The social media revolution is the most far-reaching communications development since Gutenberg’s printing press.
The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, a first-of-its-kind social media center focused on health care, builds on Mayo Clinic’s leadership among health care providers in adopting social media tools, which began with podcasting in 2005. Mayo Clinic has the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube and more than 450,000 “followers” on Twitter, as well as an active Facebook page with nearly 300,000 connections. With its News Blog, Podcast Blog and Sharing Mayo Clinic, a blog that enables patients and employees to tell their Mayo Clinic stories, Mayo has been a pioneer in hospital blogging. MayoClinic.com, Mayo’s consumer health information site, also hosts a dozen blogs on topics ranging from Alzheimer’s to The Mayo Clinic Diet.
Mayo has also used social media tools for internal communications, beginning in 2008 with a blog to promote employee conversations relating to the organization's strategic plan, and including innovative use of video and a hybrid "insider" newsletter/blog. This employee engagement contributes to Mayo Clinic being recognized among Fortune magazine's "Best Places to Work."
The center will accelerate adoption of social media for health-related purposes, starting at Mayo and then within health care more broadly. Through this work, Mayo Clinic looks to help improve health literacy, health care delivery and population health worldwide.