Dr. Facebook? Nurse Twitter? Surgical tech YouTube? You bet. Hospitals benefit from using social media tools - when used strategically. No longer can hospitals expect patients to seek out its website for healthcare advice. They must go to where the patients are - where the conversation is already happening.
In a new survey by the National Research Corporation, one in every five Americans use social media for healthcare information, specifically Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (in order of popularity).
General ways hospitals benefit from a strategic social presence:
- To listen and monitor its brand
- Ability to administer real-time customer service
- Creation of brand ambassadors - people who promote the organization without an agenda
- Creation of a community who WANTS to stay connected
- Cost-effective method to disseminate information quickly
- Communities ripe for qualitative research gathering (focus groups, poll, etc.)
- Additional tool in crisis situations (natural disasters such as Haiti, Japan,)
- Media relationships, alternative to news releases
Industry-specific ways hospitals can use social media:
- Preventative healthcare - use as an educational platform.
- Way to tell inspirational stories (positive happenings) that happen every day.
- Practice interactive healthcare - which is about engaging everyone in the "process of care." This includes empowering physicians and healthcare professionals to participate. "Interactive health is about making health knowledge, supportive care, and motivation available to us, anytime and anywhere, so that we can integrate this wisdom into our daily actions to live longer, healthier, happier lives." - Forbes (Read the full article.)
Things hospitals need to have in place for a successful social media program:
- Set of usage guidelines for internal and external interactions; implemented in HR as a policy.
- Use a strategic plan complementary to overall communications/business plan.
- Legal disclaimer to protect organization in the event an employee or associated physician acts independently.
- Basically, "violations of professionalism online are no different than violations in 'real life' and could be sanctioned by state medical boards." (Should Your Doctor Be on Facebook?NY Times).
- This includes such things as HIPPA and other medical disclosure policies and law.
- Education of these guidelines internally is very important.
Happening hospitals using social media well:
Mayo Clinic
Swedish Medical Center
What's your hospital doing to connect with you?
Please share best practices of what your hospital is doing to connect with you via social media.