How web marketing tips can help these healthcare townhall fiascos

The recent string of craziness at the healthcare  town hall events has added some much welcomed levity to what should otherwise be a boring discussion.

Premiums.  Deductibles.  Coverage, claims, co-pays.  Boring.

But if you’ve seen the mobs gathering in and around the jam packed public buildings, or seen where scuffles have broken out, it’s like a picture of politics from the early 1900’s, the good old days when constituents gathered at city hall to chase after each other with sticks.

(Or the late 1990’s, anyway; have you seen some of the signs in the crowds?  Where do these people think they are, “WWE Live”?)

Fortunately for America, we’re entering the information age/knowledge society/the future/whatever, and we don’t need to be repeating the same failings of political discourse that got us this broken healthcare system in the first place.

Organizing the debate should be getting easier because of the web.  So here’s a few tips from the web for representatives or lobbyists or talkshow hosts who are staging town halls that can be more about relevant discussions and less about fabricated indignation. 

Suggestion #1: Start the process in an online environment and then lead into the actual event.

Any meeting without talking points threatens to spiral out of control (so never invite anyone to something without having a solid agenda and deliverables, you guys), and the inefficiency factor shoots through the roof when it’s the general public just given free reign to spout off on their ideas and opinions.

(For those of you who read the comments at the STrib, the wilder town halls have been the magic of STrib comments come to life, which is both hilarious and terrifying.)

But like a car shopper (clunker seller?), a lot of background work (price comparisons, mpg, user reviews) can be done before the event, and the real-time discussion will improve as a result. And this takes the broad, all encompassing, and often intellectually insulting, comments and changes them into a more straight forward forum discussion on narrow topic to topic.

As it is now, representatives aren’t helping with the pre-info.  Take a look at your representative’s website.  Are the very basics of healthcare reform clearly laid out?  Are there re-posted comments from constituents?  Are there real-world situations posted?  Is there even video of anything?

I took a quick look through Minnesota’s representative’s websites, and since none of that is out there, discussions at the town halls start from square one and go in several different directions, and soon the sticks will reappear.

And before this “information before hand on the web” approach gets discounted because of the demographic that attends town hall meetings, keep in mind the following: Boomers love Consumer Reports and my friend Chris’s grandpa shows up to church an hour early just to get a good parking spot.  Being prepared and organized, not slogans on signs, is how the upper age brackets get their street cred.

Suggestion #2: Direct the discussion by giving people opportunities to connect directly via the web.

Medicare Part D was in many ways the precursor to DigitalTV—kids, help your parents understand the transition and get them up to speed on what this new prescription drug plan/TV not working is going to mean for them.

If your parents have recently joined facebook, send them some linkage on the healthcare debate, and follow it up with a phone call to talk through some of the needs of different demographics.  Also, if you have kids, this might be a good time to use your new facebook profile to send junior some info basics on that coverage/claims/co-pays stuff, if you’re not blocked.

Additionally, broadcasters knew that the DTV transition was a huge change in their business, much like healthcare providers knew Part D was a big change and a public option is a big change.  I haven’t seen a doctor at any of these town halls, and that’s an issue; but this is also an opportunity for healthcare providers who also struggle with the healthcare system to reach out to patients and their families to quell some of the more egregious misconceptions that are out there.

Suggestion #3: Repeat the message by recording or livestreaming each event and post them online and email healthcare facilities and nursing homes to have screenings of the events.

If Minnesota has learned anything in the last year, it’s that having the UpTake show up and broadcast/record a contentious process does wonders for the public’s confidence in said process.

And with interest piqued, but some unable to make the town halls, yet so many of the same talking points repeated, this is a way to grow the healthcare debate in states and cities.  “Hi, I’m Keith Ellison, and I’m Charles Olsen, Esq., and today during today’s craft time we’re going to show you last night’s hour long town hall discussion on healthcare.”

Video is easier now than ever, and it can help to add transparency and repetition to a message on a critical issue.  It can also act as a starting point and a talking point and a shared item to go along all the propaganda that’s being thrown around.