From Broadcast to Belonging:
University of Vermont Health Network
TL;DR
- Client: University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) - multi-hospital healthcare system across Vermont and upstate New York
- Problem: Fragmented social content with low engagement, no clear strategy, and zero understanding of their actual audience. Content aimed at employees instead of patients and communities, with local hospitals outperforming but getting no coordination or support.
- Solution: Competitive maturity assessment, audience insights research, and localized network social strategy
- Shift: Moved from corporate broadcast content and channel chaos to a localized network approach powered by audience data and human storytelling.
- Impact: Clear audience understanding, content framework that works for local and network channels, operational structure to say yes to the right requests and no to everything else.
The Challenge
UVMHN's social media wasn't broken. But it was definitely scattered.
They had strong voices in local hospitals. A few network-level wins. But overall, their content was either created in a vacuum, posted without strategy, or aimed at employees instead of patients and communities. Leadership treated social platforms like digital bulletin boards for press releases.
The social team was stretched thin, managing chaotic requests with no shared strategy, no real understanding of the audience, and no clear process for deciding who should say what, where, or why.
The symptoms showing up:
- Fragmented content across network and local hospital accounts
- Lowest score for local content mix among competitive peer set
- Zero presence on YouTube or Instagram at the network level
- Inconsistent tone with limited human storytelling
- Best-performing content came from local hospitals but lacked coordination
- Employee-heavy content when the audience was primarily patients and the community
- Leadership sending press releases, expecting social posts
- The social team saying yes to every request because they had no framework to say no
- Low engagement despite substantial following
- No audience data to guide content decisions
They knew something was off, but couldn't articulate what needed to change or how to prioritize fixes without burning out the already-stretched team.
The Shift
What made this work worth doing: UVMHN needed a strategic foundation they could actually scale, not another playbook that would sit on a shelf. They needed to understand who was following them, what those people wanted, and how to organize content creation across multiple hospitals without losing local relevance.
The belief that had to change: "Social is where we broadcast hospital updates" → "Social is where we build community trust and become a health resource people actually want to follow."
The barriers they faced: No baseline understanding of audience composition or preferences. Competing priorities across local hospitals and network leadership. A "hub and spoke" model that wasn't working because network content felt corporate while local content felt human but unsupported. Leadership that didn't understand why press releases don't work as social posts.
The Work
- Competitive maturity benchmarking
Assessed UVMHN's social presence against peer healthcare systems (Mass General Brigham, Dartmouth Health, Yale New Haven) and scored maturity across content mix, cadence, platform use, engagement, and voice. This revealed UVMHN had the lowest score for local content mix, inconsistent tone, and was missing platforms entirely at the network level. Made the case for a "Localized Network" approach that blends system credibility with local trust and storytelling. - Audience insights research
Leadership suspected their audience skewed older, more female, and employee-heavy, but had no data. Launched qualitative and quantitative survey collecting 700+ responses to validate assumptions and uncover what the community actually wanted from health content on social.
Key findings: The audience skews older and female, but these are healthcare household decision-makers. Most use social for health and wellness content, not just hospital updates. People want real stories, condition-specific guidance, and localized wellness content - not generic brand messaging or press releases formatted as posts. - Content strategy framework
Built five core content pillars grounded in audience data: humanized storytelling (patients, providers, staff), localized health (condition-specific, relevant), localized wellness (lifestyle, mental health, nutrition), community and events, accolades and wins (done carefully, not corporate fluff). Defined a clear tone of voice that felt less like corporate communications and more like a helpful neighbor. - Localized network operating model
Mapped content by platform, audience, and priority. Defined network versus local lanes, including when and how to cross-pollinate content. Gave local hospitals clear roles and shared language while providing a network-level framework for system-wide initiatives that don't feel corporate. - Operational structure for requests
Created a framework for evaluating content requests so the social team could confidently say yes to strategic work and no to everything else. This stopped the cycle of posting irrelevant content just because a leader asked. - "Aha" moment: When the audience data revealed that followers wanted condition-specific health guidance and localized wellness content, not hospital accolades and employee spotlights. The gap between what UVMHN was posting and what their community actually wanted explained the engagement problem immediately.
The Outcome
- What's different now:
The social team has a strategy to evaluate requests against audience needs instead of just absorbing whatever leadership sends. Local hospital teams have clearer roles and shared language to plan content that feels human and relevant. Network-level content can now complement local efforts without competing or feeling corporate.
Leadership is shown through data, not on assumptions. Audience insights are shaping content direction, replacing guesswork with a strategy grounded in what 700+ community members said they actually want. - Decisions enabled:
The team can now prioritize content that builds trust and engagement over content that satisfies internal stakeholders but doesn't resonate with the community. They know which platforms to prioritize and which gaps to fill. Local hospitals can decide when to create original content and when to amplify network content, based on clear swimlanes. - Internal wins:
The social team can push back on irrelevant content requests by using audience data rather than just saying "this doesn't feel right." Local teams stopped feeling abandoned by the network because they now have frameworks, support, and a clear coordination model. The fighting over resources and priorities decreased because everyone's working from a shared strategy grounded in actual audience preferences.
The playbook gave the team operational sanity - a system to grow engagement and build trust without burning out or losing what makes each hospital feel local and human.
The Takeaway
For other organizations:
If your social media feels like a dumping ground for press releases and leadership requests, the problem isn't execution - it's that you're missing a strategic foundation. You need to know who's actually following you, what they want from health content, and how to organize creation across multiple stakeholders without losing relevance or burning out your team.
Who's probably in the same stuck place:
Multi-location healthcare systems (or any organization with local and corporate accounts), where local content performs better but gets no support. Social teams are drowning in requests with no framework to prioritize or say no. Organizations treat social media like a broadcast channel when audiences want community resources and human connection.
What this case proves:
You can't "strategy" your way to success when you don't know your audience. Healthcare social media works when you understand who you're talking to and what they actually need, then organize operations to deliver it consistently without burning out your team. Audience data beats leadership assumptions every time, and localized content with coordination beats corporate broadcast content always.