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6 Google+ Positives for Healthcare

 |  By gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com  
   July 12, 2011

Still in beta, Google’s latest foray into social networking, Google+, is already generating better buzz than its previous attempt, Google Buzz,  and although there are some skeptics, many early adopters are simply gushing about it.

I count myself amongst the skeptics—but then again I always count myself amongst the skeptics. Some years ago, I didn’t believe smartphones would be that big a deal, either. And in the early days of Facebook and Twitter, I was guilty of being somewhat dismissive of social media.

I may have finally learned my lesson; you can indeed find me posting about healthcare technology on Google+.

The platform does, in fact, hold promise for healthcare organizations. Just keep in mind that Google+ is still in a limited trial phase and isn’t open to commercial accounts yet—although Google promises it will offer additional functionalities for business users eventually. 

Here are six reasons I like Google+ for businesses, including healthcare organizations:

1. Social Media Networking
It has more features than other social media sites

Google+ does have a lot of functions that its main competitor does not, although there’s no doubt that Facebook will adapt to compete with the new service. Multi-person video chats are just one example—healthcare organizations could use them to conduct small group meetings among remote employees or even as focus groups among patient advisors.

2. Business Opportunities
There are more business features to come

Christian Oestlien, a Google+ product manager, explains why businesses should hold off on creating Google+ accounts and teases some of what’s to come later this year, including rich analytics.

“We will be doing some testing,” Oestlien says in a video on his Google+ page. “We’re going to take a small group of brands, businesses, and other entities and create profiles for them and see how users interact with them via circles, through the stream, and even how they communicate with them through hangouts.”

Click here to fill out a Google+ entity profile application to be considered for the business test group.

3. Narrow Settings
It allows for fine-tuning

You know that one person on Facebook who really does list what he ate for lunch every single day? Or posts endless pictures of her cats? You have a few choices: Suffer through all of their posts, block all of their posts, or un-friend them. One of the biggest advantages Google+ promises is the ability to fine-tune your settings. You can “mute” just one post, for example, so you don’t have to see all the follow-up comments about the deliciousness of bologna.

4. Narrower Settings
It allows for really fine tuning

The keystone feature Google+ is the ability to sort your contacts into groups. Large systems with multiple hospitals could send out one message to every contact in the system or just a handful of volunteers at one small hospital. To all patients or only to those who are interested in one particular topic.

The ability to customize these “circles” is endless. Internal circles could include employees, referring physicians, or major donors, for example. You could have circles customized by service line—one for cardiac patients, another for ortho, for example. Or for patients who are interested in health and wellness circles.

5. User-Friendly Interface
It’s easier to manage than it sounds

If all of this sounds a bit overwhelming, you’ll appreciate that all of the circles can be managed from one page with a fairly simple interface. You don’t have to log into one account to post diet tips and then another to send neighbors a construction update.

6. Aesthetics
It just looks nice

When a patient checks in with your Facebook page, there’s no doubt that they’re looking at a Facebook page. Although at this time there is no way to brand Google+ pages, they do have a lot of white space and a clean, streamlined look and feel. And you control what your posts look like—you can format text and post photos in a variety of sizes—both things you can’t do on Facebook and Twitter.

There is one big unanswered question that will be paramount for hospitals. At this time, the members of specific circles can’t be seen by the public. You can put a contact into a circle for patients with diabetes, for example, and no one can see that you’ve done that. The public can see who your contacts and followers are—but that is true of Twitter and Facebook. Still, if there is ever a change and the membership of those circles becomes public, hospitals simply will not be able to use that feature and still comply with patient privacy laws. That’s something to watch as the beta trial progresses.

A handful of hospitals and health systems, including Bon Secours Virginia Health System and Sharp Healthcare have already set up Google+ accounts, even though Google has warned non-personal pages will be deleted. Healthcare social media guru, Ed Bennet has already started to compile a list of these Google+ early adopters.

 If you’ve had a chance to try Google+, drop me an email—I’d love to hear your experiences and your take on its plusses and minuses in general—and it’s potential for healthcare in particular.

Click here to leave me your comments on Google+.

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