In a recent article on HealthLeaders Media, “Social Media is Serious Business for Healthcare Providers,” Jaqueline Fellows describes the emergence of social media in hospitals and health systems in the US. Some are cringing at the thought of diving in to an ever-changing forum, while others are jumping in headlong.
The Mayo Clinic is pioneering a resource center to help hospitals large and small begin their journey into social media. Fellows’ article emphasizes the constant learning curve that social media involves since technology is always changing. At the same time, patients expect hospitals to be on social media.
The Mayo Clinic has been admirably successful in their social media endeavors, with over 11,000 subscribers and 9 million views of 2631 videos on YouTube. Their Facebook page and Twitter accounts boast equally impressive numbers. However, they’re missing out on one very important element that’s proving to be groundbreaking in social media success—animated medical video.
Nucleus Medical Media’s YouTube channel reached almost 90,000 subscribers and 160 million views after just 6 years of existence. With animated 3D medical videos on topics ranging from childbirth to coronary artery angioplasty, the channel has become one of the most popular medical references on YouTube.
This comes as no surprise, as studies have shown that more patients and caregivers are using the internet as a resource for health information. 1 Facebook’s first quarter reports for 2013 estimate the number of daily active users at 665 million, an increase of 26% annually. 2 Twitter estimates that 21% of the world’s internet population uses it’s service at least once a month. 3
YouTube statistics are equally impressive with 1 billion unique monthly visitors and 6 billion hours of video watched every month. 4 Nucleus Medical Media helps hospitals take advantage of the social media clout that YouTube and other mediums provide through our different licenses.
Nucleus medical animations have helped form communities of patients encouraging others to quit smoking, learning about upcoming surgical procedures, and sharing their experiences with health issues to other patients. Similarly, hospitals like Lehigh Valley Health Network in Pennsylvania and Gwinnett Medical Center in Georgia are using Nucleus medical animations as successful social media marketing and patient education tools.
Alyssa Young, Senior Web Producer at Lehigh Valley says, “Lehigh Valley Health Network wants its website to be a reliable resource for patients throughout their life, whether they’re sick or well… Our research has shown that a patient-focused website will build our community’s trust and demonstrate our expertise, which will encourage them to choose us.” Young and her team are using patient education as a marketing tool, a newer development in hospital marketing, but a successful one.
Resources like those the Mayo Clinic provides are helpful for hospitals and health systems that are social media pros and even those who are new to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Cinematic 3D animations can add an additional engagement element that works as both a patient education tool and a marketing piece.
In a comment on a patient education discussion on LinkedIn, one member said, “You’ve got to teach them to reach them.” And social media is where patients and caregivers are going for that information.
Contact Nucleus Medical Media to learn how to license medical animations for hospital marketing and patient education. You can also follow us on Facebook to see patient education with medical animations in action.
What tools do you use to educate patients? Do you use patient education for hospital marketing?
Sources:
- http://www.chcf.org/publications/2013/01/pew-survey-online-health
- http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=761090
- http://www.globalwebindex.net/twitter-now-the-fastest-growing-social-platform-in-the-world/
- http://youtube-global.blogspot.com.au/