HCPs are becoming increasingly active in expressing their opinions on social media and online research publications. As Wall Street Journal noted in this article, this is driven by their desire to provide credible information online to help people stay updated with the latest developments in research and healthcare, especially during this Covid-19 crisis. For example, Bob Wachter, the chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco takes at least 2 hours of his busy schedule on most days to put out content on Twitter.
Our own research has shown that physicians have become quite active across a variety of social channels. From a random sample of 1,000 hematologists, we found that ~40% of them are present on at least one of the online platforms.
As the following example of Dr. Anthony Mato (an opinion leader in Hematology) illustrates, Hematologists are not only active with research publications in Pubmed/Clinical Trials.gov, but also in social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Efficient pre-call research using this social data
These research and social posts published by physicians are valuable sources of insight for Pharma companies and their sales reps. Many HCPs feel that the sales reps tend to be delivering a scripted pitch about the product and do not give details about new studies or data which support the need for using the product. To overcome this immense challenge, it’s critical for the reps to personalize the sales details to suit the specific interests of a physician. By researching a physician’s social and professional posts, sales reps can understand the top of the mind needs and concerns of HCPs, and tailor their pitch accordingly.
Our PharmaSignals platform helps sales reps by consolidating conversations across channels and sending them via email. Sales reps can use this to identify conversation starters of interest for the HCP. Below is an example of a weekly email that is sent to a sales director that is currently using our platform.
Our PharmaSignals platform reduces the manual effort of tracking each of these targets across various social media platforms and media sites. Thus, giving readymade access to their content and increasing the chances of having better conversations with HCPs.