By Kim Fenton, Coastal Healthcare Consulting
The health care industry is turning to social media to transform the access, delivery and dissemination of health information.
Five years ago, the Mayo Clinic entered the world of social media with the launch of a podcast. Since then, Mayo Clinic has added:
- A Facebook page with thousands of friends
- A YouTube channel featuring videos of physicians discussing illnesses, treatments and research;
- A health blog for consumers
- A blog aimed at the media to improve the process of medical reporting.
The Mayo Clinic has created special groups on Facebook that let patients connect with other users with similar illnesses. Also, Partners HealthCare System and Cigna have launched pilot projects to test scenarios and study health behavior in Second Life, a virtual world.
The American Red Cross, the CDC, and the FDA are using Twitter to post regular updates on storms and natural disasters, updates on major health concerns, and updates on food recalls, respectively.
Physicians also use social networking Web sites, such as Medscape and Sermo, which encourages doctors to engage in online discussions with one another. Both sites are exclusive to only “verified” physicians.
Patients also are embracing social networking Web sites. One site, called Realmentalhealth.com, lets patients chat and blog about their illness, offer recommendations to other users and create a mood diary to track symptoms.
Some ways you can get started using social networking in your business are:
- Understand the user audience by tapping in and “observing,” a variety of social media platforms before adding to the chatter. A person who Tweets might not use Digg; a person who blogs might not read Facebook; a person on LinkedIn might not use Twitter.
- Set up accounts under names that reflect your business, preferably under your business name. Avoid long URLs or oddly-spelled names, you want to be searchable.
- Create a website. Having a website with CMS (Content Management System) allows you to expand your cross marketing with social media. The website becomes the “hub” for your communication plan.