My friend, MedCity News founder Chris Seper, called me today after I posted “Protecting our Medical Devices LinkedIn Group” on LinkedIn.
He asked, “How can LinkedIn participate in the healthcare conversation?” And I agreed to write this article.
And now that I’m writing, I’m not sure LinkedIn wants to be part of the conversation. Any conversation, really.
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If they did, they’d make their platform more hospitable to groups like the one I lead, the Medical Devices Group (300,000 members).
What could LinkedIn do to make their site the destination for healthcare conversation?
I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, strategy. What does the customer want?
Healthcare professionals have many places to get their news – MedCity News chief among them. But where can healthcare professionals go to have an intelligent conversations with thought leaders?
LinkedIn Groups. Groups do that very well – so well, in fact, LinkedIn never imagined two million groups, hundreds with more than 50,000 members.
In order to keep healthcare professionals on the platform and using groups to facilitate the healthcare conversation, LinkedIn should:
1. Allow moderation. A leader gets to know his or her audience and then publishes only items that busy professionals would find relevant. Imagine if every time you did a Google search you had to scroll past the first two pages to find something relevant. You’d switch browsers, wouldn’t you?
2. Work properly! Too obvious? From discussions that disappear to emails that are never sent, LinkedIn’s platform is notoriously buggy. But rest assured, customer care will advise you: “Yours is a known issue with no timeline for fixing.”
Here’s an idea: Give a $5,000 bonus to whomever fixes the “known issue.” I’m thinking a few developers might jump at the opportunity.
3. Allow private interaction. Some suggested conversations aren’t ready for prime-time or shouldn’t be shared with 300,000 people. I used to be able to give private answers and advice to those members. No longer. LinkedIn now limits you to 15 emails and private replies to members per month. As a result, contributions get deleted, you don’t get an answer, and you don’t know why.
4. Allow moderators to pick digest subject lines. Once you get a few emails with nonsensical subject lines, you unsubscribe. Lower engagement means less meaningful conversation.
There are another dozen ideas to make groups more hospitable – and as you can see, these aren’t limited to healthcare professionals’ needs and wants.
Healthcare professionals want the same thing all Internet users want: Intuitive design, meaningful content, and a pleasant user experience.
Is that too much to ask?
About the Author: Joe Hage leads the world’s largest Medical Devices Group, the industry’s only spam-free, curated forum for intelligent conversations with medical device thought leaders. Mr. Hage’s medical device marketing services and MDMS Executive Program help companies engage qualified prospects and his 10x Medical Device Conference unites Medical Devices Group members in an intimate and educational forum each year.
