Understanding How Hospitals Use Social Media: An Exploratory Study of Facebook Posts

Healthcare organizations such as hospitals and clinics are increasingly embracing social media to communicate with their public audience. In line with this trend, we conducted an exploratory study to understand the major genres of posts that hospitals make on social media. We collected data on 159 Facebook posts made by five major hospitals in the U.S. Then, we thematically analyzed the content of the posts and developed a hierarchical thematic web of content. The results demonstrated that those hospitals primarily use their Facebook pages to announce and/or report on events (e.g., social, health information, charity) and organizational news, share health information, and recognize employees for their contributions and achievements. However, unlike the extant literature, we found little evidence that healthcare institutions utilize social media to recruit employees and volunteers. Our findings along with the thematic web developed in this study provide insights into the current use of social media in the health care context.