Measuring Instagram Activity and Engagement Rate of Hospital: A Comparison before and during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Social media operated by hospitals plays a significant role during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the hospitals' effort to engage their followers during the pandemic is understudied. The study aimed to identify the hospitals' frequency post in their Instagram account and the engagement rate before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study observed the activities through the Instagram posts of each hospital. The observation was conducted using a cross-sectional review of the hospital-related activities of 19 Instagram accounts owned by the hospitals across Depok City, Indonesia. Further, to measure the engagement rate, the period of the posts was limited from January to June 2020. The rate was calculated by dividing the total number of likes by the total number of followers' times the number of posts times the probability of followers viewing the posts; then multiplied by 100%. The Mann Whitney U test was employed to determine the significant difference in the daily Instagram posts and the engagement rate before and during the pandemic. The study showed that 15 hospitals increase Instagram activities during the pandemic, and eight hospitals (42.11%) showed a significant increase compared to the pre-pandemic period. Besides, the results revealed that nine hospitals (47.37%) increased the engagement rate. Meanwhile, about 40% of the samples increased the frequency of post and engagement rates. However, few hospitals, primarily publicly owned hospitals, need to improve the posts and the engagement rate.