Start with (social) media monitoring for hospitals

Media Monitoring
Featured image

More and more hospitals are discovering the added value of (social) media monitoring in order to get a complete overview of everything that’s going on in the industry and with current affairs as well as managing their online and offline reputation. As a communication advisor or spokesperson for a hospital, you’ll always want to be the first to know what’s going on.

Want to know what (social) media monitoring can mean for your hospital? In this white paper, we’ll outline 6 reasons as to why media monitoring in healthcare is so important. On the basis of practical tips and tricks, we’ll ensure that you’re well prepared to get the best out of media monitoring.

Keep a close eye on everything that’s going on around your organisation

As a medical specialist, you’re pleased when you have visited all your patients at the end of the day and their statuses have been updated. Busy schedules mean that further deepening within the field is sometimes a challenge. The communications department is the ideal department for providing good support. On the basis of thorough and informative reports from a monitoring tool, the department can automatically and easily inform each employee, in a short time, about the most important developments in the field. It isn’t even necessary for a doctor to be on social media because it’s easy to create customised reports and you can also add rich content, such as images and YouTube videos.

Not only should the online customer support (webcare) be well-organised, but employees must also be properly guided in the use of social media, especially since hospitals work primarily with privacysensitive information. If hospitals and healthcare institutions consider actively deploying employees on social media, it is important to provide them with the right information and guidance, so they know exactly what they can and cannot communicate and, above all, how exactly. As a medical specialist, you’re pleased when you have visited all your patients at the end of the day and their statuses have been updated. Busy schedules mean that further deepening within the field is sometimes a challenge. The communications department is the ideal department for this.

“If I didn’t have the monitoring tool, I wouldn’t know what’s going on in society right now, and I would only be able to react when something’s happening, instead of preventing any problems in the first place. Through monitoring, you get really good insights, and you can monitor your image well and thus be able to work on your reputation.” – Leanne Wink-Miedema

Show internal reporting via a narrowcast
It’s not only important to be aware of what’s going on from within the communications department. It also pays to internally display messages, in real time, to all of the employees at the hospital. You can use a narrowcast for this to ensure that the employees are informed in real time of what’s all happening in the outside world within the field or hospital. By sharing this information at the workplace, via a flat screen, for example at the nursing station, you can give your employees a wider perspective of all the developments in the outside world or within their own hospital.

Share of buzz Media Monitor

Overview ‘share of buzz’ from online dashboard of Media Monitor.

Inform employees specifically about developments within the market

Providing good support. On the basis of thorough and informative reports from a monitoring tool, the department can automatically and easily inform each employee, in a short time, about the most important developments in the field. It isn’t even necessary for a doctor to be on social media because it’s easy to create customised reports and you can also add rich content, such as images and YouTube videos.

Not only should the online customer support (webcare) be well-organised, but employees must also be properly guided in the use of social media, especially since hospitals work primarily with privacysensitive information. If hospitals and healthcare institutions consider actively deploying employees on social media, it is important to provide them with the right information and guidance, so they know exactly what they can and cannot communicate and, above all, how exactly.

Making the doctor an ambassador for their specialism

Doctors in your organisation are working together on a daily basis to improve the treatment of diseases and care of patients. Dynamic reports are used to inform colleagues about the state of affairs, and these reports are automatically and easily shared with everyone within the organisation. In this way, doctors can also profile themselves more as an ambassador for their specialism and inspire colleagues to develop themselves further as well. With the online dashboard, you can measure, as a communication department, which of a doctor’s spearheads score well and keep track of whether objectives are being achieved. We’d like to add two things specifically for healthcare organisations, where regulation and legislation regarding patients is important.

  1. Start listening to what is being said online. The (healthcare) consumer uses social media to express themselves and communicate with others. So listen to the customer and look for a connection.
  2. Just collecting a bunch of data is useless, so determine the objectives before you start. Focus is essential for success. Which strategic goals should the social media initiatives contribute to? Also link KPIs to this, so that these goals can be measured.

Proactive service via social media

An important advantage of social media for hospitals is that it brings people closer together. A hospital visit can be a somewhat stressful experience for many patients, so by being visible and open on social media, the threshold — and thus any fear — will be lowered. Hospitals can also draw attention in this way to special initiatives or to attract people by promoting the profession.

Social media can also be useful for the patients themselves for asking questions to a hospital. “What is the shortest walking route to the outpatient clinic?” is one of the frequently asked questions at many hospitals. With a monitoring tool, you collect all the questions from patients that you will be able to respond to. Is the waiting time in a waiting room longer than desired? Monitoring can help you gain insight into this, and use this information to be able to better manage expectations and better inform patients about this.

Or take that extra step. Because how nice would it be to respond to a tweet with #takingtoolong by offering those same people an extra cup of coffee to ease the wait a bit? These and other ‘sore spots’ can be quickly identified through monitoring. There’s a good chance that these same patients will also share with their network that they ultimately received excellent service as well.

Using social media for your hospital goes much further than being reactive and neatly answering all of the messages addressed to you. There are opportunities for proactive service, which, if properly applied, can certainly have a positive influence on the reputation of your hospital.

Increase your distinctiveness: measure your spearheads

Hospital employees always strive to fulfill the spearheads of innovation and the best possible clinical care. Media monitoring helps you to see whether the outside world is also making the association between your hospital and these spearheads.

Benchmarkanalyse in de Media Monitor

Benchmarkanalyse in Media Monitor

With a benchmark analysis, you can investigate how you score within your own priorities, compared to other hospitals in Benchmarkanalyse in Media Monitor. the region or with the same specialty. The report provides insights about important (traditional) media that influence this image, what people say about your hospital and who the most important stakeholders are. The results of the research provide new input that can be used for the hospital’s strategy and policy-making, building on your own distinctiveness and your visibility on the main spearheads.

Make the effects of your campaigns measurable

In addition to knowing what’s going on, involving employees and making spearheads measurable, monitoring is also suitable for measuring the effects of campaigns and seeing how this relates to your image. A good example of where an image got a boost can be seen back at the Medical Centre Leeuwarden. At the time, the hospital was the first hospital in the Netherlands to become completely smoke-free. An omnichannel campaign on the website, social media channels and PR guaranteed quite a large reach. The hashtack #rookvrijmcl was linked to all outgoing reports in order to be able to measure the impact.

Hastag-cloud MCL

“We worked on our image because we were basically on top of things. Each day I’d make a report based on relevant keywords and would feed the status back to the team and stakeholders, such as the Board of Directors. On social media, the webcare team (our online customer support team) focused mainly on the advocates of a smoke-free MCL, so that the followers actually became sort of like ambassadors for this campaign. Thanks to the reports, we were able to communicate in a very controlled manner and constantly work proactively on our image”, says Leanne WinkMiedema, Communications Advisor.

Ready to get started with your own media monitoring?

With media monitoring, it’s possible to collect a tremendous amount of data that’s relevant for an organisation, communication and/or media strategy. By structurally viewing messages, you are not only able to properly manage your online and offline reputation and respond to complaints or questions in a timely manner, but you can also provide insights regarding the product, the service or the target group.

Ready to use media monitoring as optimally as possible for your organisation?

Then we’re ready for you! Contact us at (0)85 210 50 60 or contact-engage@spotler.com. You can also send us a WhatsApp at 06 – 30 58 42 28!

Get in touch!
Inspired? Share this message!

Related items

4 applications of media monitoring for loyal customers and efficiency

Optimise online customer service, lead generation and reputation management!
Read more Arrow right
• 12 minute read

The power of media monitoring

With media monitoring it is possible to collect a lot of data that is relevant for an organisation, communication and/or...
Read more Arrow right
• 11 minute read

PR and communication: media monitoring is crucial for your reputation

Media monitoring is an essential part of your strategy for reputation management, service, pr, marketing, and sales. Wou...
Read more Arrow right