According to MedCity Media, healthcare also has an ample number of social media participants in health related communities that range in topics from nutrition to pregnancy to cancer. Content services are best used to supplement the core expertise of a health care delivery facility or from a health care payer's perspective, provide information that will help direct consumer behavior that impacts outcomes – healthier people, better outcomes, higher profits.

Facebook is a platform of choice by organizations, employees and patients.

Facebook (FB) is a great way to communicate with employees as they will make up a fair percentage of your "fan base." And, the ancillary benefit of that is you'll also likely reach local residents who may well be patients or potential patients. It's a way to keep an organization with several locations informed and communicating with each other and their communities. Facebook is appealing for internal and external communications in healthcare. For example, creating specific pages for focused healthcare aliments or behavior is proving to be an effective strategy for Inova Healthcare with a FB page like Fitfor50.

Other companies provide special offers to their members or customers. Careington International Corporation provides FB pages that offer promotional savings on their discount health plans, and CIGNA has a presence on Linked In. Aetna Global Benefits (AGB) members have access to an additional online resource designed to help them easily navigate their benefits and achieve their optimal health on a Facebook page they developed in 2010.

According to eBakery Social Media, here are 21 reasons health care needs social media:

Listen

The first thing to do is to start listening. This can be as easy as setting up Google Alerts and subscribing to some search feeds. Reasons why this is important:

1. Conversations are already happening about your organization (online reviews, other peoples' blog posts, forum comments).
2. Find out if what you think your brand is matches what your patients/community says your brand is.
3. Free market research
4. Allows you to correct any false information about your organization and its reputation
5. Allows intervention before a minor crisis becomes a PR disaster

Blog

1. A blog positions your organization as a Thought Leader – forward thinking and cutting edge.
2. 60 – 80% (depending on the source) of patients consult the internet about their diagnosis.
3. Opportunity to get correct information out there
4. Opportunity to influence the conversation about health care and your specialty
5. A blog allows you to publish articles, video, podcasts (audio), photos and slide presentations.
6. Blog posts are better than news stories, because you are writing the story.
7. A blog improves search engine optimization (placing you at the top of Google search results).
8. If you choose to respond to negative comments, there is an opportunity to show responsiveness and illustrate that you care about patient concerns.

Social Media Guidelines

1. A training opportunity – teach your employees what you expect; outline behaviors that are acceptable and not acceptable.
2. Opportunity to highlight HIPAA rules – patient privacy must be always in place, whether online, on the phone or in person.
3. Guidelines offer liability protection.
4. Whether your organization participates in social media or not, your employees may participate outside of work, so it's still important to develop guidelines.

Social Media

1. 500,000,000 people on Facebook; a Facebook page is similar to a free yellow pages listing or a free phone line.
2. Make new connections among referring doctors and referring patients.
3. All 14 hospitals listed on the 2010-2011 U.S. News Honor Roll are using social media.
4. 78% of U.S News Best Hospital List are engaged on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Is this enough, or do you need more? Time to get on the social media train. It's left the station, and you better be onboard or get ready to jump on at the first available stop, if there is one. Otherwise, you'll be waiting for the Robert E. Lee, down by the levee.