As we lead up to
the AAMSE Annual Conference, the AAMSE Blog will be featuring sneak
previews of the speakers and presentations from the 2014 conference
program by welcoming Annual Conference speakers as guest bloggers in the
AAMSE Blog's "Speaker's Corner".
Guest Blogger: Adele Cehrs, CEO, Epic PR Group
2014 Annual Conference Breakout Session Speaker:
What's Your Association's Endgame? Learning Critical Survival Moves - Thursday, July, 31 9:30 - 10:30 AM
Handling Online Criticism: Social Media as An Ally, Not an Enemy - Thursday, July 31 1:00 - 2:00 PM
How Medical Associations Will Be Affected by the Changes in the Digital News Cycle
By Adele Cehrs
CEO, Epic PR Group and AAMSE Speaker
How often has a board member or executive
said, “Why aren’t we in the New York Times? Our issues, members and
ideas are important, but they don’t come to us and we don’t know why.”
Let me share a little insight into how the
media landscape is changing and how you can become a valuable source with a few tweaks in how you promote members, ideas
and breakthroughs.
The New York Times recently
launched its own blog called The Upshot. The blog will serve two
very important roles for the traditional media outlet that has been glaringly
missing. First, The Upshot will attempt to explain the NYT’s
own content, something that has been left up to external bloggers, commenters
and pundits. Secondly, it will ensure that the stories that get reported
are the ones that are trending and most interesting to the public by measuring data
and clicks.
This shift in data-driven, explainer
journalism will change the game for associations big and small, trying to make
an impact on the news cycle. The public will now decide what they think
deserves further exploration and analysis.
The good news is this is a perfect
opportunity for physicians, health care associations and big thinkers to
explain complex issues, conditions and
medical breakthroughs that used to be boiled down to a 3 second sound bite.
The bad news is that explainer journalism that
comes with the launch of The Upshot requires language that is
easy to understand, repeat and share. That has never really been a big concern
for the medical community, but times and attitudes need to change in order to
remain relevant.
If medical associations want to have a say
in the most important issues reported by A-list publications like the New
York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal –
they need experts who can speak in laymen’s terms. That means clear and concise
stories, messages and data that doesn’t confuse, but enlightens the American
public. As Albert Einstein once said, “You do not really understand
something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.”
Sounding like the smartest person in the
room will no longer get the attention it used to when media like the NYT
determine story importance by clicks, shares and likes.
Traditional media outlets will do more with
the data in their own stories and it is up to the medical associations to make
the information of our members accessible.
Adele
Cehrs is the CEO of Epic PR Group. Epic specializes in working with
healthcare organizations and has worked with clients such as the American
Physical Therapy Associations: Private Practice Section, American Board of
Optometry and the Emergency Nurses Associations. Visit: www.epicprgroup.com.
Attend Adele's presentations at the 2014 AAMSE Annual Conference; registration now open! Click here to register and download the complete preliminary brochure.
