I just read a blog post by Rob Shields at Fight, a digital strategy company in Portland. He addressed the issue of social media strategy and its importance in a business’ decision to engage their audience online. Immediately I forwarded the post to a friend/colleague of mine (as I do with any article related to healthcare and social media) who works in marketing for a major healthcare system in the Pacific Northwest. They run two large hospitals and over 20 clinics and auxiliary locations. Management has been in talks for a couple of years about taking the plunge into social media, while my friend has supported the decision but encouraged a thoughtful transition and strategy be developed.
Recently, a member of their IT department created both Facebook and YouTube profiles. There was no strategy discussed. Nothing is really being done with the pages. I cringed.
This friend of mine explained that there’s been a lot of resistance [about online engagement] from the conservative management at the hospital. When I suggested they pull everything down until everyone is on board and a solid strategy is developed, she replied, “but they still really want him to keep it as limited as possible, including us pushing out messages and restricting input from our audience.”
I cringed again. I almost cried.
Question: are the consequences of diving into social media, without a plan, for a hospital more (dare I say) dangerous than they are for other types of businesses because of the sensitive nature of their services?
Being completely unaffiliated with the health care industry, I think that just like any other industry, too much of people’s hesitation is fear. The worst thing that could happen in social media is really not that bad – but there’s money involved, so people go crazy.
But the wealthiest people that I know, the ones who can generate money at the drop of a hat, they embrace social media. Most of them still suck at it, but they are doing it, and failing forward.