Tell The World: A PatientsLikeMe Year in Review (Part V – Marketing)

epilepsytearsheet08With every new member at PatientsLikeMe, there is more data generated for research, more dialogue about individual experiences, and a more expansive support network.  Additionally, with more patients we can become the world’s largest and loudest representative of the patient voice.  To that end, our job in marketing is to share your stories and tell the world about our community to bring in more patients.

Here are highlights of some of the work we did this year to promote your voice and attract the 32,000+ new members we welcomed to the community in 2010.  (Enjoy the video recap below as well.)

Social Outreach

  • With a full year under its belt, 2010 was a big year for the PatientsLikeMeInMotionTM program. With slick new t-shirts and a new sign-up form, the program just about doubled in size from 38 teams in 2009 to 60 teams in 2010.  More than 1,000 people were rocking PatientsLikeMe t-shirts for their disease awareness walks this year and the company donated $14,800+ in our members’ names to almost 50 nonprofit organizations.  (More about our nonprofit partnerships and work we’ve done with them is coming from Molly Cotter next week).  Finally, we launched our PatientsLikeMeinMotionTM Flickr page, which features hundreds of photos of all of you walking for team PatientsLikeMe.
  • In January 2010, PatientsLikeMe launched its first ever podcast called PatientsLikeMeOnCallTM (hosted by our newest marketing team member, Aaron Fleishman). Through a series of podcasts this year, PatientsLikeMe provided insight from our thought leaders on topics most important to you, spotlighted work with partners and gave patients a place for their real voices to be heard. With more than 1,000 subscribers to date, PatientsLikeMeOnCallTM is ready to bring more content to all of our listeners in 2011. Thanks for stopping by and listening!

  • Along with PatientsLikeMeOnCallTM, PatientsLikeMe continued to spotlight what you’re saying, learning and sharing through our blog (yes, we do manage the content for this lovely page!), Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Our Twitter followers continue to grow with more than 2,100 followers. Our Facebook page now has more than 1,000 fans and our YouTube videos have a combined number of 74,258 views total, with 35,469 views this year alone.

Media Coverage:

Throughout the year, PatientsLikeMe was featured in a number of media stories (see our press page) that highlighted how you are making a difference for other patients and the healthcare industry as a whole.  In fact, many of you were able to share your stories with the world – from your disease experiences to your participation on PatientsLikeMe.  Thank you to everyone who contributed!  Some highlights include: Fast Company (“2010 Most Innovative Companies”), Fortune/CNN (“Tweet your chart”), Wall Street Journal (“Scrapers’ Dig Deep for Data on Web”), Fox News videos, Women’s Health (“Feel Sick Click Here”), NPR (“What Happens When People Migrate To The Internet”), New York Times (“When Patients Meet Online”), TIME magazine (“Group Therapy”) as well as articles in Bio-IT World, InformationWeek, Nature Biotechnology, PharmaTimes, and SmartMoney.

Events, Direct Mail and Newsletters
In addition to attending some events (e.g., 2010 Transplant Games, Parkinson’s Unity Walk) to talk directly to patients, PatientsLikeMe also reached out to medical centers (e.g., epilepsy and transplants) to inform physicians about how patients are benefiting from being members of PatientsLikeMe (see above).

Finally, we’re thrilled to hear how much you enjoyed the monthly community newsletters in 2010.  Altogether, we published 90 newsletters this year and featured many of your fellow community members in patient interviews (which also appeared here on the blog). Based on your feedback, we also finally launched an archive section on our site so you can catch up on all the latest and greatest from PatientsLikeMe.

Spreading the word is what we do in marketing, and we can say it is has truly been a pleasure telling the world about all that you do and all that you share through PatientsLikeMe.  2011 will only be better.  Thank you and Happy New Year!

PatientsLikeMe member lscanlon

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2 thoughts on “Tell The World: A PatientsLikeMe Year in Review (Part V – Marketing)”

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention The Value of Openness: The PatientsLikeMe Blog » Tell The World: A PatientsLikeMe Year in Review (Part V – Marketing) -- Topsy.com

  2. Could you help me spread the word about trichotillomania( hair pulling)? I am a teenagers suffering from this life changing disorder, I’m tierd of being a freak please help me spread the word before it costs more teens things ranging from friends to their lives. Please help uncover this disease and make it so that kids know they aren’t alone and how to get help, so parents understand what is going on with their child. It’s terrifying if nobody helps spread the word

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