Inspire in the News

• The blog of Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine featured Inspire CEO Brian Loew, in a piece titled, Close to Home: Is Good Health Communicable? Catie Coman, communications director for Inspire partner the National Psoriasis Foundation, was also featured.
• Inspire interviewed cervical cancer awareness activist Michele Baldwin, a member of the National Cervical Cancer and HPV Coalition Support Community on Inspire, as part of the ongoing Inspire Q&A series.
• The medical blog KevinMD featured Stephanie Lewis, a member of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association Support Community on Inspire, who wrote a column that detailed how the advice and support from the online community helped save her father's life.
• PharmaVOICE Magazine featured Inspire in an article, Social Media: The Time Has Come to Run the Hurdles.
• Danielle Leach, Inspire's director of partnerships, and an advocate for childhood cancer research and awareness, was profiled by I AM Modern Magazine.

Newest Inspire Communities

We are proud to welcome our newest partners, the Lymphoma Research Foundation and the National Family Caregivers Association.

Coming soon as partners are StopCAIDnow and Mended Hearts. Inspire also recently launched a COPD Support Community.

If you are interested in starting a community, please contact Amir Lewkowicz.

Partner Spotlight: Short Bowel Syndrome Foundation

We spoke recently with Andrew Jablonski, founder of the Short Bowel Syndrome Foundation about how SBSF uses social media to further its mission.

Inspire: Tell us briefly about your organization and its mission.

Jablonski: The Short Bowel Syndrome Foundation, Inc. (SBSF) is a 501(c)(3) public charity that services as an line of support, education, and advocacy for those who live with Short Bowel Syndrome (SBS) and the Caregivers that help care for the patient. The foundation was created to create some peace of mind among others with the condition so that they knew they were not alone, and that they could have somewhere to turn to if they needed support. Our mission is to educate, support, and empower patients who live with the condition and the healthcare providers who help patients to manage Short Bowel Syndrome. SBSF empowers patients and their families to live fuller lives by connecting them to necessary resources, creating a lifeline of hope.

Inspire: How does your organization measure its social media efforts?

Jablonski: SBSF measures its Social Media outreach through Facebook, Twitter, and Inspire. Facebook is our largest online consumer base next to our website. With over 500+ and counting followers of the Foundation, we continue to post industry related articles, tips, resources, and more on our social media pages to engage our users. We measure our website through Google Analytics, which goes into such detail that even I don't even know what everything is.

Inspire: How do you make social media actionable?

Jablonski: By keeping the audience engaged. It always troubles me when I see bad insights on Facebook, so I'll do something different, and a week later I am out of the red and back in the green area. The audience likes to keep seeing new material on the page, or else it just feels like it has gone dormant. People want new information as it comes off the press, so it is our responsibility to make that information readily available to them.

Inspire: You're a relatively new and small organization. What advice would you give to other organizations just starting out with limited staffing?

Jablonski: It will be very difficult in the beginning laying out all of the ground work, especially if you have no money or limited money to draw from. Thought once the groundwork is all complete, and then you can start creating the bread and butter of your foundation through educational programs, support pages, fundraisers and more.

Don't get me wrong, all of those activities take much time and planning, but they are most beneficial to your cause at the end of the day.

Editor's note: If you'd like to suggest an association for the Partner Spotlight feature, contact Inspire's Communications Director, John Novack.

About Inspire

Founded in 2005, Inspire is the leading provider of online patient community solutions. Inspire provides safe, secure, and engaging online communities for patients and caregivers through collaborative technologies. Inspire builds the online health and wellness communities in partnership with national patient advocacy organizations, and helps life science organizations connect with these highly engaged populations.

To learn more about Inspire, please contact Amir Lewkowicz, Vice President of Partnerships. Please visit us online at www.inspire.com.