Facebook I think represents a fascinating challenge for hospitals to use, but it can be the public mass media channel of choice in attracting and participating the healthcare consumer. That being said Now, Facebook is not a one and done activity. I see too many hospital Facebook pages that have weeks between posts.
Well, that’s not participating and probably doing more damage than good. The healthcare consumer and patients for example will stop taking a look at a healthcare facility or health system page if it’s not engaging. Simple really, no engaging content means no page plenty and views of negative perceptions which carryover to the brand.
- National Park INFIRMARY (AR)
- Architecture Board
- Visual Designer
- 12 x 12 Wrapped Canvas
- 25% down month
- Service standards
- Is it possible to filter and export logs from GPA log book
- A robust and reliable Internet infrastructure; and
They will go elsewhere. One must have the ability to post and post often on Facebook regularly. Think of Facebook as an ecosystem that lives, breaths and changes as its users. Which means as a healthcare organization, one must match the change, looking for those opportunities that may be leveraged to engage and build the healthcare consumer friendly brand.
That’s right, hospitals and health system as a business essential have to create a consumer friendly brand. If the healthcare brand is not regarded as friendly, engaging, meaningful, proactive and innovative, that organization reaches a substantial disadvantage in a semi-retail healthcare consumer-driven market. Where does a healthcare business need to start?
Follow the money. And it’s much less crass as it sounds. In this modern of healthcare one has five marketplaces: Medicare; Medicaid; Commercial; Exchanges; and Uninsured. That’s it folks. Submarkets and demographics abound but it still only comes down to five marketplaces. That is why by follow the money.
Look at your service areas in those conditions and do the marketplace research to comprehend how individuals are using social press. From the data and not I believe, develop the strategic sociable mass media content plan that is built-into the organizational marketing plan completely. Social media marketing is a channel, but as an active channel it needs to be managed in a strategic, coherent, engagement, experience and brand building fashion. Don’t boil the ocean. A business cannot be everything to everyone. It’s impossible and arrogant. This plan is built around the needs of the healthcare consumer, not the business. This is the full time responsibility of someone in marketing.
It’s not whenever we have time in this day and age. It’s easy to say there is no FTE because we are “lean”. I’ve learned that almost all of private hospitals and health systems marketing departments are really marcom shops not true marketing shops. Which means you are most likely doing a great deal of stuff that does not have any value. It also means that in becoming “lean” there was no process improvement to change what you were doing and removing inherent marketing organizational inefficiencies. All it certainly means is that one is doing the same or even more with less. Incidentally clinics and health systems aren’t as lean as they think these are.