Online reputation management: a qualitative analysis of French hospitals

Abstract

Social media have become an essential tool for improving hospitals’ corporate communication strategies. These platforms help hospitals dynamise their brand and reinforce their strategic positioning in the health market. But it also represents different risks related to patients’ privacy and fake news about companies. This paper aims to analyze how French  hospitals manage Facebook, Twitter, Youtube as well as their own corporate website to promote their brand reputation. To do that, we conducted a literature review about online corporate communication in health organizations as well as a quantitative analysis based on 48 key performance indicators whose main objective was to analyze how the best 106 French hospitals managed their websites, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube for branding initiatives. We concluded that most French hospitals utilized their corporate website for disseminating journalistic content; Facebook and Twitter, for sharing patients and doctors’ experiences in the hospital; and Youtube, for publishing marketing content about treatments and research projects. Finally, three practical recommendations were also highlighted: a) hospitals should create a Social Media Unit reporting to the Corporate Communication Department, b) Social Media experts should ban journalistic and marketing approaches and implement a true corporate communication approach and c) the Social Media Unit should define plans, protocols as well as key performance indicators in order to professionalize this activity.