Social Networking in Healthcare
May 14, 2009
The buzz in marketing and communications departments within healthcare organizations seems to be all about social media. Why is it important? How do we get involved? Should we get involved? How do we even use it? What are other companies doing?
When we look at traditional marketing practices through the social community, it’s not just about being ableto get onto a large social network – it’s about actually getting organizations on the internet. You can interact with your customers through all kinds of mediums – Twitter, blogs, Facebook, flicker, etc. (your company website is not a social network.) The next “big thing” for healthcare organizations will be using the open platform that the internet provides. People have an interest in creating things and leaving their touch ( just look at Wikipedia!) By bringing your organization, whether it be a hospital, behavioral health facility or weight loss clinic, into an arena where you can stay in contact with more people, you will have an amazing opportunity to build a better perception of your organization and a stronger affiliation with your brand.
There is a new publicness where the issue isn’t privacy, it’s control. In a conversation with a VP of marketing at a 1,500 employee hospital, she said “I’m afraid I won’t have the time to monitor our page to delete any complaints made about our facility”. While it is understandable where she was coming from, the fact is that people are probably going to complain about your company at some point regardless of whether you are involved in the conversation or not. At least in the social world, you can address the issue – transparency is good because it yields to more information and support.
Healthcare companies have a couple big challenges. First, there is heavy regulation that puts the brakes on free innovation in marketing. We see the slow adoption in healthcarefor all technology, especially in marketing and recruiting. Another major challenge is that target customers are typically older, however we know that the fastest growing demographic on sites like Facebook are more “mature”. People with health issues, regardless of age identify with others in similar situations. The American Cancer Society knew this and wanted to help patients help each other and built a community for cancer patients: http://csn.cancer.org. You can see this in many sectors – from people who are planning weddings to people who love to fish.
“The biggest challenge isn’t whether you master the technology or whether you annoy or delight your customers. It’s whether you’re accomplishing a useful business goal and, on top of that, how you’ll measure success and prove your effort was worth it” says Charlene Li in her book Groundswell.
To help you begin planning your entry into this world, think of how to answer the following:
· Who are the people you are trying to target? How are you going to engage them?
o If you’re a long term care facility, for example, you may be looking to improve awareness among the children of the people you serve, since, in many cases, they are choosing the best place for their parents to get care.
· What are your goals? Do you want to talk to your customers, or drive revenue through energizing your most loyal patients/customers with fundraising opportunities?
· How do you want relationships with your customer to change? What is your overall strategy?
· What is the technology you want to use to do this?
By being in constant communication with your customers and allowing them to be in communication with each other you can energize the public and even allow them the opportunity to work with you on new ideas to improve your organization.
In change there is opportunity – preservation is not a strategy for the future. Especially in healthcare.
See also: www.carepages.com
Recommended Readings:
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologiesby Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
33 Million People in the Room: How to create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networkingby Juilette Powell
- Categories: Social Media
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I think social media provides another avenue to connect with and inform the candidate. It’s a great way to establish and maintain a relationship with the candidate. We have found great success with our company page HCA West Florida on Facebook as well as our company blog http://www.recruitingathcawest.com