Information technology advancement is a trend that cannot be ignored by any sector which seeks to acquire a global audience and enhance its growth and expansion. Health practitioners and experts play a great role in creating a healthy community. They achieve this by providing the masses with relevant information pertaining to healthy living initiatives. Many benefits accrue from the use of social media as a medium for communicating this information. Through the use of social media in relaying this information large audience of the targeted group is addressed. This is because many of the people who are affected by these health issues have access to the social media. Health organizations use social media as an avenue to engage their patients whom they have already served and also their potential clients (Hester & Jackson, 2009) .
Some of the benefits achieved by an organization which utilizes social media in disseminating information include; sharing of health-related information-under this the organization is able to share information to wide audience concerning issues such as healthy lifestyle, how to avoid some diseases, the causes of these diseases and their treatment. The information shared helps both the victims as well as the health practitioners who may be not sure of the procedure to follow. This information also helps in facilitating the implementation of evidence-based practices on the part of the practitioners. This information serves as the source of knowledge and foundation for the evidence-based practices. Information relayed can be on a new more advanced technology of carrying out a medical procedure. Offering information about a procedure, this will help deliver pre-operative care information and therefore enabling the patients to be psychologically prepared.
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Health organizations can employ the use of social media to do benchmarking of their competitors. Under this, the organization uses the social media to monitor the services offered by their competitors and access the customer satisfaction. If the competitors are offering better services than the organization, the organization ought to find ways to counter the competition. This improves the quality of service the organization offers to its' patient. Through this, therefore, effective marketing initiatives can be introduced to counter the competition. The organization is also able to get feedback from its patients on the services received (Baxter, Leslie, Egbert, & Evelyn, 2008) . This create s an interactive service encounters with mutual benefits. The health practitioners can acquire information in response to medication from different patients. Some patients may develop allergies to a medication or the medication be unable to solve their medical problem. This information, therefore, will help the physicians to adjust accordingly and develop a stable medication.
Social media create a training avenue for medical practitioners, health organizations are using the social media to train new practitioners. This approach is meant to make the training process interactive, trainees are encouraged to interact among themselves on a social media platform, this helps them learn from each other. Presentations are also carried out through the social media such as live coverage of a procedure directed at fellow practitioners in an organization. This help lay a foundation for the implementation of evidence-based practices on the part of the nurses in the organization. Through the social media avenue, the trainees are able to receive answers to questions they raise. This avenue helps reach a large audience who are not even part of the organization. Through this techniques, health organizations can strategically film their videos to market the facilities on their premises. If this is done effectively it's a marketing opportunity for the organization.
Social media is also used by health organizations in communication during the time of crisis. The crisis may be due to a disease outbreak or a disaster when the organization maybe appealing for blood donation for the victims. The health organizations using social media are able to provide real-time information on the spread of an outbreak its impacts and also the means through which the disease is spreading. The organization also shares information on the signs and symptoms associated with disease thus sensitizing the masses to visit nearest hospitals in case they are experiencing these signs and symptoms. Information on the first aid measures to be undertaken is also disseminated to the public which enables the masses to be well prepared in tackling the medical crisis. An organization operating an active social media avenue is able to relay up to date information received from agencies such as the Red cross help reduce panic among the public. Centers for disease control operating an active social media platform offer up to date information to the public on the mutation aspect of the disease-causing virus. This mutation might change the signs and symptoms associated with a disease. If the public is not informed of the changes, therefore, this might have catastrophic impacts and lead to more spread of the disease. Information on the carriers of the virus must also be provided to the public by the practitioners to help curb the spread of the outbreak.
Social media communicating, however, is faced with some challenges are faced by organizations which use this approach as an avenue for communication. These challenges include; patient complaints, the patient-doctor regulations stipulate that health practitioners must protect the information about their patients. An organization which uses social media with many users risks exposing the information of these patients to their users. Heavy regulations are therefore put in place by the governments through health ministries which discourage use of social media. These regulations are introduced so as to protect the patient.
Another challenge is security when an organization embraces the use of social media it becomes exposed to a security threat. Hacking of the system can be easily done by hackers which may have catastrophic effects on the organization. The hacker might also give wrong information with dire medical consequences, this may cost the organizations and destroy its image. The hacker may leak all the patient information to the public, this makes the patient lose trust in the organization. Lawsuits may also arise costing the organization financially, this happens when the organization issued to pay for damages caused to the patients as a result of the hacking. Platforms can be put in place to ensure that secure social media communication is witnessed. This may be through the use of a dashboard which can be used to shut down all the accounts in case of an attack.
In this study, the World Health Organization (WHO) was considered the organization has over 6 million subscribers on its 11 different social media channels it operates. These channels include; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, Google+, YouTube among others. The organizations use these avenues in communication during a crisis by giving updates on the crisis, the most affected areas and also the measures of curbing the crisis. The organization also provide information about different initiatives being undertaken by the organization. These initiatives include programs dedicated towards the eradication of some diseases such as TB, Polio among others. The organization engages with its users regular by offering medical guidelines on daily basis thus facilitating the development of a healthy community (Beato, Ricardo, & Telfer, 2010) . This organization is trusted by the world at large, this means any wrong information relayed may catastrophic impacts to the world. This organization, therefore, must ensure that the security of its operations is maintained to avoid the chances of it being vulnerable to hacking. This may be achieved through the use of a dashboard which can be used to shut down all the accounts in case of an attack.
References
Baxter, Leslie, Egbert, & Evelyn. (2008). Everyday Health Communication Experience of College Students. Journal of American College Health, 56 (4), 427-435. doi:10.3200/jach.56.44.427-436
Beato, Ricardo, & Telfer. (2010). Communication as an essential component of environmental health science. journal of environmental health, 73 (1), 24-25.
Hester, & Jackson. (2009). an investigation of the relationship between health literacy and social communication skills in older adults. communication disorders quarterly, 30 (2), 112-119. doi:10.1177/1525740108324040
