Giving health and healthy lifestyle brands the ability to do the best they can

I know an organizational consultant who gets through the day by saying to himself "they're doing the best they can." It is the only way after many years of consulting, he says, that he can survive his customer engagements. He's learned to accept the fact that we're all flawed, and don't always operate (no kidding) in a rational manner.
But through social media, we have the ability to speak through an unfiltered pipeline about and to brand and company owners. So there's no excuse for them not to be doing the best they can. Unless they're not listening, in which case, we'll talk more frequently and virally until they do.
Using Twitter as an example, here are seven ways that social media helps us help brands "do the best they can":

1. Great experience. Nice to meet you on Twitter- I love shopping on zappos.com, great user experience!
2. Lousy experience. I'm really hoping that what I need will be at Target so I can avoid a Walmart shopping experience.
3. Never again unless you fix it experience. ITZShop.com: Worst online shopping experience!
4. Customer service channel. Sorry to hear about that @xxxxxx call 8009612075 and our customer service team will correct this for you.
5. Product feedback. wholefoods: @xxxx We appreciate your feedback though and will look into creating a better system for collecting and reviewing product requests
6. Special events announcement. Special hands-on activities at the Grand Opening of the WOW Science Museum this weekend! Schedule of events: http://tinyurl.com/ce6xjf
7. New product and service ideas:Good morning "twitters"! I need 5 great/NEW innovative suggestions to launch a product to the industry. All ideas are welcome!

The Health 2.0 reform movement

I visited Wikipedia to see if there were any updates for the definition of Health 2.0, as it's still being defined. There's a traditional view offered by The Wall Street Journal, and this ambitious game-changing definition from Scott Shreeve, MD., who states that Health 2.0 goes way beyond just the pervasive social networking technology to include a complete renaissance in the way that Healthcare is actually delivered. He developed this visual representation of the Health 2.0 reform movement, and provides an accompanying explanation of the model.
To date, adaption of Health 2.0 technologies and tools among health care practitioners lags behind healthcare consumers, who use social to research and manage their health, their medical conditions and to gain emotional support. The collaboration between patients, caregivers and medical professionals (the ultimate goal which will benefit the consumer in their daily lives) is still largely a concept - though inevitably this will change. As Matthew Holt points out the issue is, how are these tools and technologies going to be used, what does that mean for health care organizations, and doctors and patients, and how fast will it matter?

Does Your Healthcare Brand Have Fans Like This

When was the last time someone publicly raved about your organization? When they told the world how impressed they were with you. What if you had to gauge your success by the number of fans raving about you, which is a lot more credible relative to us pounding our chests about how great we are. Watch this video from a Ford fan. 

Seven Ways To Generate Health Brand Energy Through Added Value

I created this client presentation following a discussion about how to provide added value to consumers who are worried about their future and who are evaluating their purchases with great discretion (if they're purchasing at all). Implicit to being able to provide added value to consumers is understanding how they feel, how they define "value" and how they're making decisions. 

Not one of the seven examples that follows reflects a better feature-driven mousetrap. Rather, all of them provide a platform for enriching people's lives by understanding where they're headed, and then providing better experiences, new relationships and new ways of interacting. I've included examples from both inside and outside health and healthy lifestyles, as big insights and ideas typically come from outside the client category being studied.

1. Great Brand Experience - which inspires trust, builds loyalty and promotes word-of-mouth (e.g. J&J's Baby.com, Amazon, Zappos) 

2. Tried & True Comfort - the "authentic" foods and household products that we grew up with and that remind us of safety, warmth and joy (e.g. A&H Baking Soda, Kraft Mac N' Cheese, J&J Baby Shampoo)

3. Tying To A Cause - purchasing a product to support a cause people care about (e.g. Yoplait Pink Labels, Green Works and Sierra Club)

4. Reinforcement - through the brand, consumers can track their progress (e.g. myAlliplan, Nike + iPod)

5. Community - where consumers actively participate in co-creating brand value (e.g. digg, patientslikeme, Wikipedia)

6. Ongoing Dividends -  where the initial outlay provides sustainable, meaningful and relevant gains (e.g. Prius, Solar Energy)

7. Personalized Expression - where the brand serves as a blank canvas for personal expression (e.g. My M&M's, Build My Mini)