In my new series I ask medical professionals and e-patients about how they use social media presented through practical examples and suggestions (so far: a rheumatologist, a diabetes blogger, a GP, a surgeon and a pediatrician answered my questions, each of them is proficient in using social media). Now please welcome Tamás Horváth, MD who runs an ENT practice in Budapest and whose story I’ve been using in my presentations as the doctor who established a great social media presence with strategy.
- What social media channels do you use in your work and for what purposes?
I tried many social media platforms till I have defined my strategy to use different channels for certain purposes. You can find the details in the picture I attached about what and how I use them. First, I started to write an otorhinolaryngology blog in Hungarian language based on patient educational blogposts, but a few months later I realised that 1. there are already too many patient educational websites with much better search engine ratings, 2. more and more colleagues started to read the blog. So, I decided to change the profile of the blog to a much more professional one targeting the doctors, and I started to write blogposts mainly based on fresh articles of peer reviewed ENT newspapers. I usually share these blogposts on our Facebook fanpage and on Twitter as well. I also use Twitter for microblogging those articles that are worth to write about only in a few words but not in a longer blogpost.
- What do your patients think about social media? Do they use it?
My patients are usually between the age of 20 and 50, and nearly all of them are using one or more social media platforms. They read blogs, they are on Facebook, some of them use Twitter, Foursquare, etc., and they share information by one click. This is one of the most important causes why I’m using social media.
- What social media sites do you think point towards the future of healthcare?
To tell the truth, I cannot mention any new social media site, that can really affect the healthcare in the future. I belive simple the crowded social media platforms, like Facebook have still the biggest potential. But for example, I can imagine an image-based patient education or healthcare marketing adopted to Pinterest or Instagram, just to mention new and trendy internet platforms/communities.
- What do you think about the curated Allergy and Social Media selection on Webicina.com? For what reasons did you use it?
The selection is very useful for those who want to follow the news, actualities and trends in diagnosing and treating allergic diseases. It’s also worth to visit it regularly if you want to hear private opinions of colleagues from this medical field. You don’t need to build up your own input channels if you know the selections of Webicina!
And here is an image representing the online strategy of his practice:
