By Daniel Ghinn 
Influential online healthcare professionals are changing the world of healthcare engagement. HCP ‘Digital Opinion Leaders’ (DOLs) are driving health policy decisions, defining the views of their online peers, and maybe shaping your brand well before your product launches.
At CREATION.co, we’ve led the way in using data science to identify and profile healthcare professional Digital Opinion Leaders since we first introduced the concept in 2012.
Deciding how to identify, profile and engage DOLs is a process as unique as your own goals. So we work with you to define what’s most important in your particular DOL identification and profiling scenario.
Here are some questions we think you’ll find helpful when considering your DOLs.
1. What does the Digital Opinion Leader think about topics you both care about?
Find those HCPs who are actively engaged on topics you care about, such as a particular disease, treatment approach, or issue or cause. Then discover how they really feel about those topics.
2. Which other healthcare professionals follow the Digital Opinion Leader?
You need to know what the HCP’s professional online network looks like: are they being followed by other HCPs, and why? What professional roles or specialties do their followers practise in, and where are those followers located?
3. Does what the HCP says online have an impact on the behaviours of their peers?
By studying responses from other relevant HCPs, you will discover how the Digital Opinion Leader’s thought leadership is shaping the professional online conversation, and potentially the actions of those professionals.
4. Who or what influences the Digital Opinion Leader?
Having established the impact of the Digital Opinion Leader’s digital thought leadership on their online peers, it will be helpful to discover how their own digital conversation is affected by others, such as professional peers, patients or organisations.
5. What key topics are discussed by the Digital Opinion Leader?
So far, your perspective on your Digital Opinion Leader is highly focused on the topics you are both interested in. To get to know the HCP more deeply, it will be helpful to know what else they care about.
6. Which social media channels is the Digital Opinion Leader influential on?
Knowing where, and how, a Digital Opinion Leader is influential online may help you consider possible future engagement. If they are not active on the channels you are already using, do you need to rethink your own channels, or rethink your Digital Opinion Leader?
7. What kind of media does the Digital Opinion Leader like to share?
Analysing the Digital Opinion Leader’s media preferences could provide you with tools for potential engagement and collaboration, and might also inspire your own digital tactics.
8. Is your Digital Opinion Leader also a Key Opinion Leader (KOL)?
You probably already know who your Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) are. Are any of your KOLs also DOLs? To answer this, you need to know whether your DOL is also influential offline through traditional channels, and whether your KOLs are actively engaged online too.
9. Is the Digital Opinion Leader open to collaboration?
Many influential online HCPs are eager to collaborate with industry or other organisations, where there is a mutual opportunity for good.
10. Do you already know the Digital Opinion Leader?
You might be surprised to discover HCPs that you already know, who have significant influence online in your areas of interest. Discovering their online behaviours can have a great impact on your understanding and relationship.
Discover how we can uniquely enable your Digital Opinion Leader strategy by answering these 10 questions (and more!) using CREATION Pinpoint®, and leverage the collective intelligence of more than 2.5 million HCPs and 1 billion online social media and blog posts.
Fill out your details below to download our latest white paper or find more information here.
Discover more information on identifying and engaging with HCP Digital Opinion Leaders and get access to further DOL resources here.
