61% of adults "rooted in old media". Social media is not a savior for pharma brands
From a press release from Pew Internet: Most Americans 61% of adults are what we call the Stationary Media Majority. Many are on the have side of the so-called digital divide. They have broadband, they have a cell phone but they are rooted in old media. If youre someone who thinks that online collaboration is a good thing, you have not convinced these people. In fact, you may even be losing them. They are just not that into the hive. Looking specifically at health, the Pew Internet Project confirms our finding that 8 in 10 internet users, or 61% of U.S. adults, have looked online for health information. But participatory patients or e-patients are using the internet in new ways. Some are
going online to connect, in fact, with what we think of as traditional sources: health professionals, friends, and families. Still think that patients want to "connect" with pharma via social media? Still think that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are all the same social media channels?
The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions found that the majority of consumers want to share decision-making with their doctor; only 20% are content to let their doctor control those decisions.
It's important to look at how patients are searching for health information on the Internet. First let me be the first to say that you can't apply a broad process for how patients search for health information. How they search is contingent upon several things including; the seriousness of the condition, whether the treatment is for themselves or another family member and overall perception of their healthcare provider (relationship).
So what I have found through research is that patients will go online to get factual information, usually from a site like Web MD or Revolution Health. Then, depending on the seriousness of the condition and treatment options, they will go to message boards to learn what the experiences of other patients with different treatments including prescription medications. In fact 41% of e-patients have read someone else's commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, website, or blog.
Not all Social Media is the Same
As social media grows it's important to separate the platforms as distinct channels. Facebook is quite different from Twitter when it comes to average age and user experience. YouTube, while some consider it social media, is really just a storage platform for videos and for people to comment on these videos. Can you imagine for example that someone would go to YouTube to search depression or ED?
The Center for Studying Health System Change also measures patient activation and finds that 41% of patients have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their health. But we have a potentially severe problem. Your just-in-time someone like me may not be online or they may not be speaking up in public forums:
Only 5% of internet users have posted comments, queries, or information about health or medical matters in an online discussion forum
5% of e-patients have posted a review online of a doctor (recall that one in four have consulted such reviews)
4% of e-patients have posted a review online of a hospital.
What does all this mean?
For DTC marketers it means that rather than trying to adapt the channel for DTC marketing, DTC marketing has to go where people are looking for health information and integrate the content and messages. This does not mean a Twitter page on Cialis, it means that rather than trying to drive people to come to your product.com site, which people don't trust anyway, you should be getting your content out to every health portal through an integrated online campaign. It means that you should monitor social media boards so that you can respond with good credible transparent information when patients get concerned and not wait for it to mushroom into a major issue that can impact sales.
Jumping on something because it is "hot" and is the "buzz" is not a good strategic plan. Many marketers in fact are finding that social media has yet to provide an ROI and today pharma can ill afford a lot of programs that don't directly provide an ROI unless they feel that they do in fact need to get closer to patients.