I’d love to open up a conversation about how you all take a modern approach to your social media. In the past five years, we have seen businesses moving away from formal tones and stuffy announcements on social media; instead, B2C social media accounts are centered around participating in trends, talking to audiences like a friend, and being overall less formal. Think Duo Lingo, Nike, Scrub Daddy, Wendy’s, etc. Healthcare is uniquely positioned due to the need to maintain a level of professionalism to convey regulated information. So, I’d love to know: how does your organization act on social media?
Have you hopped on a trend? Do you find your tone changing on social media versus patient facing information distributed by your organization?
I work at UAB in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. We are an academic medical center that is the largest in the state. We are unique in touching three areas: research, patient care, and education. A lot of our social audience is a younger demographic under 40. They follow trends, want community, and look to us for workplace news.
What we are doing:
- Promoting our work culture in a less formal way. This could be anything from grabbing casual pictures at an event to using emojis.
- Participating in relevant trends. There was a post on Twitter about a year ago that said something along the lines of ‘describe yourself in one emoji.’ We added to that thread with a sleeping emoji since anesthesia is about sedation.
- For the past few years, we have done an “Anesthesia Wrapped” that mimics the Spotify Wrapped. This has been a fun way to give a yearly recap in a less stuffy tone.
