Online video most effective hospital marketing tool

What's the most effective social media platform for hospitals? One-third of hospital marketers say it's online video, according to a recent Acsys Interactive survey. Hospitals ranked the following social medium platforms as very effective: online videos (33.7 percent), Facebook (22.8 percent), Twitter (14.9 percent), podcasts (12.9 percent), Facebook ads (9.9 percent), and blogs (5.9 percent).

Hospitals also reported that within the next two years, their marketing efforts will shift dramatically from traditional methods of print, direct mail, and radio and move to online mediums. Currently, 9.9 percent of survey respondents said online is at the core of their marketing efforts. By 2013, 36.6 percent said online channels will be.

Researchers also found many hospitals lacked strategies for emerging challenges. The survey found that 10 percent of large hospitals (those with 401 or more beds) and 27 percent of small hospitals (fewer than 400 beds) do not have a dedicated full-time equivalent. As YouGov Healthcare Managing Director Jane Donohue said in an interview with FierceHealthcare, hospital social media requires the commitment of an FTE to be effective.

For more information:
- check out the multimedia report
- read the iHealthBeat article