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Social Media For Health Care, Who's Doing It Right

This article is more than 8 years old.

Social media marketing for health care provides unprecedented opportunities for educating patients, increasing outreach, and recruiting a new generation of health care professionals. These five standout campaigns will show you how it’s done.

Johnson & Johnson

After seeing surveys indicating most people believed the world has become a less caring place, Johnson & Johnson launched its “Care Inspires Care” campaign as a lead-in to the 2014 World Cup. The company launched a Facebook page where people could share acts of care, and it named several health care organizations, FIFA World Cup volunteers, and J&J employees “Champions of Care.” J&J also created children’s books inspired by stories of health care workers who took care of sick children.

Recently, J&J pulled its ads from daytime talk show “The View” after co-hosts Michelle Collins and Joy Behar made controversial comments about nurses. The company then launched a Facebook campaign on its Care Inspires Care page to offer scholarships to students who want to become a nurse. The company will donate $1 to the fund, up to $50,000, each time someone submits a photo of caring nurses in action. Big corporation movements like these provide a great basis for schools like Loyola University in New Orleans that celebrate the history of nursing and help future nurses learn the skills they need to change lives.

According to Michael Roy, Executive Director at Clearview Women’s Center, “Many health care professionals think marketing isn’t something they should pay attention to, or even do at all. In my experience, delivering great service alone isn’t enough. Social media tools are increasingly providing opportunities to expand and help more people, and health care professionals who embrace the trend and make use of a bit of innovation will be in the win for a long time.”

GE Healthcare

GE has struggled to attract new hires from top technology programs because, compared to companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple, its talent brand said “old and venerable.” A series of innovative social media and content campaigns from Katrina Craigwell, GE’s global manager of digital marketing, has boosted the 123-year-old company’s profile among millennial college grads qualified to work in technology or health care.

To highlight its advanced medical imaging technology, GE Healthcare created “The Pulse on Health, Science, and Technology,” a Tumblr blog filled with stunning radiology images. The blog contains images of creatures, from humans to insects to one-celled organisms, rendered using imaging studies like MRI, computed tomography, X-ray, and PET scans.

Additionally, GE Healthcare posted Tumblr videos of different offices dedicated to medical imaging technology development, from Brazil to Wisconsin to South Korea. The videos showcase a creative and casual workplace culture highlighting GE Healthcare as a great employer for millennials.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when kids and teens are out of the structured environment of school, their risk of death and injury significantly increases. To raise awareness of risks kids face during the summer, Arkansas Children’s Hospital developed the #100DeadliestDays campaign.

The campaign featured a downloadable parent-teen driving agreement, infographics on topics like fireworks safety, and an Injury Prevention Center content hub providing fact sheets about risks to child safety. Other providers and doctors picked up the #100DeadliestDays hashtag to share ACH’s safety tips with their own patients.

Melanoma Patients Australia

Facing increasing melanoma diagnoses in Australia, particularly for people between the ages of 15 and 30, Melanoma Patients Australia decided to open social network accounts for Melanoma. The organization’s marketing agency, George Patterson Y&R, then went beyond the typical idea of having Melanoma post sun safety tips. When Australians tweeted or posted about sunbathing, tanning, or spending days outdoors using hashtags like #beach, #sun, or #pool, an algorithm detected the posts and sent an immediate response from Melanoma.

Melanoma sent responses like, “Love it. See you soon” to sun addicts across Australia. It also retweeted and followed people who posted a large number of sun-related pictures. The campaign, which reached over 2 million people, targeted Australians at the exact moment they put themselves at risk for skin damage. It also drove a 1371-percent increase to the Skincheck.com mobile site.

United Health Care

For insurers, promoting public health is just enlightened self-interest. They not only help people live better lives but also lower outlays to hospitals and health care providers. As part of Source4Women, its digital and social media initiative promoting women’s health, United Health care created the #WeDareYou campaign. Every month, United Health Care posts a series of challenges, daring women to live healthier lifestyles.

On its “We Dare You to Share” website, United Health care also posts quizzes and contests for which participants can win prizes. For instance, the company challenged people to create an avatar of their healthiest self, for which the winner could receive a $400 prepaid gift card. When women tackle the dares, they tweet to @Source4Women to make their victories public.

The Secrets Of Success

Companies getting social media for health care right mix timely health advice with clever calls for participation. Best of all, whether they’re sharing humor, inspiring wonder, or increasing compassion, these campaigns bring out the healthiest characteristics in all of us.

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