The Social Challenges Facing Pharma Research

Social media has become an established source of insight for people across the world. This is particularly true in the US where nearly 60 million people are turning to a new generation of influencers on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for healthcare support and information, according to our Patient Trendscoping: What You Need To Know About Patients of the Future study.

Pharmaceutical brands and healthcare professionals, however, have lagged. Many pharma brands are still absent when it comes to these channels, missing an important opportunity to not just influence the way people manage their health but to improve their own understanding of patient trends.

The picture is even more challenging when it comes to patients with chronic conditions. Globally, nearly a third (29%) of Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) patients, for example, tap specific groups on social media and 28% rely on online influencers for healthcare information.

Engaging with platforms where information isn’t always accurate, where a post can open the door to trolls, is difficult for any brand in any category. But for pharma brands this can have a negative impact on a person’s health. We only need to reflect on the Covid experience to realize that the spread of misinformation can have very serious consequences.

While there are qualified medical influencers engaged in the social conversation, not all influencers are medically trained and the advice they give is not monitored. Information  is often provided by another sufferer with the best intentions, but proper medical treatment needs to be adapted to each individual.

While a more informed patient can help doctors and nurses answer concerns and queries accurately, patients demanding inappropriate or potentially risky treatments can be hard for healthcare providers to manage.

Who’s saying what to whom?

When it comes to social media, there’s also a challenge of transparency. Many of the groups that discuss specific conditions are private – whether the platform is TikTok, Facebook or WhatsApp. If companies don’t know what’s being said about them and the conditions they aim to treat, they can’t adjust their communications or even add the knowledge for future new product development.

Many healthcare brands may already be tracking Twitter because it’s public. While Twitter is a top five social media platform, it’s much smaller than the likes of TikTok which is more popular with younger patients.

Our study found that globally 33% of GenZ and 26% of Millennials (compared to 5% of Baby Boomers) will use social media to discuss illness. For GenZ, the top platform is TikTok followed by Instagram and Twitter. Older groups, in comparison, turn to Facebook first.

Even tracking who the key influencers are for each disease category can be hard because the rules governing online communications are not keeping pace with the acceleration of search and social.

There are also very strict regulations on what brands can and can’t say about treatments and efficacy. The traditional approach has been to ensure everything gets signed off – ensuring every last ‘i’ and every last ‘t’ is crossed before messages see the light of day.

Influencer marketing and social media, however, goes out in real time without regulatory review. Because it can look like medical information, people can take this information as coming from the pharma company itself or being an approved treatment claim.

The right social media approach

Of course, none of this means that pharma companies can or should avoid social media. In 2023 that’s simply not possible, but as they adopt an omnichannel approach to their communications, they need additional insight and a different messaging approach for social if they are to be relevant, responsive and successful.

Marketing and insights teams need actionable segmentation to deeply understand the people that use their products. They also need to understand the different demands of each generation. Some have dipped their toes in the digital communication waters with instructional videos. Still, GenZ may be happy with a video while Gen X typically prefer a printed instruction manual.

Next, pharma companies should conduct a detailed breakdown of audiences and influencers, so they can at least identify what’s being said about their treatments and disease categories. They need to be listening to know what needs to be addressed.

And when they do respond, they also need to use more understandable language and not lapse into the words of the experts in white coats. Information must be concise and understandable, particularly on social media.

Ultimately, brands need to foster better communication between patients and healthcare professionals and insights are essential to finding those connections. Being more patient centric and taking a ‘with the patient’ approach, rather than the traditional ‘for the patient’, is likely to be more successful.

Instead of transferring traditional marketing to digital spaces, companies need to take a holistic view of what health and wellness means to people, especially younger generations. By providing information where and how audiences feel most connected, pharma companies can cement more enduring relationships with their customers.