Plan ahead, respond quickly to negative comments and use a social media management system like Hootsuite to keep track of the traffic and reaction that individual online posts receive.
Those are some of the best practices developed by Cara Lovan, senior social media specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital, a two-campus institution — a third location is under construction — with a women’s pavilion, five urgent care centers and a pediatric medical group in the Houston area.
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It’s Lovan’s job to run Texas Children’s Hospital’s 13 social media channels, which include six different Facebook pages, two Twitter accounts, plus YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. She gets about 2,000 views per post, with items on the main campus Facebook page getting the most readers. Pinterest currently gets the least traffic, but Lovan said that’s because it’s the newest outlet, and she expects its numbers to rise.
The busiest traffic times are mid mornings and late afternoons.
The Hootsuite dashboard helps keep her organized, and its analytics functions help her drill down to see who is engaging with each post, when they’re engaging and whether reaction to a post is mostly positive or negative. If a post gets little response, she may try giving a topic another shot at a different time and compare whether it made a difference.
The analytics help to tailor a message about a topic that some may create some controversy such as vaccines.
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“Some will love it, some will be upset,” Lovan said. “It may change how we present it, but we won’t drop the topic.”
Unique content can be developed for specific channels, such as the #ShareYourMoment campaign, which involves mothers sharing memories and pictures of their first moment with their newborn babies. The patient-generated content is posted on Instagram and the Children’s Pavilion for Women Facebook page, but not before Lovan has the mothers sign consent forms for themselves and their babies. She also discusses where and when the item will appear, so no one is surprised when the content is posted.
The social media department responds to negative comments within 2-3 hours unless they are generated by an unhappy late-night visitor to the emergency department or urgent care center. The initial encounter usually involves a “Sorry-about-your-negative-experience” apology and providing the number to the Family Advocacy Department, whose staff is forewarned that they may be receiving a call.
A few times, an angry visitor has posted a comment complaining about the long wait they’re enduring in the emergency department and. Much to their surprise, Lovan arranged to have a family advocate meet the person in the ED, which helped change their point of view.
Complaints and negative reviews are tracked to see if they are random or if there is a pattern developing. The parents who recently posted a negative review generated from a pediatric office visit received a phone call from the location’s practice manager, Lovan said.