Businesses , government agencies, and professionals are not the only ones getting on board with social media, but the health industry has definitely become a strong social media presence in sharing their insights, knowledge, and actively being engaged with their audience members with social media. The Mayo Clinic just announced that they have created their own Center for Social Media – which is very exciting and appropriate for them since they have a very strong following on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. More hospitals are getting on board as well by creating their own blogs, having a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and YouTube. Ed Bennett created a very useful list of hospitals that from each state that lists how many hospitals have a presence on these various social media sites. It appears that hospitals are definitely very active on Twitter, and this is one of the primary ways that they are communicating and sharing information with their various audiences.
Another active leader in implementing social media strategically and effectively has been the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), especially in handling the H1N1 crisis last year. This particular case study is going to be analyzed and reviewed for years to come by public relations and crisis communication professionals since it was one of the first organizations that was very proactive in addressing concerns and questions about H1N1, being actively engaged across multiple social media sites, and providing people with information on these various sites in multiple languages. In addition, the CDC really had a strong presence on various social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even Second Life.
Social media and health communication are becoming more integrated in both research and in practice. Whether it is about communicating about prevention for certain health issues (ex. breast cancer, flu, etc) to making sure people are aware of what to do in a health crisis situation (ex. food safety, H1N1, etc) – social media has become an important medium for people to get their information from. There are so many opportunities out there for not only research, but establishing best practices in how to communicate effectively and efficiently in this new form of technology.
Hope you all are having a wonderful day.
Best Wishes,
Karen
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