Social media tools offer opportunity to target health care consumers

NEWPORT, R.I. — Facebook and Twitter are tools, not toys, with specific demographic penetrance and specific demographic targets, according to Farris K. Timimi, MD, medical director of social media at the Mayo Clinic. Searching for health care information is the third most common use of the Internet, Timimi said in a presentation at the American Ophthalmological Society meeting. “I guarantee your patients Google you, their disease, their doctor, their diagnosis and your institution, which means that each one of those entities has a digital avatar online, whether filled or not.”