St. Louis is a health care town and we wanted to share some highlights from a recent article in the Academy of Health Care Management Journal, titled “Health Care and Social Media: Building Relationships Via Social Networks”, along with some ways local hospitals are using social media.

Health care providers are joining the social media wave as part of integrated marketing outreach to engage and build relationships with current and prospective patients. Some of social media’s benefits to health care marketers include building trust from consumers, helping simplify an intimidating service, answering consumers’ questions about their health conditions and learning what consumers are thinking and saying.

Health care can be complicated. Therefore, when consumers want to determine which provider to go to or find potential solutions for an ailment, they often turn to the Internet and social media. The extensive health information online makes it even more important for providers to be a part of the conversation on social media. Patients can use social media to learn how providers approach cases and get a feeling for their personality.

Not only is social media a valuable relationship-building tool, it helps health care providers learn what questions patients have and what their concerns and needs are.  Providers can reply directly to questions and can send customized messages to individuals using social media.

If you’d like to see how some of St. Louis’ health care experts are using social media, check out these sites:

• www.facebook.com/#!/MercySTL
• www.twitter.com/#!/bjc_healthcare
• www.youtube.com/user/SSMHealthCareStLouis

Do you seek out health information online? Which social media outlets are you most likely to use when seeking out health information?

Source: Hackworth, B.A. & Kunz, M.B. (2011). Academy of Health Care Management Journal.