Big Idea: Social Business

Mayo Clinic Leads Social Conversations About Healthcare

The Mayo Clinic has been able to leverage and enhance its reputation as a trusted source of health information through a robust online presence and expansive social media program.

Robert Berkman Reading Time: 3 min 

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Image courtesy of Flickr user Mayo Clinic.
The Mayo Clinic, a health care center with facilities in Rochester, Minn., Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz., and Jacksonville, Fla., has been able to leverage and enhance its reputation as a trusted source of information through a robust online presence and expansive social media program.Image of the Mayo Clinic’s Rochester, Minn., campus courtesy of Flickr user Mayo Clinic.

What does it take to be a leader in social media for an entire industry?

The Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minn., has become just that type of leader for the healthcare field. The Clinic is not only the most popular provider of medical information on YouTube (its channel is at www.youtube.com/user/mayoclinic), but the Mayo Clinic Twitter page has over 570,000 followers and the Mayo Clinic Facebook page has over 450,000 likes as well. The Clinic also publishes a podcast and several popular blogs.

How did the Clinic’s success come about?

It didn’t hurt that the Mayo Clinic has long been one of the most popular and well regarded medical destinations on the Web. The 2013 Harris Poll EquiTrend survey named the Mayo Clinic website the top Health Information Website, ahead of WebMD. Health and medical research has been one of the most popular activities of online consumers for years, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

But a vibrant social media presence still does not emerge by itself. There were, in fact, several noteworthy actions and strategies that the Mayo Clinic took that were significant in its path to social media success:

  • It integrated its social media with its mission and goals. The Clinic determined how social media helps achieve its organization’s larger goals. Its web site states the philosophy of its social media: “Mayo Clinic believes individuals have the right and responsibility to advocate for their own health, and that it is our responsibility to help them use social media tools to get the best information, connect with providers and with each other, and inspire healthy choices.”
  • It established a social media unit. In 2010, the Mayo Clinic created the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media to coordinate and focus the Clinic’s various social media initiatives and programs.
  • It got support from executive leadership. According to the Clinic, CEO John Noseworthy was “a key force” in developing the Center for Social Media. In a

Topics

Social Business

Social business research and more recent thought leadership explore the challenges and opportunities presented by social media.
More in this series

About the Author

Robert Berkman is a contributing editor at MIT Sloan Management Review.

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Comments (2)
megumi chakma
The social integration gives Mayo Clinic more popular because people share their experiences about services of the clinic. Actually, if a people comment honestly, his influential circles such as family and friends convince shortly and the real experiences build a strong image.
Shawn McGowan
The Mayo Clinic road map to social media success could be a high level outline for most business in many other sections. From alignment to focus, from empowerment to content quality, it is road map worth following.