Remember when a hashtag was a button on a phone, a tweet was the noise a bird made, and a post was used to hold up a fence? Today these terms, among a whole dictionary of others, are used to describe ways individuals communicate on social media. Social media now has a pervasive presence in our daily lives: it is a way to rapidly exchange information. The healthcare environment is not immune to the ubiquity of social media. Virtually anyone with access to an internet connection is able to view these messages; therefore, a social media platform provides a wide audience. Many healthcare organizations and providers use social media to communicate with consumers (Hebda & Czar, 2013). Platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and several others to communicate information …show more content…
A health care institution can be negatively affected by the financial investment required to educate staff and patients about the dangers. Additional draw backs for the use of social media include quality and reliability concerns, confidentiality, and privacy (Moorhead et al., 2013). However; social media can have positive effects for healthcare organizations as well. Maintaining a presence on social media can provide another method of communication with populations, it serves as a was to inform patient’s and potential patients about products and services that are offered through the organization. In a systematic review conducted by Moorhead et al. (2013), six key benefits were identified including: increased interaction, widely available information, increasing accessibility to health information, social support, surveillance, and influence of health policy. Finally, social media can contribute to the overall quality of health outcomes, by using it as a platform to educate individuals and promote preventative