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Hospital Impact has been ranked one of the top 50 healthcare blogs by Wikio.
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Don't let anyone kid you. Doing social media for a hospital is a lot of work. Some books and articles say it takes an hour a day; well, that's just not true--at least in my opinion.
In my role, I manage social media for a health system that includes five hospitals and a women's medicine practice. It's a job I absolutely love, but I won't tell you it's easy.
Through six Facebook, six Twitter, five Google+, three Pinterest pages and a YouTube channel, you can imagine the amount of time spent managing and monitoring. It is a full-time job. The disappointing part of that is there isn't always time to focus on some things that would be great to do in the social media world.
Like the rest of the world, I was in utter amazement as the story of the Boston bombings played out, and it's something I can't stop thinking about. I can't imagine what the victims and their families have been living through since it happened and all the recovery time still ahead of them.
In the aftermath, I can sit back and think more clearly from a professional point of view. The first thing that comes to mind is what those media folks were experiencing at the Boston hospitals. I totally understand. They were inundated with media trucks, media calls, reporters wanting answers to a myriad of questions, assignment desks calling for constant updates on patients, requests for interviews, and the list goes on and on.
Then of course there's the need to keep the public informed, and that's when each hospital's social media efforts came into play.
This marks my third post about Pinterest. In my first post, I just wasn't seeing the value. In my post last month, I was gushing with accolades for Pinterest.
Well, talk about things changing quickly in the social media world. With this post, I'm going in the opposite direction. Here's why.
Recently Pinterest announced it was changing its design and functionality. Users were given the opportunity to preview the new look, so I did ...
Here's how Pinterest is describing the changes. Sounds "Pintastic," doesn't it? That's what I thought too.
Just over a year ago, I wrote a post about Pinterest. I presented some stats, accolades and examples of how it was being used.
At the time I wasn't a big fan, and I didn't really see the value of it for hospital marketing.
In that post I wrote, "Now, granted, I'm a newbie at this whole pinning thing. But first impressions for me are lasting ones. With that said, I'm really not seeing the kind of interaction with others that you can have with Twitter and Facebook. There doesn't seem to be any way to really connect with someone or have a conversation."
A year later, I have to admit I'm hooked. I am completely, utterly addicted to this little network of pins and pictures and recipes and fitness tips and motivational pictures. Why? Because it's so easy to use and share GREAT information that supports your mission.
The recent Blizzard of 2013 was an eye-opener, especially for people who didn't remember the Blizzard of '78. The difference between then and now? Better weather forecasts and social media!
Social media is changing the way hospitals can communicate with the public. Even during a power outage, people turn to their smartphones for information. So when meteorologists predicted Winter Storm Nemo for our area, I felt the hospital accounts I manage should be a source of all kinds of storm-related information.
When blizzard watches became actual warnings, it was time to develop a storm content calendar for communicating with our social communities. With the storm predicted to last about 24 hours, it was important to stay up to date on the latest news to share the most important and helpful information with our friends and followers.
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