As I see it we are too worried about numbers. Don’t get me wrong numbers are important (and I will talk more about that in a minute), but being accessible is priority one.
Too many organizations want the most followers, friends, fans, etc… and are not focused on monitoring and content creation. The most important reason to be involved in social media is to connect with consumers of your brand.
In a poll on Twitter I asked:
“What is the best use of Social Media in Hospitals?”
Here are the results (vote now):
I think it is interesting to see that the bulk of users of this media want to see hospitals “join the conversation/create a community”. Not “sell us your services.”
Most Hospitals who use social media do a good job of automating news. We have done this for years with press releases and the fax button that sent our “news” to all relevant sources. The difference now is that the sources have changed, just as content creation has changed.
So numbers are important but the numbers I would encourage you to look at and measure are around interaction and use of content. Also use tools like Google Alerts, Google Insights, Facebook Insights, and Twitter search to figure out where the conversations are in your target areas and start listening/engaging/creating content for those audiences.
Thoughts?
– Reed
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