How Can a Health Plan Employee Use Twitter?

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People ask me: “Steve, how can Twitter help me as someone who works for a health plan?” I tell them: “Monitoring Twitter – aka ‘social listening’ - can help you in lots of ways. Even if you don’t actively share on Twitter, you can monitor what others share for a variety of purposes depending on your role, objectives and which department of the company you work in.”

Here are some ideas for using Twitter to support your job:

Member Services

More and more people are using social media to express their needs and concerns. Twitter should be monitored for members in need of support. Being proactive and actively engaging health plan members can satiate member needs and provide new insights about its members.

Human Resources

Similar to Member Services, human resource departments can use social monitoring to understand what current and former employees are saying about the company.

Marketing

The marketing department can use social listening to obtain insight into what programs, messages and service offerings are successful with different member segments.

Product Development & Management

Twitter provides valuable information that can support development, testing and refinement of new products and services. Research and development costs can be minimized by learning from other companies.

Market Research

Market research teams can identify industry trends and member wants and needs. And keep tabs on competing health plans by understanding their positioning, strategies, and how their messages resonate with members.

Influencer Analysis

Influencers are an increasingly popular way of reaching and engaging with potential members and business partners. Twitter can be used to identify influencers in a given area so that they can be leveraged for marketing to members and prospects.

Crisis Management

Public relations and corporate communications departments may utilize social listening to detect any emerging issues that may be harmful to your brand’s reputation. Monitoring social media during a crisis can help to determine the scale of the problem, and provide steer regarding how best to respond.

Social Listening is an Increasingly Popular Discipline

These are just a few of the ways in which Twitter – and other social media platforms – can be used to assist health plan employees do their job. Check this out for more information on “How to build a social listening strategy.” You may also want to check this out to get an idea about “The opportunities and obstacles to know” about social listening.

To be sure, you don’t have to be a social media wizard to benefit from social media monitoring.For more information on social media, healthcare information and the business of healthcare, consider following me on Twitter.