Decoding how to use X (Twitter) to engage with doctors

Since the advent of social media channels, almost more than 90% of pharmaceutical marketers are confused about which ones to use. I have been in social media marketing since the Orkut and Myspace days and have seen how social media channels have evolved over the last 10+ years.

In this new series of articles for GAPSULE , I will explore the importance of each social media platform. This series will essentially focus on KOLs engaging with social media platforms in India.??

Twitter of X as it is now known.?

This is the most important platform for top doctors in India. You will find all the top KOLs across specialties sharing their opinions. On X, they don’t actually have conversations; rather, they have debates. These debates range from research papers based on molecules, government policies, academic interactions, debates about treatment algorithms, peer guidance for diagnosing diseases and more.?

Most top KOLs will share their views and they have a substantial following of doctors and media professionals. On X, we have two sets of doctors; 5% of the doctors on X share or demystify the alternative therapy, while the rest follow these doctors to understand their views.

Here are a couple of screenshots of what doctors share on X, as Indian pharma brand managers need to understand how to engage with them.?

How pharma can use this insight to engage with doctors:

Before the brand manager plans to start engaging the doctors, since most KOLs treat this platform as a serious platform. It is essential to start with a focus on listening to the conversations that you are having on X. Understand the context, and more importantly, understand what they are saying about your molecule or any specific disease that you are marketing, before even starting your campaign.

Here are the platforms a brand manager can use for Listening to conversations on X

• Radian6 Salesforce Social Studio - gold standard when it comes to listening on social channels for conversations.
• Brand 24: This is a bit of a new tool, but it can still help you listen to conversations easily across social channels.?
• Sprout Social: This is a pretty old tool, but it has its restrictions.
• Some other tools, like Hubspot, Hootsuite, Talkwalker, etc., can also help you listen to conversations.?
• FREE: If you do not wish to invest initially, you can create lists on X based on your target KOLs or specialty hashtags and start tracking the tweets. But this is a cumbersome process. Hence, you can partner with a digital marketing agency that can help you create a social media listening report for your category, a list of top conversations and a doctor handle list.?

Here is what I suggest the brand manager needs to follow once they have done around 12 months of deep dive research around the disease category. Understand who the top KOLs are, who shares on X, what they share, whether molecules or research papers or whether they share about treatment or help their peers diagnose.?

I will suggest multiple approaches based on where your brand and molecule stand in the journey of engagement among the KOLs.

Approach 1:

1. Strategically, get onboard KOLs who are pro your molecule and company.
2. You can get access to this information from the medical reps.
3. Understand whether any other KOLs want to become thought leaders on X, and you can help them.
4. Essentially, these KOLs want to create a perspective as thought leaders on X but don’t have the resources or understanding to use the platform.
5. Now, before you start, get at least 10 KOLs onboard, with whom you can work closely.
6. First, start by setting up their X profile, along with their bio, picture, and banner image.
7. Now, conduct a one-on-one session, making them aware of the process you will follow and how you will be helping the KOLs. Since the KOL needs to invest around 30 minutes daily to get themselves accustomed to using the platform,.?
8. Get the digital agency or one of your team members to listen on a daily basis to what other doctors in the category are talking about. Who is replying to those tweets, RTs, and likes? It is also important to keep track of international tweets in this disease category.?
9. At the end of the report, give an overview to the KOL and also give suggestions on the RTs they need to do, the tweets they need to do and likes.?
10. Follow a rule of 70:20:10, so if the KOL needs to RT 70% of tweets, 20% need to RT with a message and 10% of the time they need to natively publish a tweet. This helps to get better noticed among peers and get peers to also comment, as on social media, when you give, only then you get.
11. Now, over the course of the X journey, the brand manager can suggest KOLs research reports around their brand molecule that they can positively tweet about. This helps to build positive conversation around the molecule.

Approach 2:

1. Start with an X handle based on the disease category.
2. Now start sharing new research reports in the category.
3. The focus of the handle should be on sharing relevant, knowledgeable content with the doctors. That would help them in their daily practice.
4. Here are some content ideas you can use to nurture the X handle / profile: New researches, Updates on conferences, Conference key discussions, New guidelines, Journal scans, Medical news in bytes, Clinical tips, New policies for doctors, Tropical based on financial aspects, IT returns, health days specific, etc.
5. Conduct a tweetathon on a specific day in the week and invite KOL participants to engage based on the hashtag.

As you start working on the content, you also need to follow a dedicated approach towards listening, as this will help you to also engage with KOLs. Online listening will also help to share relevant content related to trends as and when they happen.

Although a lot of pharma marketers feel X is a difficult-to-use platform. Once they start focusing on serving the doctors with information that helps them, it can further grow the credibility of the handle.

Here are some of the suggested hashtags: #digitalhealth, #medtwitter, #MedEd, #Neurosurgery, #NSGY, #surgery, #Doctors, #NEET, #cerebrovascular, #neurotwitter, #Obesity, #WeightLoss, #emergencymedicine, #criticalcare, etc.

If you need any specific hashtags, do let me know Moses Gomes