Comments on: Hospitals and Social Media

By: E-Commerce Guidebook

E-Commerce Guidebook — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:52:35 +0000

That rss feature on your site here is amazing, you should tell more folks about it in your upcoming post. I haven’t noticed it a first, now I’m using it each morning to check on any updates. I’m on a real slow dial-up connection in Brazil and it’s quite hindering to sit there and wait for such a long time ’til the page loads… but hey, I just found your rss page and added it to the Google Reader and there you are… I’m always up-to-date! Well buddy, keep up the good work and make that rss button a little bigger so that other people can enjoy that as well

By: Mark Horoszowski

Mark Horoszowski — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:12:48 +0000

Thanks for stopping by, Scott! Sorry that you didn’t find the RSS feed – you can click on the ‘follow me’ button on the left side, or on the little RSS icon on the upper right. You can also gran the feed directly from this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ActionThroughInteraction

By: Scot Kasson

Scot Kasson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:19:27 +0000

Interesting blog you got here but I can’t seem to find the RSS button.

By: Mark Horoszowski

Mark Horoszowski — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:48:03 +0000

Thanks for stopping by, Stein – Interesting post indeed! While it looks like it has been effective, it looks like they didn’t assign a ROI figure to the campaign, nor did they explain how the social media activity helped achieve certain goals. I do find the following comment on ROI interesting: “One of the top questions Chris Lindsley (Web site editor) gets asked from healthcare communicators is: ‘What’s your ROI?‘ His response: ‘If you’re not spending anything, it’s pretty unlimited.’ ” While using the technologies is (in most cases) free, content development, and the hours to properly maintain presence across multiple networks certainly comes at a cost. And what added benefit has it actually provided? Number of followers and number of videos is, at the end of the day, immaterial unless it results in progress towards the Center’s goals.

In this case, however, it looks like Twitter has helped them obtain valuable feedback, while YouTube and Facebook have made the institution more appealing, “human”, and approachable – all good impressions for the University of Maryland Medical Center to have. Like in any communication campaign, its important to first identify what you are trying to accomplish. This case study offers valuable insight for others. If you want client feedback, Twitter is a great, and Yelp can be useful, too. Want to make your institution more approachable? Try Facebook or Youtube. Need to create focus groups and get patient and provider input? Try a community site (like Ning) or enable discussions on the Facebook fan page (but make sure to understand the regulatory landscape, first!).

By: Stein Broeder

Stein Broeder — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:08:11 +0000

Nice post Mark! Here is a great article/case study (http://j.mp/bHbERn) about the University of Maryland Medical Center social media efforts, one of the first hospitals to embrace twitter. Their foray into the space have been very successful and cost effective.

By: Mark Horoszowski

Mark Horoszowski — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:56:08 +0000

Some other great sites to consider when debating how your hospital should use social media: 1. What Hospitals Are Doing in Social Media – Update to Social Media Case Studies Superlist - Read more. 2. Hospitals Social Media -A Healthy Look at Social Media - 3. Twitter Brain Surgery? How One Hospital Uses Social Media - Read more.