Social media ROI: How 3 hospitals master the metrics

It’s the $64,000 question for a hospital communicator engaging in social media:

How do you measure ROI?

It’s a tough question, but we’re not going to gloss over it with feel-good anecdotes. (“We hear our patients like our blog!” or, “I know in my gut this video about getting a flu shot is helpful!”)

Instead, we’re going to get right down to the dollars and cents of how you can prove that your efforts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are bringing in “patient volume” (money) to your hospital.

Let’s face it: If you can prove health care social media ROI, you’re proving your worth. This helps justify your position to your executive staff, and it could bring more resources to your department. If you’re not measuring, your career as a health care communicator involved in social media could be in jeopardy.

Again, the question is how?

We talked to several health care communicators and found out there are viable ways to measure what your hospital is doing, whether you’re focusing on Twitter, Facebook or specific social media campaigns to see if patients are coming to your hospital. You can look at data through your hospital’s integrated system, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system or create your own Excel spreadsheet.