The importance of social media in the competition of private hospitals

In order to be one of the preferred private health care center, most institutions are obliged to carry out promotional activities to beat out their competitors. What better method to advertise these activities than through the use of social media. This study was conducted in order to determine the social media usage of the individuals who receive healthcare services in preferred private institutions. The first concepts that were analyzed prior to research were; the study of the competition, factors affecting competition and competition strategies, followed by the studying of related literature in todays's healthcare industry. The rest of the research was done by looking over the leading factors to the general use, tools, contributions of social media for the health sector and social consumer behaviour. The last part of the research was a survey based whether or not participants felt that it is important to use social media networking to increase the popularity and competitiveness of an institution. The questionnaires were answered by participating patients in two different private hospitals located in the Anatolian region of Istanbul. The results of the questionnaires indicated that social media indeed had played a significant role in the competiveness of private healthcare organizations.