Three Ways to Monitor Your Hospital’s Reputation Online

Let’s face it: good or bad, people are talking about your facility. It is the world of Web 2.0 that we all live in and because of social media; everyone has an opinion and voice.

Let’s face it: good or bad, people are talking about your facility. It is the world of Web 2.0 that we all live in and because of social media; everyone has an opinion and voice.

Fortunately, there are some free tools out there that can help monitor what people are saying and at least provide you with an opportunity to defend yourself and your facility, especially when negative comments are written.

• Google Alerts – Google alerts are pretty easy, even for non-tech savvy people. Using keywords and phrases associated with your facility and brand, Google will send email alerts to your inbox when words or phrases you are following are mentioned on the web. You can schedule the alerts to come as Google finds (or Spiders them) or get a daily or weekly updates.
• Social Mention – In real-time, Social Mention provides users with a tool to easily track and measure what people are saying about your facility across the social web. It monitors not only popular social networks but also over 100 other social sites. Social Mention will also track what your competitors are saying and provide you with the current, overall sentiment of your brand in real-time.

• Technorati – Technorati is a great tool to monitor what millions of blogs are posting about your facility or brand. This tool not only helps you reply to comments, but also helps in finding brand ambassadors that can assist in promoting your facility in a positive way.

These are just a few simple tools that can assist in not only getting new patients but also in preventing potential PR nightmares.