Social Networking

“He was in hacker’s paradise. Breaking into Harvard’s computer system really was child’s play to him.  He was going to call the site Facebook.com  and it was going to be beautiful.” And thus, as chronicled in the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich¹ , on that dark cold night the social media network known as Facebook was born in a Harvard dorm room in 2004.

Today, Facebook is being used across the world as individuals and companies alike attempt to network and information share with thousands of people at once. From middle school students who are networked to their friends, to hospital CEO’s who are sending updates to thousands of employee fans, Facebook has taken on a life and most importantly a utility of its own. 

As a COO, I was very excited when we embarked last April on Facebook. It was rewarding to finally bring our hospital to the world of social media because it provided SRMC with a great opportunity to connect with our community, potential employees and also civic organizations within Fredericksburg.  

The way I see it, we invest our time and money with our local community, and social networks such as Facebook are just extensions of that community, as many of the people who live near our hospital use this form of communication.    With Facebook, the definition of the SRMC community extends beyond the physical boundary and we can reach fans from outlying areas who may be interested in learning more about our hospital, our culture and our team.

While our fan site has grown to over 200 members , we still have a long way to go. One day we may even reach the level of Mayo Clinic mega social media status, but for right now we will continue to build our social networking community one loyal fan at a time….

Signing off until next time……. Terika Richardson

1. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10275798-36.html