Adopting a Social Media Strategy

SOCIAL MEDIA platforms play an important role in society, including disseminating news from local and global sources, providing education and entertainment, and allowing for the easy exchange of information. For healthcare providers specifically, these platforms offer a unique opportunity to connect with current and prospective patients and share credible medical information to improve quality of care. In fact, social media use by healthcare facilities has been on the rise during the past decade, with 53 percent of physician practices reporting they have a Facebook page and utilization of social media by hospitals rising from 79 percent in 2012 to 91 percent in 2013.¹ What’s more, in a recent study, 41 percent of people said social media would affect their choice of a specific doctor, hospital or medical facility, and 60 percent of doctors said social media improves the quality of care delivered to patients.² It makes sense, then, for providers to take part in the social media arena. But, to ensure their participation provides the most benefit, it also makes good business sense to implement a social media strategy.

Benefits of Social Media

Social media as we know it today did not really establish itself until the early 2000s. Therefore, the benefits of these platforms for the healthcare industry are not yet fully known. However, what is known is what these platforms can provide:³

• Medical advice. Consumers flock to social media to engage with others who have the same medical conditions, which offers healthcare practitioners an opportunity to provide accountable medical advice.
• More tailored information. Google has become a main source to find information for consumers to diagnose themselves. Healthcare organizations can take advantage of this by educating the general public and their patients on medical conditions. They can also point consumers to more credible sites such as Google Scholar. In addition, interaction with consumers can be a two-way street: Practitioners can expand their healthcare knowledge by listening to patients and communicating with other medical professionals.
• Social support. Studies suggest patients’ adherence and general health improve when receiving social support, and social media platforms are the perfect outlet for physicians to reach out to patients.
• Data dissemination. Social media can provide timely forecasts of disease incidence such as influenza (flu). These trends can help researchers, epidemiologists and healthcare practitioners quantify changes in disease awareness and sentiments toward treatment and preventive care.

Putting Social Media to Work

There are many ways healthcare organizations can employ social media:

1) Share information with consumers to help keep them healthy. For instance, they can provide general information about flu shots and tips to avoid colds; share news about outbreaks or health hazards; provide updates on new technologies; introduce new doctors in the practice; answer questions about various topics; deliver generic pre- and postoperative care information; and offer any updates that relate to the practice.⁴ Mayo Clinic set the example for this by establishing its Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media with a goal of using social media to improve health and well-being for people and to build relationships between patients and professionals. Through this effort, it gained more than 700,000 Twitter followers, more than 500,000 Facebook fans, a significant presence on Google+ and Pinterest, and almost 3,000 videos on its YouTube Channel.⁵

2) Evaluate competitors. Professionals can adopt other organizations’ successful social media involvement to enhance their own and increase patient satisfaction.⁴

3) Gather feedback from patients to improve quality of care. By interacting with patients on social media, practitioners can better understand how patients are reacting to medicines and how they feel about new techniques being used in the industry. They can also evaluate whether they need to offer additional services.⁴

4) Train medical personnel. Training can be made more enjoyable and interactive by encouraging new hires to use certain hashtags on Twitter or to join other groups to ask questions and receive answers. These sites also provide educational presenters with immediate feedback on training sessions.⁴

5) Provide updates on procedures in real time. Healthcare providers can deliver up-to-date information during procedures to fellow doctors, medical students or others.⁴ For instance, in 2014, Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, live-tweeted a bypass surgery to raise awareness about heart disease and demystify the operating room. Throughout the surgery, the communications team shared photos, videos and information from inside the operating room, as well as fielded questions from tweeters who were following. From that successful event, the hospital gained 5,000 Twitter followers in just a few hours and received international media coverage.⁵

6) Provide information to consumers in times of crisis. Hospitals and other organizations can deliver real-time updates on facility capacity, operation status or emergency room access. They can also share information provided by organizations such as the Red Cross and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.⁴

7) Help practitioners collaborate with one another. Social media can be used to help health professionals find and connect with others both inside and outside their network to share knowledge or research. For instance, Texas Health, a network of 25 hospitals that employs 5,500 physicians, created an enterprise social network to help physicians communicate and work with one another to overcome challenges posed by the work environment such as electronic health records requirements.⁶

Employing Best Practices

To maximize a social media strategy, as well as engage in an industry-appropriate manner, best practices cannot be overlooked. These include:

• Setting measurable goals. This means defining ways in which social media will help the organization that can be tracked and measured. Some common goals include getting the public to know the organization’s name, with a positive perception of the business; driving traffic to the organization’s social media page or website; engaging with potential customers by answering questions or helping existing customers with products or services; and interacting with fans/followers by giving them reasons to mention the brand and give referrals.⁷

• Choosing the right social media networks. Use the organization’s target customers and their online behaviors to determine which networks will work best for their products and services.⁷

• Branding profile pages. The organization’s identity should be uniform across all channels by using a logo and tagline, consistent imagery, a company description, and the proper tone and voice.⁵

• Editing and reviewing. A mandatory review process should be in place to avoid publishing inaccurate information.⁵

• Educating employees. All employees should have a thorough understanding of social media policies. They need to know when they should and should not engage, and what information they are permitted to share.⁵

• Knowing when to take the conversation offline. Employees should avoid discussing sensitive or personal issues with patients online, and be redirected to the appropriate channels to address these issues.⁵

Avoiding HIPAA Violations

Healthcare facilities must implement strict guidelines for what employees are allowed to post on social media sites. These include:

• Distribute clear social networking policies to employees.
• Avoid any discussion of patients, even in general terms.
• Speak generally about conditions and treatments.
• Prominently post policies and procedures on all social media platforms.
• Do not practice medicine online by responding to patients offline.