Arc 3 Communications

The Importance of Content Strategy for Healthcare and Hospitals

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According to Google Health Vice President, Dr. David Feinberg, MD an estimated 7 percent of Google’s
daily searches are health related. This number does not include the recent COVID-19 pandemic which has undoubtedly driven these numbers upward. This makes it imperative that hospitals and healthcare providers have strong, up to date, accurate information on their website. A content strategy is important to hospitals, healthcare providers, and healthcare foundations in order to help with brand awareness, build loyalty, and provide reliable and helpful information.

What is a Content Strategy?

In a nutshell, a content strategy allows you to define the goals of your hospital or practice and work out your priorities. From there you can make sure all of the marketing and content you are putting out is fine tuned to helping to reach those goals. For example, if one of your goals is to get more people to sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine at your location, you could focus your content marketing efforts on informing people about COVID-19 as well as the benefits of the vaccine. Within your content strategy, you will decide on the different types of content you’d like to use to reach your audience. E-mail newsletters, blog posts, articles, white papers, and social media updates are all content examples that you can use to bring people to your healthcare location.

Importance of Content in Healthcare

Creating content in the healthcare field is much different than other areas. Content posted by healthcare
providers and hospitals is often important health related information to help patients and potential new patients find answers about symptoms, conditions, illnesses, and more. According to Pew Research, 80 percent of overall health queries begin at search engines, so making sure you have a wide catalog of information and content is important to being found. It is also very important that all of your content is accurate and clear, as misinformation in the healthcare realm can negatively affect credibility, hurt your reputation, and your overall brand.

Especially now, with COVID-19, it is imperative to share accurate and timely information and content to help people find the answers they are looking for. With news about COVID 19 variants and new numbers being released daily, it is vital that you keep your website and social media information updated with the most current and factual information.

Content Marketing for Healthcare Foundations

Another very important part of many hospitals and healthcare providers are healthcare foundations that raise money for a range of services such as treatment for cancer, stroke and heart disease and more. These foundations have to get themselves in front of potential donors and have their message seen and heard and get a reaction out of their audience that drives them to make a donation. Much like Arc 3 Communication’s work with the Grady Health Foundation, much of the content should be emotion driven and show what the money donated can achieve. Patient recovery stories, coverage of fundraising events, and other attention-grabbing topics will go a long way in driving donations. Blog posts, e-mail, social media, and even print mailers and events are all proven ways to drive traffic to your website and your cause.

Healthcare Now and in the Future

Healthcare is a vital part of our everyday lives. Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that hospitals and healthcare providers are sharing relevant, accurate content. It is also important that content strategies be in place to bring people to your website and ultimately to your healthcare facilities. Showing your trustworthiness, dedication, and experience through your content is a great way to provide for your current patients while also bringing in new patients. Content strategy is important now and will continue to be in the future, so be sure your strategy is up-to-date, strong, goal oriented, and implemented to drive success.

For help with your content marketing strategies contact us here.

 

 

 

Arc 3 Announces Campaign Veteran as New Account Executive for Public Affairs

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Arc 3 Communications is pleased to announce the addition of Hampton Mills as Account Executive to our team. A veteran of numerous state and federal political campaigns, Hampton most recently served as head of Voter Outreach and Strategy for the campaign of U.S. Senator David Perdue of Georgia. With a strong passion for the legislative and political process, Hampton will further the mission of Arc 3 Communications by providing high quality advocacy services to meet the public affairs needs of our clients.

Hampton has extensive political and public affairs experience. In addition to serving on U.S. Senator David Perdue’s campaign staff for his 2014 and 2020 campaigns, Hampton’s political experience includes the management of state legislative campaigns and working on the campaign of Jeb Bush for President.

Hampton’s public affairs and association experience includes working for the Georgia Construction Aggregate Association, assisting with their advocacy and membership efforts. In college, he also served as a Capitol Hill Intern for United States Representative Bradley Byrne who represented Alabama’s 1st Congressional District.

Hampton is a graduate of the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He has a lifelong affinity for the outdoors. Hampton enjoys hiking, kayaking, hunting, and fly fishing in his free time.

A resident of Buckhead’s Chastain Park neighborhood in Atlanta, he is a member of the Chastain Park Conservancy, Trout Unlimited – Upper Chattahoochee Chapter, and Bama in Atlanta (University of Alabama Alumni Association – Atlanta Chapter). He attends The Cathedral of Christ the King.

“I look forward to working with Arc 3 Communications in their public affairs and advocacy practice,” Hampton said. “It is an innovative agency, located on the historic Marietta Square, doing amazing work in content, digital, and advocacy for the top trade associations and companies in the country.”

How to Get Your Trade Association’s Content in Google’s Search Position Zero

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In recent years, Google has been trying to find ways to get people the answers they are looking for without having to leave the Google search engine results page (SERP). One way they use to achieve this is the featured snippet. These can appear with traditional Google searches or voice searches which are growing in popularity. Featured snippets are boxes of text that answer a query and appear above the coveted top three results on the SERP. This has come to be known as “position zero”. These featured snippets pull the answer to the query from a content piece on a website and post the “snippet” along with a link to the full piece in a box at the top of the page. This allows people to get the answers they are looking for quickly without having to go to any website, but if they wish to know more, they can follow the link to the full piece.

While there is no exact science to getting your association’s content into featured snippets, there are things you can do to greatly improve your chances.

Understanding What a Featured Snippet Is

Before you can begin to think about trying to earn a featured snippet, you should know a few things about them. Featured snippets are usually answers to who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. Google ranks websites and content based on the reputation and factualness of the content and from there pulls answers to feature in the snippet. For example:

If you search “Why join a trade association?”

You will see this featured snippet appeared at the top of the page. This particular snippet was pulled from www.americanbusinessmag.com and features a basic answer to the question “Why Join a Trade Association?”. It also gives the user the chance to follow the link to learn more, thus increasing chances of someone visiting your website.

Snippets can appear in different forms including paragraph snippets like the one above, numbered or bulleted lists, and tables. Which snippet type that your content is featured in will depend on the type of content you create.

How to “Own” the Featured Snippet

As previously stated, there is not an exact science to winning the featured snippet, but there are steps you can take with your association’s content to increase your chances.

  1. Find out what people want to know

For this first step, you really have to think like your audience; this could be existing members or potential members. Think of the questions you receive and try to focus strong content around answering those questions. Again, featured snippets are answers to who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. Keep this in mind when brainstorming potential audience questions. A good resource for finding what people are asking is www.answerthepublic.comwhere you can search specific terms and see what people are searching for regarding that term.

We searched “trade associations” and you can see a part of the wheel we got as a result. This image includes the who and how results. One popular question is “what do trade associations do?” so that may be a good topic for content for you to focus on.

  1. Research Snippets in Your Industry

A good way to find opportunities for snippets for your association is to go to Google and begin typing the questions that you came up with. This will allow you to see if there are existing snippets or if there is an open opportunity for you to own the snippet. Even if there are existing snippets, if you tailor you content right, you can still take control of that snippet. Also be sure to pay attention to the “People also ask” section that appears further down the SERP. Below is the “People also ask” box that appears when we entered the question “What is a trade association?”

This section also pulls from existing content online so there is also potential to have your content featured as an answer here as well.

  1. Strong Website, Strong Content, Strong SEO

One of the most important factors in having your association’s content chosen for the featured snippet is making sure your website is optimized, easy to navigate, and functioning well. This is one of the first things Google looks at when determining whether your page should appear on the first page of the SERP or in the featured snippet. If your website is slow and not user friendly by Google’s terms, even if your content is outstanding, you may be overlooked when it comes to the featured snippet. Not only that, but your website will get pushed further back on the SERP making it hard to find and less likely to be visited.

Also, devoting time to keyword research and using popular keywords in your content will help not only win the featured snippet, but also rank you higher on the Google SERP. Using backlinks, cross-linking, and releasing content consistently and regularly can also go far to increase your ranking and raising you up on the search engine results page (SERP).

You Can Do It

It takes work, but you can earn the featured snippets and even improve your position on Google’s search engine results page at the same time. There are many other factors that improve your chances for securing snippets and improving your SEO. If you would like further information or help with your association’s website or content marketing, contact us here.

How to Better Keep Track of the News Important to You

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For decades, people have used news monitoring to track issues that affect them, their business, their association, or their cause. In the past, this was done with a process called “clipping” which was scanning local and national newspapers for stories related to these categories and cutting them out to keep a tab on issues at hand.  This form of news scanning was an essential practice in nearly every aspect of life, from politics to business to advocacy. It allowed one to keep up with new developments in a campaign, on an issue, with a market, or with a competitor. In today’s online world, this process still exists; it has simply gone to the online world and covers a much larger scale. This can be overwhelming, and it can seem impossible to keep up to date with the 24/7 news cycle and nearly immediate news updates. There are many tools and strategies you can use to help make this process easier while increasing effectiveness.

Google Alerts

Google is a search engine that grants people quick access to information. It can be quite time consuming to search each term or phrase that relates to your issue and try to sift through countless stories and websites trying to find the most recent developments. This is where Google Alerts can be used to help save time and increase the efficiency of your news scanning.

Google Alerts is a free-to-use service in which you can add all of your key terms and phrases to a list and Google will send you email alerts whenever a news story or update is released that relates to that term or phrase. You can schedule a set time that all of your alerts come into your email. You can choose morning, afternoon, or evening or even multiple times throughout the day, if you have an issue that needs constant monitoring.

It is also good practice to add a Google Alert for your name. Doing this will allow you to be alerted anytime your name appears in a story or somewhere online. Also, if you own a business or brand, you should have an alert set up for these as well for the same reasons.

Feedly

Feedly is a news aggregator application for your web browser that allows you to bookmark and organize all of the websites you regularly check for updates. You can categorize these based on your needs so you can keep track of different sites for different topics. The feed allows you to scan RSS feeds, news and updates from your tracked sites by date and popularity all in one place. Having all of your news sources together saves you the time of having to go to each site separately looking for updates.

Feedly is a free-to-use platform which includes most of its features, but also has a paid pro option that will allow you to incorporate your Google Alerts into your Feedly feed as well as give you access to unlimited feeds, sources, and premium customer service.

Following Social Media

Much important news is shared these days through social media. A good practice to have is to make sure you follow your news sources on social media platforms such as Twitter and activate notifications for any that you need to track closely. This way, when something new is posted or updated you can be in the loop. Sometimes news and updates will be posted to social media before they are released on news sites; this way, you can keep on top of important issues that affect you and your business or association.

Following specific hashtags is also a great way to keep up on trending news related to your cause or industry. You should do research and find if there are any highly-used hashtags that fit to your needs and follow them as they tend to lead you to updates and news quickly as well. Though social media can get quite noisy at times, it is still a great source of updates for news, causes, and events if you can develop a system for aggregating the news important to you through notifications and hashtags.

Stay in the Loop

There are many options for staying on top of news related to your specific needs. In today’s world of quick, shortened news cycles and instant 24/7 news updates, it can seem impossible to keep up with everything at once, but these tools help make it easier and less stressful. Of course, there is nothing wrong with reading the local newspapers or doing Google searches for news updates. These suggestions are simple tools that will make monitoring news much more productive while giving a broad scope of resources all at once in an organized way. Keeping on top of things is essential for many businesses, causes, and just day to day life, and with these tools, you’re all set.

Need More Help?

For more information, visit us at www.arc3communications.com or contact Patrick Burns at pburns@arc3communications.com. We look forward to working with you to acheive all of your content, digital, and advocacy goals.

Congrats to Our Founder

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Congratulations to our founder, Patrick Burns and his wife Mary on the recent birth of their fifth child, Michael McAlister Burns.

Michael is a beautiful healthy baby boy weighing in at 9 lbs. 8 ounces and 20 inches long.

We are so happy for the Burns’ family on their new addition!

Welcome New Account Executive Paul McNally!

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Arc 3 Communications welcomes Paul McNally as Account Executive. McNally is a recent graduate of Kennesaw State University with a bachelor’s degree in Communication & Media Studies. With a strong passion and skill for writing, research, content creation, marketing and media, he is the perfect addition to Arc 3 Communications.

During his career, McNally has worked on many impressive projects. His proudest work was teaming up with the non-profit Sober Living America in creating a media kit and campus event at Kennesaw State University which raised awareness of addiction among young adults and students. He wrote multiple articles that were published in the 2018 edition of KSU’s communication magazine, Pipeline including alumni stories; coverage of the dedication ceremony of the new radio lab named for the late Rhubarb Jones, a beloved Atlanta country music radio host; and a story on a new study abroad program in Milan, Italy. Prior to attending Kennesaw State University, Paul attended the Art Institute of Atlanta where he studied graphic design and animation. While a senior at KSU, he interned for an entire year at Arc 3 Communications with company president Patrick L. Burns. 

In his free time, he likes to read, write, draw, and spend time with his wife, Cobb County school teacher Trish McNally and their lovely black Labrador, Malcolm. Together the couple loves traveling, hiking, and enjoying nature. They just recently returned from traveling abroad with the Workaway program, a service program that allows people to work a variety of jobs in return for food and board, in which they volunteered all around Europe. During their three-and-a-half-month trip they worked on farms in Sweden, art festivals and foster animal care in Wales, a tango event in Germany, gardening in London, as well as visiting Amsterdam and Denmark.

“I am really excited to work with Arc 3 Communications to bring clients quality content and account service,” McNally said, “It is an innovative company doing amazing work with the top associations and companies from across the country right in the heart of downtown Marietta.”

Don’t Be Like United Airlines: Crisis Communications and Social Media Protocol Tips

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In order to better protect the reputation of your organization, new crisis communications protocols that integrate social media strategies must be put in place to meet today’s new challenges. The following video presentation by our Founder, Patrick L. Burns quickly highlights key strategies that are an important part of an updated crisis communications plan that incorporates social media.

Need to update your crisis communications plan with the latest social media strategies? Contact us here or via Facebook Messenger.

 

Ten Ways to Post Political Views On Facebook Without Being Unfriended

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Facebook messages have been shown to be an effective tool in get-out-the-vote political efforts. In the prestigious journal, Nature, political scientist Dr. James Fowler found that a single get-out-the-vote message could produce a 2.2 % bump in voter turnout. More importantly, 80% of the impact came from users sharing the message with their friends.

However, sharing your political views online can come with the risk of being unfriended if not done in the appropriate way. Here are some simple tips for sharing your political views on Facebook:

1) Be humorous. Humor disarms and is a powerful weapon to articulate a point of view to someone who may not agree with you.

2) Comment on timely topics and events. Remember the “Query Deserves Freshness” (QDF) rule of Google search which ranks fresh content on timely topics higher. Be relevant in your discussions, especially with those whom you may disagree.

3) Use an image, preferably one that promotes empathy or sympathy for your cause. Social media is about images. Without them your message is ineffective.

4) Avoid ad hominem attacks on those who do not share your views online.

5) Rely on facts and figures and data to support your position. Utilize infographics. Social issues especially are helped along by sociological data to support your position.

6) Listen and learn and engage your audience. Your audience must first know that you listen to them, before they will entrust you to persuade or lead them.

7) Timing of posts; the best time to post on Facebook is between and 9 and 10 p.m. EST. People are more receptive to messages at this time.

8) Be a consensus builder. Find small issues that you can agree with those of different political viewpoints first.

9) Be conversational. Facebook is a large cocktail party; act as though you were talking with your friends in person. Social media is a conversation and it helps to be pleasant and engaging.

10) Keep you content consistent and interesting. Facebook is not a graffiti wall in which you just post information for the sake of posting. Give thought to your overall posts. Once posted, it is out there. Even if you delete your post, chances are someone may have taken a screenshot photo of it.

The most important rule of all in discussing politics on Facebook is to use your common sense and be civil. Just as in real world conversation, civility and tone can go a long way in your online conversation.

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145 Church Street, Suite 290 Marietta Georgia 30060

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