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Introduction
Due to the ongoing technological breakthrough, social media has become part and parcel of everyday life. Furthermore, social networks have started to be viewed as the tools that can be used to improve communication processes in business and other domains of peoples lives (Kass-Hout & Alhinnawi, 2013). Healthcare is one of these areas, and social networks can be viewed as a crucial tool for managing the essential strategies used to connect to the community members and encourage consistent knowledge acquisition among them (Thielst, 2011). To shift the focus of healthcare experts as far as the conversation with the community is concerned from one-sided communication to the dialogue and, therefore, active promotion of awareness among not only patients but also the rest of the community, one will have to consider the use of social media as one of the most efficient tools for disseminating information and uniting people, as well as monitoring the outcomes with the help of analytic tools.
Social Media as the Tool for Improving the Connection with the Community
A recent study indicates that social media is one of the most efficient frameworks for enhancing the process of communication with the community (Ventola, 2014). Given the fact that online communication takes a significant part of peoples daily interactions, it will be quite legitimate to claim that the use thereof will help build stronger ties with the target demographics: HCPs can use social media to potentially improve health outcomes, develop a professional network, increase personal awareness of news and discoveries, motivate patients, and provide health information to the community (Ventola, 2014, p. 491). In other words, the authors of the study point to the fact that, with the focus on modern social media as the tools for connecting with the community, healthcare professionals will be able to keep track of the changes in the identified environment and make sure that the essential information should be delivered to the target population in a timely and efficient manner. Furthermore, a successful feedback system can be introduced (Ventola, 2014).
Social Media as the Means of Enhancing the Efficacy and Quality of Care
With the increase in communication efficacy levels, the premises for meeting the needs of a diverse population can be built. It would be wrong to expect that healthcare experts, no matter how well educated they are, will start working with the target population with precise knowledge of what the identified demographics exactly need. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that healthcare experts should have resources that will allow them to expand their knowledge about specific cultures. Schulz, Auvinen, and Crotty (2013) show that engaging with the needs of diverse population can only be successful once one can define the unique properties of the said groups and, therefore, come up with an appropriate strategy that can help provide the community members with the required support: Social media can be used to provide a valuable and useful source of peer, social, and emotional support to individuals, including those with various conditions/illnesses (Schulz et al., 2013, p. 85). In this sense, modern media is extremely helpful as the analysis of the information that it supplies gives an extensive representation of the target community: Social media brings a new dimension to health care as it offers a medium to be used by the public, patients, and health professionals to communicate about health issues with the possibility of potentially improving health outcomes (Schulz et al., 2013, p. 85).
Social Media as the Device for Building Awareness
Loeb et al.s (2014) study shows that the use of analytical tools as the means of controlling the process of knowledge dissemination should also be considered one of the obvious advantages of social media. By conducting an analysis of the activity levels in a social media community, one will be able to monitor the changes in the awareness levels regarding a specific healthcare issue and, therefore, introduce the strategies that will help address the emerging problems. Therefore, social networks must not be overlooked as an essential source of important information (Luxton, June, & Fairall, 2012).
The study also indicates that the analysis of the data provided by social networks, such as Instagram, can provide the results that allow determining a specific trend in the identified community. For instance, the evaluation of the information supplied by the users of Twitter has shown that the awareness regarding urology-related issues rose significantly after the introduction of the relevant recommendations (Loeb et al., 2014). Based on the outcomes of the analysis, a forecast can be built regarding the further changes in the identified community, the concerns that may have to be addressed, the challenges that are likely to appear, etc.
It should be noted that there are the limitations of social media as the tool for conducting a statistical analysis: For the demographic of Twitter participants, it is evident that the most influential participants (as measured by Symplur statistics) are those individuals or organizations with established social media profiles whose social networks are very large (Wilkinson, Basto, Perovic, Lawrentschuk, & Murphy, 2015, p. 1). Nevertheless, the study points to the fact that social media can and should be used as an important means of identifying the current and emergent trends in the context of social networks. Thus, the foundation for a comprehensive assessment of the community members needs and the quality of the provided services can be created.
Conclusion
The use of modern media, in general, and social networks, in particular, is essential for healthcare experts in the context of the presentday environment so that awareness levels could be raised regarding a range of topical and complex issues. Thus, the risk of prejudices, dangerous myths, and misconceptions regarding a particular health issue, such as HIV/AIDS and STD, will be reduced to a minimum, and the process of building the support system for patients can begin. Studies show that the incorporation of modern media in the list of tools that healthcare experts can use to communicate with a specific demographic is likely to lead to a significant improvement. Furthermore, the incorporation of social media as one of the most efficient strategies for disseminating information among the members of the target population is bound to help promote unity. Therefore, it is imperative to include social media, such as popular networks, into the range of devices used by healthcare experts and organizations to deliver specific information to the members of a community. More importantly, active use of the analytical tools that social media has to offer, as well as a general analysis of the information that social networks offer, must be viewed as a crucial source of the important data concerning the current trends in the target community.
References
Kass-Hout, T. A., & Alhinnawi, H. (2013). Social media in public health. British Medical Bulletin, 108(1), 5-24.
Loeb, S., Bayne, C. E., Frey, C., Davies, B. J., Averch, T. D., Woo, H. D.,& Eggener, S. E. (2014). Use of social media in urology: data from the American Urological Association (AUA). BJU International, 113(6), 993-998.
Luxton, D. D., June, J. D., & Fairall, J. M. (2012). Social media and suicide: A public health perspective. American Journal of Public Health, 102(Suppl 2), S195-200.
Schulz, P., Auvinen, A. M., & Crotty, B. (2013). A new dimension of health care: Systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(4), 85.
Thielst, C. B. (2011). Social media: Ubiquitous community and patient engagement. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 28(2), 3-14.
Ventola, L. C. (2014). Social media and health care professionals: Benefits, risks, and best practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(7): 491-499.
Wilkinson, S. E., Basto, M. Y., Perovic, G., Lawrentschuk, N., & Murphy, D. G. (2015). The social media revolution is changing the conference experience: analytics and trends from eight international meetings. BJU International, 115(5), 839-846.
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