Diffusion of videos on US hospital web sites

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the adoption of videos on US hospital web sites in an attempt to find out how this new medium had been used by hospitals for marketing purposes. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a systematic probability sample of the 6,456 US hospital web sites, a content analysis is conducted to measure the effects that hospital service quality, hospital size, hospital affiliation, and geographic population had on the diffusion of online videos. Findings – The paper has found that, although the critical mass for using videos on hospital web sites has been reached, for the overwhelming majority of the hospitals, including those that are already using videos, there is still a long way to go in learning how to harness the power of video for marketing and to make videos an integral and routine part of their marketing strategy. Research limitations/implications – Further studies need to be conducted to uncover hospitals' attitudes and users' attitudes toward new media adoption on hospital web sites for presenting healthcare information. Practical implications – The paper gives readers an overview of the current state of hospitals' efforts in adopting new media for marketing and can greatly help hospitals better position their marketing strategies to serve their patients, communities, and hospital staff, and invest in the right technology and new recruits. Originality/value – The literature search indicates that this is the first study of its kind that has attempted to find out how hospitals have taken advantage of video, a salient Web 2.0 phenomenon, to present healthcare information on their web sites as a marketing strategy.