Article
Aligning Social Media, Social Networking and Social Marketing: Engagement as the Key to Healthcare Marketing
Proceedings of the Northeast Business & Economics Association
(2011)
Abstract
The hyper-competitive healthcare marketplace challenges organizations to reconfigure marketing strategies based on emerging communication theories and social networking options. Aligning marketing strategies that integrate social media, social networking and social marketing constructs requires a thorough grounding in all related theories and approaches. Special attention should be paid to understanding the relationships between these three social communication components in order to maximize marketing outcomes and impact. A proposed framework detailing the functional role of each social component is presented along with a bridge construct (social connectedness) that facilitates meaningful alignment among these three distinct social communication phenomena. Sontag's social connectedness model suggests that the affordances of social networking technology allows persons to move through the stages of linking, lurking and lunging in order to reach engagement. As outlined by Ferguson, e-patients who reach the engagement stage participate in their health and healthcare decisions. The primary and contemporary challenge for health marketers is to develop integrated communication approaches and campaigns based on successful social communication models.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2011
Citation Information
Anne Hewitt. "Aligning Social Media, Social Networking and Social Marketing: Engagement as the Key to Healthcare Marketing" Proceedings of the Northeast Business & Economics Association (2011) p. 211 - 214 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/anne-hewitt/9/