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The Coyne PR Report, “Health & Social Media: Who’s Using It, Why
and How?” examines what specific health-focused organizations and
companies are doing within social media. Anecdotally, we have always
heard that the health care system tends to lag behind other industries
when it comes to innovation and adoption of creative solutions, but we
wanted to check this out for ourselves.
While there are ample studies and reports on health care and social media, our analysis focuses on specific industries and the particular channels within social media that they are – or, are not – embracing.
The paper leads with a statistical overview of the public’s use of social media for health purposes, followed by a review of opportunities and challenges in the space.
To maintain focus, the Coyne PR team selected the following industries to review:
- Health advocacy groups
- Hospitals and health systems
- The pharmaceutical industry
- Research/government organizations
- Health benefits providers
Highlights of our findings include:
- Out of the five industries we studied, health advocacy groups are the biggest adopters of social media to advance their issues
- For instance, our research indicates that, of the 11 advocacy groups we looked into, 100 percent have their own YouTube channel and 91 percent use a social networking site, such as Facebook, MySpace or both
- Hospitals and health systems are just starting out in the space, but are doing so in
interesting ways
- The Mayo Clinic is a stand-out leader in its embrace of social media
- Pharmaceutical companies are not particularly active in social media from a corporate point of view, though they do use various channels for specific initiatives for which social media is a “safe” medium
- For instance, Johnson & Johnson is very active on YouTube, using videos to educate viewers on various health topics
- Research and government organizations have an uneven relationship with social media: some organizations heavily embrace it, while others have no involvement
- The CDC employs social media for various initiatives, and has used it particularly effectively for the quick distribution of information regarding the recent peanut products/salmonella outbreak
- Health benefits providers, much like the
pharmaceutical companies, don’t tend to use social media on a corporate level, but do use it effectively for specific initiatives
- Cigna and Humana are the most active in the space
In sum, our take is that there is probably no industry better suited toward the use of social media than health care, but, to date, it is an underutilized medium. There are indications, however, that this will change, for the positive.
For the full paper, please email dcarter@coynepr.com
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Heath Care Case Studies
