by Tony Chen

I was on the bandwagon, but now I'm off. Almost...

"Steve Case launching RevolutionHealth is like Napoleon invading Russia" - a prominent healthcare blogger

In my humble opinion, RevolutionHealth is suffering from the same malaise that 99% of most social media start-ups suffer from - user fatigue. There's always a lot of hype in the beginning, but if you don't have that "magical" formula that keeps people coming back, utilization drops off quickly. Sooner or later, the community just dies a slow death. Just look at their physician ratings - one month ago, there were at 4,600. Now, they are barely at 5,000.

Some companies try to revive or jump-start community by having their own folks be actively involved in the community - commenting on people's posts, engaging with people electronically. But inevitably, that's not real community. I can't be sure if RevolutionHealth did that, but why are so many of the commenters from McLean, VA?

2 more questions:
(1) is healthcare big enough in the average joe and jane's minds for it to be a viable social media by itself? I personally think so, but RevolutionHealth doesn't have it... yet.
(2) can you really apply the tried-and-true "put consumers in control, and you'll win" business strategy in healthcare?

Granted, it's still sort of the "trial period." But I've noticed that once you've launched and people have tried it out. It's that much harder to get people to try it again. They continue to say that they have some amazing partnerships will be announced. So we shall see.