Glenn Seaberg
Spyder Trap Online Marketing

As with most other business segments, online marketing is changing health care.  Here at Spyder Trap, we see it first hand everyday.  Here are just 5 ways online technology is changing healthcare:

1. Improving fundraising efforts

More and more, leading healthcare providers like Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota are implementing simple but effective fundraising pages to their websites.  At the Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota Online Giving Store, visitors can even select how their donations will be used.

2. Increasing patient convenience

What could be more convenient than an iPhone application that allows users to locate nearby doctors, clinics, and hospitals within its network?  One of many apps, DocGPS, uses iPhone’s GPS system allowing users to search over 20 types of health care facilities and nearly 60 types of physician specialties.

3. Increasing access to quality care

Telemedicine is rapidly becoming a reality.  Using teleconferencing and other technology, the day rapidly approaches when patients can see doctors remotely; from their workplace, private kiosks in malls, and even in mobile clinics towed by semis.  Here’s one example: www.ConnectedCareAmerica.com.

4. Increasing awareness

By actively engaging in social media, caregivers are able to promote their facilities, the patient successes, and their latest initiatives.  Check out how Children’s of Los Angeles engages its various constituencies using YouTube.

5. Reducing patient anxiety

Anyone who has ever faced an upcoming medical procedure knows the dark fear of uncertainty that precedes it.  By accessing any of the numerous specialized websites, blogs, chat rooms, and other social media, patients can now connect with caregivers and other patients in various stages of their respective treatment.  In doing so, patients learn from the experience of others what to expect.  This removes much of the uncertainty and reduces anxiety.

What changes have you noticed as you’ve navigated health issues?  For me, if I would have had access even to www.WebMD.com in the winter of 1989, my personal battle against cancer would have been much different.  What’s on the horizon?  What do we need?  Let me know.  We’re in this healthcare debate together.

Jason Douglas
Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Recently, Echofon came out with an update to their iPhone app. As the only iPhone user at Spyder Trap, I am the lucky person who gets to test out everything iPhone related.

I have used Echofon as my main Twitter application since it was called Twitterfon. The latest update only enhances the application and in my opinion, if Echofon was not at the top before, officially puts itself at the top out of all Twitter applications.

I tweet for numerous accounts, both personal and professional. Before, you could only have one account registered for the application. If I wanted to tweet from another account, I had to download another app. Now, you are able to hold multiple Twitter accounts on Echofon. Switching accounts is easy to do. Go to your ‘Accounts’ page and tap on the profile you want to tweet from, and it will instantly switch.

Another nice feature is the multiple re-tweet option. This allows the user to re-tweet with or without adding a message and editing the original tweet. This is a significant upgrade compared to the web version of Twitter, where re-tweeting functionality is far behind the capabilities of this application.

Arguably, the most impressive new feature is the ‘Nearby Tweets, Map or List View’. By using the iPhone’s built-in GPS, it’s able to locate your near-exact location and load tweets either by using Google Maps and placing pins from where the tweet happened, or in the traditional list view.  This brings in some of the functionality possessed in Foursquare, where you can view who is also at a place you checked in to, but minus the checking in feature.

Many other Echofon upgrades were introduced, such as:

• Attaching photos using TwitPic or Flickr
• Attaching videos (for 3GS only)
• Landscape keyboard
• Dedicated lists tab
• In-App web, maps, mail, YouTube, and full screen photo viewing
• User authenticated bit.ly
• Shake to reload (exactly like Urbanspoon)

For anyone with an iPhone and using Twitter, this is the application to go with. The free version, which is what I have always used, is great. The ads are never in the way of your tweet stream and never annoying in any other way. For clients, especially with companies who are focused in one area, with the ‘Nearby Tweets, Map or List View’, this can help you interact with your following, or anyone talking about your brand/product.

Example: if you’re a restaurant in the Uptown area, and you can see people within a certain radius of your location talking about lunch plans, you can connect with these people directly and try to get new people to your restaurant.

The next step of Echofon is to be able to search for specific terms within the ‘Nearby Tweets’ to weed out non-relevant conversation.

Now that I have shared my favorite Twitter app, what’s your favorite Twitter application for the iPhone? What features do you want to see from your iPhone app?