That headline might seem like a classic study in contrasts, if not hypocrisy. After all, many hospital marketing consultants—including us—advocate hospitals to not firewall or otherwise restrict hospital employees’ access to social media.

Tommy Pischedda: Not a good person to emulate when predicting the longevity this social media “fad.”

However, we certainly don’t want to advocate unchecked or irresponsible social media usage—especially in environments such as hospitals where mistakes or accidents due to inattentiveness can be the between life and death. It is precisely that kind of risk (among others, such as perceived risks of privacy) that has forced some hospitals to take an extreme all-or-nothing approach to social media. Increasingly, the result is a “nothing” decision that has the obvious results.

Of course, one of the problems with any type of extreme thinking is that by default, it eliminates the potential for discovering new ideas—and an outright ban of social media certainly does that. (We’ll examine this subject in more detail in our July newsletter feature story).

Make Social Media an HR Issue

Rather than trying to predict the problems social media might cause (at the peril of the advantages it can deliver), leave the determination of what is an acceptable or appropriate usage of social media to your human resources department and managers.

More specifically, instead of attempting to cast a one-size-fits-all social media governance policy across your organization (which most often results in universal restrictions), let your employees have access to social media…but let it be one of the first factors that are assessed if there are any indications that they are slacking off or otherwise not fulfilling their obligations and responsibilities.

Sure, that means you have to trust your employees to use their time wisely…but don’t you already, especially at a hospital?

That trust extends to what they might say in a social media setting. A popular fear is that hospital employees might use social media to criticize the hospital. Well, if that’s the situation they (or your hospital) are in, you’ve got much bigger problems than their access to social media…which, by the way, is just as available outside of the hospital as it is inside.

Remember: Your employees are adults…treat them as such. If you prohibit social media in the workplace, they’ll find a way to access it, either by circumventing your firewalls, using mobile devices (often while away from their desks on “bathroom breaks” or “visits to other departments”).

But again, should you encounter any of these conflicts or problems, let HR resolve them. Don’t deprive the rest of your employees or your hospital of the tremendous advantages and benefits that social media provides.

Don’t be a Tommy Pischedda

Who is Tommy Pischedda? He is Bruno Kirby’s limo driver character in the film This is Spinal Tap. Cynical of modern rock stars that don’t share his admiration of old-school crooners like Frank Sinatra, Pischedda proclaims that “rock music is a passing thing…it’s a fad,” highlighting the humorous pretense that it’s Pischedda that is out of touch with what is now and is going to be the future.

Social media, like rock music, is not a fad. It’s not a “passing thing.” It’s here and is only going to become more ubiquitous—much like the telephone in past decades or e-mail in past years. Considering that a mobile “phone” is not just a telephone, but also a device that does e-mail and social media, it’s even more hard evidence that these modes of communication are becoming more a part of our everyday (and every moment) lives.

So go ahead…get behind social media at your hospital. The reasons are many and are scattered throughout the rest of our blogs.

But also go ahead and take more appropriate measures toward those that abuse social media at work. Nobody wants a nurse or a doctor or a security person or anybody that is supposed to ensure the health and safety of our loved ones to be distracted with writing a Facebook comment or reading Twitter, regardless if it’s for personal or professional reasons.

But don’t think that restricting their access will prevent that…nor will it ever give you the opportunity to realize the amazing value that an all-hands-on-deck social media culture can add to your hospital.

AVID Design offers hospitals experienced social media strategy and content creation—including blog writing and social media content.

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Last month, the headlines about the latest large-scale Twitter account hacking was exactly the kind of news that frightens many—especially skittish hospital executives and stakeholders—from engaging with social media for their hospital or healthcare system.

How well do you manage the keys—passwords—to your hospitals’ online security, such as with your social media accounts?

After all, if one person can’t protect his or her personal accounts, how can a hospital be expected to have multiple social media users and accounts without exponentially increasing their risk for being hacked?

Use Multiple, Secure Passwords

The most common mistake people make with passwords—especially when they are sharing those passwords—is that they want them easy to share and remember. For instance, they do things like create passwords that are just the hospital’s name—or they try to get crafty by adding “123” to that name. Worse, they’ll use that password for multiple accounts.

Remember, the easier a password is to remember or share, the easier it is to hack. That is why you want a password that is not only challenging to remember, but a password that doesn’t even resemble a word.

It’s very easy to make a secure password that will deflect hackers: Just Google “password generator” and you’ll discover dozens of Websites that will automatically generate random, unique and secure passwords for you.

Aim for passwords that use combinations of letters and numbers, especially since most social media passwords don’t recognize non-alphanumeric characters.

Change Passwords Regularly

The longer you use a password, the more likely is can be hacked.

Don’t wait for your password to get stale; update it as frequently as you need to be comfortable. Just make sure that everybody that uses the password is aware of your schedule!

Know Who Has the Passwords

There are countless reasons for why this is important, starting with knowing whom to advise if you regularly change—or have the occasion to abruptly change—your password.

Likewise, if an authorized user should happen to stop working at your hospital—or for any other reason why they are no longer authorized the account—you’ll not only need to change your password, but also need to know whom to update.

Educate Your Administrators

Finally, for dispersed authorship accounts such as a WordPress blog or CMS that enables multiple authors with their own login information, remember that like a chain, your security is only as strong as its weakest link.

That means your security is largely based on the strength of your weakest password. Therefore, it’s critical that you educate you administrators about the value of using smart and secure password management tactics.

Have you ever been hacked? What is for a personal or professional account? How do you manage your hospitals’ logins and passwords?

AVID Design offers integrated social media consulting and strategy for hospital and healthcare systems.

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If your hospital has or is developing a Facebook page for its general facility, what should it do for related facilities and centers (e.g., cancer centers, women and children’s centers)? Is it better to have just one page or several?

Have as many hospital Facebook pages as you want, but be sure that you have the resources to support them.

The answer is simple: Have as many Facebook pages as you want, but be sure that you have the resources to support them.

Think of each of your hospital’s centers as their own independent brands—with their own independent audiences. That means having to create a community and provide content that supports and satisfies each of those audiences. After all, a pregnant mother is probably not any more interested in finding cancer support groups than a cancer patient has in Lamaze tips.

So, although multiple pages might be ideal, it’s not a one size fits all solution. Thus, it’s very important to carefully assess how much time you’ll have to dedicate to each Facebook page. If you can only fully support one general page, then perhaps having multiple barely supported (or worse, completely ignored) pages may not be your best course of action.

What About Twitter and Other Social Media?

Integrating various social media channels that ultimately funnel Web traffic towards a hub—your hospital’s Website—should always be your primary goal with any type of healthcare marketing.

As you are considering your ability to maintain multiple hospital Facebook pages, also think about your ability to develop and support related social media—such as Twitter, a blog, etc. Again, if you can only truly support one center, then choose that center wisely and do your best with it.

In time, not only will you fully realize the benefits of having developed such an integrated social media strategy for your hospital, but you’ll also likely create efficient processes that may help you eventually launch and support similar strategies for other centers.

What is your experience with using Facebook for marketing your hospital and connecting it to your community? Do you use multiple pages or do you keep everything under one general, umbrella site?

AVID Design specializes in hospital Website design, integrated social media strategies for hospitals and more.

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