JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Apart from human population, it’s a fact that there is existence of social media population as well. So, no organization can afford to ignore social media. In fact, social media communication strategy has become an integral part of each organization’s integrated marketing communication plan. In the universe of social media, Facebook is one of the most important social media platforms and Facebook page is an organization’s social media asset today. Through Facebook page, organizations communicate, connect and engage their targeted social media audience. Healthcare organizations and especially hospitals have been laggards in serious utilization of social medium like Facebook. Gradually, hospitals have increased their posting activity on Facebook but it is interesting to understand nature of posting activity, their content strategy and audience engagement outcomes with respect to private hospitals.

Objective:

This study aimed at understanding use of Facebook for healthcare communication by private multispecialty hospitals and its primary focus was on content strategy, call-to-action (CTA) and engagement.

Methods:

Descriptive content analysis was conducted on 3,138 Facebook posts published on official Facebook pages of ten private multispecialty hospitals in Ahmedabad city in Gujarat state, India. The study period was one year, from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024. As a unit of analysis, each Facebook post was thoroughly studied for its content and engagement outcomes. Posts were manually coded for post type, post theme, Call-To-Action (CTA) presence and CTA type. Engagement outcomes were calculated based on aggregate count of likes, comments and shares. Total engagement and standardized engagement rate per 10,000 followers were calculated for comparative statistics among hospitals.

Results:

Hospitals’ posting activity indicated that image posts were used more than video posts with respect to type of Facebook posts. Seven broad themes were identified from content analysis of the posts. However, majority of Facebook communication by hospitals was concentrated on Educative or awareness theme. Around half of all posts had at least one CTA. Among CTAs, keeping a toll-free number in a post was first preference followed by links and QR codes. Skewed engagement outcomes were observed. A large gap between mean total engagement (346.73) and median total engagement (15) indicated that only a few posts achieved high engagement. Median engagement rate per 10,000 followers was 1. Mean engagement and median engagement were the highest in commercial-theme posts and achievement-theme posts respectively.

Conclusions:

For healthcare communication, private hospitals used Facebook page with varied posting intensity. Audience engagement outcomes were less affected by number of followers or bed capacity only. Engagement outcomes could be improved by deliberated and systematic content theme, posting intensity and response mechanism.