Spring Forum and Social Media in Healthcare

Following is a post from WHCM member Wendy M. Weitzner, FACHE, Vice President of THE INNOVA GROUP about our Spring Forum event on May 9.

The WCHM Spring Forum was a great success. We had many new attendees in addition to long time members. The crowd of about 90 women heard from four terrific ladies who work with social media in four different areas of healthcare: hospital, industry/devices, healthplan, and physician group. We heard about their career paths as well as their thoughts on social media as we dined on some fantastic Cinco de Mayo-themed dinner fare. A few key takeaways include:

  • Social media is here to stay, and it is the new way of communication. Social media outlets are becoming similar to how webpages are seen now in society: if you don’t have it, you are invisible;
  • Social media is about transparency and connecting with your customers. Many of the comments on social media sites are positive, but negative comments are an opportunity for personalized service recovery;
  • If you are doing social media, do it well. Have new and fresh content, monitor the sites for feedback;
  • Knowing which social media outlets to use depends on what you are trying to achieve. Develop a strategy and communication goal, and then use the outlets that best support that strategy.