Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs) for Pharma
The Internet and digital/social media have transformed how patients discover, learn, and share health information.
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In a recent study of more than 50,000 KOLs, Acceleration Point found that 54% have online content relevant to a disease or treatment. Looking specifically at Twitter, depending on the therapeutic area between 18% and 40% of KOLs were active. The average KOL who is active on Twitter has 2,200 followers with a quarter of them identified as other healthcare providers. (1)
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Our client was advancing programs for the acute treatment of migraine and wanted to identify physicians who have a strong digital footprint in the right network.
The Purpose
Primary care providers (PCP) are a pivotal audience who were being targeted for the launch of our client’s migraine asset, and also, PCP’s comfort level in treating migraine is currently low.
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The objective was to identify influencers and strategic collaborators with whom client could work, to help drive discussions around the treatment of migraine in the primary care setting and could collaborate to achieve maximum impact for product launch.
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Task/Action
Our client was advancing programs for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults and had asked actintel to help identify a unique slice of primary care providers (PCP):
– Those who were disease-state agnostic, but broadly influential.
Of particular interest was to identify:
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Influencers who have a platform to discuss contemporary issues in primary care medicine but who are not talking about migraine.
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Physicians who have a strong online/digital presence including blogs, social-media outlets, online articles, and overall have a strong digital footprint in the right network.
The objective was to identify influencers and strategic collaborators with whom client could work, to help drive discussions around the treatment of migraine in the primary care setting and could collaborate to achieve maximum impact for product launch.
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Results
actintel took on the task of identifying and profiling a strong list of influencers who have a platform to discuss contemporary issues, have a big online presence with an impact on family practice and patient care in general.
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actintel reviewed a host of digital/social media platforms. Some physicians are engaging actively via Twitter while some motivates, inspires, and advises millions of followers and fans via social media posts on Linkedin, Instagram, WebMD, YouTube, face-to-face encounters, speaking engagements and appearances on network news shows.
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actintel expanded upon the social media analytics of these influencers to include more insight on their digital reach, including number of followers, interactions, and scope, and to capture any key insights on competitive pharmaceutical industry interactions.
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1. https://storage.googleapis.com/pharmavoice-assets/files/PV1121_KOLDigitalListening_GoingBeyondtheSearchforDigitalOpinionLeaders.pdf Accessed on May 2022.
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