The global healthcare emergency has definitively confirmed that the health sector also needs social media marketing to communicate well if it were still needed.
Several recent studies show how Italians search the web for information and answers on their symptoms. According to the Tech4life survey, carried out by Confidence for Medical Devices in collaboration with Community Media Research, “on average, a share oscillating between 15 and 17 % uses the network assiduously to carry out a self-diagnosis, learn more about treatments and therapies, and to learn about technologies and devices “.
If we add to this scenario the widespread fake news in the medical field and a certain atavistic distrust, if not distrust, towards doctors and hospitals, the counter-moves inevitably require an alliance with “Doctor Google” and a health marketing strategy. , both to disseminate scientifically correct information and to intercept potential patients or have their services chosen, so much so that today many public and private health facilities are implementing digital communication plans, focusing on social media.
Among these, the di Bologna stands out as a virtuous example for its healthcare social media marketing strategy, capable in just four years from the opening of its Facebook page, of involving over 105,000 followers, in staff, through emotional communication based on storytelling, which has created a real loyal community.
Healthcare social media marketing
“I was part of the communication office, becoming a social media marketing almost by chance,” Ilaria tells me when I ask her about her path: “After a master’s in Fundraising, I arrived at thanks to an internship with Youth Guarantee, the European program that favors the job placement of young people.
The common thread with which we wanted to tell the hospital is authenticity, to give voice to those who live there: doctors, nurses, associations, patients, and relatives, not just the management, a task that instead belongs to the press office”. The Facebook page has grown, therefore, with the story of the wards and their protagonists, documented through words, images and videos. As Ilaria describes, “the goal was to rebuild trust in the medical-nursing staff, to get out of self-referentiality and” open making it known as the city hospital.”
The hospital of all, therefore, according to the principles of universality, equity, and solidarity on which our National Health System is based: a panorama that seems very distant from the logic that underlies the world of social media marketing and its users, which in healthcare, they become patients, a peculiarity that is not easy to manage: “communication in a healthcare marketing agency is the communication of the whole life;
Even in this case, as we have seen by interviewing Luca Zanelli on the use of social media for public administration, the reasons that lead users to turn to the clinic page are the most varied, and, in some cases, this aspect has represented the difficulty. In many others, Ilaria says, Facebook has become an opportunity, a source of stories to draw on: “the most difficult aspect is to make citizens understand the skills of the different realities, such as local health authorities, hospitals or accredited private individuals.
“Connection becomes relationship”: the social story that involves and creates communities.
It would seem impossible to answer everyone and everything. In these cases, I activated myself, and the answers went to the head nurse and the ward director. If I did not respond immediately, other users-patients or doctors would expose themselves. They managed themselves, just like in a community.
A constant commitment, so I asked Ilaria how the work was organized and if she followed an editorial plan and a frequency of publication: “the page publishes a post every day, including weekends, and the only posts scheduled weekly, are those relating to events, machinery inaugurations, or for official visits (for example on the occasion of the visit of Cardinal), in addition to press releases.
How do you manage critical emergencies? “Admitting the mistake is fundamental.”
A reality like a hospital, to which people entrust their health, and such a large and active Facebook page, inevitably live in lights and shadows, so I ask Ilaria how she handled negative reviews and if there were any critical moments: “Admitting the mistake is fundamental,” he replies, “messaging was an opportunity to listen to know the patients’ requests and improve the website, the editorial plan, and the communication channels. It has often happened that a negative review turned into an opportunity”.
A hospital, however, deals with life and death, so dealing with health and social marketing also involves coping with tragedies. “In 2018, a mother died in childbirth following a complication, and all the newspapers talked about it. Understandably, the amazement and anger of the people were very strong, and they did not know how to react.
An excellent starting point for other sectors and all digital communication professionals because, after all, the hospital is everyone’s space. Its communication and relationship with users should be studied as emblematic case studies: listening, transparency, personalization of Can responses, and a warm and immediate style be the key to providing a really useful service and saving us from the “loneliness of the social media marketing“?
