Customers' Social Interaction and Social Connectedness Process on Social Media Marketing in Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study

Hospitals use social media marketing on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to build customer awareness and engagement. The hospital's social media engagement strategy needs to be evaluated to inform future marketing efforts. This study aims to analyze the process of social interaction and customer social connectedness in social media marketing This study is an observational analytic that analyzes the level of effectiveness of the use of social media Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook on the standard process of social interaction and social connectedness quantitatively at Muhammadiyah Probolinggo Maternal and Children's Hospital 2024 The results of this analysis show a relationship between the number of content and the number of like responses and positive comments on Instagram media, as well as the relationship between the number of content and like responses on YouTube. The types of content that generate the most social interaction are Instagram educational content, entertainment content on YouTube and Instagram entertainment content. In the social connectedness process, there was no significant correlation between social media engagement initiatives and social connectedness, which could be due to the internal friendship-suggestion algorithm used by the social media platform. Instagram is the most effective platform for establishing social connectedness and customer interaction. YouTube has the potential as a visual education channel, but a strategy is needed to encourage user engagement. Facebook needs to evaluate new content or approaches to stay relevant to its community of followers. Keywords: social media engagement initiative, social interaction, social connectedness