JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Many literature highlight the value-adding potential of social media in healthcare settings. To be sure that social media is yielding desired value, every aspect of its use ought to be measured.

Objective:

This study explores how healthcare providers measure social media value.

Methods:

This is an exploratory qualitative research. Australian healthcare providers that use social media, varying in size and locality, were contacted to participate in the study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results:

The analysis identified 5 themes regarding healthcare providers’ views and approach to social media measurement. The themes are: frequency of social media measurement, benchmark used for social media measurement, metric tracked in social media measurement, tools used in social media measurement and the challenge of effective social media measurement. When it comes to the frequency of social media measurement, the results vary among healthcare providers. Some measure their social media frequently, others measure theirs infrequently and a few never measure theirs. Those that measure their social media, use one or a combination of the following yardsticks – personal benchmarking, peer- benchmarking and metric benchmarking. The metrics they track include one or more of the following – reach, engagement, and conversion rates. The tools they use to measure their social media are either inbuilt or add-on analytics tools. Although many participants showed great interest in measuring their social media outcomes, there are outcomes they are keen to measure, but are currently unable to.

Conclusions:

The lack of a consistent approach to measurement suggests that unlike other industries, social media measurement in healthcare settings, is relatively immature. To help resolve the current challenge of effective social media measurement, there is a need to improve knowledge, sophistication, and integration of social media strategy through the application of theoretical and analytical knowledge. This study contributes interesting information to the existing body of knowledge. Healthcare providers can leverage relevant knowledge to create social media strategies that yield measurable results.