me to view the entire video.  Sometimes this is the very beginning of the video or is just a still shot from the video.  Either way, the initial screen must encompass a a bright pictures or a catchy phrase.

 

A MultiMerchantChannel article makes an important observation that an organization should consider the great reaching capabilities of Pinterest.  Although this article in particular is speaking of retailers, this is true of health organizations also.  Similar to Twitter, you are able to connect a Pinterest account with Facebook and/or Twitter.  This connects your Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and Pinterest pins altogether.  Just another reason pins should incorporate many different audiences. 

 

Overall, Pinterest makes itself distinctive with having images instead of mostly words.  It also has the features of comments, likes, followers, and video capabilities as other social media websites do.  Pinterest should be used by a health organization that already has material built up.  This material could be promoted through Pinterest to increase donations/traffic, etc.

 

The American Lung Association has a somewhat successful Pinterest account in my eyes.  I say somewhat due to amount of action they present to viewers compared to the amount of followers.  They have 20 boards that range from 5 pins to 157.  The board with 157 pins allowed viewers to input their opinions.  With all of the information the ALA is providing to users they only have 49 followers. 

 

I would argue that the organization should attempt to gain more followers by targeting one particular audience at a time.  This could be done maybe by creating a different board for every audience they want to reach through Pinterest. I would consider their Pinterest as an overall success needing only small improvements.  

 

Stumble Upon: Click to a New World

I had previously heard of Stumble Upon but I had never actually explored it myself.  I find that it could become very addicting for any one person.  And turn into something very time consuming.  Even just exploring it in preparation for this class I found myself getting lost in article, pictures, tips, and etc.  Number eight of this article is extremely true!

Stumble Upon's launch of Stumbling for Good seemed like a very smart move for the company.  The large amount of users creates a HUGE audience for non profits.  The audience also basically segments itself by choosing what interests them.  If a user is interested in health this option will be given to them the very first time they sign up for the website.  This keeps a nonprofit from wasting time promoting themselves to those who are never going to utilize their resources.

Although Stumbling for Good does benefit a nonprofit it does entail patience on behalf of the organization.  In order for an organization to become popular it must have many, many likes and recommendations from users.  This will not likely happen over night and entails weeks of progress and build up for the organization.   

This may seem has a drawback I believe those who are extremely passionate about their organization are willing to take the time and invest in Stumble Upon.  The benefits of joining are among others the increase of traffic to your website, as stated in this article.  An additional article from Read Write Web also mentioned the high traffic on Stumble Upon.  The second article in particular compared Stumble Upon to Twitter.  The comparison seems difficult in my eyes, but the article is also over three years old now. 

Through Stumble Upon a user is able to explore their interest and discover website they had not previously known existed.  The "random'ness" of it can easily get a user lost in links from blogs to blog. (Like myself!)  The user may even discover a health organization who promotes a cause dear to them.     

I would not recommend a health organization to use Stumble Upon as a starting grounds for many reason.  The most important being that you must already have ready to read material prior to investing yourself into Stumble Upon.  Stumble Upon should be a third or even fourth media platform an organization should utilize.  The platforms prior to Stumble Upon would help an organization build up enough material to promote first. 

A came across Woman's Day a couple of time exploring throughout the site.  Although it is not primarily a health organization I found it in the health interests as well as the fitness interests.  I was directly to their own website which pertained articles about home remedies and exercise habits a person should consider. 

In the article you could clearly see the tab 'Health+Fitness" through Stumble Upon, which is what grabbed my attention.  Before I knew it i was exploring a health blog through blog spot by following an article on Stumble Upon.

Over all I am really pleased when Stumble Upon based on the similarity to Pinterest.  I enjoy getting lost in my search through Stumble Upon and found it to be educational.  I see the benefits of a health organization utilizing it, if they are patient and have prior material to provide to interested users.

   

 

MedHelp: my health online

MedHelp was the website I chose to explore for no particular reason.  I went to the home page of the four we had to choose from and this one caught my interest the most. 

I was hesitant at first to sign up due to these websites requesting information of yourself.  But with MedHelp I did not feel uncomfortable filling any of the information out.  Actually, MedHelp allows you to fill out what information you want to at first, then allows you to go back and fill in what you may have passed up. 

This allows the user to check out the site first off then make up their mind as to whether or not they want to stick around.  The first information that the user is asked for is basic: nickname, password, and email address.  Furthermore, the user is asked about weight, height, and what interests the user to become apart of this online community.

From there the user is able to open up an completely different community for the health world.  I was shocked at how much information was on one website for a health community.  As a user you are presented with journals, forums, experts, health tools, health information galore!, trackers, and so much more.

MedHelp has been around since ealy 1994, therefore it has had plenty of changed in the last 18 years.  With 18 years of experience in this business I can see the benfit of having a big history.  MedHelp must also be popular among the online health community for being able to survive such a long time. 

Personally, I could see myself utilizing MedHelp with the trackers.  The trackers make it simple and easy to set a goal and see yourself progress towards it.  For instance, as a user, I may want to lose 10 pounds in two months.  With MedHelp I am able to have a start and end date of the goal, title the trackers, who can see the tracker online, send myself updates daily, and design a graph to see my progress through pictures.  Although this tracker may seem simple, I think it is benficial to have other users seeing your progress.  They could easily encourage me in my weight loss and so forth. 

 The Experts section of Medhelp includes over "200 doctors and experts from top medical institutions".  I feel more comfortable with this than say Wikipedia because the doctors and experts are chosen by MedHelp.  They are not self proclaimed doctors or experts.  This make me feel more comfortable as a user to trust MedHelp and the experts utilizing the site.

Through the experts section you are also able to become involved in a Health Chat or find a doctor for yourself.  Again, all of the options on MedHelp shows its history of being in the online health community.

Inorder for a health organzation to better utilize such a community as MedHelp they would need to select an individual to respresent them through the experts section.  The health organization would not likely be able to become apart of the community on their own.  An individual who is apart of the organization who would be considered an expert could promote them through chats on MedHelp. 

A benefit of obtaining an individual to respresent an organzation on MedHelp would be the large amount of traffic that MedHelp has on a monthly basis.  These large numbers are shown on Alexa.  This particular article breaks down everything on the MedHelp website.  This would help the health organzaition segment their audience through MedHelp if they chose to use it. 

The CrunchBase website published an article on MedHelp and named it the largest online health community and platform company.  I agree with this article in that MedHelp contains "trusted information and advice tailored to comsumers' personal health needs"

 

 



Yahoo! Answers: are there any answers?

Yahoo! Answers as a social media?! I had not even thought about this. 
My first thoughts going in to exploring YA was similar to Wikis and comparing it to Wikipedia.  I was very skeptical.  I have to admit, I still am.  I feel skeptical because I question the credibility of those giving answers.  I do not feel this is out of questions when it comes to something as serious as a person's health.

The feature of a person providing answers with a bio is somewhat helpful.  The only problem being I could essentially create an account and provide false information to make myself seem more credible.  For an organization they are able to provide links to their website.  This makes me feel more comfortable as a user. 

Another problem with this is finding an organization providing answers.  I had a difficult time finding an organization doing this.  In my opinion, the majority of answers are coming from individual people. 

The Top 10 Ways to Promote Your Business On YA  article is from an individual who is apart of an organization.  I can see where this might be more beneficial for this media due to the users being individuals.

The same article suggests breaking rules that are not liked by the users.  I'm not so sure this is a great way to promote yourself.  Although it may work out in the short-run, why would an organization want to promote themselves based on actions that are looked down on by the users?
I, myself, would not think highly of an organization who vote for their answers to gain popularity.  This almost contradicts itself; of course you think your answer is the best, or you wouldn't have provided it.

An individual I found through YA was Dr. Qutub.  Dr. Qutub includes his work experience in his 'About Me' section that seem credible to me, but are they real?  His graphs include 4978 questions being answered and 3756 being voted best answers. 

As a user how do I know these were truly the best answer to the question?  How do I know he did not vote on them himself?  How do I know he didn't choose questions that no one else had answered, except himself?  All of these are risks users of YA must take into consideration.