Successful Twitter Strategy Helps Healthcare Brand Stand Out Among Peers
HealthImaging recently named UCSF’s Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging (UCSF Imaging) as one of the top academic radiology department Twitter accounts. Citing a study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, it reports that UCSF Imaging is one of three most active accounts and has the most followers, beating out radiology practices at Massachusetts General Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Since the time of the study (August – October 2014), UCSF Imaging’s Twitter base (@UCSFimaging) has grown even more. Currently the account has greater than 3,300 followers, compared with Mass General Imaging (@MGHImaging) at 2,103 and Cincy Kids Radiology (@CincyKidsRad) at 1,746, its two closest competitors.
The study – “Enriched Audience Engagement Through Twitter: Should More Academic Radiology Departments Seize the Opportunity?” – was published recently in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Its authors, Dr. Vinay Prabhu and Dr. Andrew Rosenkrantz, note that “Twitter provides ARDs the opportunity to engage their own staff members, the radiology community, the department’s hospital, and patients, through a broad array of content. ARDs frequently used Twitter for promotional and educational purposes.”
Specifically, the study found the kind of content published on Twitter by academic radiology departments to include radiology educational content, departmental research, awards and accomplishments, departmental/hospital promotional materials, information on lectures, patient advice and new hire and expansion announcements. According to the study, only 15 of 183 academic radiology departments had Twitter accounts and only 10 of those were active.
At the conclusion of the study, Dr. Prabhu and Dr. Rosenkrantz make the following recommendation: “More departments are encouraged to take advantage of this emerging communication tool to engage colleagues in radiology and other medical specialties, their patients, the media and the general public.”
An active and engaging Twitter stream is part of the content marketing strategy UCSF Imaging works with Media Logic to execute. Together we’ve grown UCSF Imaging’s Twitter presence in support of its business goals:
- thought leadership,
- brand awareness and
- engagement with both internal and external audiences.
And it’s not just specialists or providers who can benefit from a robust Twitter presence. For example, Twitter plays prominently in Anthem BCBS’ strategy for promoting telehealth as a top innovation.
Shortly, we’ll be sharing with you a break-down of the approach using supporting examples from the UCSF Imaging Twitter stream. Want to be among the first to receive it? Sign up for our healthcare newsletter.
