FAB: Features, Advantages and Benefits of Social Media in Healthcare

By Stewart Gandolf, Chief Executive Officer

Social Media Marketing block letters with little stick figures standing on top of them

Social Media - Part Two

Having and effectively using an online presence—website, social media, etc.—is a primary channel for connections between patients and providers. It is the principal means for the newly empowered healthcare consumer to find and act upon authoritative information.

Just for starters, actively using social media in healthcare includes these points of value:

Establish patient (and prospective patient) connections
Engage a targeted audience and grow relationships
Speak to individuals with common healthcare interests and issues
Assess, manage and extend professional reputation and/or promote your brand
Provide a friendly, low-key environment for timely interaction
Demonstrate advocacy, thought leadership and professional opinions
Facilitate service and not selling
Solicit ideas and exchange timely information
Showcase community activities and professional achievements
Provide awareness and education about specialty and experience
Attract, recruit, retain and train professional colleagues
Promote a healthy lifestyle, compliance and personal health management
Reach reporters, journalists and bloggers
Facilitates emergency/crisis/disaster communications
Fundraising information, as appropriate, for non-profit and foundation purposes
Reveal the personalized, “people side” of healthcare providers and staff
Leverage and extend your online presence for greater involvement and visibility
Use success stories to illustrate capabilities

Additionally, embracing social media could help doctors reduce workloads by moving some interactions that are currently done by phone or in the office to faster and more convenient social media platforms. (Tell us what you would add to this list in the comment section below.)

It’s no longer a matter of IF…it’s all about the HOW…

Physicians and hospitals are personally well acquainted with social media and the Internet as a professional resource. But within the provider, hospital and healthcare sectors, there is a significant opportunity to extend the uses and effectiveness of social media.

Some of the key considerations in harnessing social media tools include:

Focus on the dominant and most familiar SM platforms. The big names are the popular sites…and that’s where you’ll find most of the people.

Identify the tools most favored by your target audience. With rare exception, your social media plan will primarily consider and use only a few—but mightily important—sites. (See the item above.)

Don’t begin more than you can consistently maintain. There is no initial cost for most social media sites (although most have an optional, paid advertising model). But there is an ongoing commitment to the time and attention to regularly update and refresh social media. A neglected social media presence can do more harm than good in the long run.

Social media facilitates dialogue, not monologue. Incorporate active listening to hear the voice of the consumer and to understand what’s important to (and needed by) the audience.

For more about social media and healthcare, related marketing resources for hospitals and practitioners include:

[The first part of this post described who is using social media in healthcare, what patients want, and a look at how hospitals and medical practices can benefit. Click through to Part One here.]