When Social Media Grew Up: How Social Channels Perform Serious Work
Once seen as a lighter touchpoint, social media is now carrying some of healthcare’s most complex stories. UCLA Health, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, and UCB demonstrate how social media can be successfully deployed for high-impact topics, from groundbreaking science to chronic disease management.
// By Susan Dubuque //
For years, social media played a secondary role in healthcare marketing, useful for awareness days, friendly reminders, and community engagement, but rarely trusted with more consequential stories.
That line has quietly disappeared. Today, social media is increasingly where healthcare organizations explain sophisticated science, document historic milestones, and support patients and caregivers navigating serious, often lifelong conditions.
Three winners in this year’s eHealthcare Leadership Awards Best Social Media category reflect that shift. UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, UCLA Health, and UCB each used social platforms not as an add-on but as a core business tactic, capable of translating complexity, building credibility, and driving meaningful results.
Their work demonstrates that social media has grown up. When executed with discipline, clarity, and purpose, it is no longer “soft.” It is strategic, measurable, and essential to modern healthcare communications.
Read on to see how social media is doing serious work and why it now plays a central role in healthcare strategy.
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