Social media is a way to "go where people are," says the co-author of a new whitepaper from CSC that aims to show healthcare organizations why they shouldn't take the "wait-and-see approach."
The whitepaper, titled Should Healthcare Organizations Use Social Media, recommends “starting now, but starting small and monitoring outcomes.”
For example, Jason S. Lee, partner and director, Global Institute for Emerging Healthcare Practices CSC, recommends that practices recruit social media managers internally that are both “knowledgeable and intrigued” by social media.
Eventually, says Lee, there won't be a need for such managers because, “social media applications will become as normal, and conventional and important as the Internet and e-mail are to us today."
But for those just getting there feet wet, one doctor recommends giving it a "good month" to see whether you like it or not. Christian Sinclair, MD, spoke Monday at the Third Annual Health Care Social Media Summit held at the Mayo Clinic. He believes that "quality content published at least two or three times per week" is enough to build a blog audience. Sinclair is a hospice and palliative care doctor for Kansas City Hospice and a blogger for Pallimed, and chief strategist for KLX Media.
Regardless of how large your social media footprint is, CSC recommends healthcare organizations have a social media policy. “A social media policy is when a company develops guidelines and rules and ethical standards on how employees can – and should – and should not, use social media professionally,” explains Lee.
“The intent is to circumscribe the use without prohibiting the use of social media and address privacy and ethical issues,” he says.
“Open your networks to social media. Have clear policies and guidelines and manage by exception,” advises Shel Holtz, a principal of Holtz Technology + Communication, who also spoke Monday at the summit in Rochester, Minn. Because as Holtz sees it “any communication can violate privacy -- even in the elevator,” and social media is just another form of communication.
In adddition to a written policy, healthcare organizations should go one step further and develop a training or educational program to help staff fully comprehend it, CSC says. Amid ideas generated by Mayo's social media conference, was that a social media policy should be created in terms of 140 characters so that it could be tweeed. Some more food for thought: should docs be incentivized to use social media, or is it something that has to be inspired?
CSC also recommends having a social media strategy – “a plan for developing a solution to a business problem,” says Lee, in which social media could serve as “the only way or complementary way of creating or implementing the solution.” He believes that we will “increasingly see social media analytics – IT tools – developed that will be able to use data that are generated through social media for business improvements.”
Holtz says a good way to currently see what others are saying about your healthcare organization is to use sites such as Yelp and Angie's List.
