4 Tools for Hospitals to Measure Local Social Media Engagement

How do hospitals measure the success of their social media programs? Moreover, how can hospitals effectively measure the impact that their social media program has on their local community.

For hospitals, proximity is key. After all, 49 percent of patients rank proximity as the top factor in choosing a hospital. You might launch a dynamic campaign about being a ‘world-class’ or ‘nationally-recognized’ name in healthcare, but if your hospital is lackluster in the eyes of your local community, you’re overlooking potential patients in your own backyard.

The other week I posted social media statistics from local hospitals in Central Indiana. This information below is my follow-up to help healthcare marketers (and those working in social media for hospitals) to better analyze and tweak their programs.

You need to engage with your local community online. Here are some tools to help you do so more effectively… Map My Followers – Geographic data of your Twitter followers.

• Purpose: Shows you the location and geographic concentration of the users following you.
• Specific To: Your Twitter followers.
• Cost: Free
• Ask Yourself: Is there a visible concentration of Twitter followers in my region? If not, what can I do to target a more local audience (hashtags, mentions of local events, etc)?

Peer Index – A tool that measures your Twitter and Facebook audience, activity and authority, as well as pinpoints the topics you are most dominant in.

• Purpose: To measure your influence, dissect information and compare yourself to competitors.
• Specific To: Your Twitter and Facebook followers.
• Cost: 14-Day Free Trial, Monthly Cost Thereafter
• Ask Yourself: Am I dominating keywords/topics relevant to my region

Page Lever – A tool that provides a more detailed interpretation of your Facebook page insights.

• Purpose: Considered ‘Facebook Insights on Steroids,’ this tool provides more elaborate info to help you dime down on the trends of your Facebook followers.
• Specific To: Your Facebook followers.
• Cost: Free
• Ask Yourself: What content resonates most with your audience based on your engagement and engagement rate? What trends do you notice among fans in your geographic region, and how can you leverage that to increase your relevance to your local audience?

Google Analytics – Tracks and interprets all website statistics in relation to your site traffic.

• Purpose: Gives you web analytics with powerful insights on your website traffic to assess your marketing effectiveness.
• Specific To: Your website traffic.
• Cost: Free
• Ask Yourself: Am I getting organic site traffic through keywords relative to my location (i.e. Downtown Indianapolis Hospital)? Where are my visitors coming from? Do they have geographic proximity to my hospital? Do I appear to be engaging my local community? What actions and behaviors do I see trending among my local audience (i.e. If regional people are interested in assessments, can I make that action more prominent online?).