Should Rural Hospitals Use Social Media?

By Leslie Quinn, Program Coordinator

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? I will answer all of these questions for rural hospitals wondering about social media. Let’s start with the why…

Why?

Social media is a FREE marketing tool! Yet only 26 percent of hospitals participate in social media. Why should you get on board?

• It provides a venue to communicate with patients, partners and your community
• Recruit and retain both providers and patients by showcasing your hospital
• Stop the outmigration of patients who are able to drive right past your rural hospital to the next urban center
• Attract the younger population (biggest users of social media) to come to your hospital and become lifetime patients
• Monitor what is being said about your hospital on social media and have the ability to respond

Who?

More people are using social media than you might think; yes, even in rural areas. Your patients and potential patients are on social media. Approximately 83 percent of adults age 33 and younger currently use social media. Internet users age 74 and older comprise the fastest growing segment, with 16 percent now using social media. Your competitors are on social media too!

What?

Show your social media network who you are, the organization, employees, services and more by posting pictures and stories of your facility, staff, community and events. Inform your social media network of available services at your hospital, wellness events at your facility or in your community and job openings. Social media users also find health information on the internet, so you can use social media channels to get patients more involved in their health and health care. You can ask questions to get feedback from you social media followers. Do not post any identifiable health information about patients, to be HIPAA compliant. If you want to post a story or picture of a patient, make sure they sign a consent form.

Where?

There are many social media websites, but the most popular for hospitals are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs.

Source: http://thesparkreport.com/infographic-social-mobile-healthcare/?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=infographic

Facebook has 1.15 billion users, making it the largest social media site. Facebook users can “like” your company page, which enables them to see when new content has been added. Facebook allows you to share messages, links, photos, videos, documents and more. Facebook users can interact with you by liking, commenting or sharing your posts.
Examples of rural hospitals utilizing Facebook:

• Transylvania Regional Hospital, Brevard, North Carolina
• Union General Hospital, Farmerville, Louisiana
• Tallahatchie General Hospital, Charleston, Mississippi
• Johnson Memorial Health Services, Dawson, Minnesota
• PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center, Ketchikan, Alaska

You can also keep up with us on The Center's Facebook page.

Twitter has 500 million users that. You can “tweet” updates in 140 characters or less. Twitter users can “follow” your twitter profile to subscribe to your tweets. Tweets may include short messages, links, photos or videos. Twitter users can reply to your tweet or forward your tweet to their followers by “retweeting.” Hashtags (#) are used heavily in twitter to group similar tweets based on a keyword or topic area.

For example, the official hashtag for National Rural Health Day is #powerofrural.

We're also tweeting on The Center's Twitter feed.

YouTube has 1 billion users who post and watch videos. You can post videos to market your hospital and showcase your facility and staff or for patient education. YouTube users can watch, comment on and share your videos.
For example, Baptist Health Medical Center in Herber Springs, Arkansas produced a CAUTI Awards Winning Video.

Blogs have 329 million users. Blogs are growing in popularity with individuals and corporations. Nearly 40 percent of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes. Blog readers can follow your blog by signing up for email notifications when a new blog post is available.They can comment on your blog post or share the link to your blog post with others.

The Mayo Clinic is consistenly ranked #1 for hospitals using social media, one example is their Sharing Mayo Clinic blog.

LinkedIn has 277 million users and is a professional, business-oriented social media site. LinkedIn users can connect and network with colleagues, classmates and “follow” company pages. LinkedIn allows you to share messages, links, documents, photos and job postings with users.

For example, Jamestown Regional Medical Center in Jamestown, North Dakota uses their LinkedIn company page for recruitment, retention, services and hospital news.

You can connect our staff on The Center's LinkedIn profile.

Each social media site has a help center to answer any questions you may have with setup and use. You can also attend social media webinars and trainings to learn more. Self-help books are also available.

When?

There is no time like the present. Start making a plan now to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy. Make sure someone is responsible for actively posting to all social media accounts that your organization creates. A good goal would be to post at least once per week to LinkedIn, daily to Facebook and multiple times per day to Twitter. YouTube and Blogs are used to publish larger content, so it is not necessary to post as frequently. Someone should also be responsible for replying promptly to posts and questions, both positive and negative.

How to Start:

• Check out your local partners and competitors to see what they are doing on social media
• Decide which social media sites you want to start with. Choose one or two and expand later if they are successful. Start small – don’t get in over your head.
• Create an internal social media policy for employees that includes company policy and disclaimer as well as employee guidelines. Example: Mayo Clinic Social Media Guidelines for Employees
• Decide who is in charge of posting and managing social media sites
• Use your logo as the profile picture on all social media sites for brand recognition. You can also use a professional quality staff photo as the cover photo.
• Include hospital address, contact information, website, mission, vision and marketing slogans in the information sections 
• Promote links to your social media sites in the media and on hospital communications, including employee e-mail signatures. Encourage (but do not require) employees to interact with the company’s social media pages; it will encourage other followers to be more interactive.
• Set goals and monitor progress

Sources:
Healthcare Friending Social Media: What Is It? How Is It Used, and What Should I Do?
Social Media Toolkit from the Alabama Office of Primary Care and Rural Health