twitter

The Top Ten Hospitals on Twitter

by Ed Bennett on March 17, 2009

in Hospitals,twitter

Hospital – Twitter Account – (Twitter Score)*

Doctor at Henry Ford Health

Doctor at Henry Ford Health

1. Henry Ford Health – @HenryFordNews – (1,984)

2. Alegent Health – @AlegentHealth – (1,752)

3. Children’s National Med. Center – @childrenshealth – (1,337)

4. St. Jude Children’s – @StJude – (1,292)

5. Mayo Clinic - @mayoclinic – (1,245)

6. Scripps Health – @ScrippsHealth – (1,079)

7. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center – @MDAndersonNews – (996)

8. Detroit Medical Center – @DMCheals (957)

9. Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley - @SutterEdenMed – (948)

10. U. of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics - @uwhealth – (897)

*the scoring is simple: # of Updates + # of Followers = Twitter Score. Data was captured on March 14, 2009, and is certainly out of date by now. Get full data on 193 hospitals here

I put this list together for fun, and hope no one takes it seriously. Everyone who reads this blog understands that in all Social Media, including  Twitter, quality is more important than quantity.

I look forward to your comments :)

{ 19 comments }

Hospital Social Media Stats

by Ed Bennett on March 15, 2009

in Hospitals,social networks,Web Stats

Update – April 8, 2009

Please see this post for the latest charts - Twitter is now the leading hospital Social Media site

______________________

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:

Hospital Social Media Adoption

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:

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:

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.

{ 18 comments }

HSNL Update #5 Feb 22, 2009

by Ed Bennett on February 22, 2009

in Hospitals,social networks

More updates to the Hospital Social Networking List – 22 new sites

[More after the jump...]

{ 0 comments }

HSNL Update #4 Feb 17, 2009

by Ed Bennett on February 16, 2009

in Hospitals,social networks

Special mid-week update, the list keeps growing.

Many new updates have come in over the past two days, including 6 Twitter accounts, 2 new YouTube accounts, 2 Facebook pages and 1 new blog.

[More after the jump...]

{ 1 comment }

HSNL Update #3 Feb. 15, 2009

by Ed Bennett on February 9, 2009

in Hospitals,social networks

This weeks updates to the Hospital Social Network List:

As of February 15, 2009, the list has 166 Hospitals – 73 on Facebook, 110 on YouTube, 65 on Twitter and 14 with Blogs.

New this week:

[More after the jump...]

{ 0 comments }

Why is my hospital not on your list?

by Ed Bennett on January 23, 2009

in social networks

Update Feb 26, 2009 – I’ve thought about this over the past few days, and what I said in this post makes no sense. Obviously, I was  wrong – if  Paul Levy isn’t an official spokesman for BIDMC then no one is.

Paul – I apologize for not thinking clearly on this.  Your blog is on the list, it should have been there from the beginning.

(Update Jan 25, 2009 – BIDMC has a new Twitter account)

Earlier today, John from Chilmark Research posted a question about the Hospital Social Network List:

“Curious though in how you define a hospital’s presence. For example, BIDMC here in Boston is not listed on Twitter, yet CEO Paul Levy and CIO John Halamka both have Twitter accts, As spokespersons for this hospital, would they not then be consider using Twitter as an institution”

It’s a good question, and the Levy / Halamka twitter accounts are the strongest challenge to my primary listing rule:

The account must be the “Official” presence of the Hospital on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.

A personal account, no matter how prestigious, is not the same as the institution standing up and getting involved in social networking. I created this list for a very small, specific audience – the people who run hospital web sites. These folks are working hard to get their organizations engaged with the web in a way that goes beyond traditional marketing.  This list is ammunition for them to show this is not something new, that over 150 hospitals use these tools.

I admire the blogs and twitter updates of Paul Levy and John Halamka, they are truly leaders in this space, but it’s not the same as an official  BIDMC presence.

On the other hand, I think a well-defined restricted list has value, and will complement lists that are more open. (Like the one from Dawson Costelloe)

As always, your comments are welcome.

{ 3 comments }

Health care, Social Networks and the Radio Call-in show

January 18, 2009

A few days ago, Phil Baumann posted “140 Health Care Uses for Twitter”, a long list of thought-provoking ideas for this tool. The list is great, but he also takes on the usual resistance to these services: “It’s the 21st Century: let’s be imaginative, determined and innovative. Let’s be remarkable…In the health care industry there [...]

Read the full article →

Hospitals that use Social Networks

January 6, 2009

I’ve added a page to this blog that lists U.S. Hospitals that have accounts on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. The main list is at ebennett.org/hsnl/ and an FAQ about the list can be found at ebennett.org/hsnl/hsnl-faq/ I welcome your comments and feedback.

Read the full article →