Physicians change their prescribing choices based on health influencers’ social media content

The data: Some 80% of physicians use social media for professional purposes, per recent survey results from Sermo and LiveWorld. Their usage sheds light on the importance of social media as a channel where marketers can effectively reach doctors.

Sermo surveyed 317 US physicians across 11 specialties in July.

Digging into the data: When using social media, doctors see content from health influencers—physicians, patients, caregivers, and celebrities who share health knowledge and discuss their experiences with medical treatments and services.

• In fact, over two-thirds (69%) of doctors engage with health influencer content on social media daily.
• And it’s resonating with them. Some 80% find this content to be effective, especially when it’s from trusted sources.

Why it matters: 50% of doctors have changed their prescribing choices based on content from a health influencer on social media.

Even more (60%) have changed their perception of a medication based on social health influencer content. Persuading doctors to change which drugs they prescribe is a major coup in pharma marketing but is no easy feat.

Social health influencer campaigns offer a pathway for marketers to break through to physicians and encourage a reexamination of their prescribing behavior based on credible medical information delivered to them by trusted content creators.

The final word: Implementing a successful social health influencer marketing campaign doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, marketers need to focus on optimizing certain factors that physicians value for the campaign to authentically connect with them.

According to Sermo, social health influencers must keep the following in mind to sway physicians:

1. Identify an influencer that resonates. Selecting an engaging influencer capable of breaking through to physicians shows marketers understand their audience. This is where ad agencies can help by vetting health influencers’ social media accounts for pharma brands’ marketing campaigns.
2. Credibility. Physicians cite professional credentials (82%) and sharing evidence-based content (80%) as the top two aspects that lend credibility to health influencers.
3. Type of content. When receiving pharma information from social health influencers, physicians prefer clinical trial updates (70%) and treatment information/guidelines (59%).
4. Content format. Short-form creator content on social media reigns supreme, with physicians finding short-form videos (68%), short-form text (56%), and short-form articles (50%) the most valuable.

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