A new tool from Boston-based UbiCare aims to provide a look at the U.S. healthcare industry's use of Facebook and fan engagement.

UbiCare's Engagement Quotient (EQ) Chart looks at activity on more than 900 hospital and healthcare-associated Facebook pages and offers a measurement of fan interaction with those pages. Each week, these pages will be ranked by success in engaging fans, using key data such as posts, likes, comments and links sourced from Facebook, all of which are then factored against the pages' fan bases.

UbiCare's EQ Chart is intended to provide timely insight on Facebook activity within healthcare and promote a better understanding of engagement while stimulating thoughtful discussion about best practices. Because of the rapidly changing nature of social media, this EQ Chart will be an evolving tool, with data weight and ranking calculations adjusted as merited based on the input of those using it. UbiCare will also leverage enhanced analysis of the data on behalf of its customers and partners.

Ed Bennett, from Found in Cache, says, "The UbiCare EQ Chart focuses on healthcare's use of Facebook and measures engagement with our patients and communities. Making this chart a public asset adds to the conversation about how effectively we use social media to enhance our relationships with our customers."*

Along with the EQ Chart rankings, aggregate data is presented to provide a concise overview of engagement benchmarks and trends. For example, for the week ending April 9, 2011:

• The pages with the highest EQ (the top 10 percent) averaged two posts per day, as opposed to other pages, which averaged less than one post per day.
•  The average post to a hospital Facebook page generated 2.8 likes per 1,000 fans.
•  Likes on hospital Facebook pages outnumbered comments by a 7.7:1 ratio.

All of the healthcare-associated pages on the Chart are searchable by size, type and region, and are ranked by their "EQ." The Top 50 pages – including Anne Arundel Medical Center, Gwinnett Medical Center, Texas Health Moms, and five Veterans Administration hospitals, to name just a few -– are named so that anyone can review the most engaging pages. Healthcare marketers at the remaining organizations can request their ID number and match it to their own EQ ranking and use the chart to monitor their progress. Because the chart will be updated on a weekly basis, these rankings are expected to change as more hospitals adopt social media as a vital communications tool and focus more on engagement.

Joanie Cavanaugh, director of marketing and communications for Sequoia Hospital in California, says, "Having partnered with UbiCare to update content on our Facebook page, we were excited to learn they were rolling out the EQ Chart. It's a helpful overview of the healthcare industry's use of Facebook. We'll use the chart to get better insights on our own Facebook use, as well as any barriers to our success, so that we can continue to evaluate Facebook as a way to connect with our patients and community."

Betsy Weaver, Ed.D., CEO, president and founder of UbiCare, says, "We recognized a lack of any wide-ranging analysis or assessment of how hospitals are using their social media channels, particularly Facebook, which has become an important tool for hospitals to communicate with their communities. Our intention for the chart has always been to provide our customers with a comprehensive snapshot of hospital social media engagement that will enhance our understanding of engagement, and open the door for conversations about ways to improve, reach new audiences and maximize ROI. And, ultimately, we wanted to honor the spirit of social media, so we chose to release this chart to the general public, because we believe it could have value and impact beyond the healthcare industry."