How do hospitals measure their social media ROI? Are they simply tilting at windmills like Don Quixote? Too often, we find ourselves counting the number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers or the number of people who viewed You Tube videos, trying to justify engagement in social media.

However, the bigger question is whether hospitals can afford not to engage.

The post goes on to highlight 8 reasons why it’s no longer an option for hospitals to ignore social media in the marketing mix. We’ve summarized a few here:

• Improve customer service: When problems arise (i.e., a patient is unsatisfied with his or her hospital experience), hospitals can respond immediately and resolve the issue.
• Reach younger health care consumers: While most health care marketing dollars are spent on reaching the Baby Boomer segment, social media efforts can reach the 25-34 year old audience.
• Find blood donors: The article cites one hospital that has organized two blood drives via social media — using Twitter to promote and allowing sign-ups on Facebook.

Has your hospital integrated social media into its marketing mix? How did you convince hospital executives to move forward with the plan?

Want to keep track of the conversation around the FDA special hearings on internet and social media?

This #FDASM aggregator site from Ignite Health should do the trick.

The site was created to capture conversations and resources related to the Nov. 12-13 FDA public hearing on how FDA-regulated product manufacturers use the Internet and social media.

A mobile version of the site is also available.

Check out some of the most recent tweets on the site:

• From @rohal: Dermatologists, Med Oncologists are the Top Phys Spec Groups Communicating with Patients Online http://bit.ly/bHvqoL #hcsmeu #pharma #hcsm
• From @FulishaMobeen: RT ShareMyIdea: RT @MattJHavens: Still think social media is just a trend? http://is.gd/95Fwg – RT @purplehayz: #hcsm #FDASM #socpharm
• From @Ideagoras: Social Capital & Influence Part II: Interview with Valdis Krebs http://bit.ly/ajnQOI #socialmedia #hcsmeu #sm #smhw
• From @keepingyouwell: Attending #hcsm conference hosted by Publicity Club of Chicago on March 10 http://bit.ly/aSp1RB

But a recent blog post from SmartBlog on Social Media’s Merritt Colaizzi suggests there may be some hope on the horizon. Despite the added layer of complexity resulting from government regulation, several standout health care and pharmaceutical companies are helping to get the social media ball rolling, including:

• ZocDoc puts patients in touch with physicians, allowing them to book appointments online, as well as provide ratings.

• Hello Health allows patients to create a profile and add a doctor to their “team.” The patient and doctors are then connected via e-mail, IM or video chat.

• TIAA-CREF participates in teal-time discussions and offers advice about retirement on myretirement.org, Facebook and TC_Talks on Twitter (pictured below). It even has its own Apple iPhone app.

Tell us about your own standout story of social media marketing in health care.

Gone are the days when health care marketers were full-time professional storytellers — focused on how best to package stories and engaged in one-way conversations.

Today, storytelling is just a part of the job of health care marketers. With the rise of social media, health care marketers must be focused on facilitating conversations and sharing information.

In this video from a presentation by Dan Dunlop of Jennings — a North Carolina-based advertising and branding firm — the opportunities for social media in health care are highlighted. Dunlop works to clear up some of the fears or misconceptions that some health care marketers may have regarding social media in the presentation, “Demystifying Social Media & Making It Relevant to Healthcare.”

Clearly, 2009 was a year of new beginnings for the health care industry — particularly in regards to the acceptance of social media channels like Twitter. But as we move into 2010, will that acceptance shrink, remain stagnant or skyrocket?

We don’t have a health care Twitter crystal ball. But we do have an interview with Phil Baumann, registered nurse and author, by HCPLive. Baumann shared with HCPLive his predictions for the future of Twitter for health care marketing:

Since writing 140 Health Care Uses of Twitter, I’ve been very impressed with the spike in interest in using social technologies in health care. On Twitter alone, there’s a growing community of patients, doctors, nurses, healthcare marketers and others passionate about bringing about changes in health care. I was particularly impressed with the rise in Twitter chats to spur discussion, such as Health Care Social Media (#hcsm). …

I look forward to 2010. My prediction: 2010 is going to be a huge year in social media in general. We’ll start to get over the shiny-new-toy mentality and get into a more let’s-get-on-with-it approach. Healthcare will probably proceed much more cautiously than other industries, but I believe the continued and growing public discussions will help catalyze the revolution.

Additional points made by Baumann on the future of Twitter for health care marketing include:

• FDA’s November public hearing on social media — the first of its kind — demonstrates the dire need for more attention to social media in pharma and other related industries.
• Saleforce’s introduction of Chatter, a social networking tool to help businesses keep tabs on sales and customer service, shows the power of micro-sharing as a communication and collaboration medium.
• If additional major players — SAP, for example — enter this market, health care organizations are more likely to adopt micro-sharing.

What predictions do you have for widespread adoption of social media channels by the health care field?

For health care organizations first embarking on a social media strategy, there’s no definitive formula for what works and what doesn’t work. Perhaps the greatest tool health care organizations have for developing a social media strategy are others’ success stories.

The Significant Science blog recently interviewed John Sharp of Cleveland Clinic, which has successfully rolled out a social media strategy that includes blogging, microblogging and participation on other social networking sites.

Here’s what Sharp had to say about the stakeholders within healthcare organizations that should be involved in launching social media efforts:

Managing social media in health care organizations requires a broad assembling of stake holders who are of a common mindset. These should include: marketing, public relations, information technology, medical education, medical librarians and clinical staff including physicians and nurses. The mix should include early adopters as well as those relatively new to social media to provide a balance. Additional stakeholders to consider are: a patient representative, an attorney (at least as a consultant), and employee communications.

Additional takeaways from the interview include:

• The future is mobile. The marketing team at Cleveland Clinic is now working on optimizing wellness tools for the mobile web.
• Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 are two of the most important, useful conferences for health care marketers embarking on social media.
• Health care organizations should develop a social media policy for employees, paying particular attention to the security of individual social networking sites.

• 36% want to see what other consumers say about medication or treatment.
• 34% using social media
• 46% using health portals
• 67% using search engines

From How America Searches: Health & Wellness by iCrossing and Opinion Research Corporation

Here’s the full presentation:

Once you develop a Social Media Program for a Healthcare organization, it can be a challenge getting everyone on board.  Many decision makers are not familiar with using social channels and there are industry regulations to be aware of.   Showing that the target audience communication preferences, information discovery trends can help. Presenting competitive social media participation can also motivate action – at least testing.  Pilot programs can be very effective at demonstrating a proof of concept and business case for further investment in social web participation.

And with Twitter being one of the fastest growing social media tools of recent years, it’s a good place for hospitals to start.

For hospitals unsure of how to use Twitter to reach health consumers, SMUG (Social Media University, Global) blogger Lee Aase provides some examples of how hospitals have been using Twitter.

Aase’s list is not exhaustive of all hospital Twitter activity, of course. But it includes Tweets on surgical cases, medical presentations and training, medical research and more. Here is a sample of some of the Twitter activity referenced:

• The first hospitals to Tweet a live procedure in the emergency room was Henry Ford Health System (@HenryFordNews) and Bill Ferris (@Billfer).
• The Mayo Clinic (@mayoclinic) recently conducted a Twitter chat with @vmontori regarding an article on diabetes and blood-sugar control.
• Aurora Health Care (@Aurora_Health) Tweeted a knee operation – and received a good amount on media attention for it, as well.
• Angie Anania (@angieanania) of HealthOne Presbyterian/St. Luke’s in Denver Tweeted a recent surgical procedure and teamed with the area CBS affiliate to promote through media coverage.

It’s clear from these Tweets that some hospitals are beginning to truly understand the potential impact of reaching out to patients, patient family and other medical personnel via social media.

The pharmaceutical industry is slowly venturing into the world of social media. And like with any advance into uncharted territory, there are obstacles to overcome before the ultimate goal is reached.

The Shed blogger Daniel Siddle takes this all into consideration in a recent post discussing the merits of social media in the pharmaceutical industry and the ways in which it can benefit from interaction with customers.

The post initially mentions the obstacles the pharmaceutical industries faces in terms of marketing products:

Cost: Marketing pharmaceuticals is expensive, especially because it can’t be done until after the drug receives New Drug Approval (NDA).

Agency Regulations: Agencies like the Food Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMEA) implement rules on how pharmaceutical companies can interact with the public and how information passes between the two.

Intellectual Property Concerns: While a drug is being developed, the company developing it doesn’t want to say much about it because of the fear of losing a competitive edge.

Siddle suggests that social media has the potential to address two of these concerns for pharmaceutical marketers:

Cost:With social media, companies can reach out to consumers before achieving NDA without the large financial commitment involved with more traditional marketing. Research can be shared and consumers can provide creative input much earlier in the process.

Intellectual Property: Social media enables entire companies to take part in the marketing of a potential product, though time will have to answer the questions of keeping intellectual property and the privacy of employees safe.

Learn more about how social media can provide opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry by reading the full blog post.

But take a closer look, and you’ll notice that the pages don’t allow commenting or even the “like” Facebook feature.

In a recent AdWeek article, Brian Morrissey discusses the pharma marketing conundrum regarding social media. The article shares how one pharma company is using social media in a limited way:

It is a common feature of many pharma-related Web sites that the key social features, like commenting, are turned off. Nexium, a drug from AstraZeneca, has a Facebook page that won’t let visitors post to its wall, comment on its posts or share them. Yet the drugmaker does take a step towards social with a heavily monitored social area. All posts are moderated before they’re posted to the site. The restrictions make the page a mostly one-way communications channel with only a handful of posts from consumers, and several discussion topics without any consumer input at all.

The article also offers several reasons why pharma marketing hasn’t been able to fully leverage the power of social media:

• FDA rules governing pharma marketing and advertising are often murky.
• If a user reported an adverse reaction to a treatment on a company’s social media page, the company would have to report it to the FDA.
• Pharma companies can be held liable for people discussing off-label use of their products on their sites.
• Social media updates can sometimes need approval from a pharma company’s legal department, which adds costs and manpower.

Only time will tell how the adoption of social media by pharma marketers — and FDA regulations — will play out, although adoption may be sped if the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is able to get its proposal passed. PhRMA is proposing the creation of a universal logo to be placed on social media sites, indicating information that meets FDA guidelines for fair balance.

To learn more, read the full AdWeek article.