Dayton Children's engaged in social media like Facebook and Twitter to share patient stories, health tips, and build relationships with customers to increase advocacy and referrals. Their social media presence helped a video of a boy making a snowman in the hospital go viral. They recommend that healthcare organizations listen first in social media, have a plan and commitment to participate, and use it to improve customer service and position themselves as experts.

1. Betsy Woods
Public relations and marketing manager
Bethany Deines
Annual giving director
Dayton Children’s
Social Media in Health Care

2. The Social Network
Marylin Delphy: The site got
2200 hits within 2 hours?
Mark Zuckerberg: Thousand.
Maryiln: I'm sorry?
Mark: Twenty-two *thousand*.
Marylin: Wow.
Erica Albright: The internet's
written in ink, Mark. It's not
written in pencil.

3. Have you ever talked about a
health care experience on
Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc?
1 2
50%50%
1. Yes
2. No

4. Our Story: @daytonchildrens

5. Background
Connect with moms, tell story, create
advocates
Enhance customer service
Position as pediatric expert
Listened first
Researched what others were doing
Made a commitment (3 people)
Created a plan

6. Content
Patient stories (parental consent, complying
with HIPAA)
Fundraising events
Health and safety tips
Videos/pictures
Service lines
News stories
Recall alerts
Ask questions, respond to comments
Crisis communication

7. Nevin’s Snowman

8. Nevin’s Story Goes Viral
YouTube video generated over 300 views in 24
hours
WDTN ran story
Story ran nationally on The Weather Channel
Numerous comments on Facebook and Twitter
Asked fans/followers to write letters for
Valentine’s Day

9. Goals
Build relationships (target audience: moms 18-55)
Create advocates
Create conversations – ask questions, respond to
comments
Build an online community
Increase participation/conversation
Enhance customer service
Position as pediatric expert
Drive traffic to website
Increase revenue and donations
Build referrals

10. Are you a fan/follower of a
health care organization on
social media?
1 2
50%50%1. Yes
2. No

11. What Are People Saying?

12. What Are People Saying?

13. What social media channel do
you use the most?
1 2 3 4 5
20% 20% 20%20%20%1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. MySpace
4. Blog
5. YouTube

14. Recommendations
Listen first
Have a plan
Make a commitment
Be authentic/sincere
Be transparent – who is behind the message?
Participate offline – attend events
Share your story internally/get buy-in and
support
Follow back

15. Recommendations
Participate in the conversation, be active
Pass along messages (good and bad)
Use social media to improve customer
service, the experience
Share content (give credit to author)
Know what your competition is doing
Create a social media policy
Expect negative feedback
Use to pitch media stories

16. What Not to Do
Only push content (selling mode)
Not participate in the convo
Not respond
Post content all at once
Automated messages
Not make a commitment, leave page(s) idle
Participate in every social network channel
and not manage it well
Ghost writing

17. Questions?
Join the conversation:
Facebook.com/daytonchildrens
Twitter.com/daytonchildrens
YouTube.com/daytonchildrens
Blog.childrensdayton.org