A comparative study on posts released by WeChat official accounts of Wuhan′s tertiary hospitals / 中华医院管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To comprehensively analyze the characteristics of posts released on WeChat official accounts of tertiary hospitals in Wuhan, and compare the two types of communication platforms varying in penetration power in terms of posts features and text contents. The aim is to identify post service strategies for enhancing influence of their WeChat accounts and to provide applied support for their operations regarding posts.@*Methods@#A total of 2 668 full-text messages were collected from the WeChat accounts of 22 tertiary hospitals in Wuhan in 2017. The 22 hospitals were categorized into a high WCI group and an ordinary group via Pareto′s principle. Then content analysis and data statistical analysis among others were used to analyze and compare the contents of the two groups in such five dimensions as push time, push content, title feature, media type and originality based on the WCI index.@*Results@#The push timing of WeChat articles focuses on the two time periods from 10 00 to 12 00 and from 16 00 to 18 00. These articles mostly aim at disseminating health knowledge (accounting for 37% of total articles) and describing hospital information (accounting for 29% of total articles). There were significant difference between the WeChat accounts of the two groups of hospitals in terms of title characteristics, media forms, and originality (P<0.01).@*Conclusions@#Hospitals can enhance their WeChat accounts′ penetration power and hospital influence by means of optimized push time, featured titles, enriched media forms, and customized articles.