The healthcare industry is shaped by growing and evolving privacy regulations, staffing shortages, and increasing demand for services. Faced with these challenges, it is easy to understand why adoption of social media for marketing, collaboration and client communication has been an uphill battle. Healthcare professionals don’t know where to begin with sites like Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. They may also have trouble understanding how these networks can enhance their existing initiatives in marketing, support or internal operations.

As the industry grows rapidly, events, research, best practices, new ideas, innovations, case studies, discussion and debates abound – and social media platforms provide a more instantaneous, rapid method of communicating these occurrences and connecting. Perhaps one of the greatest results from this exchange of ideas is education: utilizing social media, healthcare professionals can stay on top of their area of expertise and gain inexpensive ongoing self-education. This ultimately can lead to better, more quality care for patients.