Top 3 hospitals on social media

Hospital jargon isn't just about medicine anymore. Does your hospital tweet? Post to Facebook? Is it on Flickr, Instagram, LinkedIn or Tumblr? MHADegree.org recently examined the most popular social media networks to rank the 50 most socially engaged hospitals.

For all hospitals listed as "Nationally Ranked" by U.S. News and World Report, a score based on the number of followers and amount of activity on each platform was created. The highest possible score was 100, with 21 points for Facebook, 17 for Twitter, 18 for YouTube, 18 for LinkedIn, 12 for Google Plus, 8 for Pinterest, and 6 for Flickr.

The top three most social media friendly hospitals included:

  1. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., scoring a 96.1. The hospital boasts 446,278 likes on Facebook and even more Twitter followers--567,998.
  2. Cleveland Clinic, scoring a 93.5. It boasts close to 37,000 LinkedIn followers, and also uses Pinterest, which is unique for hospitals, with 2,700 followers.
  3. University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, scoring a 93.0. The hospital has big YouTube presence, with more than 2 million views of their channel.

In May, a study from the Journal of Communication in Healthcare on social media use among healthcare communications professionals revealed that YouTube is a preferred medium over LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, a surprising result.

As reported in February, the simultaneous maturation of patient-centered healthcare, social media and the Internet has created what researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School are calling a "perfect storm" in healthcare with regard to how patients and organizations connect.

To learn more:
- read the full rankings