New social media platforms spring up every day, and allow the world to learn even more about your company from Web sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and blogs, etc. In the healthcare industry, it’s become vital to have a strong social media strategy in place to ensure that your brand is well protected and that material presented on your behalf is consistent. In addition, messages should be in line with your mission, vision and strategy.
This sometimes proves challenging for healthcare organizations and the vendors that serve them. The goal is not to create such a controlled environment that employees feel constrained or that they cannot express themselves. Rather, you want to give employees the freedom necessary to put a friendly human face on the corporation – a particularly important consideration in the healthcare industry.
This article from PRSA offers tips to keep in mind when implementing a new social media policy to help your organization retain its professional and image, while still allowing employees to exercise creativity. Strategies include:
- Understand the culture, then develop a policy
- Define who can initiate media on behalf of the organization
- Focus on putting out material that brings value to readers and the healthcare industry as a whole
- Define what’s personal and what’s professional
- Generate new content consistently to keep people engaged
