Top 3 takeaways from the MSL Talk podcast
We loved the recent MSL Talk podcast with Jason Howard at Sanofi. It was so good we couldn't wait to share our favorite moments. Let's go!
MSL Talk: why is social listening so important right now?
Jason: For us, it's four main buckets of value: 1) real-time insights, 2) new sources of insights, 3) digital opinion leader identification and 4) using this information to increase your team's KOL access. Being able to put this together in real time has been really powerful for our Medical Affairs teams.
Our take: We love Jason's comments here. Social listening is like having an extra MSL. 🙂
MSL Talk: what social media channels are you monitoring?
Jason: Twitter is still king for for HCP engagement and discussion of science. Pre-pandemic, the volume on Twitter was actually dropping off. And it exploded during the pandemic for obvious reasons. Everyone was looking for the latest real-time information and Twitter was a perfect source. It was a very, very powerful tool. And we've seen that engagement levels have not dropped off.
Our take: We agree with Jason. In oncology/hematology and other areas, Twitter is the best source for medical insights. As long as ASCO and other congresses stick with Twitter, we believe HCPs will too.
MSL Talk: what about YouTube?
Jason: There are definitely KOLs on YouTube. The difficulty is the monitoring…to get the monitoring of a video, you have to go from video to text. From the perspective of a social media listening strategy, YouTube can be tricky.
Our take: YouTube can definitely be tricky. Some videos can be an hour or longer and it's hard to find time to watch them.
To help, Medical.watch lets you easily skip to the section in the video where the HCP mentions your product. Our users love this. ❤️
Reach out to HCPs attending a congress
Here's a best practice: during a congress, Jason would check which HCPs were posting on Twitter, look up their email addresses and reach out to them. His intro email would look something like this:
"Hey, I'm at this meeting, you're at this meeting. I thought you said some really interesting things about x, y and z [whatever the topic was]. I would love to meet and get your experience as a digital opinion leader."
Jason: I usually got the meeting about 75% of the time. You're targeting the people who are putting themselves out there…they want to be contacted and it works out for everyone. If they're not in your territory, you can do a warm handoff to another MSL on your team. It really helps build your community in a real-time way. And it was very, very successful.
For more insights, watch the full podcast:
Quotes are lightly edited for clarity.
Get social media insights for your products. Sign up for Medical.watch. 🙂
What we're reading
Medical Affairs Weekly post, "How to work with a recruiter," November 24, 2023
MSL Journal article, "How to manage objections in KOL interactions to enhance insights and elevate relationship development" with Larry Dollar and Cherie Hyder at Syneos Health, November 5, 2023
MSL Journal article, "Three ways to improve your KOL engagement strategy" with Christoph Bug at Veeva, November 5, 2023
MSL Talk podcast, "Things will be HARD…but YOU can do hard things!" with Sarah Snyder at Carolan Group, October 17, 2023