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Health Care Social Media: Hospitals in Europe Embrace Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]
Social media for hospitals
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What Every Hospital Needs to Know About Social Media
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A short overview of social media for the non-specialist health care communications person. Includes practical steps to implement social media and to help your organization adapt to and support social media.
Transcript of Social media for hospitals
What Every Hospital Needs to Know About Social Media
Goals
1. Demystify social media
2. Suggest ways to get the most out of social media
What is social media?
Social media is…
A communications channel
A conversation that happens online
Driven by advances in Internet capabilities
And by an evolution in Internet user behaviour
Enabled by a diverse (and sometimes confusing) array of online tools
The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media
- The Cluetrain Manifesto
Social media is not…
A communications strategy or tactic
A technology or an application
A fad
A youth trend
Solely for the techno-savvy
What is the value of social media?
Why it matters
More but smaller audience groups – diverse and distinctive Connecting through mass
media more difficult
Social media is common and, in some cases, ubiquitous
Audiences no longer want to be passive message recipients Want to be ‘invited to the party’ Only true interactivity will
satisfy them Want to be heard, not just
marketed to
What’s different
Unlike conventional advertising and most communications, you don’t completely control social media
Instead you create the conditions for it to happen and grow, like: Building or participating in a social network Providing content to a blogger Uploading a video
The conversation may not involve you talking
It may simply be about you
Where it fits
Part of your marketing mix
Social media is a channel like: Advertising – print, radio, TV, outdoor, etc. Media content – releases, editorials Static websites Direct mail – print and electronic Newsletters
Value for entire communication cycle
Research – understand your audiences
Planning – assess the communications environment
Implementation – engage your audiences
Evaluation – monitor and measure your success
Benefits
Greater understanding of your audiences
Deeper, more enduring connections
Potential to engage with hard to reach constituencies
Opportunities to enhance your visibility
Low cost publicity
Monitoring of communications success How far your messages reached How well they were received
Common forms of social media
Types of social media
Social networks
Blogs
Video, photo and file sharing
Wikis
Social gaming
Podcasts
Social media news release
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
Some social media tools
Who uses social networks?
53% of 12-17 year olds
43% of 30-44 year olds
28% of 45-59 year olds
22% of 60+ year olds
54% of 18-29 year olds
monthly weekly daily
How people use social networks
Connect with friends and families Facebook
Entertainment MySpace
Get information Yahoo/Google Groups
Professional development LinkedIn
Highly interactive social network consisting of micro-websites for: People Groups/organizations Causes Events
Instant page launch and update – no technical skills needed
Video, photos can be uploaded
Canada is 2nd largest user
200 million users worldwide
Hospitals and health on Facebook
Patient groups – “I was born at…”
Employee groups – University Health Network
Official hospital pages - CHEO
Causes – “Save ABC Hospital”
Foundations
Events
Disease advocacy and support groups – parents with children with diabetes
Facebook engagement options
Passively listen Join groups and learn what people
are saying and thinking about you and subjects related to you
Participate in conversations and supply information as needed to existing groups
Launch your own page
Link back from Facebook to your website
Explore potential for targeted advertising
Micro-blog
Users ‘follow’ other members
Posts must be 140 characters or less
Example: Men's Health Post: Vasectomies Up as
the Economy Goes Down?: Reevaluating family in challengin.. http://tinyurl.com/cuha4o
Embedded URL enables links back to your website or other web content
Twitter engagement options
Use to monitor environment
Follow other health care organizations, opinion-leaders, patient advocates
Use as teaser Drive traffic to your website
Publicize events
Maintain contact with audiences who choose to follow you
Blogs
Web-log blog
Personal discussion forum/diary online
Can be news, opinion or blend
Can be professional – health care provider, administrator
Or personal – patient, caregiver
Off the shelf applications enable instant blogging – Wordpress, Google Blogger
Enables an informal conversation with audience
Blog engagement options
Create an ‘institutional’ blog using the voice of the organization
Build an ‘expert’ blog with commentary from CEO, chief of staff or other prominent opinion leader or use several voices to reflect diversity
Identify influential bloggers and cultivate them
Monitor relevant blogs to understand current environment
YouTube
Video sharing website
Users create and/or upload content
Opportunity to create ‘channel’ that users can subscribe to
Content can also be embedded in other social media Blogs Social media news releases Social networks
YouTube engagement options
Monitor stakeholder groups – e.g. Ontario Nurses’ Association Tone of messages Influence - number of views, embeds
Post content as standalone videos Promotional videos New conferences Media coverage Seminars/presentations
Post content as part of a channel – if you believe you will have frequent updates
Embed relevant content in social networks you participate in, especially content featuring your organization
Social news and bookmarking
Content ‘consolidators’ that enable users to gather, organize and share website URLs with those with similar interests
Popularity of stories and sites determined by user voting (‘digg’ a website) and comments
Value is that they help users quickly find related stories and sites – making surfing more efficient
Common sites: Digg Reddit Delicius
Social news engagement options
Participate as a user, bookmarking sites you like and find useful – this will build your reputation as a thoughtful member of the bookmarking community
As you become a veteran community member consider inviting other members to look at your web content and recommend it
Add social bookmarks to your news releases
9 basic rules
1. Listen – pay attention to what others are talking about
2. Be democratic – allow voices from throughout your organization to participate
3. Let go of control – guide, don’t censor the conversation
4. Be informal – social media speaks with a human, not a corporate voice
5. Be useful – give people something they want so they have a reason to engage with you
6. Be thoughtful – add to the conversation when you have something meaningful to say, not just to gain profile
7. Soft sell – aggressive promotion will sabotage your conversations
8. Find the influencers – a small minority of active people are responsible for much of the social media; cultivate them
9. Be transparent – accept criticisms and respond honestly
5 unavoidable facts
1. Effective use of social media takes resources – human and financial, external or internal
2. Just building a presence doesn’t create an audience – you need to work to cultivate one, or several
3. Social media is only one channel – some audiences may use it less than others
4. Just because you live and breathe health care doesn’t mean everyone else does – sometimes a dancing cat on YouTube will be more interesting than you
5. Nothing happens overnight
Contact
Paul McIvor
Rosetta Public Relations Inc.
T 416 516 7095
C 416 906 1276
www.RosettaPR.com
