Celebrating 75 years of history by plunging into a new frontier is one way the Hawaii Medical Service Association is preparing for its Diamond Jubilee.
The grand-prize winner of HMSA’s first contest using Instagram, a social media photo-sharing application, is @iriannsmom, who received a $75 gift card in honor of the HMSA milestone.
You might not know her by that name, but you may remember her as Dee Williams of Tenderoni, the girl group that hit it big and went to the mainland a decade or so ago (OK, it may have been longer, but whatever). Congrats are in order!
HMSA asked contestants to post daily photos reflecting a healthy lifestyle with the hashtag #hmsa75.
From Feb. 1 through 25, each day had a theme, starting with "red" and including "exercise," "play" and various food themes.
Williams’ winning picture depicts a salad that appears to be topped with crumbled cheese, and it was posted for the "home lunch" theme.
Different companies have different reasons for embracing social media. Revenue generation through marketing is obviously one, but also obviously was not HMSA’s goal in this contest.
Company executives realize the importance of social media and how it shapes opinions of those who use it, said Elisa Yadao, senior vice president for consumer experience.
"As a health plan we’re always looking for ways to encourage healthy behavior, not just for our members, but for everyone," she said.
Indeed, a search of pictures sporting the #hmsa75 hashtag showed HMSA that the "contest hit the jackpot."
Getting people to think healthy is a step toward getting them to act that way.
Another aim of the contest, of course, was to mark the company’s 75th anniversary.
HMSA also gets that social media is not about broadcasting barrages of information outward. "We talk to our members, they talk back to us," Yadao said. "Social media will never replace our current methods of communication, but it has certainly added to them."
Radio station sold for a sawbuck
Maui radio station KMKV-FM 102.9, Paia, has been sold for $10.
The price tag sure is a far cry from the $500,000 sale price of Honolulu’s 5,000-watt KNDI-AM 1270 reported in this space last week, but the deal is a whole different animal, the seller says.
KNDI is a commercial radio station, whereas KMKV (formerly KLZY) is going to be converted by the buyer into a noncommercial educational station, or NCE, in the parlance of the Federal Communications Commission.
"Ten dollars is cheap for sure, but it’s part (of) a trade to the nonprofit Educational Media Foundation from me," said Vic Michaels, principal of Colorado-based Kona Coast Radio LLC, which sold the station in exchange for a reciprocal deal for KGCO-FM 88.3 in Fort Collins, Colo.
California-based Educational Media Foundation is best known for its Christian radio programming streams, both branded with the word "positive."
Its "positive, encouraging" Christian programming known as "K-Love" can be heard on 105.5 FM in Honolulu or on 89.3 FM in Hilo, for instance.
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
