Every month, tens of millions of people around the world turn for guidance to a single public hospital in Minnesota. They go to MayoClinic.org, the encyclopaedic, cutting-edge information hotline set up by the Mayo Clinic.
“It’s probably the third most trafficked health website in the world,” Lee Aase, Director of Mayo Clinic’s Social Media Centre, told The Brilliant.
The website receives close to 50 million unique visitors a month. “It’s by far the greatest traffic of any hospital website,” says Aase.
Google any health issue and you will find yourself on the Mayo Clinic website. The information is easily read, with links to further information. The traffic is driven by how people search for health information – symptoms and causes, diagnosis and treatment – answered in a clear language most people can understand.
It is a standalone service provided by the hospital. And it is free.
Since Aase began working for the Mayo Clinic team 20 years ago, it is not just the website that’s blossomed. He says the hospital has been able to stay informed on new technologies soon after they emerge.
In 1995, when the Mayo Clinic set up a consumer health information website, it already had a history of delivering health content to the public through newsletters delivered by mail, through its bestselling family health book, and even via CD-ROM.
The technology and the habit of wide distribution has evolved and spread for the past 25 years – along with the Mayo Clinic’s reputation and knowledge brand.
It’s actually been part of Mayo Clinic’s DNA for a long time – to provide not only training for a lot of physicians, physicians-in-training and other medical professionals, but also to reach out to the public and to use the Mayo Clinic brand as a way of putting good information out,” Aase says.
Reaching mainstream eyes and ears
After more than a decade working in political and government communications, Aase joined the Mayo Clinic in 2000. At the time, the Mayo Clinic launched its syndicated television program, Mayo Clinic Medical Edge, which was born from a dearth of health reporting in mainstream news.
Many television stations in the US, particularly the smaller ones, wanted health news, but couldn’t afford a dedicated health reporter. To fill that gap, the Mayo Clinic began producing a weekly news insert, usually featuring an evergreen story and a patient’s experience, Aase says: “Something that was really meaningful and helpful. It wasn’t overtly promotional, but it would have a Mayo Clinic doctor, it would have a Mayo Clinic patient, there would be that subtle undertone to it, and it would be a great resource.”
At its peak in 2005, around 130 television stations ran those Mayo Clinic stories. At the same time, another now-ubiquitous medium was finding its feet: podcasting.
When Aase and his colleagues first heard about podcasting, they knew it was an avenue they needed to pursue, but their first foray was an accidental success. They already produced 60-second radio segments that were published on the Mayo Clinic website, so the team set up an RSS feed and listed it on iTunes.
“Then I kind of forgot about it,” Aase says – until, that is, a couple of months later, when the media team received an enquiry about advertising in their podcast. Unbeknownst to Aase, the Mayo Clinic’s monthly podcast downloads had shot up from 8,000 to 72,000 in the space of those eight weeks or so.
The Mayo Clinic’s podcast offerings have expanded since those early days. Mayo Clinic Radio, produced by the Mayo Clinic News Network, is a weekly 40-minute program where hosts Dr Tom Shives and Tracy McCray discuss the latest health headlines with Mayo Clinic health professionals and researchers. The pair also present the shorter but more frequently released Mayo Clinic Q&A program.
The Mayo Clinic’s School of Continuous Professional Development and Mayo Clinic Laboratories produce podcasts tailored to people working in the health and research realms.
With a wealth of expert talent at its fingertips, it was only a matter of time before the Aase’s team began writing and publishing its own online news. The internal journalism team publishes stories through the public-facing Mayo Clinic News Network.
And in times like the COVID-19 pandemic era, they can respond faster than most organisations, Aase says. “When everything was changing so quickly, we were able to turn on a dime. We’re putting out several stories every day. We also created a special COVID-19 section on the Mayo Clinic front page that drove traffic to our online newsroom as your resource for all things COVID-19.”
Make social networks work for you
Of course, as the Mayo Clinic expanded into visual, audio and online news, social media use skyrocketed too.
As well as getting the Mayo Clinic on the usual social media – such as Facebook (1.2 million followers), Twitter (two million followers) and YouTube (half a million subscribers) – in 2010 Aase and his crew created what is now known as the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network for health care professionals. This professional network helps people use online digital tools to deliver better care and advance their career.
In 2011 they launched Mayo Clinic Connect, a community for patients and caregivers to support each other. In 2015, that community had around 30,000 members; that number has swelled to 99,000 today.
“The rebirth of the community was in 2015, when we actively engaged a community manager to really cultivate the conversations,” Aase says. “We also recruited volunteer managers – patients or caregivers or other members of the community who see this as their way of giving back.”
With fingers in every social media pie – including a network they built themselves – how does the Mayo Clinic produce content that, according to Aase, “stops the thumb” from scrolling by?
He’s noticed a couple of broad areas that capture the reader’s attention more than others. “One that is interesting is medical illustrations,” Aase says. “They do exceptionally well.” And not just static images. The Mayo Clinic enlists the help of animators as well as illustrators to produce detailed and informative images.
Human interest stories, too, are “incredibly powerful”, he adds. “These are the people who are dealing with a chronic condition or a serious disease, and are being empowered.”
And even though the Mayo Clinic’s roots are deeply American, more than half of its website traffic comes from overseas. The Mayo Clinic News Network has long recognised its international reach and adapted accordingly: for instance, some nine years ago, it established a Spanish Twitter account and Facebook page, and while it only has the one YouTube channel, the Mayo Clinic News Network has produced more than 100 videos in Spanish.
The main consumer health site is translated into Spanish too, along with Portuguese, Mandarin and Arabic.
Don’t wait – start now
Aase and his team have gained an enviable legion of viewers, listeners, readers and followers for the Mayo Clinic. And over the years, he’s acquired a couple of tips for anyone looking to build an audience base from scratch.
“The first thing I would say to individuals and organisations is that it’s not too late,” he says. “When I started my personal blog in 2006, I thought, ‘oh, I’m starting way too late. There are all these other people doing it already.’
“But five years from now, you’re going to be five years older, and you’ll either have five years of blogging and social media experience or you won’t. So start, but think through where your audience is – who is it that you’re trying to reach? – and go where they are.”
To forge connections with people who share your interests but you don’t yet know, get on Twitter. Searching for relevant hashtags, he says, “is the best networking with unfamiliar people that there is”.
Finally, appreciate the serendipity that transpires. “There have been so many connections that I’ve made with people I would never have normally met, and we’ve become good friends and allies,” Aase says.
That’s still doable today, and maybe even more than ever. Digital platforms take the friction out for the most part and enable you to overcome barriers of time and space. It’s never been easier to do well by doing good.”
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