Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media Residency
Mayo Clinic first entered the social media arena in 2005 with podcasting. Since then they’ve grown their YouTube channel to almost 6,000 subscribers and a whopping 7 million video views. Mayo Twitter and Facebook followers number almost a half million combined. A formidable name in health care before the advent of social media, Mayo has, with great effect, used social media optimization (SMO) to extend their presence and engage new audiences.
The Mayo Center for Social Media mission is to “accelerate adoption of social media for health-related purposes” and “improve health literacy, health care delivery and population health worldwide.” Through numerous blogs associated with the Center patients and Mayo employees share their stories. The Center also offers a Social Media Health Network, a service providing resources to both organizations and individuals looking to apply social media tools in health care. And most intriguing of all, the Center offers a Social Media Residency program.
Mayo Clinic’s Social Media Residency is a combined curriculum of pre-requisites and self-study to help social media beginners gain experience. Some of the takeaways Mayo lists upon completion of  the Residency include:
- Apply Social Media best practices utilized at Mayo Clinic
- Select which social media tools are most appropriate for your organization
- Identify components of an appropriate social media strategy
- Analyze ways social media can improve patient and provider education
Each Residency session is two days and three session dates remain in 2012. Residency is open to both Mayo employees and others on a first-come, first-serve basis. Â Mayo offers a discount to members of its Social Media Health Network.
Upcoming dates and locations:
- Sept. 25-26 at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona
- Oct. 15-16 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
- Nov. 29-30 in Jacksonville, Florida
You can learn more about the Residency by downloading the course curriculum and registration form.