As you would have seen from my recent blog post, I am ecstatic about the fact that the 2011 South by Southwest (SXSW) interactive festival will have a “Health Track” as part of it’s mainstream sessions and, what’s even more exciting, is that a big part of this was due to the success of the Social Health 2010 unconference (read: “New for SXSW 2011: One-Day Health Track“). And to top that off, I have also been invited to be a member of the 2011 SXSW Advisory Board for “Health” — you can see how sessions are scored on the Panel Picker here.

While I am extremely honored to be on the “Health Track” ad board, one disappointing “side effect” is that I am not able to submit a proposal for a session within the “Health Track” (it would be silly to judge your own submission )

While many businesses and corporations have started to adopt social media as part of their marketing, communications, and other business practices, regulated industries – such as pharmaceuticals, financial services, and the automotive industry – often face challenges and restrictions that other industries do not need to consider, such as federal regulations and industry guidelines.

This panel brings together an esteemed group of social media pioneers within regulated industries, who have not only transformed their organization’s approach to social media, but also successfully planned and executed numerous social media programs, while adhering to their respective industry regulations and limitations. The session will cover:

• A general overview of some regulated industry regulations/ limitations
• Championing organizational change, with respect to digital communication
  
• Developing internal policies/guidelines for social media
  
• Working with internal legal/regulatory departments for reviews and/or approvals
• Developing social media strategies within highly conservative corporate culture

Questions Answered:

1. What are some of the federal/industry limitations that challenge regulated industries?
2. How do you get around existing internal policies and guidelines that prohibit social media activities?
3. What needs to be established before implementing social media within conservative corporate cultures?
4. How do you develop an ongoing process that meets the expectations of the social media culture, yet adheres to the limitations of being regulated?
5. How do you develop and implement strategies that will work within the conservative limitations of a regulated industry?

This Thursday, August 26th from 1-3pm ET, Phil Baumann (Founder of Health is Social), will be hosting an interesting webinar called “Healthcare Social Media: Perspectives in Practice“. This is the first Health Is Social event, since it’s inception and the cost is $39.

The presenters that Phil has recruited for this webinar are a nice mix of well respected, prominent #HCSM (Healthcare and Social Media) thought leaders, including:

• ePatient Dave - Patient engagement advocate, speaker, author of Laugh Sing & Eat Like a Pig, blogger
• Dr. Bryan Vartabedian (aka Doctor_V) – Kids tummy doctor, father, writer and overall good guy (blog: 33charts.com)
• Erin Macartney (Palo Alto Medical) - Public Affairs, Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Ragan HealthCare MarCom News team
• Angela Dunn – Director of Social Media & Recruiting for Odom Lewis

Here’s a brief description about the webinar…

If you’ve decided that Social Media is here to stay and you’re either planning or implementing your social media strategies and presence, but are still figuring out what to do or what more you can do, then you’ll want to attend this Webinar.

The purpose of the Webinar is to expand on the theoretical bases of healthcare social media with specific examples and views. Health Is Social believes that social media offers a robust array of possibilities within healthcare, requiring different perspectives on what can be done.

In this Webinar, we cover four of these perspectives: the patient’s, the provider’s, the healthcare organization’s and the professional’s (internal staff):

Hospitals, healthcare associations and practitioners interested in developing their online presence are encouraged to attend this Webinar. We believe Social Media goes deeper than just public relations – these new media offer opportunities to improve collaboration, help redesign internal processes and provide novel ways of adding value to all of an organization’s information customers.

If you’re interested in signing up for this, register for the event at Eventbrite.