5 ways to use social media in health-care marketing

From live-tweeted surgeries to crisis communication, networks deliver real-time information

More than ever, it’s essential for hospitals and health providers to rethink their health-care marketing mix to include social media.

The proof is in the numbers: 34 percent of consumers use social media to search for health information, according to research data from How America Searches: Health and Wellness.

Although it’s easy to identify demand, many health-care marketers are not exactly sure how they might tap into the social Web to reach business goals. To help understand the possible applications, consider these five examples of how the social Web can work for hospitals and others in the health-care industry:

1. Tweet live procedures

In the past year, social media channels have helped open up an area of health care previously available to only a select few: the operating room.

Last February, Henry Ford Hospital became one of the first hospitals to tweet a live procedure from an operating room. Doctors, medical students and curious non-medical personnel followed along as surgeons tweeted short updates on the kidney surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.