[subscribe2]
In Social media for health professionals Part 1 we identified three important ways health care professionals can and should make use of social media.
- Proactive customer service – information on healthy lifestyle choices, health care provision
- Reactive customer service – answering problems and responding to online criticisms in an open, transparent and timely manner
- Promotion – broadcasting positive experiences to contrast with the negative health service stories in mass media reports
Part 1 covered Proactive customer service.
Now let’s look at 2. in the list – Reactive customer service:
Answering problems
If you have any experience of social media at all you will know that it is all about the ‘conversation.’ The social of social media means that there is a meeting of publisher and reader. Readers of your blog, your tweets and listeners and viewers of your podcasts or YouTube clips are able , or should be able, to ask questions and comment directly alongside .
The two way communication in social media – the comments section of a blog, the reply and retweet function on Twitter and the wall of a Facebook Page – offers positive opportunities to interact, to answer patient/client queries in an open forum where others may benefit from the answers you give. For example –
- Patients hiding behind the anonymity of an online identity can ask questions they may feel uncomfortable asking a GP face to face.
- In searchable open forums readers can gain reassurance from the answers given to ailments that resemble their own
Responding to online criticisms
With the benefits of two way communication there are also risks – namely online criticism of the services and treatment supplied by health care professionals
In the past, in a pre-internet age complaints were sent by patients/clients directly to the relevant health authority, hospital, clinic or surgery or individual health care professional. The complaint was aired and dealt with in relative privacy between the person complaining and the entity to whom he or she had complained. Only in particularly serious or newsworthy cases was the reputation of a health service provider put in jeopardy of public censure and embarrassment.
In the pre-internet age any publicly made complaints by patients/clients were subject to the scrutiny of the law. It was in nobody’s interest to make unsubstantiated claims or accusations at risk of litigation.
Through social media it is far easier for the ‘injured’ parties to complain and criticise. The availability of online anonymity that enables some to bypass the embarrassment of an ailment and seek advice – a positive side to anonymity – is the same anonymity that enables
- otherwise discreet individuals to vent their spleen publicly on poor service or perceived poor service
- difficult or malicious patients/clients to make potentially libellous claims free from the jeopardy of litigation
Faced with these problems many health managers might think the risks of engaging in social media outweigh the benefits. They would be wrong. The fact is, whether or not you choose to take up Twitter, write a blog or set up a Facebook Page you may be the subject of pervasive fair and unfair criticism online. Not actively engaging with social media you will be absent to conversations and commentary about you. Unfair criticism will go unchallenged and a deafening silence in the face of fair criticism will also condemn you.
There are two ways to deal with the negative comments in social media. Respond truthfully and candidly either
- Admitting faults and outlining measures taken or to be taken to resolve them
Or
- Refuting fraudulent or malicious criticism by exposing the facts
Both kinds of response will demonstrate a willingness to face and answer criticism which will engender greater trust among stakeholders. They will also provide an opportunity to validate management systems that are in place and plan for their improvement.
A last resort – All things in moderation
At times there will criticisms and commentaries online that do not deserve the dignity of a reasoned response. By these I mean the racist, sexist, foul-mouthed and utterly libelous. If recourse to litigation is neither possible or economic there are several things health service professionals can do to mitigate against the nastiest online behaviour.
Moderating blogs
WordPress and Blogger – two of the most popular blogging platforms, provide the administrator (that’s you) with several ‘comment’ settings to choose from. On both platforms you can elect to moderate all comments before letting them be published. On WordPress you can also choose, as I have done, to allow automatic publication of comments by authors whose first comments have been approved
Moderating Facebook Page posts
To rid yourself of the abusive comments of Facebook page ‘likers’ find the person in your “People who like this” list, click the X and then click the checkbox to ban permanently. A banned person can still choose to like your page but they will be unable to post or comment on it.
Moderating Twitter
Faced with abusive tweets you can choose to block the offending tweeter from becoming your follower. Similarly you can unfollow unpleasant characters.
For a fuller discussion of managing the conversation on social media go here
In Social media for health professionals Part 3 coming soon we look at ways social media can be used to disseminate positive stories on the service you provide.
Remember! you can subscribe to our blog, choosing alerts on updates to only those categories that interest you here [subscribe2]
