Engaging patients online using facebook: three hospitals track and measure results
14/11/2013
CHU, CHR et réseaux sociaux cc @berisa
14/11/2013
Engaging patients online using facebook: three hospitals track and measure results
14/11/2013
CHU, CHR et réseaux sociaux cc @berisa
14/11/2013

Driving Engagement through Social Media for Healthcare Providers

Historically, the healthcare industry has been slow to adopt digital marketing practices. However, social media provides a great way for healthcare companies to engage their audience with interesting and meaningful content.  And more and more healthcare marketers are getting up to speed.

 

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter let patients have conversations with real doctors and healthcare workers, and the ability to share such conversations help spark interest and get more people involved.  People love to share their opinions and win competitions, and healthcare companies can take advantage of this by creating surveys and contests to be deployed through social media.

In fact, many healthcare companies are starting to become more involved in social media. 

But which healthcare providers are taking advantage of social media? Check out some innovative examples of healthcare institutions that are really engaging through social media. 

Lexington Medical Center

The Lexington Medical Center made great use of the 2012 Pink Glove Dance, a video competition where the prizes are awarded as donations to breast cancer charities, to attract attention to itself, engaging practically the entire state of South Carolina. They used social media, content marketing, and YouTube to ramp up their efforts and get the community involved–and all for a good cause. This is also a great example of a healthcare facility going outside of the box and having some fun with their marketing.


Henry Ford Hospital

Social networks give businesses a place to be innovative.  Take, for example, the fascinating idea of using Twitter to share live broadcasts of surgical procedures.  The first was a tumor removal operation that took place in 2009 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, and many have followed.  These live broadcasts fascinate audiences and can showcase the facilities and level of care given by a healthcare facility. They also show transparency and create trust with patients.

Seattle Children’s Hospital

Seattle Children’s Hospital is also quite active on social channels. They have 71,794 likes on Facebook and their posts all average about 1,000 likes, which is great engagement. Seattle Children’s hospital excels on Facebook through their highly visual cover image and posts. They also encourage active blogging and have 4 separate blogs that appeal to different audiences including a blog for autism, teens, and medical reports.

Johns Hopkins Hospital

Social Media Today recently posted an article applauding the social media efforts of Johns Hopkins.  One of the campaigns that the social media manager Stacy Poliseo talked about in the article was one they did for Sheikh Zayed Tower and The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center. The buildings were under construction and the social media team created an interactive Facebook tab to learn about the buildings, take a video tour, and even take a quiz about the building’s construction. According to Stacy, “that page drove over 20% of new Facebook likes”, which is a great metric.

Even though many healthcare institutions are slow to adopt digital marketing, clearly there are some stand-outs who have truly embraced social media and engagement. 

See on blog.marketo.com