What this means for your digital marketing initiatives
The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that 61% of American adults look online for health information and continue to deepen their engagement with the online world.
- 41% of e-patients have read someone else’s commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, website, or blog.
- 24% of e-patients have consulted rankings or reviews online of doctors or other providers.
- 24% of e-patients have consulted rankings or reviews online of hospitals or other medical facilities.
Social networking sites are used only sparingly for health queries and updates
- 39% of e-patients use a social networking site like MySpace and Facebook
- 12% of e-patients use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or to see updates about others
Group 8020 suggests: Given the lack of FDA guidance for pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device manufacturers looking to engage in social media, this sparse interest is not surprising. It does provide health care communicators with guidance, however, on allocating budget for social media marketing until such regulatory guidance is provided.
Positive self-help
- Half of all online health inquiries (52%) are on behalf of someone other than the person typing in the search terms.
- Two-thirds of e-patients talk with someone else about what they find online, most often a friend or spouse.
Online health inquiries have an impact on decisions or actions and there are clearly more positive experiences than negative ones. Fully 42% of all adults, or 60% of e-patients, say they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advice or health information found on the internet. This represents a significant increase since 2006 when 25% of all adults, or 31% of e-patients, said that.
Group 8020 suggests: Health care communicators may want to focus greater effort on the tools associated with sharing – “forward to a friend” links for example – to give existing content greater reach.
Exercise and fitness are hot
The percentage of American adults getting exercise and fitness information online has jumped from 21% in 2002 to 38% now – an 88% growth, a more rapid increase than any other health topic covered in the survey.
Group 8020 suggests: While the focus on fitness may be attributable in part to the recession, brands with a lifestyle story to tell would be well-advised to trot that content out. Consider creating a YouTube channel of repurposed materials.
Mobile drives digital consumption
Wireless connections are associated with deeper engagement in social media and an accelerated pace of information exchange. adults between the ages of 18 to 49 are more likely than older adults to participate in social technologies related to health.
Group 8020 suggests: Asking your agency to validate your digital content for mobile browsers like iPhone’s Safari and Blackberry’s Web Browser. The incremental cost to remedy any mobile access issues are minute compared to the gains you’ll achieve in engagement.
Links:
- Download the full report “Health, Mobile, Web 2.0 : The Social Life of Health Information” from Pew Internet [opens PDF in new window]
- Survey questions and methodology
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