How can visual media bring healthcare social media to life?
This edition of the Healthcare Social Media (HCSM) Review explores visual storytelling. Storytelling alone could have been our sole focus, but the increasing prominence of visual media, especially across social networking sites, couldn’t go unnoticed. Posts span visual communication research, content strategy, and storytelling techniques.
- Tracy Granzyk calls attention to a recently published study that demonstrates how visual storytelling supports patients facing dementia.
- A new article published in IEEE’s Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, The Five Ws for Information Visualization with Application to Healthcare Informatics, offers
a framework for improving the usability of visual information.
- CommunicateHealth looks at which is better for visual communication: a photo or an illustration. They suggest using an illustration to convey an abstract idea or process and a photo to evoke emotion. CH also shares the resource, The Noun Project, which offers a free collection of icons, symbols and simple graphics.
- Christine Russel and Rebecca Stern recently co-hosted the Health Care Leadership (#HCLDR) Twitter chat with a focus on visual media. Participants shared how visual media can “put a face” to narratives, issues and diseases, provide patient education and support patients
in making informed decisions. Many participants mentioned how visual media can help expand access to health messaging.
- Ragan Healthcare outlines six ways hospitals can shape their brand through the use of visual storytelling.
- Ash Rishi, CEO of a U.K.-based digital marketing agency, argues that storytelling can help increase patient engagement. His suggestions? Reveal something personal, take patients on a transformational journey from beginning to end and tap into emotion.
- The Content Marketing Associations shares 7 Steps to Telling the Perfect Story in the form of an infographic. You may also recall when former-Pixar storyboard artist tweeted Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. Both are helpful nuggets of information.
- As we know, terminology matters. In looking to harness visual media, perusing the field of digital storytelling is another avenue for inspiration. You may also be interested in joining the Transmedia for Good Facebook group, spearheaded by the talented Nedra Weinreich.
Inspirational Models
I keep a Pinterest board of inspirational models to help spark new and evolved applications of using social media for good. Recent examples of visual storytelling in healthcare social media include:
- Positively Aware Magazine’s #ADayWithHIV Campaign
- The Waiting Room’s Multi-Channel, Storytelling Project
- DefeatDD’s Toilet Calendar Contest (as a follow-up to their Poo-Haiku Challenge)
- National MS Society’s User-Generated Stories
Visual media is just one tool in the storytelling toolbelt. From Google Helpouts for healthcare, to robot doctors and dreaming of 3-D language development, the possibility in the types of potential tools continues to expand.
What are your favorite examples of visual storytelling through social media?
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