People often say “social media isn’t for everyone or every business”.
Call me a millennial or tell me I’m biased because I am in marketing and all… but I disagree. Everyone and especially every business can use social media in some facet. Especially businesses.
It’s the strategy that matters… picking the appropriate social networks… organically creating a following… crafting unique and interesting content… engaging the appropriate audience.
As a few readers brought up one of the significant risks of social media in healthcare in my last post. HIPAA is a challenge and even a risk with “going social” for many. For those of you who may not know, HIPAA is government set rules and regulations that protect your privacy as a patient which includes the protection of any information that may identify you as a person.
The risk of social media in healthcare arises when sharing any content that discusses or shows patients in your healthcare setting. This risk is both financial and criminal. Violations of HIPAA are classified in several different levels of severity, but all include a financial consequence and many include a criminal consequence that could hurt your organization in many ways.
Avoiding identifying information or not showing patient faces is just not enough. Kate Cornelius shared some examples of violations that were unintentionally made. Pictures that appear to be harmless or even posts that refers vaguely to a past patient’s appointment can all inadvertently violate a patient’s rights to privacy and security.
In a business that is all about patients, this can create some challenges – especially in photo sharing platforms such as Instagram. However, fear not! This is does not create a roadblock but rather an opportunity to get creative and witty with your content.
Focus on the big picture of healthcare – what specific conditions mean in lament terms, special treatments and any current research, safety and health suggestions for the masses, organization events, or even industry related holidays like Nurses Week. By focusing on educational and positive themes, you can create a relationship with all levels of healthcare stakeholders without violating anyone’s rights. If you’re unsure, just take a look at some of the leaders of the healthcare social media pack.
Knowing what to post and what not to post is very important. I work for a government agency and I’ve been given permission to use three forms of social media. One of them is Twitter but our account is a secure account and if someone requests access to our username, their name must be in the GAL. This is partially due to HIPPA and PII. We stress continuously in our training that you never want to divulge any sort of PII or HIPPA information. Something so simple as posting on someone’s Facebook account, so good to see you at the hospital or whatever can give out information to everyone that has no business getting out. Educating people and what to put out there on social media is very important so HIPPA and PII is not divulged.
I agree with you that every company could benefit from the use of social media, but that doesn’t mean that every company should benefit from it. In many companies, they just don’t have the right culture to embrace social media. If that’s the case, it’s better for them to look at other ways to market their company. Yes, there are other ways even though those of us in social media can’t imagine why people would consider those old ways;-)
I’ve found that you need a couple things for a company to do well in social media. First, you need a company that’s willing to be open and transparent (many aren’t). Second, you need a staff that are articulate and creative. If you don’t have these things, then you might not want to start doing social media. However, most companies have enough of these attributes to get started. Plus, many will discover the value of being more open and also discover talent at their company that they didn’t know existed.