By Katie Kennedy 
Over the last few years we have seen some great examples of pharmaceutical companies recognising the importance of nurses as key stakeholders and engaging with them online. From Sanofi’s Connecting-Nurses initiative to J&J’s Nursing Future Campaign, these strategies have really embraced the use of on and offline channels in order to align themselves with one of the integral roles within healthcare (read more about these campaigns here). With the increase in nurses engaging and utilising online channels healthcare organisations are responding accordingly by listening to and participating in the conversation online.
Listening to what nurses discuss online
If you work within a pharmaceutical or healthcare organisation and want to engage better with nurses the first step is finding out what their needs and concerns are so you can understand how to best support them. Using Creation Pinpoint we are able to filter down the healthcare professional conversation on social media so we can exclusively listen to what is being said by nurses. Being able to provide such specific online market research is really useful for companies who want to understand the needs of each of their stakeholders.
We often work with clients to identify who the key digital opinion leaders are in the nursing community. Many people are familiar with KOLs who are identified by their experience, their seniority and level of respect within their community. Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs) on the other hand are identified by their relevant online reach among peers, their engagement and their trusted opinion online; meaning someone less senior who would not be a traditional KOL can be seen by their peers as a DOL. By understanding who is influential among nurses a pharmaceutical or healthcare company would know who best to engage with when they have created a resource or a training session they want shared online with other nurses.
Another question we have been asked to answer before is which channels are nurses using online, i.e. which blogs are they frequenting and which digital channels are they using. Again all these insights help for the planning stage of your digital engagement strategy.
Knowing where your target HCP groups are online is integral for your market research to succeed.
Supporting nurses both on and offline
Identifying the needs of nurses online doesn’t necessarily lead to responding with a digital tactic. Some of the projects we have worked on in the past have actually led to clients providing resources or setting up training sessions offline. By listening to the conversation you understand what type of material would be useful for nurses and which channels to use to engage with them and point them in the direction of your offline resources.
The more personalised the campaign is to your audiences’ specific needs the better the results will be. Understanding the concerns and requirements of each your key job roles allows you to position yourself as a real asset.
To understand more about how Creation Pinpoint can help you discover the needs and concerns of your different HCP stakeholders as well as map out the digital opinion leaders for each profession contact me at [email protected] for a free envisioning session over WebEx. It’s a great way to boost your education and understanding of this new form of HCP market research.
