As part of Creation Healthcare’s research partnership with Doctors 2.0 & You, which uses Creation Pinpoint to analyse Healthcare Professionals’ (HCPs’) conversations in public social media channels about cardiovascular disease, I am continuing to share some highlights of our work.
Languages used in the Americas
We have previously discussed the importance of bringing local insights to bear in pharmaceutical marketing and communication campaigns (in general, in China and in Central and Eastern Europe). This may include an awareness of:
- Language
- Disease prevalence
- Cultural specifics of communication
Here, we provide some snapshot insights into the languages used to discuss the broad topic of heart health in the Americas. Heart health is a topic of global importance – heart disease has been a common issue in developed countries such as the United States for some decades, and the prevalence of “lifestyle diseases” is increasing in the developing world and amongst certain ethnic groups. Spanish language programmes such as www.estudiabetes.org have been created to support Spanish-speaking people living with diabetes, for example (diabetes is a risk factor for heart disease).
In this study, English, Spanish and Portuguese keywords related to heart health were used to configure Creation Pinpoint, which then looked for relevant HCP conversations on the topic taking place in the US, Mexico and certain South American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile).
The bar chart below shows that a significant portion of the conversations taking place used Spanish language.
Figure 1 Languages used to discuss heart health topic in North, Central and South American countries, 12 month period to March 2013
The topic cloud for the results highlights the importance of Spanish language in these countries. That Spanish language words are some of the largest in the topic cloud suggests that some Spanish language content may have been extensively shared amongst users.
Figure 2 Heart health topics – North, Central and South American countries, 12 month period to March 2013
Key terms here are “heart attack”, “risk of heart attack” and “calcium supplements”. Deeper analysis of the word cloud revealed that tweets around the increased risk of heart attack associated with the use of calcium supplements were often re-tweeted.
Spanish language DOLs in the Americas
Some of the HCPs most active on Twitter during the study period communicated in Spanish. The top three HCPs in terms of activity were based in Venezuela (two generalists/internists, and one plastic surgeon).
Figure 3 Profiles of the top three HCPs from the study – all based in Venezuela
How can insights such as these be relevant to you?
Understanding the market is key when planning any kind of campaign, and insights produced by Creation Pinpoint can play a helpful role:
- Identifying the main languages used to discuss topics of interest, in particular countries, and/or globally. In the case of the data presented in this article, the importance of Spanish language is highlighted. There was little evidence of use of Portuguese
- Understanding the key topics of discussion in the areas of interest, and how content is used. From the Americas study, we can conclude that certain areas of Spanish language content are shared extensively – analysis of the word cloud shows that tweets on calcium supplements and heart attack risk are often re-tweeted
- Identifying Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs)
Taken together, this information would enable pharmaceutical companies to:
- Create materials in the most relevant target languages, without mis-directing investments
- Develop materials that DOLs are more likely to share. It is a common goal of digital communicators to create a “viral” campaign, but it is impossible to predict or control how users will respond to materials (see here for more discussion of this issue). If the behaviour of DOLs is understood, it is more likely that any content created would be well received and impactful, thereby providing a good return on investment
What’s next?
Watch this space for more highlights from our ongoing research, and also check out the Creation Pinpoint blog on www.creationpinpoint.com. Feel free to get in touch with us directly on [email protected] with any specific questions about Creation Pinpoint or our other areas of work.
