Social media in healthcare marketing
by Jude Anderson
Today, I received a valuable piece of information to help create a comparison between the U.S. and the U.K. But, I'll come back to that. The United Kingdom's Department of Health oversees The National Health Service (NHS), which is a program that provides publicly-funded healthcare.
My hypothesis
Initially, I thought that NHS might change the landscape of healthcare marketing. Since I've been in London, I have not seen a single commercial or other advertisement for anything healthcare related. This got me to thinking, "is advertising for healthcare needed since everyone has healthcare available?"
My hypothesis
Initially, I thought that NHS might change the landscape of healthcare marketing. Since I've been in London, I have not seen a single commercial or other advertisement for anything healthcare related. This got me to thinking, "is advertising for healthcare needed since everyone has healthcare available?"
My researched hypothesis
After spending time with some great agencies, (We Are Social and Edelman, to name a few!) I received more insight from people who know quite a bit more than I do. According to Peter Fontana, Senior Analyst of We Are Social, NHS provides standard healthcare. Companies can also give its employees the option of purchasing additional benefits. Generally, this ensures a quicker turnover between scheduling and appointments. It also provides more options for services. Peter also said that the majority of social media would either be within the company or business-to-business. On my trip to Edelman, I found out that it is actually illegal for healthcare companies, such as drug companies, to market to the public. This is a large change from the U.S. as it's nearly impossible to go an hour watching TV without learning about the newest arthritis medicine.
What's left
With my remaining time on this project, I hope to go back to Edelman to interview an expert on social media in the healthcare industry. I also hope to research more about measuring the effectiveness of social media use in healthcare. The new information I have learned will greatly impact the comparative portion of this project because social media in healthcare can only be used in a business-to-business setting in the U.K. Stay tuned for more findings and my final presentation!
After spending time with some great agencies, (We Are Social and Edelman, to name a few!) I received more insight from people who know quite a bit more than I do. According to Peter Fontana, Senior Analyst of We Are Social, NHS provides standard healthcare. Companies can also give its employees the option of purchasing additional benefits. Generally, this ensures a quicker turnover between scheduling and appointments. It also provides more options for services. Peter also said that the majority of social media would either be within the company or business-to-business. On my trip to Edelman, I found out that it is actually illegal for healthcare companies, such as drug companies, to market to the public. This is a large change from the U.S. as it's nearly impossible to go an hour watching TV without learning about the newest arthritis medicine.
What's left
With my remaining time on this project, I hope to go back to Edelman to interview an expert on social media in the healthcare industry. I also hope to research more about measuring the effectiveness of social media use in healthcare. The new information I have learned will greatly impact the comparative portion of this project because social media in healthcare can only be used in a business-to-business setting in the U.K. Stay tuned for more findings and my final presentation!