Social networking in the National Health Service in England: a quantitative analysis of the online identities of 152 primary care trusts.

Increasing numbers of the public are becoming digitally connected. In particular, younger "born digital" generations now use the World Wide Web as their primary source of information alongside conventional media such as television and print. Little is known as to whether health organisations are using new media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to engage with the public and patients. This quantitative analysis investigates the online identities of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in the NHS in England to inspect their usage of social utilities. Results showed that a total of 61 organisations (40.13%) use at least one utility with the most popular being Twitter (n=30) and Bebo the least (n=1). However, organisations appear to be failing to take advantage of the interactive nature of social utilities instead using them as unidirectional information "push" channels. The ways in which health organisations could use social utilities for engagement is underexplored and so we must look to other research disciplines for best practice and evidence.