Staffing Robot - Healthcare Staffing, Marketing and Technology Blog

Google Search Getting More "Social"

Seems the rage these days is aggregating content and data from social networking sites. As the web becomes more segmented through various platforms from search to social media, having a single source to search, deliver and index data is becoming increasingly important. Especially when it comes to monitoring and promoting your brand online. Google Social Search is making this easier.

After creating a Google profile and linking your social, blog and other similar sites, you can begin searching your content as well as the content of people to whom you are connected on these sites.

Here's a video that describes this in more detail:

My favorite feature of this new service is seeing the connections and content behind the search result sources. Google lets you drill down into your search contacts and see the various methods by which you are connected to each of them.

Google Social Search will certainly have a further effect on your SEO | SEM campaigns as it puts more emphasis and personalized, social search. More and more, Google is enabling ways for people to search based on their preferences, location and connections as opposed to content in aggregate across the Web.

Google is definitely keeping it interesting.

Top Healthcare Staffing Stories of 2009 and Predictions for 2010

Over the next few weeks both of my sons have birthdays and I plan on spending some down time with my family for the holidays. Therefore, this will be my last post until the new year.

I thought I'd use this post to highlight some of the big events that affected the healthcare staffing industry in 2009 as well as make a few predictions about the industry for 2010. (is it 'twenty-ten' or 'two thousand ten'?)

What the healthcare staffing industry looked like in 2009:

Major downturn in spending on healthcare temporary staff.

The biggest news in 2009 for the healthcare staffing industry was undoubtedly about the downturn in the economy. My second blog post ever was on the reasons hospitals were spending less on healthcare agency staff. The down turn in the economy even made people start asking the question: "is there still a nursing shortage?" From there, leading economists confirmed that not only was the economy bad but that it will take awhile for it to improve and return the healthcare staffing industry to pre-2009 levels. And finally, the Staffing Industry Analysts informed us that the nurse travel industry decreased by 44% this year and we saw this downturn reflected in the revenue loss reported by major public healthcare staffing companies.

Widespread adoption of healthcare vendor management.

In 2009 hospitals gave a big vote of confidence to vendor management as the preferred model for agency management. VMS has matured in the industry and delivered on its promise of saving hospitals both time and money on their staffing costs.

How healthcare reform will affect healthcare staffing.

The topic of how healthcare reform will affect healthcare staffing couldn't be avoided. Many debates about the pros and cons of healthcare reform occurred on my blog and many of us had the privilege of hearing former Senator Tom Daschle's view on healthcare reform at the healthcare staffing industry conference. AMN even produced results from a poll suggesting that hospital CEO's feel healthcare reform will benefit the healthcare staffing industry.

Technology VMS companies struggle.

Even though some healthcare vendor management technology companies thrived in 2009 as hospitals increased their adoption of VMS, many companies did not fair so well. A few healthcare VMS technology companies had to close their doors this year while some VMS companies struggled to pay their staffing agency partners. Additionally, some VMS companies found acquisition to be the best way to survive the turbulent year.

Increased use of social media.

2009 was the year that many hospitals and staffing agencies began to use social media. Many hospitals, such as Providence St. Vincents in Portland Oregon who found success with their 'pink glove dance video' that went viral, took full advantage of these tools. Some hospitals are still behind when it comes to social media while several hospitals are finding success with tools such as Twitter. Both healthcare staffing agencies and hospitals are now promoting and monitoring their brands online, as the online tools for brand promotion and management are starting to become more prevalent. I've even created some helpful tools for people to search for healthcare staffing industry information and follow companies in the healthcare staffing industry on Twitter.

As you can see, 2009 was a very eventful year for the healthcare staffing industry. So what will the next year bring?

My predictions for healthcare staffing in 2010:

More consolidation of staffing agencies and VMS companies.

After struggling through the economic downturn of the last 1.5 years many companies are now really feeling the effects. I see several staffing agencies closing their doors and many more acquisitions in 2010. I wouldn't be surprised if we even see some consolidation with some of the major players. In addition, I expect we'll see some more acquisitions of healthcare VMS companies.

Continued adoption of vendor management.

Hospitals will continue to choose vendor management for their agency management solution. As the rate of adoption continues to increase, I expect we'll see hospitals still choose vendor neutral healthcare vendor management companies over agency run managed service providers.

New technology players.

The industry has gotten a bit stale in terms of innovation and new technology options. In addition, we've seen a decent amount of consolidation of industry technology companies. Both of these facts suggest to me that new players will enter the market and hopefully they will bring with them some exciting and innovate technologies. As these players enter the healthcare staffing industry I expect we'll see more and more hospitals and healthcare staffing companies embracing technology to improve their staffing process. Stay tuned!

New marketing methods and opportunities.

As budgets tighten many hospitals and staffing agencies will look for more inexpensive and effective methods for marketing their services. Many more healthcare staffing organizations will turn to SEO/SEM and social media for company/brand promotion. 

The market will come back slowly. Kind of.

Even though there are some positive signs for the economy overall and there has been some slight improvements in the healthcare staffing industry I don't see anything that suggests we should get too excited. Earlier this week the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) hosted a webinar about the economic outlook for 2010. Their predictions suggested that every industry will improve in 2010 - except healthcare staffing. In fact, they are predicting an overall decline of -1%. Therefore, unfortunately, I believe 2010 will still be a year of struggle. There will be some positive bumps here and there but we won't start fully pulling out of this down turn until early/mid 2011.

What are your predictions for healthcare staffing in 2010? Please share them here if you have any.

I wish you all well - happy holidays - happy new year. See you in 2010!

How Will Google's Recent Announcements Affect Your SEO/SEM Campaigns?

Recently, Google announced two big changes that will have an affect on your SEO/SEM efforts. These changes include:

1. Page load speed
2. Personalized search

Page Load Speed:

Google recently announced that page speed will be a factor in page rank. To assist you with measuring this, Goolge has added a new feature in the site performance report under the “Labs” section of the tool. This report shows you how fast your site loads compared to other sites, as well as your sites performance over time, and provides you with tips on how to improve pages. Google also released a Firefox Add On called Page Speed that works with Firebug.

It may seem strange that Google is making page speed a criteria for page rank. However, page load times significantly contribute to user satisfaction. If a site is difficult to navigate or takes too long to retrieve information from it, the user experience is lessened and contributes to things such as increased bounce rates.

Additionally, Google is releasing a public DNS resolver. WTH is that right? It's basically a system that enables computers to read the name of your website URL. This process can contribute to some latency when loading pages so Google has created a system that will perform this process faster and increase your page load speed. They provide step by step instructions on how to switch your site to Google DNS servers if you're interested.

Personalized Search:

Google has always given its users the ability to record and save their search results and web traffic history. However, this is something you basically had to sign up for. Now, Google will personalize the search results of all users, regardless of whether you've signed up to use their previously existing personalization feature. Don't be too alarmed, you can opt-out completely of the feature if you choose.

It's interesting to think how this will affect SEO/SEM. Google will now change the page rank of content based on the end users preference. For example, if you search for 'books' online and consistently choose Powell's bookstore in Portland over Amazon, Google will learn this behavior and present Powell's to you ahead of Amazon in the returned search results. Even though Google claims that they will not change the page rank of all sites based on user preference, they won't fully disclose how much of a change they will make. So, in this example, even though Amazon's SEO/SEM tactics worked well in the past, they could start to lose their page rank on a user by user basis

What does this mean for your hospital's or healthcare staffing agency's marketing efforts?

First, if you haven't improved your website in at least the last 3 years - it's over due. Many web coding standards have changed in this time and not keeping up can put your website at risk for quickly becoming invisible to Google, having poor page speed performance and ultimately, decrease your page rank. Additionally, if your site is over bloated with images, text, Flash or design in general it might be a good idea to consider how to simplify things.

Second, I'm really curious to see how SEO/SEM professionals will respond to Google's personalized search changes. At some level I would assume that some new tactics will have to be employed. Personally, I would monitor my PPC campaigns a bit more closely over the next several months and see if anything is changing as well as consider doing some new keyword research in this same time frame. However, I wouldn't worry too much because I would also expect that certain things will stay the same. Most likely, effective PPC campaigns will remain effective and, most importantly, I'd always keep in mind that good amounts of quality content will produce positive results every time.

I welcome any thoughts, insight or experience anyone has on this topic.

The Healthcare Staffing Technology Search Engine

Today I’m launching another Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) for the healthcare staffing industry titled “Healthcare Staffing Technology Providers Search.” I have complied a list of several companies in the U.S. (as well as a few other relevant sites) that deliver healthcare staffing technology services and included them in this engine. Examples of such technology include hospital scheduling, staff time keeping, applicant tracking, recruitment, healthcare professional testing, agency staff management and healthcare vendor management. I will continue to add sites to the search engine as I become aware of them.

Recently I created the Healthcare Staffing Search engine and the Healthcare Vendor Management Search engine and discussed how these search engines work in more detail in my previous posts.

These search engines will all be located on one page on the Staffing Robot site: Healthcare Staffing Search engines. You can also access them in the top navigation above on this page. Please bookmark the page if you find these tools helpful. I have also embedded the Healthcare Staffing Technology Providers search engine here for you to try out:

Healthcare Staffing Technology Providers Search:

Custom Search

If you provide some form or Healthcare Staffing Technology to the healthcare staffing industry and think your website is not in the list (or you just want to verify) please feel free to email me and I’ll add it.

Related Posts:

The Healthcare Staffing Search Engine

The Healthcare Vendor Management Search Engine

Healthcare Vendor Management Search Enginge

Today I’m launching another Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) for the healthcare staffing industry titled “Healthcare Vendor Management Search.” I have complied a list of several companies in the U.S. (as well as a few other relevant sites) that deliver healthcare vendor management services and included them in this engine. This list includes companies that deliver VM in the form of VMS Technology as well as on-site Managed Services. I will continue to add sites to the search engine as I become aware of them.

Last week I created the Healthcare Staffing Search engine and discussed how these search engines work in more detail.

These search engines will all be located on one page on my site: Healthcare Staffing Search Engines. You can also access them in the top navigation above on this page. Please bookmark the page if you find these tools helpful. I have also embedded the Healthcare Vendor Management search engine here for you to try out:

Healthcare Vendor Management Search:

Custom Search

If you provide Vendor Management Services to the healthcare staffing industry and think your website is not in the list (or you just want to verify) please feel free to email me and I’ll add it.

Related Posts:

The Healthcare Staffing Search Engine

The Healthcare Staffing Search Enginge

Today I’m launching a Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) for the healthcare staffing industry titled “Healthcare Staffing Search.” I have complied a list of over 1000 healthcare staffing companies in the U.S. (as well as a few other relevant sites) and included them in this engine. I will continue to add sites to the search engine as I become aware of them.

If you’re unfamiliar with Google CSE, it’s a service that allows you to build your own customized search engine of specific websites relevant to a particular topic. Setting a search engine up is easy and takes only a few minutes. If you’ve ever been overwhelmed with too many or irrelevant search results when searching on topics in the healthcare staffing industry, this search engine will remedy that. If you use the Healthcare Staffing Search engine I’ve created your results will come only from the web sites relevant to the staffing industry.

For example, if you perform a regular Google search for “Nurse Pay Rates” you will return thousands of results, many of which are irrelevant. However, with the Healthcare Staffing Search engine your return results will display information on Nurse Pay Rates from industry websites only.

Going forward, this search engine will be located on it’s own page on my site: Healthcare Staffing Search. You can also access it in the top navigation above on this page. Please bookmark it if you find the tool helpful. I have also embedded the search engine here for you to try out.

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I hope this tool is helpful. I will be releasing a couple other custom search engines next week so stay tuned.

If you think your website is not in the list or you just want to verify, please feel free to email me and I’ll add it.

I created this search engine after being inspired by Ed Bennett’s Custom Search Engine for hospitals in the U.S. Check it out.

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 4]

8.    Measure
Monitoring your brand is an opportunity to learn more about how you and others are projecting your brand and how it’s being perceived.  What's being said?  Is it mostly positive or negative?  What do people like about your company?  What don’t they like?  Are opinions changing over time?  What kind of information are you sending?  Is it positive?  Is it consistent?  Is it on message?

However, more than monitoring, measuring this activity is the key to your success.  Aside from collecting and tracking this information on your own there are some great tools for measuring this stream of collected data such as:

Clicky is a powerful, but simple tool for measuring traffic, conversions, activity, etc. on your web page or blog.  They also have some great tools for measuring Twitter activity.

Google Analytics is perhaps the most popular and most powerful free tool for measuring traffic, conversions, activity, etc. on your web page or blog.  There are some more sophisticated tools out there but this one is great to get started with...and it's free.

Twitter Grader is a tool that grades your Twitter account by the amount of followers you have, the ratio of followers to following, and the reach of those whom you follow, as well as your tweeting “velocity.”  It sounds strange but encourages you to use Twitter more and in different ways.

Twitalyzer is a Twitter measurement tool for measuring your Twitter influence.  It tracks your velocity, generosity, and popularity.  Be warned, it's harsh.

9.    Adapt
Now that you’re present, participating, monitoring and measuring it’s time to act on what you know.  What is the market telling you?  Are your prices too high?  Is your product delivering on its promise?  Do people love you more than you ever imagined? 

If the latter – then by all means, carry on.  If, however, the feedback you received is not what you wanted or expected how are you going to correct and change?  If you get all of this data and participate in all of these conversations but do nothing with the information then obviously you have a lot of time on your hands to burn.

In today's business environment you no longer have complete control over your brand.  Fortunately, however, you have tips and tools such as all I have mentioned in this series to help you adjust and improve your products and services, and ultimately your entire brand image.  There are many resources, tools and additional information available on this topic.  Anvil Media is a SEO/SEM company that supplies a wealth of information on the subject.  I encourage you to read and learn more.

Related Posts:

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 3]
9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 2]
9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 1]

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 3]

5.    Participate
Joining these sites on the web is just the beginning.  The only way to promote your brand and get value out of these communities is to participate.  I have to admit, it drives me crazy when people connect to me on Facebook, Twitter, etc. but never participate.  No links, no comments, no messages – nothing.  I’ve regularly remove people from my networks simply because they never contribute anything.  I’m not looking for numbers, I’m looking for good content and connections.

When you do participate be authentic.  Even if you're promoting your business or your brand people will respond much better to you if you sound human and not just as if you're promoting company propaganda.  Stick to your message but don't sound like a robot.

In addition to connecting and communicating, some of the best ways I’ve found to participate are – advertise your company services, run promotions, announce new products/services, and post links to relevant topics and helpful websites.

6.    Market, market, market
Showing up and participating with social media doesn’t mean your marketing efforts are complete.  There are several effective methods for further marketing your brand.  Join groups and organization (on and off-line).  Accept speaking engagements whenever you can.  Conduct targeted email campaigns.  Join relevant forums.  Keep the content coming and send it from multiple sources.  The more relevant and useful information you can put out the better.  You certainly don't want to bombard people with too much information but you also want them to know you're there.  

Putting out information and participating in events and speaking engagements puts your content in the hands of others.  These days, you can rely on the fact that the people receiving the information are also participating on-line.  If your message is relevant or provides them with value there is a good chance they will spread this information on-line for you.

Most importantly, no matter what method you chose for distributing information make sure the message you deliver is consistent with the brand you’re trying to promote.

7.    Monitor
Once you're actively participating on line it’s critical that you monitor the activity around your brand.  This means monitoring content you produce and content that gets produced by others.  Sometimes, it can be imperative that you know about or can respond quickly to information being posted about your brand.

There are several ways to do this and you’ve already taken the first step by joining in on the conversation.  Additionally, there are several other tools that assist in these efforts.

Tweetdeck is currently my favorite product for brand monitoring.  If you're a hospital or healthcare staffing supplier I'd strongly recommend using tweetdeck to monitor your brand. Tweetdeck allows you to create groups and save searches on Twitter.  For example, I can save a search for “healthcare staffing” or “healthcare vendor management” or “ShiftWise” and receive alerts anytime anyone on Twitter posts a Tweet with these keywords. These tweets can present new business opportunities, allow you to address complaints or find competitive information.

Twitter Search lets you do something similar to Tweetdeck by conducting searches for keywords.  You can even save or sign up for RSS feeds for the keywords you choose.

Google Alerts allows you to save searches for keywords so that you can receive an email anytime something on the web is posted with that keyword, provided of course that the Google bots know about it.  I find it’s pretty effective.  This tool allows you to monitor your brand as well as your competitor’s brands.

Tweetbeep is similar to Google Alters for Twitter.  It keeps track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, etc.  You can even keep track of who's tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL like bit.ly or tinyurl.com.

Scout Labs reads blog posts and social-networking comments from around the globe and judges them by their words and tone. The sentence “I love Amazon but the Kindle 2 is disappointing” gets properly parsed as a positive comment for Amazon but a negative one for its e-reader. I haven't used this product but I hear good things about it.  

Of course, an “old fashion” Google Search can always help identify places around the web where your brand is being mentioned.  Conducting periodic Google searches on your brand is always a good idea.

Related Posts:

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 2]

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 1]

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 2]

3.    Establish a client feedback channel
Open up a feedback channel directly with your clients, prospects and business partners.  Make it easy for people to contact you via email or phone.  There are few things more annoying than endlessly searching a website for a company’s contact information or making your way through the maze of numbers to push in order to get to a human on the phone.

Creating forums, microsites or using customer feedback tools is a great way to allow your clients to give their input and communicate with them directly, so they know they are being heard.  Without such a platform, clients and business partners may be venting their frustrations about your company elsewhere on the web, in places you have no control over.

Below is a list of a few great tools for establishing client feedback channels.  All of them enable client feedback communities directly within an organization’s website or product.  Customers can submit ideas, suggestions or issues while the community comments and votes on the ideas.  Clients can be instantly notified of comments or when their idea or issue has been resolved.  All of these products are great and have different features to meet different organizational needs.

• QuestionPro-IdeaScale
• User Voice
• CrowdSound
• Get Satisfaction

 

4.    Choose the best social media resources to promote your brand online.
There are all kinds of social media resources to choose from and several staffing suppliers and hospitals are already using social media effectively.  Many tools are over-hyped and some won’t be relevant for your business or the healthcare staffing industry.  Much of your decision should be based on how you want to deliver your message and where you feel you will best reach your target audience.  Here is a list of several sites on which you can successfully promote your brand. 

• LinkedIn is much more than your own personal online resume or a place to find potential employees.  LinkedIn now provides valuable information on companies.  Add your company (if it’s not already listed) so you can define and control the information and so others can find you.  You can also join or start groups on LinkedIn and start or participate in question/answer discussions. 

• Twitter offers many benefits to you as a hospital or healthcare staffing supplier.  Twitter can help you with recruiting, events, brand promotion, information distribution, competitive analysis, product launches, networking and much more.

• Creating a Facebook page is another place to help define and control the message of your company.  Employees, business partners and clients can become “Fans” of your page, create discussions and share information.  You can feed news, articles and press releases directly into your page and create ads to promote your company directly to other targeted members of Facebook. It's also a great place to network and connect to clients and business partners.

• YouTube allows you to post and share videos online.  Video can be a great way to promote your company.  Creating videos can be time consuming and requires some equipment.  However, with a little creativity you can create great content and do so on the cheap with simple tools like a Flip video camera and Camtasia video editing software.


• Flickr is another way to visually promote your company on the web.  Flickr allows you to post pictures, create photo sets and network with others.  Posting pictures of clients, employees, company events, or your office life can go a long way to help add a human face to your business.

• Digg allows you to post and share news articles, press releases, and other web links in an effort to spread positive information about your company and share relevant information with others.

• Delicious allows you to bookmark your favorite sites, news articles, other resources, etc. and share them with your network.

• Medical Mingle is a great example of a professional social networking site specifically for people in the healthcare staffing industry.  Medical Mingle allows you to network with other recruiters, business and healthcare professionals.

• Your website/Blog.  Don’t overlook your own locations on the web as being resources.  Having a website allows you to post information, press releases, articles, white papers and is typically the best place to promote your business and your brand.  There are also several ways to connect with others from your site or blog through contact forms, forums or by any of the several ways mentioned above.  Companies like Jive Software and Google Open Social allow you to create your own social networking platforms directly on your site.  Adding a blog is also a great way to consistently generate content and reach out to your followers.

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9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online pt-1.html

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 1]

How do people see your business and identify with your brand?  It’s easy to summarize the feelings of your best customers, just as it is the ones who always complain.  But what about all of your clients, employees, and business partners as a whole?  If you’re not consciously promoting and defining your company’s brand I can guarantee – someone else is.

It’s no secret, people are online and talking, and there’s a good chance they’re talking about your company.  Now more than ever it’s imperative that you understand, promote and monitor your brand. 

I’ve talked to several hospitals and staffing suppliers in the healthcare staffing industry that don’t understand their brand or how to actively promote and manage it.  Further, they have yet to realize the value of all the online resources available for assisting with this effort.

Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to promote, track and define your brand online these days. In this series I’ll cover 9 tips on how to effectively use the Internet and its many resources to manage your brand.

1. Identify your brand
What is a brand?  A brand is more than a logo or a trademark.  It's more than a slogan, sales pitch or mission statement.  A brand is an identification or a representation.  It can even be as intangible as a feeling, understanding or an association.

To identify your brand, start off-line.  The best thing to do is to analyze and understand your business.  Make sure that whatever you're delivering is of the best quality it can be.  Nothing destroys your brand faster than having a reputation of not delivering on the promise of your products or services.  

Next, ask and answer questions such as:

• What is it you deliver and how do you deliver it? 
• What makes your company stand out from your competition? 
• What are your company values and what benefits do you bring to the market?
• Define your target audience.  Be as specific as possible.  For example, “hospitals” is not a target audience.  “Acute care hospitals, with 250-500 beds, that spend more than $2,000,000/year on per diem healthcare staff, in urban areas, of the pacific northwest” is getting closer.
• What message are you trying to send to this audience? What message will resonate with this audience?
• Identify the “voice” with which you want to communicate this message.  Is it professional?  Fun?  Experienced?  Laid back?
• What is the one thing you want people to think of when they interact with your brand?  Quality?  Professionalism?  Great customer service?

Once you identify your brand, ensure that all of your employees have the same understanding of your brand, it's message, how it's communicated and the promise of its value.

2. Create a plan
Creating a Facebook page and signing up for Twitter is not a plan.  These are actions to execute within your plan.  It's imperative that you have a plan and a strategy for promoting your band online.  Create a plan that answers questions such as:

• What are your business goals – both short and long term?  Are you looking to expand into new markets, explore different modalities or do you want to stay focused on improving your current lines of business?  Is your goal to recruit more healthcare professionals into an internal contingent pool or are you trying to earn more business from your existing clients?
• What are your company’s current strengths and weaknesses?  Have you done well at per diem staffing and want to give placing travelers a try?  If you're thinking of building, instead of licensing software are you prepared for the maintenance and on going support of a software venture?
• What do you think your company image is now? How do you want to be perceived?  Is there a difference?  If so, how will you take steps to address this?
• What type of resources do you have to devote to your online marketing efforts?  Are you on a limited budget or do you have a thriving marketing department?  Do you have content prepared to publish or are you starting from scratch?

Answering these questions will help get you started on identifying and preparing to promote your brand online.

Related Posts:

9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 2]
9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 3]
9 tips for promoting and protecting your brand online [pt. 4]