Over 50% physicians confess that social media changed their perception of a drug

Over 50% of physicians confess that social media changed their perception of a drug A new survey by LiveWorld and Sermo revealed that social media’s impact on physicians can be as strong as it is on the public.

The survey included over 200 U.S. physicians and more than 50 pharma marketers. Of these participants, just below 60% (57%) claimed to have changed their original perception of treatment occasionally or repeatedly because of social media. Only a mere 16% of doctors reported that social media does not impact their perception of drugs.

The results also showed that social media greatly impacts professional networking, prescribing habits, and medical education. Added to that, of the pharma marketers interviewed, 94% stated social media to be a vital healthcare professional (HCP) channel. The importance is such that 9 out of 10 marketers have included social media in the 2023 budget.

Of the marketers that included a budget for social media, half have stated an increase in the said budget compared to last year while the other half reported it to be the same as before, meaning none of the marketers reduced the budget for social media compared to the previous year.

Over ninety percent of the pharma marketers in the survey were in agreement with the physicians regarding the importance of social media’s role in influencing clinical as well as treatment decisions. It was reported that the physicians’ top picks in social media were Sermo and Doximity, which are closed communities for professional and clinical use.

According to statistics, a third of the doctors reportedly altered their views on a drug due to Sermo Doximity while just over 40% of doctors’ views were shifted because of Sermo content. Physicians reported that they trust closed-community more compared to Facebook or Tiktok and hence there is a greater chance of them downloading information from such groups than the other social media platforms. This does not mean that doctors are not using social media platforms, because they are. Reportedly over 50% are part of private groups on Facebook, over 60% use Twitter to keep up with professional and hospital updates and 35% stated that they use LinkedIn for congress announcements and presentations.

Doctors also follow other physicians as well as HCP influencers on social media sites. The survey revealed the reasons why doctors follow influencers, which were; their topic knowledge, their relatable content, and their credentials. When pharma makers realized there was value in the influencers, 56% of them said that digital influencers would be a part of their plans for the year.

Danny Flamberg, the vice president of HCP strategy at LiveWorld said, “Social media is a serious and necessary factor in HCP marketing and promotion. Social media is being widely adopted, budgeted, and planned for in 2023. Marketers have faith in its reach, persuasiveness, peer-to-peer credibility, and immediacy.”

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