Let's face it: Patients are talking about your hospital online. For better or worse, your organization has an online reputation that needs to at least be monitored, if not managed.

Here are four ways to watch it:

1. Use Google Alerts to help cull the Interweb for references to your hospital. Helpful hint: Use it to monitor what your competitors are doing.

2. Be proactive and timely in responding to negative feedback on your hospital's Facebook page or other social media sites. Be personal. And feel free to respond again, just to close the negative feedback loop.

3. Track what's being said about your hospital on social media sites by using SocialMention.com.

4. Take it all in stride. Hospitals are lightning rods for criticism. The Internet provides an endless array of forums where consumers can vent. Don't sweat that one negative review of your hospital on Yelp (out of a total of four). Consider the number of daily interactions your hospital has with consumers, think about the positives, and focus on engaging your online users.

I just met with our interactive agency to review last month's web stats. We are lucky to receive extremely detailed reports every month, complete with charts, graphs, and even the eye-color of our visitors.

Each month, I try to come up with engaging topics to attract consumers to our hospital's blogs and websites. For example:

Tips for heart-healthy eating
What should you do if you suspect you're having a stroke?
How to survive a lightning strike

But guess what article last month broke all previously held blog-view records?

The Duck Rescue Mission.

This was a story about ducklings that hatched in our enclosed healing garden and their subsequent rescue in a cardboard box by one of our environmental services employees. We included a few pictures of our Marketing Specialist holding one of the saccharine-sweet critters. The Duck Rescue Mission also was our highest scoring e-blast article (by 460+ clicks) and our third best performing tweet.

So, maybe when it comes to what articles might play well on your hospital's blogs and social media sites, you should consider softer territory than aneurysms and orthopedics. We think a blog about babies laughing uncontrollably on your DaVinci robot might fare much, much better.