Sally Foister Archives - Rettew Creative

Welcoming the new Greenville Health System’s social logo

Over four years ago, I started working with Greenville Hospital System and their social media communications plan. When we started, there was just one Twitter account and a bunch of Facebook groups created by different employees.

As we started trying to get a handle on those initial social platforms, we began struggling with creating a visual brand standard for such a large hospital system. If you look at the current logo (to the left), you will notice it is a horizontal design with brand guidelines that would *barely* us to take parts of a logo and force into a square 250px x 250px avatar.

The goal of the first avatar for Twitter (to the left), and most of the growing number of social outlets, was to represent the brand and to share the main web presence. The more and more we worked, collaborated, and found our way through this social maze…the GHS Creative Services Staff designed the initial Twitter avatar.

Let me say…working with a horizontal logo in a social media space is not an easy task.

Just before Christmas, “Greenville Hospital System officials announced today that the organization is changing its brand to better reflect its current identity and to position the system for future growth. Beginning March 18, 2013, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center will be known as Greenville Health System, and a new, streamlined logo will accompany the new name.”

If you look at the new logo (at the top), it is amazing the shift from the current design to the new look and name. The new logo incorporates considerations for social media outlets with the new circular design, easy to integrate into social accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and other avatars.

Even though I was not a part of the design and implementation process of the new brand position/logo design, it is *my opinion* the social space had a strong influence with the new design. It has been fun to watch the evolution of GHS’s commitment to the social space. If you go to ghs.org/socialmedia…you will see our footprint has grown.

“It was important to consider all the uses of a logo as we worked through the creative process. There are so many applications today that didn’t exist seven years ago when had our last logo change,“ said Sally Foister, director of marketing, Greenville Hospital System.

Not only has the commitment grown to an integrated approach to socially engaged communication…a commitment to online conversation has exposed new avenues for pr and marketing. Welcome Greenville Health System…welcome.

Audience is our friend…love your audience

I was having breakfast with a client and friend…Sally Foister. We were chatting about marketing, social media, digital media, etc. The one thing that we kept on coming back to was the idea of knowing your audience.

She has one of the most interesting jobs, in my humble opinion, as she is the Director of Marketing for Greenville Hospital System here in Greenville, SC. Imagine dealing with all the audiences and marketing efforts for the largest Non-Profit Health System in South Carolina. Audience is key.

As we were talking…I just thought more and more about the idea of audience. It is so key in today’s balancing act of digital media, traditional media, and even public/media relations efforts. We can get so hung up on our message, our brand, our services…but sometimes we have to sit back and think about those who are receiving this message. What about those who should be receiving the message and are being marginalized by virtue of our marketing efforts.

Sometimes it it is good to pull back and really think through the people we are trying to touch, have a conversation with, build community around, or just meet. Marketing is more than just delivering a message…it is also about engaging conversation. Before we can engage conversation, we must truly know who we are chatting with…who is on the other side of the coin.

When we use social outlets to post content, do you think through who you are posting the update to…who do you want to read this message? When you are creating a video…do you think through the audience? Can you visualize the audience and see the message, hear the message, share the message through their point-of-view.

Sometimes it takes just a few minutes to do a simple audience analysis, to sit back and visualize who you want share your message with. Then, imagine life through their eyes, ears, daily routines, and heart.

When we call our parents, talk to our children, share dinner with our significant other/love one…we talk and communicate with love and compassion. We do so because we really know our audience. We have taken the time to learn how they think, how they listen, how they see the world. We listen to their responses and try to respond with respect and more thought provoking conversation. Imagine if we used this same method with our marketing efforts.

Audience is key…and marketing is still communication.

***Sally is also writing a blog, just in-case you want to read…CLICK HERE.