Please see this post for the latest charts - Twitter is now the leading hospital Social Media site
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On Saturday, March 14, 2009, I took a snapshot of Hospital social media activity. Using links from the big list, I gathered the following data:
YouTube:
- Account creation date
- Number of Videos posted
- Number of YouTube Channel Views
- Number of Channel Subscribers
Twitter:
- Account creation date (first update)
- Number of Updates
- Number of Followers
Facebook:
- Number of Fans / Members
Here are some results. The original data is available as an Excel spreadsheet, please email me if you want a copy.
First, take a look at the adoption rate for YouTube and Twitter:
No surprises here, but it is interesting to see the rapid growth on Twitter. It took 26 months to reach 100 YouTube accounts, and 17 months to get the same number for Twitter. At this pace I expect crossover will happen in the next four to six weeks.
YouTube Statistics:
- There are 121 YouTube channels, with a total of 4,575 videos.
- The average number of videos per channel is 38, the median is 19
- The average number of subscribers is 28, the median is 11
- The average number of Channel Views is 1,736, the median is 629
Firsts and Mosts:
- First on board – The first Hospital Youtube channel was set up by the Arkansas Children’s Hospital on Sept. 13, 2006
- Number of Videos – Avera Health has 377 videos on it’s YouTube channel – more than anyone else.
- Number of Subscribers – M.D. Anderson Cancer Center leads with 575 subscribers
- Number of Channel Views – Cooper University Hospital leads with 24,383 views. This is interesting because the number was only 12,500 on Feb 2, 2009. Could it be Kelly Ripa?
Twitter Statistics:
- There are 103 Twitter accounts, with a total of 9,223 updates
- The average number of updates is 90, the median is 37
- The average number of followers is 294, the median 202
Firsts and Mosts:
- First on board – The first Twitter account was set up by St. Jude Children’s on October 23, 2007
- Most Followers – Henry Ford Health has the most with 1,489 followers
- Most Updates – Alegent Health leads with 1349 updates, almost three times more than the second most active account, @HenryFordNews
Facebook Stats:
Facebook doesn’t offer much for number crunching. You can’t even figure out when an account was created. The only stat I can track is the number of Fans or Members for a given account.
- There are 82 Facebook accounts, with the average membership of 821. The median is 163 – which tells you that a few accounts have some high numbers
- Most Fans / Members – Once again, St. Jude Children’s has the most with 33,252 fans
Want more? The original data is available as an Excel spreadsheet, please email me if you want a copy. Let me know if this is useful to you, and if there are any other statistics that we should follow.
While fun, these numbers don’t address the quality of the programs run by the 190+ hospitals tracked. And in Social Networking that counts for much more than sheer volume. However, monitoring the growth has some value, and I plan to capture these snapshots at regular intervals (possibly monthly). In six months to year, we should have enough data to see trends.
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This information is amazing. Thank you Ed.
W O W.
You did your homework here for sure. Bravo.
Thanks – I’m already starting to get updates and corrections, which is great. I want accurate data.
Updated the post after getting new information from Lee Aase of the Mayo Clinic. They were not the first hospital to launch a YouTube channel. Their account had been created by an outsider, and Mayo didn’t get control until late 2007.
Correct stat:
“The first Hospital Youtube channel was set up by the Arkansas Children’s Hospital on Sept. 13, 2006″
I agree with Phil… WOW!
Very impressive and very encouraging stats. It’s also interesting to see that YouTube has a more steady incline, while Twitter is going through a “growth spurt”.
Thanks for all your hard work on this, Ed.
Shwen
Wow. That probably took quite a bit of time to put together.
Great work!
With YouTube now the second most searched site globally (behind it’s Google parent), the reach and influence of quality content is significant. The available of (or lack there of) of video assets may explain the longer period of time to reach the 100 benchmark; versus Twitter’s trend.
Regarding celebrities — their presence can certainly cause an increase in video viewership, although this may be just from a fan base who is outside of a hospital’s service area. Celebrities have had an affect on awareness of a cause or procedure – Carnie Wilson and Al Roker impacted gastric bypass surgeries.
Ed – fantastic data. A real eye-opener. We all know YouTube is now a mainstay in hospital marketing (after all, Google even said 25% of their searches last year originated on YouTube). Twitter is going through a growth spurt – and is becoming more mainstream. I expect those numbers will converge even further through 2009.
Ed…thanks for letting us all hear the heartbeat as you check the pulse of hospital activity online. Very valuable industry intelligence. Thanks again. – Jim
Ed;
Thanks for making this information available. I will use it next week in a presentation to IT.
UNC Health Care (the med school and hospitals) joined Twitter in December; we now have more than 600 followers (unc_health_care). Our YouTube channel (/uncmedicine) is our primary “TV” outlet and our blog is popular with employees and the public.
But I wonder what’s around the corner.
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