Overview of Social Media for Hospitals

Social Media
Overview and Introduction
Presented by:
Jon Lebkowsky
Where Social Media and Health Care Meet- Harnessing New Media Tools
Thursday, June 18, 2009  THA Headquarters

What are we talking about?
Bulletin boards/forums/newsgroups/online communities
“The virtual community”
Online social networks
Blogs/social software/wikis
“Web 2.0”
The audience is the show
Note: It’s important to start with listening.

Wikipedia Definition
Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal and business. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
Note that this page has generated some controversy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Social_media

Are hospitals using social media? Are you?

Ed Bennet maintains a list of hospitals that are using social networking tools. http://ebennett.org/hsnl/

Social Life of Health Information
61% of American adults look online for health information.
57% turn to the Internet when they need information and assistance in dealing with health or medical issues. (86% ask a doctor.)
A majority access user-generated health information via blogs, newsgroups, reviews and ratings.
Social networking sites are used sparingly for health inquiries and updates
Social Life of Health Information, Pew Internet and American Life, June 11, 2009. By Susannah Fox and Sydney Jones.

Online health inquiries have an impact on decisions or actions and there are clearly more positive experiences than negative ones.
60% say the information found online affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition.
56% say it changed their overall approach to maintaining their health or the health of someone they help take care of.

53% say it led them to ask a doctor new questions, or to get a second opinion from another doctor.
49% say it changed the way they think about diet, exercise, or stress management.
38% say it affected a decision about whether to see a doctor.
38% say it changed the way they cope with a chronic condition or manage pain.

Change is coming, whether through the spread of wireless devices or generational shifts.
Wireless connections are associated with deeper engagement in social media and an accelerated pace of information exchange.
Adults between the ages of 18 to 49 are more likely than older adults to participate in social technologies related to health.
Experts remain vital to the health-search and decision-making process.

What is the Return on Investment?

Social Media is more than marketing, and the true ROI is harder to measure.

Challenges
The value of social connections and transactions is generally intangible and hard to capture in a quantitative assessment.
You're trying to evaluate conversations, interactions, and relationships.
Conversations and relationships get long term, often indirect results which are harder to measure.

Qualitative assessments
Reputation
Conversations
Customer relationships

Reputation
What are people saying about us?
Who's talking?
How are we responding?
How does this change over time?

Conversations
What and where are the relevant conversations about hospitals/medicine/healthcare?
Are we part of the conversation? Are we leading?
Are we building relationships? Are we relating to the right audience?
Are we proactively finding new conversations that are relevant, and participating?
Are listening as well as talking?

Quantitative AssessmentUse traditional analytics if…
you're creating campaigns that drive traffic to your web site,
you have clarity about what constitutes a conversion at your site, and
you can define a clear, measurable path to conversion.

Applications
Blogs
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
These are the applications that Ed Bennett is tracking at “Found in Cache”: http://ebennett.org/hsnl/

Strategy First
Define and refine your goals and objectives
Listen, analyze, know the conversational space
Know your audience: personas
Select and learn applications (e.g. blogs, interactive video sites, social networks.)

Blog
Select or build simple, easy to use technology
Identify who is blogging, consider voice(s)
Define core content
Set goals related to overall social media strategy
How often should you blog?

YouTube
Show what you do, establish your reputation
Educate the community, demystify healthcare
Connect with patients, donors, healthcare professionals, other hospitals

Facebook
Articulate your messages
Build attention, adherence, possibly community
Aggregate media from other sources

Twitter
Create personal presence
Find and build conversational relationships
Channel for news and information casually presented
Post links to longer form content (blog, Youtube, Facebook)

Q&A
Jon Lebkowsky
Social Web Strategies
http://socialwebstrategies.com
jonl@socialwebstrategies.com

Overview of Social Media for Hospitals

by Jon Lebkowsky

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