I read a recent article in HealthLeaders by Gienna Shaw regarding the benefits to physicians posting tweets during surgeries. The article itself provided a great overview of the benefits of this type of communication as well as some of initial negative reactions. Overall, as the title to the article indicates, the benefits win out.
What is interesting to me is that so many hospital and health organizations are still slow to embrace, or even try, social media. Besides using Twitter as an outlet for surgeons, there are a lot of other reasons for hospitals to use the social media tool, including the following:
1. The majority of hospitals that believe they are “community-based” need to maintain a position as the health leader in their community. Traditional ways of establishing this position included health fairs, seminars, advertising… all things that are costly to create and time consuming to manage. Instead, try substituting some of your traditional methods of communicating with online messages. The healthcare organizations that are online that I follow do a great job of sending out health tips and information to keep me healthy. For their customers, they are continuing to be the community leader in providing health information. @GradyMemorial @BradleyHospital do a great job posting health tips on Twitter.
2. Lets just say hello to the elephant in the room – the hospital Web site. For many of the hospitals we know and love, their Web sites are created and controlled by their parent company. And those sites are often hard to navigate, have too much information and are out of date. I recently checked out one hospital’s Web site that is owned by a national healthcare organization. It has construction news on the homepage that is more than a year old and covers the initial ground breaking ceremonies. Turns out, the addition is complete and open. Photos on the site are of steel framing and fork lifts, not private rooms and updated facilities. If you are not going to or are unable to update your site regularly, get the information out about your organization in a timely and efficient manner through social media programs.
3. Social media can help any PR person do a better job in understanding their media targets. Most reporters and outlets are online, so you can follow them to learn what they are writing about and what their interests are. And if your content is good enough for the to following you on Twitter, something you tweet may spark their interest. @NMHnews does a great job posting what I would consider to be PR content. At the same time, they are letting their community know what is going on at their hospital.
The bottom line is social media can help your hospital. And social media is not going away. Yes, it may evolve, it may change, but it’s not going away. Learn to communicate with your audience where they are – online. Healthcare is traditionally slow to embrace, but its time to stop the excuses. Get on this bandwagon.
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