Insight

insight INSIDE THE NUMBERS by Rachel Stewart When to comes to connecting with current and potential patients, healthcare marketers aren't dealing with a captive audience. FOR THE WIN… Social media websites, such as Facebook® IT'S SOCIAL MEDIA and Twitter™, are more popular than e-mail, according to a new Nielsen study, with users dedicating 23 percent of Internet time to those sites. So it should make sense that most hospitals utilize some form of social media to meet their marketing goals, right? As of November 2010, 809 hospitals were utilizing 2,337 social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube™. Other platforms are gaining prevalence among medical staff as well. Approximately 115,000 physicians use Sermo™ to discuss clinical issues with medical professionals representing 86 specialities across the United States. TO BOLDLY GO BEYOND THE BASICS In a recent study conducted by Graystone.net, healthcare marketers are struggling to fi nd what works best for their facilities, with just 16.7 percent reporting social media helped them in terms of community relations and just 8.7 percent when it came to customer service. insight: sharpening your healthcare marketing vision IF YOU'RE TRYING TO ENGAGE AN AUDIENCE, YOU HAVE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. CONSIDER THESE SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESSES: Approximately 10,000 people watched a sleep study and participated in a Q & A Twitter "Sleep Up" event held by the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. The Swedish Medical Center also recently trained 100 physicians about how to use Twitter in hospital settings. Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, RI, saw a $50,000 increase in fundraising in the last year by tweeting during its annual radiothon. The facility also saw a 70 percent increase in Facebook followers after the radiothon. Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit connected with 1,900 viewers live online during a brain surgery. Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center in Louisville, KY, tweeted during a 20-hour double-hand surgery in August 2010. The Mayo Clinic currently has the most visited medical channel on YouTube and has 100,000 followers on Twitter thanks to its Social Media Center, which focuses solely on how to connect with readers. Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR, posted a Pink Glove video on YouTube to raise breast cancer awareness, which has received 12.7 million views (and counting). 23

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