In the past couple of years social media has evolved and progressed. Millions of people spend hours daily on their phones on social media. Since there are so many platforms being produced, it has now become easier to communicate and reach people. Social media networks play a key role in the working world there are now so many job opportunities to do with social media. Moreover, it helps shape public opinion and can create debates within different topics, and it is a space where people can have discussions and connect. Although the social media uprising has brought many advantages to individuals and companies, it is also common for users to experience abuse, misuse, and breach of privacy. During the Covid-19 pandemic, social media literally skyrocketed. Hundreds of people had to find diverse ways to do their jobs and that’s where social media came in very beneficial. Multiple healthcare organisations searched online to source their new healthcare professionals or to share handy tips concerning Covid-19.

Benefits of using social media for in healthcare

During these past few years everyone has been adapting to the new digital age  including healthcare and organisations who have followed suit. This has helped modernise their approach in the way they do things. The following explains what can be done with regards to the beneficial uses of social media in healthcare:

• Promoting health and healthcare– Healthcare organisations are now using social media to promote messages about health, for example during covid, they were promoting tips on how to keep yourself safe and how to take precautions.
• Finding and hiring employees- By using social media, healthcare organisations are taking advantage of processing their recruitment campaigns. By using this method of employment organisations are able to reach a wider audience and still recruit ideal candidates. Also, they are able to use apps such as Zoom for face-to-face interviews. Methods like these will stay around for an exceptionally long time.
• Healthcare professionals and medical students are now using social media to interact and connect with their peers- For example, using Facebook groups, where this space could be used to talk about their life as a doctor or to meet other healthcare professionals.
• Treating patients through telemedicine- Some healthcare organisations have used social media to provide telemedicine to patients where this enables the patient to get treated whilst being distanced. All that is needed is a phone or device with the internet and this helped to keep each other safe.
• Market their practices- Healthcare professionals are using social media to promote and market their practices to new patients and clients.
• Improved interactions with others- Whether that is through posts on social media or emails or websites. There is a broader range of people online therefore more people will be reached.
• Cost effective marketing- There are no start-up costs for in-house marketing meaning all promotions is completely free and therefore one can post and gain new clients and employees.

These are just some of the few uses of interacting with social media in healthcare. 

Some negatives of using social media in healthcare

One negative of using social media in healthcare is that people use the internet to self-diagnose. It is shown that more people look up their symptoms and self-diagnose themselves rather seeking a healthcare professional. This could lead to multiple bad outcomes.

Another negative outcome of using social media is accessing false information. False information is more likely to be retweeted than the actual truth, and again this leads to multiple bad outcomes.

Using social media in healthcare can become very time consuming and therefore is another negative. Healthcare professionals do not have much time on their hands. An increased amount of people are spending several hours a day on their phone making the demand that much more.

Overall

Social media in healthcare is here to stay, it gives individuals so much potential  and opportunities for their future. It allows people to not only connect but helps gain insight to the specific career and to find new jobs.

There are both pros and cons linked with using social media, but there’s always good and bad things associated with anything you do. Healthcare professionals get to use social media to their advantage. There are multiple platforms where they can help people such as tips and tricks on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Or they can write blogs on different topics such as a day in the life or different medical conditions. When Covid-19 hit it allowed the world to broaden digitally enabling people to work in different ways and this creates more of a sustainable digital life.