A new kind of 'social network' is seeking to capitalize on the cold/flu-ridden.
Sickweather is startup business that both tracks diseases and functions as a social network. This network scans various social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and looks for illnesses that could be affecting those in your community. Adweek has referred to this as "social media for hypochondriacs" due to its ability to detect and filter real time updates of people reporting illnesses.
Using algorithm technologies, this system compares the real time data against other sources, including its own online community (in which you actively participate in by signing up with a login and password and contribute to their database) and creates "maps" of sickness to alert users of their potential risks.
The system claims to be able to track everything from simple colds to chronic illnesses, and even depression. This tool allows the worrisome to check on the health of their friends and families at any time (permitting that they update their status via Sickweather).
What's interesting about this hybrid social media is how it plans to make money as a startup business. It's hoping to earn revenue by strategically placing ads on health sites, targeted to "suburban moms, business travelers and others who actively dodge illness" who may use this tool. This symptom-targeted advertising also plans on hosting healthcare providers on its own site.
Since this is a startup business their IMC approach is different. They haven't yet become established enough to fully utilize all outlets of strategic marketing communications. However, what they do have going for them is their use of certain outlets to hit a specific target audience. They're positioning themselves to be specialized in a field where there are a lot of health-alert sites and social media platforms. But instead of just being a source of information, they're a business. And they are using other publications (like Adweek) and news releases to promote themselves.
Overall, Sickweather's strategies are still pretty pliable. They seem to be in the trial stages of their development, but with any luck, they may get featured in ad space on online healthcare sites and begin to profit from the hypochondriac market.
Photo credit: http://news.discovery.com/infectious-diseases/
This is the strangest social media I have ever heard. This is a great idea and will allow users to realize the health problems that are going on close to them. This reaches a large target audience, because everyone is interested in what illnesses are prevalent in their area. Marketing this program will be easy as it is attached to Facebook and Facebook is very popular with todays generations. By continuing to market through this social media platform and potentially taking advantage of marketing through Twitter, this program will soon become very popular among society.
ReplyDeleteKelsey
I agree with anonymous in the fact that it reaches the target audience, but I do not think that it will catch on as quickly as you think. There are plenty of ads on Facebook that are ignored by millions of Facebook users. There is so much clutter on Facebook, it is very hard to cut through that clutter. I think going with Twitter to market Sickweather is a better idea. By simply following Sickweather followers will know of the latest health issues.
ReplyDeleteThis just goes to show you how deep social media is digging into our lives. Now we can tell who is sick and who isn't. This to me is a waste of time and is not going to take off. I believe it will just add to problems especially with people saying they are sick when they are really not or people logging in trying to mess with the system.
ReplyDeleteAs far as this blog post relating to the target audience it is spot on. Someone who is thinking about involving social media in their business would see this idea and would see that can use about anything in the social media world.
I do agree with Tyler though and could see how using Twitter could make this sickweather idea work. A boss could simply have his workers follow sickweather and he could watch the Twitter feed to see if anyone is sick or if something is taking over his job site. This is a very creative idea, but I think it may be a stretch.
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ReplyDeleteThis could be really smart or really annoying. Letting people know what sicknesses are going around in the area they live in is really intriguing. I think the main struggle I have with this, is it seems as though it is just another scare for consumers.
ReplyDeleteIf Sickweather becomes more of an informational social media, then I think there is potential for it to work. By informational, I mean what sickness is going around and what you can do to prevent the sickness or help you through the sickness if you have it.
Unfortunately, right now, its more of a there was a person with a cold here, or a person with the flu there. I think there is potential for this to take off solely for the fact that people do tend to get crazy and want to know what is going on all the time, including sickness. Like Tyler said, I don't think this will take off as quickly as you think because there isn't much depth to the social media other than tracking where sickness is.
I think they are aiming in the right places, but I agree with Alex, this is a waste of time.
This could be the start of something great... or creepy. I am not sure if this exact site will take off. But there are endless possibilities for tracking peoples' movements. It will be possible for other sites to track key words and see who is doing what. This kind of thing scares me a bit and makes me want to put all my social media settings to private so I know strangers can't just figure out my every move.
ReplyDeleteThis social media is very interesting. Who would have ever thought someone would come up with this? I think this will be a good idea to keep people aware of the sickness going around, especially those who are constantly worried about getting sick. Although, i'm curious to see how accurate this site will be. Will they be able to determine the sicknesses in each area with enough time for the people to know? This will definitely be a working progress for this company, and if it works then it will become popular very quickly. This just shows that you can use social media to market just about anything. No idea is too far "out there" to advertise to people because chances are someone is going to be interested in what you have to say.
ReplyDeleteThis shows how technology is developing rapidly. The fact that they can check statuses and link them to communities is crazy! Unfortunately, they might have a problem because not everyone will have a status when they're sick. It's a great idea and it could be successful. Hopefully they can get a marketing strategy formed and run with it.
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