Being proactive and using a different approach for each platform are key to social media crisis communication.

A powerful new weapon has been added to your crisis communications arsenal: social media.

Like all weapons, it can be used for good or evil. It can assure you of a swift victory over those who would defame your reputation. Or it can blow up in your face. Because social media can change public opinion — for better or worse.

In the old days, companies relied on traditional media to handle a crisis. In 1982, for example, Johnson & Johnson executed its revered Tylenol crisis communications plan, calling for a comprehensive recall of potentially poisonous product. J&J (and its PR agency) used traditional media outlets to spread the word. With the 24-hour news cycle was still in its infancy, the company reclaimed 70% of its market share within a few short months. Crisis averted.

Reason and imagination actually reside in both hemispheres of the brain.

No doubt you — like millions of others — are an avid follower of my posts on this site. Cast your memory back about a year ago. In “Feeding the thing with two brains,” I blogged about the attraction to life sciences marketing, likening it to balancing the “needs” of the two sides of the brain — the rational and the emotional. Well, now I’m writing about another aspect of this field that continues to fascinate: the potential to learn something new — or unlearn a “fact” you have known forever.

Imagine my amazement when I viewed a presentation via TED of an RSA Animate talk given by noted psychiatrist, author and brain expert Iain McGilchrist. In this artfully animated talk, he disposes of the old paradigm I quoted in my previous post: “The right brain is the seat of all that is rationale, and the left brain is the seat of the emotions.”

The likelihood of an ad to appear in search results depends on three key factors.

You have a paid search engine campaign for your client right? Of course you do. It’s 2012 — how could your client not be present in paid search results?

More and more often, online advertising has come to mean search engine advertising or, more simply, paid text ads that appear in search results. While this has become a staple of online paid media, few companies understand how to write effective text ads. What’s an effective ad? An ideal text ad appears first or second in paid search results and yields a click-through rate ranging from 0.80% to 2.0%.

To create a better landing page, follow these 10 steps.

So, you have marketing tactics driving people to your website. Great! The next question most marketers ask is, “How can I make the site work harder for me?”

1. Identify business goals.

Before you can figure out how to make a landing page work harder, ask yourself, “What was the business need behind the campaign?” Lead generation, patient education, engagement? Answering this will help define a call-to-action (CTA) to engage visitors on the landing page. It will also help you find effective ways to measure how well everything is working.

Is it too much for the average New York commuter to see amputated legs linked to a soda?

While on their way to the Super Bowl parade on Tuesday morning, Giants fans in New York City were being reminded of one of the most dangerous diseases of our time — diabetes. It is among the most common health conditions in the United States, with 20 million Americans diagnosed to date. The cost to our country? A staggering $174 billion.

Don't forget about Gen X when you're planning your next hospital marketing campaign.

What about the Xers? So much of the healthcare marketing we see now is geared towards the Boomers. Boomer this, Boomer that—Boomers even have their own health conditions named for them, like “Boomeritis.”  How old do the members of the Breakfast Club have to be before they become a target audience for your hospital service lines?

Here’s a tip if you are going to start messaging to Generation X, leave the Boomer-speak at the door, a whole other language is required.

With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.

On February 5 NBC will broadcast the epic rematch between the Giants and Patriots. But maybe your team didn’t make it to the big game. Will you still watch Super Bowl XLVI? Of course you will. You’ll watch for the same reason about 54% of viewers do — the commercials.

On one night each year the titans of marketing and advertising attempt to wow us with about 50 minutes of the most expensive commercials on television. NBC has sold out all commercial airtime for the big game, reporting that the average cost this year for a 30-second spot is $3.5 million, with some time slots costing as much as $4 million. That’s a 16 to 25% hike from the $3 million average cost last year. With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.

The physician shortage continues, and 2012 will be even more competitive.

2011 saw increased demand for a limited supply of physicians in hospitals and primary care practices. 2012 will be even more competitive. Here are the top four issues we predict will have the greatest impact on recruiting success:

4. We’ll recruit through mobile devices.

Doctors are on the go and using smart phones more than ever. Emails and direct mail campaigns can’t keep pace. Extend your reach with instantly accessible messages — make sure they’re easy to look at and easy to read!

The problem isn't "too many clicks" — it's "too many wrong clicks".

On the cartoon show The Jetsons, Jane Jetson is a full-time housewife (although the show was set in the future, it was written in the ’60s). She would push a button, and a robot vacuum cleaner would pop out to clean the rug or mechanical arms would place a fully cooked meal onto the table. That is until, in one episode, she gets “buttonitis” — stress from pushing too many buttons. Ridiculous — or is it?

My word is invalid?!

Like Alec Baldwin, I’m addicted to Words with Friends. I can’t help myself. When I see a row of jumbled letters I get a rush of excitement and a compulsion to create the best words I can out of those letters. I’ll challenge people on Facebook that I don’t normally talk to just so I can feed my craving with minimal waiting between plays. In fact, I have a game going on right now against my favorite cousin, who lives in Brazil.