Homewood Human Solutions is turning its focus to social media as a way to encourage wellness among Canadians. The employee assistance provider has launched a new website (healthyworkplaces.info) containing posts by medical and organizational health experts, and has implemented an overall social media strategy that includes Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts.
“Fifty-nine percent of adults now use the internet for health information,” said Craig Thompson, CEO of Homewood Human Solutions. “While there is a great deal of useful health and wellness information on the internet, there is also a lot of inaccurate, biased and misleading data and opinions as well. It’s often difficult to know where to go for expert opinions and accurate facts.”
Research finds that 68% of Canadian adults use a general search engine such as Google to research health and wellness topics, according to Homewood. However, the second most popular search engine after Google is not a traditional engine but rather a social media site: YouTube.
“Social media sites—YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs—are rapidly replacing traditional sites for accessing health-related information,” said Judith Plotkin, vice-president, strategic growth, with Homewood. “Research shows that 34% of people searching for health-related information use social media. This figure is much higher with younger adults—the 18- to 24-year-old demographic. We decided it was time to provide all ages with up-to-date health and wellness information via these social networking platforms.”
The Healthy Workplace website features daily posts about mental health and addiction, organizational and employee health and well-being, and disability management. The site also contains blogs by medical and industry experts responding to issues affecting the workplace, as well as resources and invitations to free webinars. Users can choose to receive daily site updates via email, and the site has been designed for mobile access.
“It is about convenience and ease of use,” added Plotkin. “A growing number of people are accessing online information from their smart phones so the site has been designed with that in mind.”
For more on social media, watch for Benefits Canada’s special new media issue, available June 2012.