Social Media, YouTube and electronic publishing The experience of the Sri Lanka Medical Association

Social Media, YouTube and electronic publishing

The experience of the Sri Lanka Medical Association

Dr Rikaz SheriffMedical Officer in Health Informatics, PDHS, Western Province

Council Member, Sri Lanka Medical Association

Outline

• The existing situation in 2012• Setting up the online platform• Methodology• Results via analytics• Lessons learnt• Future plans

Existing situation in Late ‘11

• Website www.slma.lk• Official Email• No Social Media• No Mailing List• SLMA Newsletter was printed & distributed• CMJ was online via SLJOL

Starting small. Thinking BIG.

• Planning in advance.• Build a team.• Minute everything.• Think of a comprehensive online cover.

“But is it in line with SLMA policy?”

• SLMA Corporate Plan 2009-2012– Objective 3: Promote professionalism, good medical

practice and ethical conduct among doctors.– Objective 5: Provide opportunities for continuous

professional development…– Objective 7: Educate the public on health related

issues– Objective 8: Enhance closer professional and

scientific links between medical and professionals allied to health care

“Would anyone use this?”

85

15

7

Total PopulationInternet PenetrationFacebook Users

Setting it up

• Email Mailing List• Website• Abstract Management System• Payment Gateway• Facebook• YouTube• Online SLMA Newsletter on ISSUU• Recent Innovation: Twitter SMS + DropBox

Email

• Re-organized member list into an exportable Excel sheet.

• Starting amount was 3000 SLMA members.• Current tally is 10,000+ Medical Doctors,

Students & Allied Health Professionals.• Mailing software is used.• Works like a regular mailing list.• We post an event as it comes.

A typical email

Facebook + Twitter

• The information was then posted to Facebook.

• Posting policy was twice a day.• All forms of inquiry aside from advertising and

‘colorful’ comments were welcome.• Scheduled posting.• We currently have 10,000+ fans on Facebook.• Twitter SMS

Facebook Page

Source: www.socialbakers.com

YouTube

• A mixture of educational videos and mini documentaries.

• Since producing, editing and uploading videos is time intensive we have posted infrequently.

• Requires knowledge in video editing.• Also requires a camera and tripod!• YouTube links were posted via email.

Online Library at ISSUU

• All Newsletters were hosted at this site.• Circulars and important booklets were also

hosted here.• Links were posted via email.

General Analytics

• The increase in memberships.• The increase in email subscribers.• The web view count per article.• Amount of visits to website.

ISSUU

• Excellent analytics• As of September 2012– All articles had been read 21103 times– Newsletters took up 86.14% of this– Each newsletter has been read on average 2280

times.– The frequency of reading was 162.8 reads per day– This pattern was sustained for 2 weeks per post– This could be further broken down page by page

Facebook Analytics

• Once again gives excellent insights into both general demographics and particular posts

• As of September 2012– 92.7 % of fans were from Sri Lanka– City wise Colombo (51.7%) were more than Kandy (3.6%)

users for example– Male:Female ratio was 2:1– 87% of users were below 35 years of age.– When using fb advertising the page posts gets viewed 5000

times as opposed to 500 times with no ads.– Through the 10000 fans we can reach 1 million users.

Facebook’s various analytic tools

YouTube

• Despite the lack of videos Google’s analytic engine can deliver very precise stats.

• From our video views we learn: (As of Sep,’11)– That 74.9% of views were from Sri Lanka– Male: Female ratio was 3:1– The average viewer was above 35 years of age– Access was 74.2% by desktop and 14.6 %from

mobile (11.2% Other Devices)

+ve effects

• 10,000 Email List.• 10,000 Followers on Facebook.• 5000 Views on YouTube.• Better than average attendance in workshops.• The best attendance at a scientific sessions.• The most life members in a year.

Lessons learnt

• The correct hardware• In-House Training of SLMA Staff• Email & Social Media Policy• Regular surveys + Better use of analytics• Mailing list technologies (e.g. Mailchimp)• Professional IT Teams• Condense Emails to a weekly/bi-weekly

Notification services

Future Plans

• Online CPD• More YouTube videos• Streaming Lectures

Thank You