Social Media: A New Dimension In Health Research #HealthXPh

I’m so honored to have been invited to give the opening keynote address at the 3rd #HealthXPh Philippine Healthcare Social Media Summit  this week. I love this year’s theme of  “Social Media & Health Research: Connections that Matter.

My presentation highlights social media as a dynamic platform to conduct research on a global scale and to amplify and disseminate research findings. I focus on an understanding of some key characteristics of social media which can be leveraged for research purposes, such as interactivity and real-time communication on a global scale. What this presents is an opportunity for conducting research with an existing audience of highly targeted, motivated and connected patients.

I recommend tapping into the power of existing patient networks through social media as a means to mobilize and accelerate research faster than ever before. However, I stress that online communities are not just there to be taken from, but also given to. So I challenge researchers to consider how they might build trust and authenticity with a community of e-patients.

I finished my keynote presentation by sharing some best practice tips and left the audience with a final challenge to go beyond a basic level of social media activity to become exceptional digital communicators.  I ended with one of my favourite quotes from social media marketing guru Seth Godin.