How a Tear-Jerking Cleveland Clinic Video Went Viral

Originally published on MedCityNews.com.

Interestingly, the Cleveland Clinic’s empathy video that was passed around healthcare circles on social media this spring and summer wasn’t actually meant for consumers’ eyes.

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Originally published on MedCityNews.com.

Interestingly, the Cleveland Clinic’s empathy video that was passed around healthcare circles on social media this spring and summer wasn’t actually meant for consumers’ eyes.

According to the health system’s senior director of multi-channel content, Scott Linabarger, and manager of digital engagement, Amanda Todorovich, the video was created to encourage its 40,000+ employees to be more empathetic. But when the health system’s CEO, Dr. Toby Cosgrove, showed the video at a State of the Clinic address and at Datapalooza this year, attendees began talking about and sharing the video on Twitter.

The content marketing gurus saw an opportunity to use that chatter to capture readers who might be interested in other content on HealthHub, the website where the Clinic shares informative content created by physicians, staff and other sources every day.

So they created a post on HealthHub to house the video and explain the idea behind it. Then they “gave it the full-blown social media treatment,” Todorovich said, sharing links to the HealthHub post to drive traffic there, rather than to YouTube.

At the Content Marketing World Health summit in Cleveland on Thursday, the video left a room of healthcare marketers in tears. So far it’s gotten almost a million views on YouTube, and the HealthHub post has been shared thousands of times through LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.