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Social media is now a primary channel for many people, including for healthcare. Yet when it comes to pharma, social media is very low on the priority list. When you consider that Tik Tok is now the main source of health information for a third of American Gen Z, you would think pharma would be heavily investing in the channel. It is not. Why? There are a number of reasons, some historical and some due to “misinformation”. One issue is the perceived lack of value in the channel. I will address this by highlighting some of the value that patient targeted social media can deliver.
Driving diagnosis
Whilst pharma companies are not able to post about their products on social media (ex-USA), they can post disease content (with a few exceptions). In many instances they can also post content to support diagnosis such as symptom checkers or discussion guides for physician appointments. This can be incredibly useful in helping educate patients. In turn this can help patients achieve a quicker diagnosis. When you consider that on average it takes an autoimmune patient over four years to get a diagnosis, anything to speed time to diagnosis is fantastic. The value to patients in getting a swift diagnosis can be immeasurable.
There is also value to pharma companies in a patient’s swifter diagnosis. During those four plus years of being undiagnosed an autoimmune patient is probably not being prescribed the appropriate pharma product. By helping patients get a quicker diagnosis pharma companies not only help patients, they also help generate revenues. When you look at four plus years this can be a significant impact in revenue, for a very low cost tactic.
Example of a social media post to help drive diagnosis
Finding patients
Closely linked to diagnosis is finding patients. This is an area of particular importance when it comes to clinical trials. Over 80% of all clinical trials face delays due to patient enrollment. When you factor in that each delayed day can cost between $600,000 and $8billion, not finding patients becomes a very costly affair. When you counter the cost of delay versus the cost of a campaign on the channel where your patients are (social media), the ROI becomes very clear.
Another area where finding patients can have a big impact is in rare disease. The nature of rare disease makes it harder to diagnose and harder to find patients. On average it takes rare disease patients nearly 5 years to get diagnosed. Many of these patients turn to social media to find answers. Again this is where being present, in some shape or form, can have a big impact.
Rare diseases can add an additional complication for pharma. From a regulatory point of view if the company is the only one with a product on the market, even sharing disease information could be seen as indirect product promotion. However there are other ways of reaching rare disease patients, such as support through HCP or patient influencers.
When you consider the cost of rare disease products, each patient is incredibly valuable to the company, and well worth any social media activity. And social media does work in finding patients. I was personally involved in connecting a rare autoimmune patient with a pharma campaign that directly led to her talking to her specialist about treatment options. One small investment in a campaign potentially had a very high ROI.
Example of autoimmune advocacy on social media that led to connecting a patient to a potential new treatment option
Support adherence
Another area that has been a thorn in pharma’s side for decades is adherence. It is estimated that the pharma industry loses more than $600 billion a year globally in revenue from medication non-adherence. Adherence has always been a tough nut to crack. Social media is definitely not the only solution, and many would argue not the main solution. However again when you balance to costs of this channel versus the impact the value is there.
There are many drivers of non-adherence. One is misinformation and concern with the treatment. Here social media can of course be a double edged sword. It can help contribute to the problem through misinformation. It can also however provide a channel where patients can find information to allay their concerns. Another issue with adherence can be dealing with side effects. Here having access to a community can be a great help – and social media is the perfect channel for this. There is in fact evidence that social media, such as Tik Tok, can be a useful tool for adherence in young adults. Whilst a pharma company may not want to be directly engaged in the community they can certainly provide useful content and resources via social media.
The value is clear
These are just some of the examples to demonstrate that value of social media to pharma. In this article I have also only looked at patient social media. HCP social media is also a value driver – and probably warrants a post all on its own! Social media is a primary and highly valuable channel in healthcare. It is considerably more cost effective that some of the more traditional pharma channels. The impact is very clear for all stakeholders. So why is pharma not doing more? That too merits an article all on its own!
If you work in pharma and would like to learn more about how to implement impactful social media please get in touch. Over the last 15 years I have written numerous SOPs for top pharma companies and developed social media friendly MLR process. I have also developed many social media strategies and trained brand teams in best practice social media. Whatever concerns you have, rest assured I have the experience to handle them.
