As Twitter Matures, Hospitals Harness its Power

Twitter for crisis and media management
In addition to correcting customer service crises, Twitter can be beneficial in dealing with external crises, such as natural disasters or other emergencies that impact hospital service.

"Many organizations, including ours, have used Twitter to keep the general public informed, in real time, of pertinent events and emergency management protocols that have literally helped to save lives," Gordon says.

Twitter is also an efficient means of communication with the local and national media, in times of crises and otherwise.

"We've had a lot of success both pitching and interacting with members of the local and national media through Twitter," Gordon says. "Most of our local reporters with major TV stations and print publications use Twitter as a source for stories. We also had national stories air last year on The Weather Channel and ABC 20/20, and through tweets and re-tweets, and got the national reporters and programs to mention us several times as part of the story lead-ins as well as online discussion when the story aired."

And AMC hasn't stopped there; it recently entered a digital partnership with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to promote key service lines. Since the Journal-Constitution has 63,367 Twitter followers to AMC's 680, the partnership is allows the hospital to share its message with a much larger audience.

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