{"id":82578,"date":"2013-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/social-media-hospital-3-0-insights\/"},"modified":"2013-05-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T22:00:00","slug":"social-media-hospital-3-0-insights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/social-media-hospital-3-0-insights\/","title":{"rendered":"5 insights into how social media work for Hospital 3.0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was originally published in Dutch in 2013 and has been translated and updated in October 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

Human 3.0 is no longer simply a ‘patient’; he has become a ‘healthcare consumer’, ever since regulated market competition was introduced in Dutch healthcare on 1 January 2006. At the time this article was written, 88% of healthcare consumers said they wanted to choose their own care provider whenever emergency care wasn’t involved. Think of planned care (such as knee or hernia surgery), chronic care and elective care (such as sterilisation or laser eye surgery). For 60% of healthcare consumers, the GP remained an important adviser in that choice, while 33% said they made the decision entirely on their own.<\/p>\n

Choices<\/h2>\n

People who have to make a choice go looking for information and talk to others. In the internet era, search engines and social networks are the logical starting points for gathering information and asking questions. The modern healthcare consumer also expects easy, accessible communication through social media before, during and after the care he receives from a provider.<\/p>\n

The healthcare consumer’s new communication needs<\/h2>\n

We always assume that a ‘brand’ listens to its customers and meets their needs. That doesn’t happen by itself. Hospitals, too, will have to see themselves as brands and meet the right needs: in terms of medical expertise, but also in terms of communication. In the two years before this article was written, more and more hospitals became aware of this, and hospitals’ presence on social media grew considerably. But are they achieving the results they want?<\/p>\n

In two blog posts I want to explain two kinds of communication for which online and social media can be used: as a way to create feeling and engagement with a hospital, and as a one-to-one communication channel between consumer and hospital. I’ll start with the first, because online and social media are the ideal tools for branding through storytelling and audio and visual effects. By communicating transparently, showing who your staff are, what happens in your hospital and sharing patients’ stories, you can make your ‘hospital brand’ radiate warmth and hospitality while building authority and trust at the same time.<\/p>\n

Branding: 5 big challenges on social media<\/h2>\n

This changing environment demands a different mindset from hospitals. It calls for a new way of communicating to stand out from competing care providers. To attract, connect with and retain healthcare consumers, hospitals face 5 big challenges as they move to a new communication strategy.<\/p>\n

1. The hospital as a ‘human brand’<\/h2>\n

Which clearly recognisable core values and core promises does the hospital deliver? On what basis does the healthcare consumer choose a hospital? What are the hospital’s vision and mission according to its website? The challenge is ‘say what you do and do what you say’. ‘Personal’, ‘close by’, ‘connecting’ and ‘caring’ shouldn’t just be words on the website; they should come back in every contact with hospital staff. That includes social media, because that’s where the orientation phase of the decision process begins. Storytelling by staff, stories and taking part in specialist discussion forums show who you are as a hospital: they reveal your feelings, emotion, commitment and your expertise.<\/p>\n

The Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital showed that its staff understand its visitors. Not by saying so itself, but by letting a staff member tell how she welcomes visitors. That gives the hospital a face.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ‘human brand’ isn’t only interesting for healthcare consumers, but also for other stakeholders such as GPs and other specialists. Just think of the important advisory role the GP plays in the healthcare consumer’s decision-making. A visible hospital brand is also valuable from an HR perspective: medical professionals would rather work for a ‘human brand’ than for an ‘ordinary’ hospital.<\/p>\n

2. The hospital as source of information and adviser<\/span><\/h2>\n

The ins and outs of a hospital matter to people who need care or know someone who does. Through online and
\nmobile media, hospitals can inform and advise potential healthcare consumers with interactive content such as animations, videos or website articles. Good online information is a big advantage, because it:
\n\u2022 Is shareable.
\n\u2022 Ranks high in Google search results.
\n\u2022 Reaches more people through social media.<\/p>\n

At the time, the Isala clinics launched the website Uitdokteren.com to introduce children aged 5 to 12 to the hospital through little tasks in an interactive animated game. That makes a hospital visit a lot less scary.<\/em><\/p>\n

3. The hospital that can attract and retain consumers<\/span><\/h2>\n

Hospital 3.0 wants to build a relationship with its healthcare consumers based on relevant content and online media. The right information has to reach the right person through the right channels.<\/p>\n

UMC St Radboud shared information about new developments, such as treatment options, via Twitter and linked to its website. In the tweet, the hospital could also have chosen to use a hashtag for the condition, so that healthcare consumers searching for it could easily find conversations about that condition. Social media are also easy, accessible channels for healthcare consumers to put a question to a hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Rode Kruis Ziekenhuis in Beverwijk posted the recording of its pulmonologists’ TEDx talk on COPD, lung cancer and smoking as one of the biggest causes, on its social media channels such as Facebook and YouTube. That builds authority among stakeholders in the medical world, from GPs and healthcare consumers to other specialists.<\/p>\n

4. The hospital that can activate<\/h2>\n

It builds trust and feels personal when healthcare consumers want to share their experiences, answer other healthcare consumers’ questions and leave reviews and ratings.<\/p>\n

A young patient and her mother talk about her treatment in a video<\/a> on the website of Boston Children’s Hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n

From a co-creation perspective, healthcare consumers can tell you a great deal about their wishes regarding care, location and facilities. Hospitals that involve healthcare consumers are seen as personal, and the information they gain is often invaluable.<\/p>\n

As a hospital, you can look at how your own social media and website make room for recommendations, reviews and storytelling. On your website you can invite patients to tell their stories, so others get a picture of what to expect from a treatment (or simply find out what your hospital has to offer).<\/p>\n

Comparison sites such as Independer.nl and ZorgkaartNederland.nl are positive for several reasons. People influence people, so when one person sees that another is positive about a hospital, trust goes up. For hospitals, reviews on such a site are valuable input because they give you a picture of your service. And if a disappointing review turns up, that’s not a problem, as long as you listen: is it a relevant complaint? Then you get the chance to put things right, or at least show understanding to the person involved, and you can improve your service in that area.<\/p>\n

Amphia hospital encouraged visitors to its website to leave a review on Zorgkaart Nederland, and the hospital responded to the reviews on the comparison site.<\/em><\/p>\n

Online partnerships and\/or LinkedIn groups with patient associations also offer opportunities to keep a constant eye on the quality of the service. The 3.0 in Hospital 3.0 means that co-creation with healthcare consumers and conversations between healthcare consumers add depth to the service: the healthcare consumer takes part in shaping the medical service, says what she needs and helps fellow healthcare consumers with stories from her own experience.<\/p>\n

There are special forums and discussion groups where patients gather and where specialists could join in with advice and guidance, but above all to listen: what does a treatment do to patients? What’s on their minds? Where are their pain, fear and uncertainty? That way, specialists can better put themselves in the patient’s shoes and use that to make the treatment more pleasant or more effective.<\/p>\n

An example of an interactive ‘3.0’ forum where MS patients share their experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

5. The hospital that converts<\/h2>\n

The free market means hospitals have to think more commercially. Revenue is now needed to keep the service going. Existing healthcare consumers and GPs are an important target group here, and you don’t want to lose sight of them. By continuing to inspire them with knowledge, tips and advice, we achieve ‘thought leadership’. The hospital comes to be seen as an authority. And authority is a good basis for repeat visits, new referrals or a strong negotiating position with insurers.<\/p>\n

At the time, Amphia regularly announced a Twitter consultation hour on a particular theme via its website and social media channels. Using the hashtag #DrAmphia you could ask questions. That way the person asking helped not only themselves but also others with the same question. Amphia’s website made clear that such a Twitter consultation hour didn’t replace a visit to a doctor: only general questions could be asked, and people were urged to make an appointment if in any doubt.<\/em><\/p>\n

How do you become a Hospital 3.0?<\/h2>\n

Winning a place in the heart of healthcare consumer 3.0 starts with (online) listening. Listen to what’s being said about the hospital, the sector or specialisms, and respond where needed. Think of how much you can learn from it: customer stories, complaints, positive reviews and so on can give you insights into conditions, how to improve your service or what your strengths are.<\/p>\n

By listening, you find out whether the values in your vision and mission, such as hospitality and efficient care, are actually experienced that way by the people receiving the care. With ‘Hospital 3.0’, hospitals have a tool to communicate transparently, build trust and stand out from other care providers. To brand your ‘human brand’, translate your core values into visual and interactive communication and create a fitting content plan for ‘thought leadership’. The starting point, of course, is that everything you say is authentic and delivered on the hospital floor.<\/p>\n

What do you expect from Hospital 3.0?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published in Dutch in 2013 and has been translated and updated in October 2026. Human 3.0 is no longer simply a ‘patient’; he has become a ‘healthcare consumer’, ever since regulated market competition was introduced in Dutch healthcare on 1 January 2006. At the time this article was written, 88% of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":63493,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2872],"tags":[],"article-type":[],"trends":[],"class_list":["post-82578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82578"},{"taxonomy":"article-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-type?post=82578"},{"taxonomy":"trends","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trends?post=82578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}