Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and YouTube channels run by online consumer communities showed 24 times more activity than those run by health industry companies in the US, according to PwC.

During February 2012, the consultants tracked the social media activity of healthcare companies, looking at providers, insurers and pharmaceutical companies, and compared it to online consumer communities to create a 'week in the life of social health'.

Community sites were found to have the largest numbers of members and interactions – by both community moderators and members. They were also active at the weekend and were mostly driven by their members.

In contrast, healthcare companies had minimal activity over the weekend, but industry sites did still attract new members (on average more than 100 new members engaged with each company throughout the week).

“The interactions that did take place [on industry sites] were high-quality touchpoints between organisations and consumers, where they shared an educational resource or resolved a customer service issue," PwC said in its report Social Media Likes Healthcare: From Marketing To Social Business.

Despite concerns by industry leaders that social media triggers negative conversation, more than 80 per cent of interactions were neutral and only 5 per cent were negative.

The report also surveyed over 1,000 people and found that one third used social media for health matters.

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