In 2020, the number of HCPs using social media for professional reasons increased by 35%. Over the next few years as new HCPs enter the workforce, this trend will continue. In a recent survey, over 60% of HCPs will use social media for work purposes.

While Facebook and LinkedIn remain popular, younger HCPs prefer Instagram and Twitter. 

Today, over 640,000 HCPs use Twitter to discuss treatment guidelines with colleagues as well as learn about disease education and new studies. 

As one example, medical oncologist Dr. Jack West has 18,300 followers and tweets often about treatment guidelines:

H. Jack West, MD @JackWestMD

Great study from my colleague Dr. Goel at @cityofhope. Development of blood-based biopsies to detect and monitor tumors is one of the leading-edge technologies under investigation to help patients with #cancer. bit.ly/3sAQlRH #CancerSM

bit.lyNew Liquid Biopsy Could Detect Colon Cancer Spread |City of HopeCity of Hope scientists have developed a novel, noninvasive liquid biopsy test for detecting lymph node metastasis in individuals with high-risk T1 colorectal carcinoma. It potentially could help people with non-high-risk, early-stage colorectal cancer avoid unnecessary colon surgery.

9:28 PM ∙ Apr 30, 2021

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Dr. West also answers questions from colleagues. He often mentions products:

Bijoy Telivala @BijoyTelivala

@JackWestMD @PatelOncology @HosseinBorghaei Thank you Have you seen patients with both EGFR mutations at the same time ? Just curious ? This is my first case with an Exon 20 and Exon 21 mutation

2:50 PM ∙ Apr 29, 2021

H. Jack West, MD @JackWestMD

@BijoyTelivala @PatelOncology @HosseinBorghaei It's been a while, but I believe I have, I gave osimertinib, and their cancer responded pretty well.

2:58 PM ∙ Apr 29, 2021

For marketers, it's essential to be on Twitter. 

You can monitor Twitter for mentions of your products or competitive products. 

If you find positive mentions of your product, you can use these to find potential partnerships. If you find negative mentions, you can manage detractors and counter-detailing before it's too late.

You can also identify and target your growth audience. And discover which topics are top-of-mind for HCPs in your disease category. 

If you’re not following your HCPs on Twitter, your competitors are.

To start using Twitter, a few suggestions:

1. Create a non-personal account. To separate your personal and business activity on Twitter, consider an anonymous or non-personal account to follow HCPs.

2. Follow medical societies. To discover new HCPs, follow medical societies such as @ASCO and hashtags such as #oncology.

3. Verify HCP profiles. Before following someone, check his or her institution profile and Google Scholar or PubMed to confirm it's a real person.

4. Set up alerts. To get notified when your HCPs post on Twitter, turn on alerts by clicking the "notify" icon on the HCP's profile.

5. Respond privately. To respond to a tweet, follow up in a call or email. For compliance reasons, don't reply publicly on Twitter.

Got suggestions for following HCPs on Twitter? Please share!

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What we’re reading

• LiveWorld report, “HCPs & Social Media: Bridging the Virtual and Real Worlds,” March 18, 2021

• Monocl article, “Bridging the Generational Chasm in Oncology,” January 17, 2021

• HealthLink Dimensions report, “Time Sets the Tempo,” January 2021

• Journal of Clinical Medicine, “Social Medicine: Twitter in Healthcare,” May 28, 2018