Social media offer unlimited ways to interact with patients and the 10 American hospitals described below are going far beyond to build lasting relationships and online communities that certainly lead to greater retention and a long-term financial return.
10. Indiana University – Health Center (IU Health Center)
The Health Center of the University of Indiana has an active social voice, a voice that stands out among the crowd, especially that of Twitter which counts 26K. They are not boring, each caption is short, sweet, dramatic. IU Health talks discursively and sheds sparkling light on daily news using social media. They know how to make headlines and turn them into headliners.
9. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC )
UPMC has launched a Twitter hashtag campaign ( #UPMCLifeChangers ) to engage the community of doctors, patients and people who change lives with their work or have changed their lives with the help of qualified facility doctors. The campaign offers a series of videos that not only demonstrates the credibility of the hospital in making a difference but offers hope for all patients who come there for specific care.
The message behind the campaign seems obvious and all-encompassing, it’s something we could universally participate in. The message pushes a declaration of intent and reminds us of the Centre’s daily commitment to guarantee the maximum health care service.
8. University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF)
UCSF uses a similar strategy and involves patients trying to instill their hope. Facebook posts focus on unique people, each with their own success story. Power comes from bringing out the personal stories of people, which elicit reactions of emotional involvement. The posts with the stories are constantly updated, almost like they were their Successful Patient Newsletter. These fragments of light illuminate lives and show that health is achievable, regardless of the intensity of the struggle. At the same time, it helps improve patient engagement and show hospital success. Who wouldn’t want to be part of this? UCSF Health has a follow-up on Facebook of 212K.
7. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
UCLA Health has a Facebook follow-up of 271K and Twitter 35K. In each Twitter chat ( #UCLAMDChat), people are invited to tweet, on certain days and times, with corresponding hashtags chosen by the University to create an online community conversation. They take complicated and new topics and reduce them to digestible parts for patients, listening to questions and responding in real time. The most recent patient engagement chat invited questions about kidney health while the topic of breastfeeding was touched on earlier.
6. Massachusetts General Hospital
The Mass General holds a massive 82.5K Facebook follow-up. To share content with only the most relevant audience, they hold a collection of different Twitter pages, each of which exists as its own channel and with corresponding hashtags.
From @MassGeneralNews and @MassGeneralResearch to @MassGeneralChildren, @MassGeneralMDs, @MassGeneralCRM, and @MassGeneralEM. In this way, the contents become very customer-focused and specialized.
5. Shriners Hospitals for Children, Chicago
Shriners Hospitals hosts a series of educational podcasts on its website: focusing on various forms of pediatric care and – for children with muscular dystrophy but also cerebral palsy – offer an engaging means to share practical information for children and their families struggling with these diseases often considered completely disabling. On their website, for some topics, they offer the possibility of listening to a podcast rather than reading too technical medical contents.
Shriners Hospital for Children has a follow-up of 643K on Facebook and 21.6K on Twitter.
4. New York Presbyterian Hospital
The Facebook page of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital is focused on people. We rarely see a hospital picture or a doctor in a white coat, instead, we see real images of real people. We see smiling children and their dads, a new mother cradling her newborn, a high school student, a family in the waiting room, a birthday boy and her cake. They remain faithful to the initial intent of Facebook: to share faces, people, celebrate our connections and personal life.
With seemingly unaltered organic photographs, the New York-Presbyterian Hospital has amassed a 120K Facebook sequel.
3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland
Johns Hopkins Hospital has a large following on social media as they use fiction. Their Facebook page (600K) features personal narratives, intimate stories, health care trips and the key role/mission of founder John Hopkins. They use names, cultural backgrounds, hopes, symptoms, struggles, patients express the pain and strength that accompany the reality of living with their condition. The testimonials offer valuable insights into what it means to be sick and the healing process.
According to Jimmy Neil Smith, director of the International Storytelling Center, “We are all storytellers. We all live in a web of stories. There is no stronger connection between people than storytelling.”
2. The Mayo Clinic, Minnesota
The Mayo Clinic is a world-renowned hospital and their social media are also quite famous. With a follow-up of Facebook and Twitter of 1.1M and 2M respectively, this hospital is doing something different. In addition to involvement and every other proven practice, they are incorporating other unique strategies such as creating the #MayoClinicMinute video campaign to share in their social channels.
Each video contains 60 seconds of news related to the world of health. Maybe you don’t want to be informed about the latest medical updates, but you might look at something that will help you take better care of yourself. It is something that healthcare companies should consider and continue to pursue: create a series of short, creative and engaging videos to mark their practice and connect with patients even outside the hospital.
1. Cleveland Clinic, Ohio
The Cleveland Clinic is a hospital that works not locally but also internationally thanks to its more than 3,000 doctors and 120 medical specialties. It boasts 2M follower both on Facebook and on Twitter playing in advance in its social channels compared to all the other health structures analyzed, with live streaming very appreciated by the patients.
Dr. Hyman, director of the Center for Functional Medicine, recently held a live on Facebook by opening the platform to questions regarding the approach of functional medicine and the ketogenic diet. During the live streaming, people could comment on a real-time response from Dr. Hyman (857 comments and 538 actions within 24 hours).
