By Jessica Grant
In Kane’s (et al) article, Community Relations 2.0, the emerging use of social media in connecting people with a common illness or health concern from all over the world is discussed in depth. The research, which we assume is focused predominantly in the US, shows that the majority of these social networks are established to form support groups for people with serious illnesses, or for the parents of children with these illnesses. They come together to share experiences, gain empowerment and to brainstorm potential cures for these diseases. Because these “parent communities” exist outside of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, there is more freedom to discuss topics of a sensitive and confidential nature where a health care provider would be unable to.
In Kane’s (et al) article, Community Relations 2.0, the emerging use of social media in connecting people with a common illness or health concern from all over the world is discussed in depth. The research, which we assume is focused predominantly in the US, shows that the majority of these social networks are established to form support groups for people with serious illnesses, or for the parents of children with these illnesses. They come together to share experiences, gain empowerment and to brainstorm potential cures for these diseases. Because these “parent communities” exist outside of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, there is more freedom to discuss topics of a sensitive and confidential nature where a health care provider would be unable to.
Health care organisations, such as Partners HealthCare, are starting to use social media platform Sermo to talk to each other about challenging cases and to be able to both solve cases and contribute to the solving of other cases that match their areas of expertise.
My question to you is, what do you think of Incuheal’s use of social media so far? In terms of achieving our goals, how else do you think we could be leveraging different platforms? Do you think there is a place for us to be using platforms such as Sermo? How do you think we could be making the most of these platforms?
Hi Jess,
ReplyDeleteI have seen a number of health care services beginning to use social media platforms to launch awareness of their services (doctors.com.au is just one example).
I've seen your FB page and your blog is rather interesting, however in terms of achieving your goals, I don't really see the health care industry being able to utilise social media as a way to gain awareness and generate business. This is just my opinion & I'm sure it does work for some health care providers - in way of potentially gaining new customers I suppose.
For your business, have you thought of partnering with other health care providers (I haven't read any further so you may have mentioned it) and utilising their social media platforms to gain a larger viewing or potentially looking into traditional media platforms to get your cause across - possibly billboard advertising, radio, etc ?
I hope this made sense and you possibly got a new idea from it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Steph. :)
Hi Steph,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. We are always looking for suggestions as to how we can improve our business. So far we are teamed up with UNICEF, one of the largest organisations in the world that is working towards improving the quality of life for children globally. We are looking for health care providers to partner with; if you have any suggestions we'd love to hear them.
Our idea would be to use social media networks such as Sermo to learn more about our product and problem.
We're only a new enterprise but we would definitely consider using traditional advertising methods if it
were right for our goals.
- Jessica